The costs of rearing your pet from the time it is a pup or a kitten, all the way until the trip to puppy Heaven or the nine lives runs out, seems to be comparable to that of rearing children for 18 years. As ridiculous as that statement seems to be, it is the shocking truth. Let’s look at the average breakdown (based on average life span), assuming that the average dog or cat eats closely towards the national average of intake a week, was spayed or neutered, gets groomed once a month and perhaps even gets treats for being a good guard dog or mice chaser:
Adding the costs of food, healthcare and entertainment for pets, the monthly cost could nearly put an Acura in your driveway, and some things were probably omitted at the time of research. The yearly costs involved with the caring for your dog or cat are even more staggering: nearly $1.25 an hour!! The fact remains the same: our pets are humans in a sense, too, and if we can save money on the intricacies of life for us and receive reduced-costs for our basic needs, there should be no reason for the elevated costs of pet care, getting more and more ridiculous as the days go by. Manyanimals and wildlife directory articles will dictate this fact is true.
The issue of expensive pet care has compelled us to raise consumer awareness that you do not have to pay astronomically high costs for the basic needs of your four legged best friend.
It’s In The News…
Although they continue to state that a common way to avoid spending an arm and a leg on these pet care costs is to take care of the teeth, feed right and get lots of exercise, the same can be said about human beings yet we still cost money, too. Companies cannot seem to lower the prices on dog and cat foods, toys, treats, and the likes because it is labeled as ‘extra’ to the living human, therefore it somehow merits an extra increase on price.
And then, we deal with the downpour of abuse reports when people cannot afford to take care of their pets. With low income families a key source of pet abuse cases, the high costs of taking care of your pet have led to strings of abandonment, abuse, and – in terrible cases, death of the dog. New York Times had this statement in a November 2010 feature article about the high costs of pet care:
“…The biggest problem is when people cannot afford their animals.”
So, the facts and the statistics do not lie. This issue springboards into further cases of cruelty and can ultimately be avoided if the same products humans enjoy at low prices can be made available at the same low costs, too.
Although Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) has proposed a pet tax deduction in order to ease the cost burden on pet owners and reduce the number of abandoned pets, this simply will not stop curtailing the pet care costs issue at hand. While many different vet visits, replacing collars, dental care and food products are at a high cost, there still yet remains to be hope that one day companies will wake up and see what their contribution to pet abuse is and lower the costs for us. Until then, we are left searching for answers in many animals and wildlife directories around the world, including Google.
Ok, Maybe I Will Find Coupons…
That is a great forethought: however, there is never truly any savings freedom when you clip coupons as stores tend to calculate their costs higher to make provision for coupons. So, if you clipped a coupon that said you’d save $1.00 on a bag of dry dog food, the cost of the item is really calculated a buck higher, anyway. So you think you came out ahead, but the company still profited the same as if they never offered savings in the first place, which realistically negates the entire need for a coupon in the first place. Whereas most coupon sites are continually relied upon for these ‘ghost savings’, the only person or entity that is saving anything is the company – they’re saving a trip to the ATM as their bank gets loaded from your desire to save money!
Well, Then I’ll Cut Back On Feeding.
Some actually do this, which is sickening. Your dog, cat, horse or any other animal has a beating heart and deserves the recommended nourishment, too. Why don’t you cut back to 1 small bowl of food one time a day for 12-14 years and see how unhealthy you become. Although this seems like a realistic solution, cutting away what your pet eats does not promote long term health and, in certain situations, can be deemed as inhumane. And since this is not your goal, then this option should not even be a thought in your mind.
I Will Just Stop Buying Toys.
That also sounds like an excellent solution on the surface. However, you should probably take into account that if your pet has no type of distraction or chewing device, you may start losing shoes, furniture will get ruined, and other types of household damage could occur. So now instead of saving on your pet supplies, you are spending more money replacing the items your pet has torn up as they have nothing of their own. We’re not lying: any animals and wildlife that has information about pet toys will concur with us.
There is simply no realistic way to cut corners on pet supplies if you are going to keep Fido around your house. There will always be dental needs, a need to keep away fleas and ticks the pets tend to attract, food, health care and grooming needs, not to mention the many collars and leashes that will snap as your pet grows in years. While we would like to be inventive in curtailing these costs, it is just not feasible with our current state of economic affairs. When the demand is high and the supplies run low, the prices hit the roof and the one that suffers is the one with one – or more – pets to care for.
But does this mean no food equals an increase in abuse? Think about it.
