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 I would argue that the inflation endured by the citizens of developed nations was caused by poor governance or poor management by governments contributed to it.
Some reasons for inflation
Some governments poured too much money into the economy through quantitative easing (printing money) and in the UK the government was far too generous on furlough schemes in dishing out billions of pounds for doing nothing.
All that money sloshing around the economy when people emerged from lockdowns had to be spent somehow which meant that demand outstripped supply which in turn meant that prices went up. There were other reasons for inflation but that is one of them.
Organisations such as veterinary clinics, I would argue, jumped on the bandwagon of genuine inflation and used it as a cover to put up prices to increase their profit margins. That certainly occurred in the UK with respect to supermarkets. And in the UK vet clinics have been bought up by equity funds – greedy men in grey suits – who are milking the clinics like cows.
Price rises
Perhaps I’m digressing a bit but inflation has caused prices to increase which has put added pressure on pet owners who adopted their pets during the Covid-19 pandemic sometimes arguably in a slightly self-indulgent way in order to keep themselves company through those long periods of lockdown without doing due diligence on costs and pet health. And I’m told that in American veterinary services jumped in cost by 9% from November 2022 to November 2023. The information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Pet food costs rose by 5.6% over the same period. Kim Alboum, of the Bissell Pet Foundation, an animal welfare organisation said that there is a housing crisis in America. She said “And with the housing crisis, people are losing their homes and are having to downsize or move in with others. And this is a recipe for disaster people that have larger dogs.”
Combo of financial issues
It appears that this is a combination of inflation, fears over the economy, the cost of living, housing issues and underpinned by a surge in pet ownership in America during the pandemic with nearly one in five households having an animal according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The Shelter Animals Count estimates there to be about 250,000 more pets in shelters over this Christmas compared to over the same period last year.
Animal shelter organisation say they are “in crisis”. They add that their facilities were already overcrowded before the Christmas holiday season.
Big influx of puppies
They say that they have experienced a big influx of puppies, in particular one dog breed which allegedly is being dumped more commonly than other breeds: the French Bulldog. There may be two reasons for this, (1) they are incredibly unhealthy due to many inherited illnesses and (2) they were adopted in large numbers during Covid-19 because of their cute, baby-face appearance.
RELATED: The French bulldog money pit and dogflation.
The illnesses add hugely to the cost to caregiving. It means that the owner has to take out an insurance policy and if they don’t, they’ve got potentially thousands of dollars in veterinary costs to deal with. And they have a very short lifespan of around seven years. They are not good pets as far as I can see but perhaps somebody will correct me on that.
However, not all animal shelters are suffering with overcrowding because I recently read an article about why animal shelter where they cleared the decks and there is only one kitten left and that kitten has probably been adopted by now anyway. A remarkable achievement.
Nathan Winograd
This points to another issue in this story which is how animal shelters operate. Nathan Winograd, the great American animal shelter expert and the founder of the No-Kill movement has always advocated animal shelter administrations using all means possible to minimise intake and maximise adoptions. It takes energy and imagination to optimise adoptions at shelters and he would argue that a lot of shelters do not do enough which can lead overcrowding and often euthanasia of healthy animals.
The story comes from The Times of 27th December 2023.
RELATED: British government considered the mass culling of all domestic cats at the outbreak of Covid-19
