A Penny For Your Kitty?
Animal shelters across the country are taking part in National Empty The Shelter Day. The shelters are over crowded. Funds are low. Animals will be euthanized if not adopted soon. So shelters are having these events that allow people to adopt at a discounted price for a limited time. The obvious goal here is to help more animals get adopted.
In this article from a local news station, the Tulsa SPCA executive director says that, “An estimated 11,000 animals are euthanized every day in the United States.” That's a heart breaking number, isn't it?
I have mixed feelings about these events. I wasn't sure if I could encourage people to go adopt a kitten because they're “on sale”. I understand the shelter is full and they need homes. I'm thankful to the shelters for their efforts to get these babies adopted out before their time runs out! And I'm all about saving money... But I worry about the “impulse buy”, if you will. About the people who will be adopting animals, excited that they can actually afford the lower fee, without considering their future costs. Or the people who have good intentions but don't think about all of the reasons that it may not be the best idea to adopt right now.
Unfortunately, I have a long list of reasons of why this concerns me so much. People fall in love with these animals and adopt them. Then there's a cold slap of reality a week later, a month later... They can't afford to buy food for this animal. They can't afford to take them to the vet. Their family wasn't as ready for a pet as they thought they were. They forgot to ask their landlord if they could have pets and now Mr. Landlord says No. The animal got bigger than they thought it would. The list of reasons to 'get rid of' a pet goes on and on. I've seen them dumped on the side of the road. Dumped in a nice neighborhood hoping someone will take them in and give them what they couldn't. Sometimes they get taken right back to the shelter.
So here's my pickle: If you can't afford a $25 adoption fee and have to wait for them to go “on sale”... Maybe, just maybe, you can't afford to adopt this kitten at all. If you can't afford the adoption fee, how are you going to afford to buy them food? Or litter, collars, tags... These costs really add up. After we adopted Baxter and went from a one cat family to a two cat family, I was amazed at how much more cat food and litter we were going through every week!
Even if you don't take your pets in for yearly checkups, there's always the chance that your cat or dog will get sick and need to see a vet. Scrubby has only been really sick twice in his 17 years (thank God!) but when he did get sick, we spent several hundred dollars on vet visits, testing and treatments. In our short time with Baxter he didn't get sick til the last month before we lost him. Again, we spent several hundred dollars on multiple visits to the vet.
On the adoption form it asks if you will be able to pay for vet visits if your pet gets sick. The shelter has this question on the form as a sort of screening process; to give people the chance to really think about whether or not they can afford a pet. I have a feeling that a lot of people answer 'yes' to this question—even when they know they could not afford it.
No one plans to have a car accident but they still happen. Likewise, we don't plan for our pets to become ill; it just happens. We all love our fur babies. And a lot of us would love to adopt more! (I'm totally guilty of this.) We all want to save ALL of the shelter animals. And if you have the means to care for another animal, hey man, I'm all for it! Go save a life and add joy to your family! But don't do it just because it's a bargain that you can't pass up. Really, really think about the future costs you're facing when you consider adopting an animal. Take the time to research breeds and make sure you know the animal you're adopting is a good fit for your family.
Adopt responsibly, my friends!
