If you can't pay 100-300$, should you get a dog?

[Jules]

I think people who do not have a lot of money should still be able to have a dog. BUT if they are so poor that they do not have the money to get insurance (that's what 20$ a month? Or put the same amount aside each month if they do not want to have insurance) then IMO they should not have a dog.

I have seen posts on both this and other forums by people that have dogs with medical problems. Eyes that are covered with pus, noses bleeding, worms, fleas, etc... and they don't have money or are reluctant to take the dog to the vet because the vet is "expensive". To me, that's like bringing a child into the world and not taking it to the doctor when it is sick.

With this being said, I very much agree with Bobsk8!

 

[bubbatd]

What ever the price of the dog , you should have at least $1000. you could draw on in case of an emergency .

 

[Muggie'sMum]

Sure, my vet is "expensive" - I live paycheque to paycheque, I don't have a grand store of money but I have a GREAT relationship with my vet and it's called credit with him, too. If I have to give him a post dated cheque or make payments, he's more than happy to cooperate with me so that my animals get the care that they need even if I don't have the money on hand right now.

 

[r&mluv2]

I don't know. Speaking from a relatively poor background, sometimes you just have to do what you can to make things work. If you asked me today to borrow $300, I would say that I didn't have it. I don't. But if my dog got injured and needed veterinary treatment, I'd get that money, come hell or high water.

I really don't know where you should draw that line. Hopefully people who continually have problems would realize that perhaps their home isn't right for a dog. But that said, I don't think money is the key to happiness or being a good dog owner. I would rather see a dog in a poor but dedicated home than a wealthy but uninterested home. When I was helping my husband at a job site in a wealthy neigbhborhood, I saw the most beautiful white-factored Doberman. Somebody paid a lot of money for that dog, but he was just out running loose every day we went there. Other dogs were yard decorations, kenneled into a little corner so they wouldn't mess up the landscaping.

I don't think there is a minimum income for owning a dog. To me the "if you cant afford X, then you shouldn't have a dog" arguement can be overly critical. Like those who feel like people who need to chain their dogs, rather than buy $500 kennels for each one, are somehow unfit as owners. Or perhaps if you have to feed Pedigree instead of Canidae, you shoudn't own a dog. Its over-thinking the issue to my mind. Everybody has a different way they approach dog ownership, and very few are totally wrong, IMO.

hi, I'm new. well said, I agree!! I really enjoy this site btw!!

 

[SeniorPetLover]

The purchase price of any animal is usually the least expensive part of ownership...Our shelter charges a $100 adoption fee which covers the alteration, hw test, shots & microchip...you would be surprised at how many people walk away because they think it is too expensive...it is a lot less than paying for a spay, chip and shots from any of the vets around here so you would have a bigger investment in a free dog, but they don't think of it that way...they think they are doing us a favor by taking a dog, so it should be free or cheap...these are the same peolpe that wouldn't take the dog to the vet for alteration and probably wouldn't take it for illness either...if they balk at the fee, I usually deny the application because my thinking is that they don't realize what an investment they are going to be making...It is not necessarily the "poor" people that complain about the fee either...you don't have to feed the very best food for a dog to have a good life, but you do have to be prepared meet it's veterinary needs like hw preventative, etc. and if they can barely afford to take care of themselves then it is unlikley the dog will get it's heartguard...however, I do have some "poor" families that put their animals first and will go without food before letting their animals be without, so it is by an individual case basis...poverty doesn't always equal abuse or neglect, in fact...once a year, we collect for the shelter on the street corner and the "wealthy" people will roll up their tinted windows and drive on by while the "poor" folks stop and empty the change out of their ashtrays and under their floormats...they give freely of what little they have...to me there is more than one way to measure wealth and sometimes I would much rather adopt to those "poor" folks...they are rich with love and caring which is something money just can't buy...a lot of the people that have the resources to provide the best of care choose not to...could be why they have all of the money!

 

[Sweet72947]

Good post, SeniorPetLover!

The rescue I'm with charges $175 adoption fee for dogs. That includes the spay/neutering, HW test, shots, and in some cases HW treatment, or treatment for kennel cough or other illnesses the dog may have come in with. We also pay for food. Heck, one dog is nicknamed the $8000 dog because he got bloat and it was $8000 for him to undergo surgery to fix it. He is fine now, but still needs a home. Some of the purebred rescues around here will charge $300 for a dog. Sometimes their fees vary though, depending on the medical care and expenses that have gone into different dogs. Some places also charge more for puppies because they are more desirable.

 

[FoxyWench]

i have to agree with Bobsk8 on this.

ive seen so many pets suffering because people just "dont have the money" to cover vet care.

i have a neighbour thats the worst culprit ever.
she has no job and the state pays the bills (shes "disabled" she has depression and aparently cant work, (i suffer from bipolar depression extreem social anxiety and epilepsy, and i can work, but of course when your being handed money why try?!)
she had a 13 yr old shepard, nice dog, never trained, not housebroken but a sweet dog all the same, all he wanted was love.
he had lumps and bumps, growths, mange bad teeth and an eye infection. she "couldnt afford" to take him to the vet (even after i gave her the number of a low cost clinic who accepted payment plans!) a few weeks later she goes out and adopts a collie x shepard x chow mix puppy, she cant afford vet care for her old shep but can go out and pay $200 for a puppy from a shelter (im not even sure what they were thinking adopting to her!) By the time the pup was a year old he had a broken tooth, mange, cherry eye and had not been neutered, no training ect, and he was dog agressive to any dog that wasnt the shep (her property isnt fenced either so now both these dogs were wandering the neighbourhood) again i gave her the number for the low cost spay/neuter, at the very least have these dogs neutered!, and every time i saw them wandering i called animal control, it cost her $50 each time per dog to "break them out".
So i dont see her for about 6 months, and i see her mix wandering but no shepard, i thought hed passed away he was old and cancer riddled.
And now im seeing a young black pit mix with hairloss running round with her shep mix.
my mum talks to her and she tells her she got this new puppy 6 months ago she was 3 months old when she got her (so a 9 month old female)
she then tells mum that the pup wasnt getting along with her shepard so she took her 14 1/2 yr old shepard and left him at the shelter.
she then admitted now the female had mange, but was spayed when she got her. and that the shelter that took her shep had neutered her shep mix for her!
my mum asked her why she hasnt taken either dog to the vet for the mange and she said "I CANT AFFORD IT!"

why get ANOTHER dog if you cant afford the first one!?!?!

i always worry when i see adds for "wanted puppy under $100" that its another person like my neighbour!

 

[Muggie'sMum]

Geez, Foxy. We have some neighbors like that.

But like I've always said - you can't legislate responsibility! I'm glad I have a great relationship with my vet - I get procedures at bare rock bottom prices - of course, there's nothing exceptionally high tech or flowery about my vet either. His bedside manner is gruff, but he fixes my animals and that's the important part for me!!

I had a cat that tested positive for FelV... I was mortified that night, cried my eyes out in his office and he told me to come back "when I was ready" - Toby was literally wasting away nothing I could do to keep his quality of life. I genuinely believe he would have put Toby to sleep for me for free or for the bare cost of the drugs.

TRUST your vets, people! Can't stress this more! You don't have to be rich to have a good relationship with your vet!

 

[krisykris]

I agree on some of the argument, but prices of dogs are sometimes outrageous. For someone like myself, with allergies and asthma - I have to have a certain type of lower dander dog, or dogs that don't have thick undercoats in order to tolerate them. I looked for rescues, dogs in shelters, ect and could not find the kind of dog I was compatible with. Just because someone doesn't have a lot of money doesn't mean that they can't give the dog a good home. Most vets will work out payment plans if something severe happens, and I believe that most people can afford to work things like that out OR to insure their dogs at least minimally. I just feel like life is short.. people lose jobs, have financial crisis's and life happens. If someone has a lot of love to give an animal and the responsibility to care for that animal, I say they should go for it.

 

[Fran27]

I think that if you can't afford appropriate care for your dog... you shouldn't get one.

I feel terrible for the pups that will get adopted by those '$300 is too expensive, I'll get a $200 pup from a BYB' people, as they will probably not be neutered, nor have appropriate vaccinations.

It's easy really - if you can't afford $300 for a wormed/vaccinated/neutered dog, I don't think you can afford the $200 to neuter, the $60ish to vaccinate, and the other $50 to worm. Not mentionning heartguard pills.

Even if you get a free pup from a random ad, it will cost you more in the end than the $300 rescue dog.

So no, if you can't afford those $300, IMO you shouldn't have a dog.

 

[elegy]

Sure, my vet is "expensive" - I live paycheque to paycheque, I don't have a grand store of money but I have a GREAT relationship with my vet and it's called credit with him, too. If I have to give him a post dated cheque or make payments, he's more than happy to cooperate with me so that my animals get the care that they need even if I don't have the money on hand right now.

absolutely. and you got that great relationship by being a good and conscienscious owner. i wish more people realized that and made the effort to have their pets seen for yearly wellness exams, not just when they're direly ill.

 

[misticaleclipse]

I agree with RD- a lot of the rescues around here charge $400+ for their dogs... and the further down south in Florida you go, the more they charge. I've seen small breed puppies listed for $600-800 in South Florida on Petfinder... but you can go to hoobly.com or open up your local paper and find BYB puppies for $200.

That is a crazy adoption price. Its unusual around here to see one over 350$,
and even that is high usually because of added medical costs like an eye issue
or something.

What a great alternative to turning homes away (and then euth'ing the perfectly healthy dog) because they don't make a certain amount of money each year, or because they don't have a fenced yard, or because they have a kid, etc.

I didn't mean how much they make per year. Many people can live very frugaly. No matter how much money you have if you can hopefully put away 5-10$ per month or less and save up the 200-300$ for a dog, with some left over for emergencies. I don't know many people who could not do this, but a lot of times its the "gimme gimme gimme, i want it now now now". Yea its childish, but they want it cheap, now and don't want to wait, unfortunalty our society seems to be going this way more and more.

IMO dogs are a LUXURY item. If you can't afford them, don't have them.

I agree, people do not NEED to have a dog, its a luxuary. If more people understood that then less dogs would be dumped for financial reasons. (I understand it very well after waiting until I had a secure job for a 4 years before getting a dog)

The purchase price of any animal is usually the least expensive part of ownership... Our shelter charges a $100 adoption fee which covers the alteration, hw test, shots & microchip...you would be surprised at how many people walk away because they think it is too expensive...it is a lot less than paying for a spay, chip and shots from any of the vets around here so you would have a bigger investment in a free dog, but they don't think of it that way...they think they are doing us a favor by taking a dog, so it should be free or cheap...these are the same peolpe that wouldn't take the dog to the vet for alteration and probably wouldn't take it for illness either...

I agree, it's this reasoning that bothers me.

 

[PONYMAN]

I don't know. Speaking from a relatively poor background, sometimes you just have to do what you can to make things work. If you asked me today to borrow $300, I would say that I didn't have it. I don't. But if my dog got injured and needed veterinary treatment, I'd get that money, come hell or high water.

I really don't know where you should draw that line. Hopefully people who continually have problems would realize that perhaps their home isn't right for a dog. But that said, I don't think money is the key to happiness or being a good dog owner. I would rather see a dog in a poor but dedicated home than a wealthy but uninterested home. When I was helping my husband at a job site in a wealthy neigbhborhood, I saw the most beautiful white-factored Doberman. Somebody paid a lot of money for that dog, but he was just out running loose every day we went there. Other dogs were yard decorations, kenneled into a little corner so they wouldn't mess up the landscaping.

I don't think there is a minimum income for owning a dog. To me the "if you cant afford X, then you shouldn't have a dog" arguement can be overly critical. Like those who feel like people who need to chain their dogs, rather than buy $500 kennels for each one, are somehow unfit as owners. Or perhaps if you have to feed Pedigree instead of Canidae, you shoudn't own a dog. Its over-thinking the issue to my mind. Everybody has a different way they approach dog ownership, and very few are totally wrong, IMO.

I agree, having money doesn't neccessary make a person a good owner.
A happy pet in a poor person's home is better than a neglected pet in a nice house.
A house is a house until love comes in it.
There are a lot of poor kids that need a good pet companion & would \ will make good masters.
I grew up as a kid with Houndogs, Blueticks,Redbones, Walkers ...
Thinking back my dad taught me how to treat an animal just as if they should be treated " man's best friend " , he also taught me about taking care of our dogs health such as vacinations,shelter, proper nutrition, & LOVING CARE .
Thanks Dad, if you can hear me from Heaven.

 

[FoxyWench]

the adoption price at the shelter by me can be upwards of $700 for a puppy that "looks purebred"
Satos (street dogs from puerto rico) are $600 "to cover cost of flight to the states and entrance to country examination"
personally as much as its a good cause to help other countries stray dogs..we have enough strays of our own to find homes for first!
their lowest adoption fee is $150 for an adult cat with special needs (medical expenses to be taken on by new owner)

so i do understand sometimes is a better bet to scour the adds, especialy if your looking for a mutt and are willing to take your chances with a BYB or oops litter. (as much as i hate the fact that there are oops litters and BYB's) i mean heck, some good quality breeders have pups available for less than the shelter neer us!

but again, i do cringe every time i see the "cant afford more than $100" or other similar notes due to many personal experiences like the one in my previous post to this topic.

 

[bubbatd]

Foxy ... I've never heard of prices that high !!! That almost sounds like they are dog milling from other countries !

 

[FoxyWench]

i know right!!! its insane, i worked there for a little while as kennel care and its just ridiculous, the people there are elitist (rich fairfeild county people thinking their obviously better than anyone else because they have money AND are donating time to a shelter) and most of the dogs there are HIGHLY people agressive. (one ot the point of lunging the kennel door/walls and hanging on by his teeth 3 feet above the ground and snarling (i was told, "oh dont mind him he just gets excited to see people *BLINK!*) he had a note on his cage "to one person home only, expereinced owner required, must love "CHARACTER" $400 adoption fee Pure bred American Pitbull 2 yrs old!"
Anywhere else would have put that dog to sleep, it attacked a worked when it got lose requiring hundereds of stitches and there gonna try and adopt it out?!

I quit after seeing many of their other practices too!

 

[casablanca1]

I can never agree with the idea that if you can't afford $X for a dog, you shouldn't own one, since my life was changed by a dog my parents could barely afford when I was a kid. She got fed, got netuered, and got taken to the vet when she was sick. It is not the way I take care of my dogs now, because I can afford to be Ms. Munchausen with their health and spoil my dogs rotten. But it was the only way we could afford a dog, and she was everything to me back then. And she had a very good life. If anything had happened to my dog, we couldn't have afforded to do anything much, but she was adored by a large family who was always around, talking to her, feeding her people food, walking her, letting her out into her yard, etc. And she had me to raise, a job she took very seriously. A job, companionship, food, water, and a place to run. What more does a dog really want?

One thing about price at shelters - when people can afford to buy a puppy from a breeder or a petstore but choose to go to a shelter, they probably are doing it because they're aware that there are more homeless pets than homes, and they may not expect there to be any obstacles or special cash cost to rescuing a dog from death. It's a reasonable expectation, and it really is the shelter's responsibility to educate them about why they charge so much. If the person truly can't afford the price, the shelter should try to find out more about their situation and help them either decide to wait until times are better to get a pet, or steer them toward a cheaper but good shelter.

 

[smkie]

I could not have paid that outright for Victor. That money was what i had to pay for his vet neutering and heartworm treatment. I can only speak for myself but he does seem to have a very loving and caring home.