Dogs Are For Life? Yes — If You Can Afford The Vet Bills.

Christmas is coming and the veterinarians are getting fat.

I have a slightly masochistic streak I think, because I have a fool-proof way to make myself really sad.

Somehow, whenever I hear of the death of friends’ beloved dogs, I immediately want to start an internet search to help them find a new one to love. But I don’t because I know that it would be a search without end, always without a result, because experience tells me that the friends in question usually, and I suppose understandably, start looking for a puppy. Usually, but not always, of the same breed as the newly departed. And from a breeder, who is doing this to make money or at best to cover expenses. Not the kind of money which idiots shove down the greedy necks of puppy farmers who are growing pups as if they were a cash crop. But even the occasional breeders make money. Pedigree pups are very, very, expensive. Cute, but expensive. And much more prone to various diseases as a result of inbreeding, than a robust mongrel.

Meanwhile, all over the country, in animal sanctuaries and rescue centres, there are thousands of dogs who have been found as strays, dogs who have been dumped by people with the kind of cruelty that makes me beg for the opportunity to catch just one of these sub-humans, and dogs who have been homed, then re-homed, then re-re-homed, then abandoned to a rescue centre — usually the same one it had not long left. Why? Because it may have pooped or peed. Once. Where it should not have. Because it snapped at the child which was tormenting it. Because it had grown too large for the imbeciles who live in a small apartment and who bought a Great Dane puppy. Because the purchasers discovered that it had a medical problem and could not afford the treatment. Because they decided that they just did not like it after all. And, the cliché, because they bought a puppy for Christmas for Kevin or Tracey or Samantha or Sebastian and the cute-ness had worn off by January.

So thousands of these desperately unhappy, abandoned dogs, understanding nothing about why they have been put in prison in cages in a rescue centre, wait for a lethal injection if they are thought to have been there too long. Or just wait. Hoping that without knowing anything about hope, for some kind soul to rescue them from the rescue centre.

I mean no criticism of the rescue centres whatever. They do their very best to feed and water their charges. To exercise them if they can. To keep those cages clean. To try to find people who will take them away and love them — hoping, with tears in their eyes, never to see those dogs again, because, they hope, their new homes really will be for life. And they succeed, often, but not often enough.

And here is one of the main reasons. Many people who would dearly love to adopt a rescue dog are scared stiff by the possibility that their new love will fall ill, or have an accident, and that they will not be able to afford treatment because paying for that treatment might bankrupt them. It is true that there are charities which will cover the cost of treatment for those people who are seriously poor, and who fail (or is that pass?) a means test, but who would love a dog to distraction. Good — but the majority of people are not in that category. They do not qualify for free treatment. They have to pay, and they know what this can mean. It can mean at least £30 — often a lot more — for just walking your dog (or carrying it) into a vets’ surgery.

Then comes treatment, including X-rays, anaesthetics, medicines, time under observation, bandages, anything that the vets consider necessary — and the final bill can run into the thousands. Not to mention that euthanising a dog beyond treatment is charged for, at a frightening rate, and then comes the cost of cremation or burial. This alone can, as is the case with friends who lost a dog suddenly, just days ago, cost over £1,500 (approaching $2,000). Vets should not be rubbing salt into the wounds of those already suffering; euthanising should be given free, with love and compassion.

Pet Insurance can be expensive, so even if you manage to take out a policy, you will be hundreds of pounds or dollars out of pocket. The vets, of course are only too well aware that if you are insured, you will not be paying anything beyond the excess you have elected, so they feel no conscience in charging fees at any level they like. Your dog will be cured, you will not have paid — but the next person and patient, who is not insured will be charged exactly the same amount. For the rich — so what? Small change. For the really poor — they’ll be helped by a charity, possibly. For those in the middle, who cannot afford the insurance, it takes someone really courageous to take on a rescue dog in the knowledge that they might end up paying out a small fortune if their beloved dog falls ill.

So when it comes to badly wanting a dog, and believing, as I do and many of my friends and family do, that it is not right to be buying a puppy when there are so many fully grown dogs in rescue centres, many people just give up altogether and do without the love and affection that a dog can give. So the rescue centres continue to burst at the seams. It is true that taking on a dog which may have been maltreated and/or has a built-in suspicion of other dogs, children, or cats can be problematic, but with love and patience, even the most apparently problem-dog can be re-trained. Many people, however, just give up looking — and the dog stays in the rescue centre. Or, in some cases, returned to the rescue centre. Can you imagine what this might be doing to the psyche of such a dog? They know when they are wanted — and they know when they are not.

I have no idea how to square this circle. There is no National Health Service for dogs. And of course everything I have said about dogs applies to cats as well. And other abandoned animals.

So when I take my occasional miserable journey through the Internet of rescue centres, and end up having to stop, I wish with all my heart and soul that someone, somehow, finds a way to put rescue centres totally out of business by finding permanent homes for every last one of their charges. I can’t help thinking that the people who work there would not mind. Meanwhile, note this from the UK’s best-known rescue centre:

“Battersea (Dogs’ Home) cares for an average of 240 dogs across its three centres at any one time. There is no time limit on how long an animal can stay at Battersea, but the average stay for a dog is 34 days.” Battersea is in London and is just one of many such places. Imagine what those numbers look like if one includes all the rescue centres across the country. Research has estimated that 130,000 dogs come into UK rehoming charities each year. I cannot bear that thought.

I suppose that one way to control things would be to impose a really heavy tax on the ownership of pets, coupled with a licence to own. For everyone. That would stop the “dog for Christmas” problem.

Meanwhile — if you are thinking now, or think you will be thinking in the future about homing a dog (or a cat) I beg you to give that home to one of those desperate creatures in rescue centres. It will make you feel better, and it might cut down on my sadness.