Being a scientist is a state of mind where you seek understanding, employ reason, accept facts, reject suspicion, and always view your conclusions as unguaranteed without corroboration of other scientists.
If you follow those rules, you are a scientist.
I don't know what the markets are like in the Land of Oz. I suspect that they will improve as the American markets continue to improve and the civilized world follows.
I wish you well on that.
Why do you believe you are abandoning the animals, when it seems they are being withheld, even stolen? Perhaps I misunderstand the situation. Are they expecting you to retrieve all these animals at a future date?
That's a difficult question to answer. It would depend on many things including some you mentioned and some you didn't.
I have had over a dozen different jobs in my life. It was rarely an easy choice to change jobs ( . . . and often it was not my choice. I have been fired more than once.)
But sometimes you just have to cut your losses and move on.
If Australia is like the United States, jobs which pay enough to live on are difficult to find in areas where there are too many people.
But people crowd those areas because the best paying jobs are there and everyone knows it.
It's a trap.
