Questions to Ask Before Buying a Pet as a Christmas Gift
· Will other people be living with the recipient? When I was a child one of my aunts surprised, me with a chocolate spotted mongrel I named "Peanuts." Only I wasn't the only one surprised. My parents, who got off on the wrong foot with Peanuts from the first day, started wondering how they could keep my new dog without losing their sanity. After a few months of watching Peanuts tear clothes off the clothesline, chew newspapers, and ruin our carpets, they secretly got rid of him, telling me Peanuts ran off to the "deep dark woods." In other words, make sure everyone else who lives with the new pet is agreeable to the adoption and is ready to share responsibility for the care of the animal.
· It's important to make sure no one living with the pet suffers from allergies.
· Is the recipient's family financially stable? If your recipent is a child, determine if the recipient's parents are financially able to feed and care for the pet. You may have a beloved grandchild who's both highlighted and underlined a dog or a cat on his (or her) Christmas list, but if the child's family isn't able to either to either feed or pay a veterinarian for the needed shots and other medical emergencies, you're only adding a financial burden to the family.
· Does the family travel a lot? If the recipient and his family frequently aren't home, chances are a pet will be a problem.
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1 comment:
Hey this is super!I really like it! A great reminder around X-mas time and actually a general guideline for anytime of the year really!
Giving pets as gifts-never a good idea, unless like you say, the conditions are optimal. The points to think about make a good checklist for anyone pondering this and simply outline how to make a responsible decision.
I especially like that you put in the point on allergies and travelling. I think people often forget to take those two points into account. Now that I am active in the local animal shelter here I am walking dogs, some of whom were gifts themselves. Freddie, with whom I walked today, was a gift to a young child, he is huge, I needed all my body strength to control him, so I can easily see how this dog was 'too much to handle' for his recipient. He is a great guy, but has very obvious psychological trauma from being abaondoned by his family and from living at the shelter. He needed a good half an hour before he could calm down and somewhat enjoy his walk. If I would have let him he would have run in circles and barked constantly the entire hour and a half I spent with him.
Since you posted this with the cute picture of the puppy one more important point comes to my mind in this issue. I also think it is important that if people have decided that the family or recipient can have a pet after going through the points on your well-outlined checklist, then it would be great if people first thought of the alternative to getting a puppy from a shiny pet store. It would be so great if people would consider and take the time to go to local shelters first to look for a suitable candidate. Especially with puppys since by purchasing from a store like Petland one of North Americas largest chain pet stores, one is very likely uncosciouslly supporting puppy mills-inhumane and unethical operations that explote dogs horrifically and animal rights in general. Sure it might not always work out, and will take you a little more time to find a dog of the breed you desire(if that is an issue)and who is suitable for your home (dogs who are good with kids, purebreed instead of mutt, young v.s. older-etc, etc....)but there are so many animals in shelters waiting for a home. Their profiles are often on the internet with their history, personality quirks, age, history, etc. With so many animals, and not just dogs who are sentenced to lead dull and lonely lives in shelters, it just seems like if you really want an animal-then a really great opportunity to make a difference in the life of an animal and get a pet at the same time!
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