To say that having a pet is a luxury, not a right?

[YourSnappyFinch]

Pets are expensive and time-consuming. Shouldn’t people prove they can afford and care for them before getting one?

I doubt my old girl cat cost me £1500 in 22 years (beyond food, litter and a brush & comb). She finally cost about £500 in total vet and medication costs in the last six months of her life - the most expensive thing is going to be picking up her ashes next week.

I could have left her as a kitten to be swung around by her tail and dropped off a 5th floor balcony rather than volunteering to take her for free, I guess. But I suspect she got a slightly better deal with me not having a fancy house and x hundred pounds to buy a kitten from a rescue than she would have done otherwise.

I am not like you. I am vegan.🤔Okay...

That could be a putdown, I suppose... but on the other hand it might be the greatest compliment I've had in years...😏

I consider neglect, inflicting pain and suffering on an animal in your care, as being cruel.
My dog is spoilt rotten. Gets all the treats she wants, thick blankets and PJs, is allowed on the furniture and sleeps on my bed with me. She is also a rescue. I don't lord it over her - she lords it over me! I am not sure how that is "cruel".

That's an excellent reply to the sanctimonious nonsense.

I thought this too last week when I saw an article about someone saying they couldn't afford to heat their home and kept warm by having the dogs on their lap. I couldn't help thinking if they didn't have the expense of a dog then they might have enough money to heat their home. Mind you keeping warm with the help of a pet sounds nice too.

My rescue guinea pigs eat my peeling and left over prep as I’m doing my veggie dinner.
do I win your approval now oh worthy one?

I really do think every life is important, but you don’t know me so you’ve started this absolutely ludicrous game of top trumps where your the judge and master

Wasn’t there a famous aristocrat who would offer you a dog or cat to keep you warm when you went into her stately home?!

Sounds really cruel to me. How dare you give an existing animal a fantastic home filled with warmth and love

For most, pets are family, and getting rid of them due to their cost is not even an option. A lot also got pets before the cost of living went up. Much like a lot of people used to have the heating on a lot more.

Absolute necessity for me I have a dog live alone very isolated,
I could not be without my hound I adore him

I mean, let's just move Big Brother in.

I see too many young adults getting dogs (usually large ones) without considering the costs. If you added up spaying, cost of food, bed, toys etc for a full year, plus one emergency medical trip, it is actually quite large. I would like to see people have this amount, which I estimate at 1500 GBP.

I guess I've seen too many requests for money on facebook with young people needing to have vet costs for their animals.

Of course, I don't think there will every be any way to ensure this. Irresponsible people let their dogs have a litter, then give away the pups to whomever wants to take one. Same goes for cats.

That made me smile... I have a quadruped water bottle!
It also reminds me of a book I read as a teenager. It's placed in 1900's Alaska and the winter weather is categorised into 1, 2 or 3 dog weather! Meaning that's how many dogs you need in your bed at night so you don't freeze to death!

I stayed at friend's house once, it was some big old house in the country. His mum the next morning asked if I was warm enough during the night, because she worries about guests being cold. She said she just adds another dog to the bed when she gets cold.

I love this.

I sometimes refer to my hound as my 'hot water dog'

I wouldn't call pets a luxury but I do think some people think they are just disposable. The number of threads I read on here and other places about people who have a baby and just want to dump their pet. They come up with various excuses like a DC has an allergy to the pet or they no longer have time to walk it etc. but I think they are horrible to just dump a loving pet who hasn't done anything wrong and simply won't understand why their family have just dumped them.

My elder adult DS took on a gorgeous Bengal after a colleague at his work had a marriage breakdown. The house had to be sold and both went into rented and neither could keep the cat. This seems to be quite common. My DS took him and now he's a spoiled puss. He has a lovely life. He is an older cat now and has arthritis so DS made him a ramp so he can get up on the sofa and his cat tree without having to jump. He is more like a dog than a cat.

If you give a cat good scratching posts and materials they keep them looked after themselves. Cats need their claws for self defense.

Oh, I agree. But I would rather their pet was given the chance to be rehomed with a family who could better provide for it's needs, than be forced to stay with people who do not want it anymore.

Odd that so many things that were just normal life even 15 years ago are now luxurious: pets mortgage children tapwater soon. Yet billionaires are building space rockets

I agree. Simply because the people in charge of such things overegg their responsibility. As we see with rescues. Rescues won't let loads of very suitable,loving and economically stable households adopt from them for very random reasons. We had this issue and there have been loads of threads with people commenting the same. Then threads saying there are so many animals on rescues waiting to be adopted and the rescues are so overrun they can't take in any more etc etc. I'm not surprised. If they relaxed their criteria a little (while of course still taking adequate precautions) then perhaps fewer people would need to buy pets privately and rescues wouldn't be so overrun.

*disagree!! 😀

And? We're not talking about children. Are there any illegal children farms in England producing human puppies?

Well, the idea's not without merit...

@NotVeryFunny

Rescues won't let loads of very suitable,loving and economically stable households adopt from them for very random reasons.

Absolutely. I was deemed unsuitable to home a cat despite being solvent and stable and having a large house with a large garden and a hybrid work pattern. I have been interrogated by rescues as if I was suspected of harming a child and put through a really absurd degree of scrutiny. It was completely over the top.

I went on to obtain two kittens through less desirable routes (not breeders but acquaintances). It crosses my mind a lot that those kittens could have come from rescues had I been deemed worthy but as it is I am just perpetuating the cycle.

I think rescues can do incredible work and I am grateful that they exist but I think they sometimes have quite mixed motives and apply very judgmental attitudes towards people seeking to adopt. It’s good that they do thorough due diligence on potential adopters but you get the impression when you go through the process that it’s less a rigorous set of standards being applied and more that the rescues are looking for people who they think are “people like us”. And animals are missing out on being rehomed as a result.