Animal Neglect in Animal Parade

I'm afraid that, initially in writing my Guides, I took the advice and pronouncements of other Characters in Animal Parade as 'gospel' where Animal Care rules were concerned rather than testing it myself. In particular, I trusted the dialogue of Cain, Hanna and Renee, all Animal Care specialists. I was told, at various Friendship Levels that Animals would lose Friendship if you neglected to feed and care for them and that they would become ill if they were left outside in bad weather.

They may indeed become ill if they are left outside, but Heart Levels do not decrease in all cases. I tested the effects of neglect by leaving my Animals outside for over a week, through a rainstorm and beyond, and not one became ill, nor did their heart levels decrease. Furthermore, I was able to ride my Horse, although he hadn't been fed in 10 days.

When an Animal finally DID become sick, Cain arrived, huystled me to the Barn and then gave Animal Medicine to the poor creature himself. It was two days later that the first Chicken became ill. Once again, Cain arrived, took me to the Barn and himself administered Animal Medicine to cure the poor bird.

Two days after this, an Animal died and I was treated to the saddest Event iimaginable in the Cemetary. Cain officiated at a Funeral, giving me a scolding about Animal neglect. When a second Animal died two days after this, only Finn and I were at the graveyard. Finn blamed HIMSELF for not feeding the Animal!

So that is my own personal experience with Animal neglect. Obviously I never would allow any of this to occur in my REAL game. I promptly reloaded back to my ordinary Animal Parade life once I had logged all the results.

The reason I tested this was because of the experience a friend of mine had in his game. He wrote to me as follows:

'My animals were sick and needed medicine -- which I didn't realise because the signs/emblems above their heads looked nothing like the 'sick' signs shown in the instruction book. What I saw looked like one of those metal feeders I've seen on the farm -- like a cylinder with a peaked top and a saucer base. The instructions show a sad, grouchy face.'

He then added:

'Yes, I knew about animal care, but I was confused
by the picture above the animals' heads, which did not correspond with
the 'sick' emblem in the instruction book. Not only did the animals not
give product, but also the neighbors stopped talking to me! That was
unexpected. I was shunned until I cured my animals. When people
stopped responding to me I realized that something was drastically wrong
somewhere.'


When I requested more details, he wrote:

'Some time (days) after those still-mysterious emblems appeared above the animals' heads, I was unable to remove the milker from my rucksack in order to milk the cow. Then, when I attempted to ask to ride the cow, the 'Pet or Ride' choice didn't appear. The cow simply turned to face me when I neared her and pressed A. Then the really strange thing occurred when I walked to the Flute Fields places and went up to any person and pressed A and there was simply no response. The person behaved as if I weren't there. On the other hand, if I went up to a counter to buy something, the interaction was normal. Behind the counter, however, I was ignored. (The reason the animals got sick was that I passed out from exhaustion one day while they were out of the barn, and found them in the rain next morning.)'

As you can see, I experienced nothing of the sort when I deliberately set out to make my Animals ill... The first Livestock animal who became ill was cured by Cain. Likewise the first Poultry animal was cured by him. The next time it occurred, the Animal died when ignored and again once more...

Despite all of this, no 'neighbours' or other Characters ignored me at all. I continued to be able to ride my Livestock and I was able to use the Animal Whistle for transport via Circus Animals... Heart Levels did not decrease initially either with neighbours or with Animals. Finally, after the death of the SECOND animal, only one Cow lost one Heart. All other Animals remained at maximum Friendship Levels... Very strange!

I did not take any stills of these Events but I did record video and will make a video about Animal Neglect for YouTube. The screenshot included here was taken from the video, which is why it is blurred.

Another player tried the same thing and her results were very similar to mine. I can only conclude that the player who experienced the 'shunning' has experienced some strange glitch.

I'd be interested in the experiences of other players. If possible, do as I did and try it, then reload so that no Animal truly suffers!