[QUOTE=gracielove;4033443]I think it is social snobbery to say that people who have little money should not be allowed to have a pet. Thankfully, there are still people who love animals and want to give one a home. I'm not talking about people who neglect and abuse animals. But there are people of limited income who still need to love a dog or cat and the animal needs someone to care for them.
To me a person that loves their dog but is facing a couple of thousand dollars in vet bills to fix the liver shunt should be able to go to a humane organization and get help without having to turn the dog over. If the people love the dog and take care of it properly but have limited funds for a catastrophic medical condition why not let the people keep their pet but help them anyway? Dogs don't care what economic condition their owner is in. They don't care if they live in an expensive house or an old house. They care about their people and love them unconditionally.
This is so true. Many of the seniors I work with would love to have a dog. There are a few programs that place dogs with seniors and provide dog food and routine medical care with Vets who donate time and meds. Sadly no such program here.
to Britt
I should have said Most dogs (Not just Yorkies) are treated differently than the farm dogs I grew up with. Just like the way training methods for dogs and how we raise and correct our children has changed, so has how most of us view our pets.
Many other cultures really don't understand Americans ( a generalization here) and how Americans feel about their pets. They can not understand how an animal can be so loved or is that important to a person. True in some countries their streets and villages have stray dogs and cats and they think dogs are unclean. They think it is horrible that we spend money on dogs and that we don't respect our elderly, because we put them in homes. Many people that live in South America, Africa, India, China, Philippians and the Middle East certainly don't consider dogs part of the family.
Sorry I am on a roll here, anyway..... Pets fill many roles in our culture. Pets are sometimes surrogate best friends, our fur child, and family. ( My niece is a DINK (duel income, no kids) in her mid 30s. Told me, that she
loves her dog more than most humans and that she would choose her Yorkie over people. She said, she won't have children, because her dog fills that baby need.) I have even advised a friend to get rid of the boyfriend and keep the dog. Our culture has changed.
Yes, (Yorkies) Dogs are thought of differently today. We spend more, than we ever have, in any time in history on pets. We have pets that have no job except to be a companion and they have a status that was unheard of even 20 years ago.
Yes, I aggree, big dogs cost more for basics than a small dog.
Back to the topic. Love is not enough, we need to be able to afford, food, shelter, and basic routine medical care for ANY BEING that is our responsibility.