Why do families who are poor, have pets

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They are expensive to feed, look after and to recover from illness and injuries.

Hear people who have a dog who swallowed something they shouldn’t have - £900 at vets. I’m sure these poor families don’t have £900.

I’m not well off financially and I have 3 dogs of various size. One is a rescue that was so badly treated she will never be fully toilet trained and has serious behavioural issues. I feed all 3 of them dry complete food with tinned meat in gravy. Costs about £14 a week to feed 65kilos of dogs. I will get them vet treatment for minor things like an sudden unexpected limp, signs of infection etc, and pay on a credit card and just pay it off but if it was anything serious/expensive/ongoing, the dog would be euthanised ( as much as I love them). 5 years ago we were quoted £4500 to get our 9 month old Rotty fixed after she tore her cruciate ligament. That was with a specialist. I rung around and found a very experienced older independent vet who offered to do it for me and it was £825. Paid it in the credit card and took 18 months to pay off but she’s been fine since. I refuse to get insurance as it’s a complete and utter scam and over the years I would have spent £38,000 minimum in pet insurance but my total vets costs EVER are less than £12k and I used to breed Chinese crested dogs, guineas pigs and reptiles.

So kill a pet because the owner is on benefits. Thats awful.

I guess there were people agreeing to that or that pets should be removed.

There will be one saying poor people should not be allowed children next.

Why do poor people have children? Why do poor people have televisions? Why do poor people have microwaves? Why do poor people have mobile phones? Why do poor people have games consoles?

All these poor people should just accept their status as less than and get on with living their lives hand to mouth with no expectation of ever deriving any joy from it. Their purpose is to prop up the rich and do all the jobs no one really wants to do for fuck all money and no hope of improving their lot.

Why do rich countries have poor people?

Because the poor want to live a fulfilling life just like anyone else.

It is a selfish assumption by the middle class have-it-alls that the poor should not have:

Children
Pets
TVs
Drink
Smoke
Any other luxury

This is greed personified. Only humans with money should live whole, satisfying lives? No mention of the system being stacked against them. E.g. poor quality of education, housing, lack of employment options. The total inability to fight their way out of poverty due to a totally unequal society.

This!
Poor people are already missing out on a lot. Pets give so much to peoples lives. Even homeless people have dogs, who always look well fed and cared for, because people cut down on other things so they can have this loving company in their life. Mental health would be even worse without them.

YANBU at all.

Euthanasia due to lack of funds is increasing hugely in the veterinary industry. Not what the staff went into the profession for. Putting young animals to sleep because people 'wanted' a cute or puppy or kitten and had no thought as to how they would afford even the most basic healthcare.
Animals are a privilege and rightly it is the law in the UK that you must seek medical care if your pet is sick. Unfortunately it is not enforced and so we have millions of pets going without healthcare and suffering because of selfish people and their wants.

I wasn't really expecting people to answer those questions. I was pointing out that speculating over how the poor spend their money is pretty ridiculous and unpleasant.

I think the OP was thinking more of people who wouldn't be able to find that £80, who might not have any small luxuries they could give up and who haven't even considered what they would do in the event of something serious arising.

Yes, people were agreeing with them too. Saying why should tax payers be paying for other people's pets. It was deleted but vile. Upset me as I am on benefits and have a pet.
And yes, I see it on MN a lot where people say that poor people should not have children etc.

I think if I wanted to start a business right now I’d start a pet insurance business. It seems like a licence to print money.

Oh here we go, people on low incomes should basically just work and exist and that's it.

It can be frustrating. I know a family who now have 4 dogs, 2 cats and a hamster. They only had 2 dogs before their financial situation got really bad and I do think they’re irresponsible for getting more animals after. They are thinking of getting a snake. 🙄

They are very loving to their animals in some ways, but they don’t have any pet insurance now and they have left things untreated because they can’t afford it. Sometimes they don’t have dog food so the dogs get fed human food which isn’t ideal. They should have stuck with the 2 dogs they had. They are nice people, if they have the money then they do spend it on their pets, but they simply don’t have enough money to have the amount of pets that they do.

I agree, the real reason people have pets is to enhance the coffers of the pet industry🤑🤑🤑

I can't afford to have pets at the moment, I want guinea pigs but in order to adequately house them (and not buy a shitty cage from pets at home) feed them and look after them (including finding an exotics vet, yup, guinea pigs are still classed as an exotic pet despite there being evidence of them being kept as pets for centuries in the UK) I'm going to wait.

100% this. Have you seen the 'why are we having children later' thread? "Oh well I made sure to wait until I was earning 100k and had 10 years of savings, it's irresponsible otherwise." It smacks of privilege.

• Children Pets TVs Drink Smoke Any other luxury

This is greed personified. Only humans with money should live whole, satisfying lives?

You don't need the above for satisfying lives though? And plenty of people aren't having dc these days including the middle class.

I agree. I worked with a child whose family had 3 dogs. The family have 5 children, mum ended up being a single parent as dad left, her accommodation fell through and they had to be moved into temporary accommodation. The dogs had to be rehomed. I don't think at any point in the time I knew this child the parents ever worked or they have been in a position to provide for their children, let alone take on multiple animals. (The family rely on the school providing uniform, including new shoes and trainers, and more recently they have been in need of home clothes too).

The bottom line is that most pet rehoming charities are busier than they have ever been because so many owners are relinquishing pets they can no longer afford.

possibly their circumstances have changed which is really sad but equally they may have just been completely unaware of the actual cost of pet ownership. This can so often lead to pets not receiving adequate medical care, grooming and training and is sad for everyone involved. We have no NHS for pets. The PDSA can sometimes offer some help to some animals- by no means to all.

Many of the pets that are relinquished end up euthanised. It’s not a moral judgement to suggest that people should honestly consider if they can afford a pet.

OP, do you also think poor people shouldn’t have children? I hear they can cost a fair bit too 😂

Utter lunacy!

Pets need to be looked after, fed, kept warm, innoculated, treated if ill, insured etc.... these are often the first thing to be cut back in a poor household.

Shame on you and your lunacy politically correct views.

That would depend.
I'm all for people doing what they wish and spending their money how they want.... but if they have pets they cant feed and look after appropriately .. then thats far more fucking unpleasant IMO.

If you can’t afford to look after a pet then I’d agree you shouldn’t have one. They can be expensive, it’s not fair for an animal to have to go on in pain because you can’t afford to take them to the vets or to go hungry because you can’t afford to feed them.

I would say though not many people have £900 to spend, you don’t really need that but you need to be able to afford insurance.

Have you seen the 'why are we having children later' thread? "Oh well I made sure to wait until I was earning 100k and had 10 years of savings, it's irresponsible otherwise." It smacks of privilege.

It's sensible to do the above though. I would like another dc & a dog but it would be too much upheaval.

Yes, I completely agree. They should know their place in society. The government need to sort this out.

Poor people really are spoiling the whole tone of the country.

Bring back the workhouse and teach them a lesson.