UK: There is a clear connection between interest rates as set by the Bank of England and cat abandonment and euthanasia. As I have said before a lot of things are connected. Perhaps everything is connected. It is worrying because this is a ticking time bomb.
For the past 5 years interest rates have been at an historical low. They have been at 0.5% for several years now in the UK.
To everyone with a large mortgage – there are many – low rates means low interest payments. A lot of borrowers have interest only mortgages. Despite the financial difficulties under which millions of people live in the UK, there is this massive benefit to them of paying very low sums for their mortgage. That frees up disposable income, which buys a new car despite the dire economic climate.
Here’s the problem. Interest rates will have to go up. There are many reasons but savers need to be rewarded. Older people have lost out for the past 4 years getting little interest on their savings. There are other commercial reasons for higher interest rates. A new Bank of England governor has just started. He is a Canadian.
Many people in the UK who have a cat have very little fat in respect of savings. People nowadays don’t put money aside for a rainy day. People on interest only mortgages should have invested the financial rewards of low interested rates rather than spending it.
When interest rates go up, some families with cats will be unable to meet their outgoings. They will stop paying their monthly mortgage payments. Their home will be repossessed by the bank. They will have to rent a home.
From a commercial standpoint, life is more straightforward for a landlord to ban pets from their properties. Most let properties have a restriction: no pets.
There is the problem: the family cat has to go. The nearest shelter takes him in and they in turn are struggling with the extra expenses such as vet’s bills.
The movement upwards of something as cold and commercial as bank interest rates can kill many thousands of cats.
The remedy is for people to be prudent while rates are low and put money away. Often they don’t. They don’t look to the future and figure out how to protect their cat. It is the cat who suffers the most under the circumstances of a house repossession.
Even if i have to stay in a smaller house due to financial constrains, i would shift along with my cats and pets.Hope that doesn’t happen.People who keep pets, either cats or dogs should be sure of their financial status or responsibility towards their pets ,akin to a fellow human.I feel strange when people just discard their pets akin to a non-tangible asset.Many things in life including your pets cannot be judged on monetary terms.
The best things can’t be valued in monetary terms.
Yes it’s very worrying Michael and it is affecting the number of cats people are relinquishing, our local Shelters squeeze as many in as possible but worry themselves sick about the ones they can’t find room for. Pregnant cats or nursing mothers or orphan kittens have to have priority. But those cats who are on the waiting lists are a big worry because some people can’t or don’t want to wait and the cats are dumped in cardboard boxes in various places.
Some people just haven’t the means to save, many here in the North East live hand to mouth. If Babz or I were left alone we’d be in serious trouble financially but whatever happened our cats needs would come first, keeping a roof over their heads and food for them would be first on the list.
Our cats are family but to many people they are not.
We can only all struggle on and help those we can help and just hope for better times for all in the future.
Hi Michael
It’s even worse than you explain. When the bubble burst in 2008 many people ran into serious trouble, but that was only part one of Titanic II. . Now we have whole countries going bust and the bail-out which ensure that the people of those countries will be saddled with an enormous debt seemingly forever. The The citizens of the creditor countries take an enormous hit to send Money to the bankrupt Banks and governments of S Europe and which does not help the out-of-work citizens at all. EU is run by a bunch communists who greatly admire the collapsed USSR and it’s unworkable economic system which will bring Europe to it’s knees unless member countries opt out and are then able to manage their economies according their specific conditions and problems, instead of the one size fits all Soviet system. The point is this is Titanic III when the whole fleet sinks. Massive economic problems make having pets an unaffordable luxury when the majority of the people are out of work or on meagrely paying jobs. To take the example of Cyprus. even those with private interest earning cash were robbed by the EU to formulate a bailout which goes to the folks who caused the problem in the first place. in Holland private pension funds are being looted for the same reason as the EU EU looks at every means to rob the people to pay the Banks and governments. So little or no money goes to the average citizen. It’s a lot worse than just higher mortgage rates.
You might be right – when it comes to the people who “own cats” as accessories and won’t do everything they can to keep their cat safe, happy and with them. As a person who would keep my cats if I had to live in a tent I can’t understand any of this. I know these people exist.
The day I went up to see Red and the cats the lady there said one guy who took a white kitten sent her a message saying how the cat matched his sofa. She laughed and I pretended to smile – and nearly threw up emotionally. These are the same people who took the little black cat that since disappeared. I guess they wouldn’t keep their cat if they had to give up their sofa.