Money and pets

[Lucille]

I have recently been introduced to 'Craigslist', a classified online board, by my son. I occasionally look at the ads now even if I am not looking for anything; the other day on the pet section, a woman was asking for a small inexpensive dog for her family, she wanted to pay less than $500-$1,000.

She got flamed, I think because another person thought she did not have funds for upkeep, which she dispelled by a subsequent post.

I think one can own pets without being wealthy although I agree that one should consult a vet if needed, and care adequately for ones pets
.
For many years I worked as a nurse in an impoverished area of Houston, and some of those poor families would have a dog or cat or parakeet which they loved and treasured. I would counsel them about low cost spaying/neutering, and provide info on immunizations available at feed stores for a few dollars.

Certainly, my pets have been part of my family despite financial ups and downs, and I think they have good lives.

What do y'all think, about money and pets?

Here is the post, below; by the way, I have to confess that I do not brush my dog's teeth daily....



I don't want to get this all started up again, but I don't think anyone who wants to pay $200 dollars for a small dog should be given one... What happens if you get it home and it starts coughing? Will you be able to afford the $240 dollars for X-rays to make sure its trachea isn't collapsing? and if not, if you write it off, but it DOES collapse ... what are you going to tell your child when your dog CHOKES to death in a few days/years/months?

Will you brush its teeth daily to ensure that it has a good adult life?
What about grooming? CAn you afford that extra $30 a month?
Food? $25 dollars for a good bag of Eukanuba? Plus nutrients for the small breed puppy to ensure it doesn't go into hypoglycemic shock?

What about flea preventative?!?! Can you afford the $50 dollars for 6 mos flea preventative?

Shots?
Harnesses, not collars?


Small dogs are meant for people with the money to take care of them.

 

[Cat_72]

I think there's most definitely 2 sides to this. While I think that expecting that someone HAS to pay a huge price to buy a dog....ANY dog....to ensure that they can afford to pay for it is nonsense. Look how many wonderful dogs you could adopt from a shelter for $50, and still have a very much loved and treasured pet. There are breeds that are justifiably "high end, high maintenance" type dogs....but if all you want is a companion, there is absolutely no reason to pay that kind of price....IF you can't afford to.

However...I can see the other side of the coin as well. I have PERSONALLY taken in animals that people got on a whim, and only afterwards realized they truly could not afford to keep it. I can't tell you how many times I have witnessed the suffering of an animal who is truly deathly ill.....and the all the owners could say was, "I can't pay for a vet bill.....I have no money!!" So....the animal lay there suffering. Or seen animals starved because they simply had to choose between feeding their family, or feeding the pet.....yet they "love" the animal so much, they can't bring themselves to give it away. So....it suffers and starves. But they still convince themselves they are keeping the animal out of "love"....yet it is truly only out of selfishness.

Just this week, I picked up a 3 year old miniature horse. He had originally been kept at a friend of the owner's farm, but the "friend" didn't like the way he treated the horse, so he told him he had to move it. Well, the guy didn't have the money to board it at a stable, buy all the hay he needed without the pasture to graze in, or put up a fence.... so instead of finding him a new home (again, his son loved the horse too much to part with him) he decided to tie him out on a stake with twine in his yard. He got angry because the horse kept breaking the twine and "escaping" (he just went to get some WATER, more than likely, because they just brought him a bucket once a day, this went on for months) that he finally attached him to a heavy DOG CHAIN, with a finer length of chain running across his nose to "discourage" him from pulling on the chain. Needless to say, all this accomplished was that the horse made a huge, deep cut across his nose because he NEEDED water. The horse has no muscle tone whatsoever, because the only actual exercise he got was when he managed to "escape". All of this suffering was so unnecessary. If you can't afford to keep an animal properly, DON'T keep it. Period.

I apologise for being long winded on this one....but it is something I feel VERY strongly about, and could go on a LOT longer, lol. I don't feel that anyone who can provide all of the basic care for an animal should EVER be denied that joy just because they don't want to spend $1000.00 on a puppy...and some breeds WILL require a LOT of high cost upkeep, but many do not......but by God, if you can't afford an animal or ALL of the care it may take to keep one, please, please......don't get one.

Oh, and I don't brush my dogs teeth either, lol....but the one in my avatar DID visit the doggie dentist for a cleaning not too long ago....can't ya tell by the "pearly whites"???

 

[Jim O]

I think that it is quite fine to make a choice with respect to disposable income and its use. That said, if you cannot afford a roof or food then you should probably reconsider your decision to keep a pet. And of course, you need to be able to afford to keep it properly. The story about Cathy's new horse is simply awful. I have seen the same type of thing with dogs and reptiles.

I own and manage (mostly residential) real estate. I had a family spend who knows how much money on a cute little purebred puppy that they could not afford. It was Christmas and no doubt one of the children just had to have that dog. These are working poor people that were often a bit behind on their rent and clearly were living paycheck to paycheck. They bought the dog, paid zero in rent, received a 5 day notice to pay or quit, ignored it, got served with papers, and abandoned the house and the dog. They left the dog tied up in the back yard, in January, hungry, crying, and cold.

Guess whose family that dog is a part of now.

 

[robin d.]

all i have to say is that right now i am not making one single penny (LOA from work) so my husband is bringing in any and all income... do your pets get the best care? yes... they are kept fed and we take our animals in for vet visits
in the last i guess one and a half or 2 month just in vet bills we have exceeded $2000 easily and chances are this particular animal has less than 6 months to live and we know this, we are just making it as easy for her as we can and enjoying her til the day comes and when and if there is nothing more we can do and she is in pain and suffering we will have to make the decision. some people might say "well, if she only has 6 months why not put her down now since you already know she is going to die. hey it will save you allot of money" but its not about that..... so along with her and our other animals we take care of them properly and keep them healthy and fed and trust me we do not make that much at all but sometimes we sacrifice other things for our animals that we love. i do not have children nor will i ever so what i have here are my "kids" and we always figure out a way to take care of our kids

 

[PaulSage]

I don't think her inquiry deserved such hostility. A lot of people know how much it costs for 'dog maintenance', and the price you pay for the actual animal has little correlation with the cost it's going to take to maintain it. I paid $400 for my golden retriever, KNOWING the potential costs it could take to maintain her. Sure, I could have paid a LOT more for the same breed, but that would not have meant that the more expensive one would have been cheaper to maintain. Jersey is going to be 5 years old on the 23rd, and with the exception of emergency vet bills associated with her protecting my mom's dogs from a coyote when visiting mom's farm, she's been extremely low maintenance. BUT, if something ever happened requiring a significant amount of money to do what's right for her, I wouldn't think twice before selling one of the cars or taking out a loan to take care of this man's best friend.

I got a kitten for FREE that ended up needing a $3,000 hip replacement. I'm not that big of a cat person, and my mom eventually stole her from me anyway (lol) ... but by getting her in the first place, I was assuming the RESPONSIBILITY that comes with getting an animal. I completely agree with Cathy...I think she said it all with "If you can't afford an animal or ALL the of the care it may take to keep one, please, please......don't get one. " The cat (Maddie) is a mean little snot but ya just gotta love her.

FYI... Eukanuba is mostly corn, and it's cheaper and more natural to use brewers yeast w/ garlic pills instead of transdermal flea preventatives. Dogs think the pills are treats anyway, and I swear they work even better than using Frontline, Biospot, Advantage... etc. Sometimes the cheaper route is also the 'better' route for certain aspects of animal care.

 

[Lucille]

FYI... Eukanuba is mostly corn, and it's cheaper and more natural to use brewers yeast w/ garlic pills instead of transdermal flea preventatives. Dogs think the pills are treats anyway, and I swear they work even better than using Frontline, Biospot, Advantage... etc. Sometimes the cheaper route is also the 'better' route for certain aspects of animal care.

Paul, I agree with you, another pet peeve of mine is that some people do not take the time to research; and these days when even public libraries have internet access everyone can get information if they look around. I have no quarrel with high priced dog food, but there are brands which are very good with the same or better nutrition that do not cost quite as much. If you are well to do, buy what you want; if you are not, research and find brands which are good but not expensive. After all, it is the dog food, not how appealling the bag or the advertising, which is important. Here:

http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html

I personally think that as long as people can afford vet care and other necessities, it is a blessing to give a homeless stray or a shelter pet a good home, you do NOT need to spend a thousand bucks to have a good pet.

 

[kiote9]

Small dogs are meant for people with the money to take care of them.

This statement is pure crap in my opinion. Small dogs are meant for people who have the capability of taking care of them. Money doesn't buy ability. There are plenty of poor people who will go without food themselves to make sure their pet has good food and vet care. There are also wealthy people who neglect and abuse their animals because they have no value beyond monetary one. No one economic class is superior in the care of animals....people make the difference, not cash.

 

[Rebel Dragons]

Paul, I agree with you, another pet peeve of mine is that some people do not take the time to research; and these days when even public libraries have internet access everyone can get information if they look around.

One thing that bothers me greatly is hearing people complain that they have no computer and the library near them does not have internet access.

The answer is always the same..................

Your at the library PICK UP A BOOK!!!