Trying to re-home your pet?

annberlin

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

No, I would live on beans on toast permanently rather than get rid of the dog! I know it is a situation some people are sadly finding themselves in though.

Good luck with the TV programme, it sounds like it could be educational and make people think about budgeting sensibly for pet ownership - it does not have to be expensive, but the reality is that all animals are a financial commitment, and one which can be as long term as many mortgages (a puppy or kitten may well be a responsibility for the next 15-20 years!)

Me too cannot think of anything worse. Send them here will give them a wonderful home unless they are mice. Sorry have a problem with rodents:j

foreign_correspondent

annberlin wrote: »

Me too cannot think of anything worse. Send them here will give them a wonderful home unless they are mice. Sorry have a problem with rodents:j

... and if they are mice, rudekid48 is looking for some to feed to a snake!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2390319

hethmar

Oh fc, hadnt seen that one - that thread is AWFUL

SnowyOwl_2

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

... and if they are mice, rudekid48 is looking for some to feed to a snake!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2390319

I think rudekid48 is a part-time wind up merchant, or else he's very very naive.

Anyway, in response to Jojo, I'm afraid to disappoint Jojo, but people do dump their animals when they have had enough of them, or when they become too old, or when they cause an expense. Obviously not all people do this, but a small minority does.

Maybe the OP could as part of her research contact a number of council run pounds to find out the reasons why people voluntarily hand their pet dog over, even in the knowledge that if the council cannot find a new home for the dog it will be put to sleep.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

They're the ones who get fed up with their animals for not being cute anymore, not for purely financial reasons, they're not the sort who are, to paraphrase the OP 'reluctantly having to rehome', they're the people on the TV getting slated by normal owners.

lolababy

Im with those that said they would rather starve than let go of their pets. When I first had a dog I was living alone on a very low wage and my dog ate before I did.

Iv took in strays that found their way into my cellar. Both starving cats on their last legs, so .the vet said. All of my animals have been unwanted or strays that nobody came forward for.
It makes me so sad to see an animal thrown away like rubbish. People need to be made responsible for their animals . Sadly how to do that when people let animals breed and then pass them on as commodities to people who only see a cuddly puppy or kitten. Then when they are fed up with them throw them onto the streets.

The programme should be about the ignorant pet owner and education re care and responsibility. Not about people who have to give up a pet.

cheepskate_2

[QUOTE=lolababy;31690659. When I first had a dog I was living alone on a very low wage and my dog ate before I did.



This is exactly as I did.

For people who say "I've got to give up dog/cat/goldfish as I cant afford to feed it are usually lying, but it makes it better than saying "i cant be bothered to pay for it anymore"

When they say the dont have the money to feed their pet, its mis-management of their money, again I would sell my luxuary household items if I honestly fell into such a hard time I could not afford the cheapest of dog meal.

Dogs are basically scavangers and will eat anything.

I can remember when my sis had little money and would feed all the household scraps, including peelings from veg to her dog as one of their meals, Now this is sort of classed as a part barf/raw kinda diet. At no point did she ever think of giving her dogs up. Come to think of it , when I was younger all our family fed the scraps to their dogs in place of a meal. Its only in recent terms that pet manafacturers have cottoned onto the dog industry and got all special about how a dog should be fed.

Mupette

I am poor, but i would not give my dog up, i bought him, i care for him, he is not going anywhere, he is part of the family, i am sure if i needed to i would find stuff to sell.

I have changed his petplan from the top notch one when i was working to a reasonable one still with pet plan until policy is up and will scout around.

One thing i have learnt is have pet insurance just in case, ok it's £20 a month that i can't have but it's for my little fur ball.

I thought long and hard about costs before i got him, and what would happen if i could no longer work, buying his food each week at the supermarket to me is just part of the shopping.

meerkat2007

At the moment, I'm sitting at home, waiting for a phone call from the vet's, to tell me I can go and pick up one of my boys after a blood test for Cushing's disease. Thankfully, they are both insured - the premiums are horrendous, but I don't want to be faced with a situation where the choice would be pts or expensive treatment, and I couldn't afford the treatment.

I'd live on bread and jam without the jam to keep them. Since Mum had to move into a residential home because of Alzheimer's, these babies are my only family at home now - and I would never, under any circumstances, give them up. I don't know what I'd do without them. One is 14, the other will be 14 in August, and I couldn't bear to think of them going to someone else.

CaroLondon

I note the OP only says "Perhaps" because of costs and the recession.

And while you would all happily eat beans rather than give up your pets would you make your kids eat beans too.

There are plenty of other reasons owners have to give pets up.. illness, allergies, HAVING to go work full time (it is mentioned often enough on here about leaving dogs more than 4 hours is cruel) dogs not getting on with new babies etc.....

I have never given up a pet to be rehomed, although my dog went to live with my Mum when I got offered a chance of a lifetime job down south, I found it heart breaking leaving him, and I think if leaving him with her hadn't been an option, I probably wouldn't have taken the job but I don't know for sure. We "talk" on the phone and I go and see him (ok and the parents lol) as often as possible, I would love to have him live with me, but at the moment it’s just not possible.

Circumstances change, not all people who give up their pets are bad people and if a new home is best for the animal, rather than being left alone all day, people to ill to excersie etc. then aren't they doing the right thing?