I used to believe "if you can't afford the vet then you can't afford the pet," but I've watched the cost of vet care skyrocket over the past fifteen years to the point where only PMCs can afford it.
There are so many ways that animal friends can wriggle their way into your lives unexpectedly that I no longer believe in shaming anyone for having an animal companion. It's gross to suggest that people should exclude themselves from one of life's greatest joys because they belong to the wrong social class.
The vet clinic that I visit used to be owned and operated by this sweet old man who routinely undercharged his clients because he empathized with them and he was in it for the love of the animals. When he retired, the clinic turned into a corporate outlet in which all of the veterinarians were employees rather than owners. All the protocols were set by corporate. Prices skyrocketed. You had to sign a bunch of forms and pay up-front before they would even begin any treatments. I can't help but feel that this is a microcosm of what's been happening all over the country. Not just in vet care, but healthcare and education. Everything is becoming more consolidated, soulless, and greedy.
Oh, and the emergency vet clinics will now literally hold your animal hostage until you can pay.
The veterinarians hate it too. They go into the field because they love animals, and then they get sucked into this corporate debt slavery with student loan debts that rival medical school. I've heard from them directly that the billing is their least favorite part of the job. They have clients rushing to them in tears all the time, begging for them to save their baby even though they can't afford to pay, and they're forced to turn them away. It wreaks violence on the soul of the empathetic.
lol my credit is fucked because the first financial decision I had to make in my adult life was whether or not to take out a credit loan to pay the $3000 to have my best friend die in relative comfort or complete misery.
pop that on top of my community college debt and you have the recipe for why my shits all fucked
$3000 to have my best friend die in relative comfort
This is why PETA operates "kill shelters" that will euthanize surrendered animals without billing the owner, for which they get raked over the coals as monsters.
I'm not even a huge PETA fan, I just hate the way they get slandered for their good deeds to the point where every brainwashed redditor will chime in with kill statistics every time they're mentioned.
Just had to grind that axe for a minute. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Not to mention how beneficial pets can be to some people for emotional support, disability support, or just general companionship. To deprive someone of a friend and companion who will love you with their whole being, with no reservations or judgement, just because of medical costs is cruel and classicist
GOOD POST
I'm friends with a lot of formerly of currently homeless people and for the most part they take better care of their pets than anyone. A lot of people in the street have had their dog be their only friend in town at times. They also give people a reason to get up and do shit and not let depression just totally overtake you in those sorts of situations. I don't think anyone is more attached to an animal than the average street dude is to their dog. The exceptions are an extreme opposite of abusive shitty people who will sell their dog for smack (how my roommate got his dog, of his H dealer at the time. Dealer made the trade so the dog would have a better place to live than with someone who would trade it for heroine. Dealer decided my dude was the best guy he knew to raise the dog, so he got a week's worth so he wouldn't get sick while getting to know and raising a pup and the dog lives with us still now and they are as close as two beings could be tonne another). Either way, rich people basically think of pers as furniture most of the time and deserve them less than most poor people who need fuzzy unconditional love cause they can't buy it.
You can't expect to have a discussion about animal welfare and not have it come up.
It’s been relitigated here constantly with nothing good coming of it, I get why you feel that way but at some point we should stop doing counterproductive things
Could just not chime in with "Are we really doing this?" whenever a person mentions not eating animals. *shrug*
Then don't join the discussion I guess? If you want to talk about animal welfare you're not going to avoid the subject of animal welfare, so the only way is to just take a step back.
The only thing holding my credit together is one of those care cards I signed up for years ago and never used cause they died
Yeah humans are such scum bags to animals and too many people have pets, so it would just be extremely cruel to not have free care. Having a pet should require a license though. Especially stuff like pet fish or harder to care for animals.
Congrats. Credentialism is not going to fix your problem however.
Yeah and those do fuck all to stop bad drivers and irresponsible hunters/fisherman but they get poor people in legal trouble. Look at gun licenses it's a weekend class and they never check up on you. It's a joke if you have the money
Fair enough I'm just sayin no one has evaluated my driving since I was a teen. No one's evaluated my shooting since I was 10. But it's a great pretext to harass poor people. If we're giving pets free healthcare your really just left with the purposely neglectful people
I fully agree with the concept but how would it be decided who can get a license?
Yeah people really need to know what they're doing, its inhumane to allow just anyone to take care of another animal.
I tried to start a change.org petition years ago to have food stamps apply to pet food or something lol.
idk just reminded me of that.Dog and cat feed should be taxed in line with the climate impact of raising animals as feed for carnivores.
All measures should be taken to disincentivize pet ownership in the first world as part of efforts to combat climate change.
The global south will not drown because crackers want a dog. I will die on this fucking hill.
Whitey care more about people in their third world than their fucking animals challllleeennnngeeee
somehow i doubt that animals being raised as pet feed is a large portion of carbon emissions compared to cars or fossil fuel power generation
Free animal healthcare for Pell Grant recipients who start a zoo that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities.
I don't know why anyone thinks restricting pet ownership is a plausible option or would even have a positive effect. You'd just end up with a ton more abandoned animals out destroying the local ecosystems, endangering people and living short brutal lives. Then the pet owners who are willing to risk it, but are struggling have an incentive to never seek out any kind of help with their situation. They end up in the same position as the parents with mental health issues who never seek help because they don't want to lose their children.
This is all before you get to the fact that millions of people would just rather not have a left wing government if it means giving up their dogs and cats. If you thought all the other left smears were bad wait until they get to say the left is literally trying to steal your puppy.
