Mom asks if she is wrong in giving away daughter's dog after she didn't care for him

Pets have a way of making our lives cheerful. Many kids pester their parents for a pet and some have their wish granted immediately. However, some parents choose not to have a pet at home for their reasons. That was the case for u/Constant_Cap_29935 who shared on Reddit their disinterest in letting their 14-year-old daughter have a pet. However, things spiraled down when their daughter managed to get a dog but refused to take care of him. When the parents asked the internet if they were wrong to give away the neglected dog, people stood by them in this decision.

The parent always said no when their teenage daughter desperately asked them for a dog. "I know my daughter and knew she would not take care of a dog," they reasoned and added, "I had a dog before having kids and knew how much responsibility it was." However, the teenage girl found the right opportunity to get a dog. She came across an Instagram post by a woman who wanted to give away her dog and was looking for someone who wanted him. So, the girl met the woman, got the dog and brought it home. 

The parent strongly believed that the teenager would take good care of him but things turned out the opposite. "I would wake her up early to walk him before school and she refused to get up. Instead of coming straight home to walk him, she goes out with friends," they mentioned. Also, the dog was at times left home alone in a pathetic condition where it would have no food or water. "It broke my heart," the parent wrote. Eventually, they had to warn their daughter that the dog would be left in a shelter if she didn't take care of him. Even after that warning, she was too ignorant of the pet.

So, the parent made the hard decision to give the dog away. Lucky for him, he didn't have to go to a shelter. "I gave him to a lovely retired woman who lives alone. She is my coworker's aunt and says we can visit," the parent mentioned. But this did not sit well with the daughter. When she found that the dog was gone when she came home from school, she started crying and refused to speak to her parent. "I feel awful, but I was sick of my home smelling like pee and having poop everywhere," the remorseful parent wrote. But what came from the users was overwhelming support backing the parent that it was the right thing to do.

"If your daughter is too lazy to look after a dog then she's not responsible enough to have a dog. That dog relied on her for everything and she failed him. Hopefully, she sorts her things out before she gets another pet," commented u/bugscuz. "Your 14-year-old daughter met up with a stranger offering free puppies at the mall. She's lucky all she got was a dog instead of a lifetime of being stuck in a basement and mistreated. The dog needed to go, and your daughter needs to get a hard lesson really fast about the dangers of online trafficking," pointed out u/Affectionate-Ad1424. "You absolutely did the right thing. You told her every day this was coming and she changed nothing. Plus dogs are a 10-20 year commitment," commented u/mybunnygoboom.