Buy Now, Pay Later
Some pet stores in Australia are now introducing payment plans for animals, where you pay a 40% deposit and pay the rest over 6 months. This is absolutely disgusting. I am already against the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores because so many people impulse buy and then dump the poor animal when it becomes no longer cute. But now, to be able to buy a pet using a payment plan is just going to make the whole situation even worse.
If you can not afford the initial cost of an animal then you have no business owning one. Yes, I know this sounds harsh, but owning a dog or a cat is expensive. You have to be able to afford not only food but their vet bills as well. In the first year, the vet bills for a dog is approximately $600 - that is for three vaccinations and desexing. It does not include flea treatment, worming or heartworm treatment - for that add on about another $150. So, all up, you are looking at about $750 in standard vet bills for the first year alone and then about $200 a year for the next 15 or so years. If your animal gets sick, this amount will increase quite substantially. For food you are looking at a minimum of $30 a month, which is $360 a year. Therefore, in the first year of your dog’s life, you will pay no less than $1,110 for its food and medical bills. However, this is something that impulse buyers do not give a single thought to when they see the cute puppy in the window and the staff at the pet store certainly do not inform them.
So, go ahead, give these people a payment plan and then watch the number of dogs and cats being killed in pounds every day increase. The pet stores most certainly do not give a shit about them, all they care about is making a sale.
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April 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
I’d be a little more friendly toward pet stores which sell animals if they sold them pre-desexed. But heavens no, that would make them too pricey!
*mutter*
Naomis last blog post..Kingsley’s
April 27th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Where would they get the backyard breeders that supply them with their animals if they sold them desexed? Can’t mess with the supply chain, now, can we?