Wow. And it’s just a dog.
Cheers.
Keep in mind, Joachim, that you probably couldn’t get an exam and CBC in the human ER for $700. Last time I was in there, it cost me $250 to be seen by a physicians assistant, plus another $250 for the room. That’s $500 right there, before you’re even seen by a doctor or have any workup at all.
Regardless of whether their patients are “just dogs”, the veterinarians at our facility are highly skilled, highly trained medical professionals who maintain a great deal of very expensive equipment, and they charge what they have to to pay their staff, maintain their supplies and equipment, keep the lights on in the clinic, and keep a roof over their own heads.
What I meant was that we spend all this money on dogs, how much must it cost to treat a kid who gets similarly ill. There was no suggestion that vets aren’t skilled, but does it not seem like a lot of time, effort, skill and money for a dog?
Fair enough, people love their pets. But sometimes more than members of their own family. I just don’t get it.
Someone mentioned the other day that in the UK the RSPCA receives much more money in donations than the NSPCC. Does anyone know if that’s true?
Cheers.
Joachim: Agreed. People spend absurd amounts on their pets. From this site:
Now, I don’t know if that includes vet bills, but the number is actually more than what Stephen Lewis, UN envoy to HIV/AIDs in Africa, said would be enough to make a substantial difference in the spread of AIDs in Africa (he said $28 billion in a lecture I attended). I agree that the fuss people make over their pets is almost an embarassment next to the fuss they fail to make over people.
HOWEVER,
I am a dog lover. I’d be a cat lover too if I wasn’t so damned allergic. I can’t begrudge the fuss people make over their pets because … well, see the recent GD thread about why people have pets at all. Pets make people happy.
Now, if you want to make the argument that if we’d only stop spending millions on our dogs and put it to a more worthy cause (hungry American children, for example), we’d all be better off, I couldn’t really argue with you.
But knowing what I do about human nature, I can pretty much assure you that if there wasn’t this pet industry, there would be somewhere else just as ‘frivilous’ that people would go to spend their money. I personally would much rather they spend their money on their dogs than on cars, or designer clothes, or junk food, but that ain’t going to happen just because I say so. People spend their money (and devote their emotions) the way they choose to.
Once I was in rural Brazil, in a pretty poor city that had many people who were incredibly badly off - missing limbs, living at the side of a river of raw sewage, jaundiced, etc - and I watched a TV program on some new medical treatment that allowed a kid to walk again. The irony struck me instantly - the money spent on that one kid could have helped dozens of city kids live to their next birthday.
We just have to accept that funds aren’t always given to the most needy. If need, or merit, were the only determinants of who gets money, and how much, I can tell you that most of us here on the Dope wouldn’t have computers any more. My annual salary, though very low, could probably give new life to a small town in Africa. Yours probably could too.
But it’s your salary, to spend as you wish. Just as T-Bone’s owner chose to spend his money on his dog.
Finally, the reason a lot of us are horrified by this situation is that, well, you just don’t kill other people’s dogs. That’s a really shitty thing to, to the dog, to the owner(s) of the dog, and to all the other people who are now afraid to take their dogs to the park. It’s inexcusable.
When you know how much people care about their dogs, (whether you approve or not) you know how much it will hurt them to hurt their dogs.
'nuff said, I think.
Cheers.