The man and his girlfriend have been together for 12 years, and they have a lot of pets — we’re not just talking about a few dogs a cat, and maybe a goldfish, we’re talking about a mini zoo. Recently, his girlfriend delivered their first child, a daughter, who’s now one month old and living with them in their home — but things have taken a turn for the worst, at least for the boyfriend. Troubled by how dirtied the house is because of the pets and how little time he has to take care of their child, he gave his girlfriend an ultimatum and is worried that he might have taken it a little too far.
The boyfriend decided to tell the girlfriend to pick between him and their daughter or their pets.
After giving her the ultimatum, he went where many peoole on the internet goes to sort out their troubles — the subreddit “r/AmItheA–hole,” or AITA for short. The subreddit, which has 3.5 million followers and one of the most active userbases on the platform, is a thread for exactly what it sounds like — to tell a person whether or not their role in a certain situation makes them an a–hole and to give them a rating based on the stranger’s opinion. RELATED: Man Tells Plus-Size Wife She’s Fat-Phobic For Calling Their Baby Fat The rating system is based on comments that will either read, NTA, which stands for “Not The A–hole,” YTA, which stands for “You’re The A–hole,” NAH, which means “No A–holes Here,” or ESH, which means “Everyone Sucks Here.” There’s a lot more context than I gave the boyfriend credit for, so we’ll get deeper into it before people start to side with the girlfriend, who the comment section believes is entirely in the wrong, but hold on tight because this is where things start to get a little confusing. “We have 4 bathrooms and 3 of them are occupied with animals,” the boyfriend starts in the Reddit post. “1 of the bathrooms is owned by a bunny, the second is owned by 3 cats, and the third by another pair of cats. In our basement, we have 6 puppies (2 months old) that were born to a stray dog that my GF took around a year ago.” Did you get all of that? In this paragraph, he mentions six puppies, five cats, and one bunny, as well as a stray whose whereabouts are unknown to us at this point in the story. 13 animals so far. RELATED: Woman Accuses Co-Worker Of ‘Perpetuating Ethnic Stereotypes’ By Joking About Cats “Our ceiling (top floor) is completely occupied by another 3 cats. In our living room is the place where our chihuahuas live,” he continues counting. “On the stairs between the first and the second floor, there is a bunny which is in a ‘big cage’ I’d say.” Keeping up? In this paragraph we’ve added three cats, leading the total to eight cats, and adding another bunny for a total of two rabbits. The chihuahuas are not a part of the original 13, but we know there are at least four of them, according to a future paragraph, so we’ve added at least eight animals in this paragraph.
That means, in their home, there is around 21 animals…. we think?
“We also have 6 Japanese Akitas, for which I bought a separate house so my mom can take care of them because I no longer can walk them and give them the proper love,” he added. This is a little bit of a side note, as these six dogs, do not live in their currently rented out home. The man also adds that the stray dog lives in the garage out in the back. Aside from them owning 27 animals, they’re not being taken care of at the capacity in which they should be. The boyfriend used the words “poop” and “pee” on four separate occasions, totaling eight times, and the word “sh–” three other times to describe the smell, the mess, and the state that their rented out home was in. He further mentions that because of their 27 animals and their one-month-old daughter, he has to work two jobs, hire a cleaner, and cannot take care of their daughter in the way he would like to. He also adds that he wants to have more children but cannot imagine them living in this situation.
“In a recent conflict,” he concluded, “I decided I can no longer allow this and said that it’s up to her to decide if she wants to live with me and our daughter or rather have all the animals (for whom she doesn’t take care of).”
While a lot of people mentioned that he’s NTA for the ultimatum, the overwhelming majority concluded that ESH because the boyfriend let this situation get to this point and allowed their daughter to live in a dangerously unsanitary environment. Many feel that the man’s girlfriend because is clearly not capable of taking care of all of those animals let alone their one-month-old daughter. Not only does this situation border on being considered animal cruelty, it’s also terribly unsafe for the animals to be living in this situation and to not be cared for. Many people said that the boyfriend should simply leave or take it upon himself to look for new homes for all of the animals, lest the child be taken away by child protective services or the landlord and law enforcement get involved. RELATED: Teacher Wonders If They’re Wrong For Telling 7th Grader ‘Don’t Care’ About Her Excuses & Personal Issues Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.
