The joys and challenges of dog ownership: a balanced perspective (infographic)

Here is an infographic summarizing, as per a Hungarian study, the joys and challenged of dog ownership (‘caregiving’ is a better description). More: buying dogs Although the Infographic relates to dog caregiving, similarities must exist between cats and dogs in terms of the upsides and downsides of ownership. Although domestic cats don’t tend to …

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A failure of some pet owners to recognise the intrinsic value and sentience of their companion animals

Vet and cat

My title to this article stems from a story in The Telegraph newspaper of yesterday which reports on a male veterinarian who ended his life because, in part, he was so distressed about a minority of relatively wealthy owners requesting that he euthanize their companion animals rather than treat them because the treatment would …

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The problem with UK vet prices is that we are used to the NHS

Gloriously beautiful veterinary clinic. It is fictional!

There has been a lot of criticism of those UK vets who’ve given up as sole traders and sold out to big business and become part of a chain of clinics. The accusation is that these big businesses are pressuring the once independent vets to charge more for medicines and services because big business …

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UK dog MRI scan £3500. Private human MRI scan £350. Reason?

Dog having an MRI scan!

The BBC website features an article on the excessive veterinary fees being charged to pet owners in the UK, which is causing considerable public outcry. According to the BBC, Steve Moylan was charged £3,500 for a single-area contrast MRI scan for his dog at a veterinary clinic. In contrast, he paid only £350 for …

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‘Don’t get a puppy or kitten if you can’t treat them like actual beings’

Dog begs to be adopted by neighbour as they are fed up with the bad caregiving and the cold environment they live in.

The words of the title are not mine. They come from a social media user. The woman, Mona, wrote a story about a dog that begged to be adopted by the owner’s neighbour – her husband. The picture was taken by her husband as the dog was pleading. You know the old adage that …

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US families dump pets as caregiving costs surge (Dec 2023)

American families dump pets as costs surge

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a sad but probably predictable story made worse by post-Covid inflation. The news media report that American pet owners are concerned about the economy. And some are under financial pressure because of inflation which, by the way, is the same in European countries although inflation has significantly dropped. And …

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Cost of pet insurance in UK can be the same as the cost of car insurance (2023)

Cat health insurance

The Which? website lists the most expensive breeds of cats and dogs to insure but the information is confused except in one way: it’s expensive and in certain instances the equivalent of insuring your car. The average cost of car insurance in the UK is around £400 depending upon the type of insurance you …

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42,000 people asked the Dogs Trust to rehome their pets (UK 2022)

Dogs Trust rescue dog

NEWS AND COMMENT: Apparently, British owners can no longer feed their dogs because they are giving them up to shelters at a record rate. According to research for the ITV programme Tonight, as reported in The Times newspaper, about 42,000 people asked the Dogs Trust to rehome their pets this year as they can …

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