What great comments you shared. I hope you answer some of my questions below.
Jacki said…
How sad it is when you consider that dogs here in the US get better health care than most, if not all, developing countries around the world.
Many times I sit and wonder what could be accomplished if people took the money they spend on their pets for luxury items (like dog bakeries and day spas) and donated it to charities.
Pets give us so much joy and we love the way they offer us “unconditional love.” What I found strange is that dogs in Belize don’t react the same way when you want to pet them. They seem very wild, and mistrust people. They don’t seem to offer that “unconditional love,” so maybe it’s our treats and pampering that make our pets into true pets. I just came up with that. What do you think?
Jody Hedlund said…
Wow! What a contrast! Sometimes we forget how rich we are in our country. Even the “poor” in our country have it much better than most poor around the world. A great perspective to remember at this time of economic hardship in our country. If we can afford exotic doggie treats, than are we really suffering?
I think we need to ask: 1) Who’s spending $5.00 on a designer cake for dogs.
2) For some people a dog is their CHILD. Many who don’t have kids, spoil their pets
in the same way as some parents spoil their kids.
What do you say?
I haven’t seen vets places like that, but I have seen kennels that are INSANELY expensive and ridiculously posh for canines and felines. All of this really does make one wonder how much our economy really is suffering, you know? Like Jody says.
Let’s look at who pays for those expensive kennels. My husband used to work in a “cheap” kennel where they hose them down with running water and there’s cement runs. Not the carpeted and TV rooms for dogs, so they can feel like there’s still at home.
LadyFi said…
It has long been known, however, that dog and cat food sold in the UK is more nutritious than the food served up to old people in England. That is truly sick!
I can’t believe that. What do they serve the old people? I went to boarding school in Felixstowe, and perhaps the same applies to what they served us there. I’ll never forget the disgusting Shepherds pie. I have no clue what was in it. Perhaps imported Chinese dog meat?
The worst case was the Canton market in China where the dogs were hung up by their necks (after being strangled) and skinned. Still, if you are prepared to eat cows and cute lambs or horses, why not dog? (I’m vegetarian so don’t actually indulge myself..)
When did you become a vegetarian? During your time in China?
The first vet I went to overcharged us terribly and told me Bitty needed doggie braces! It was ridiculous!
Now, that’s outrageous, although I have heard of teeth bleaching for dogs. Have you?
Tomorrow we will take these goofy lambs to the vet for shots and neutering etc. The vet will think we are nuts, but while we wait she will serve us a latte. So who is the nut?
Did you get your latte? Do lambs go to a regular vet in an office or is this a special farm vet?
In Paraguay their are so many emaciated ill dogs running around, but no one does anything about it. I never understood it. When we asked, people always told us it was someone elses responsibility, but we never knew who that “someone else” was.
Yes, those stray dogs don’t seem to belong to anyone in particular, yet they also have their own stray buddies and remind me of teenage gangs when they prowl around neighborhoods.
There HAS to be a happy medium between what we do in the west and what is done in developing countries.
All too familiar.
I should mention that in one of the tribes in the jungle, the hunting dogs were a prized and cherished possession, of value equal to and perhaps greater than the wife. If the dog needed food and there was none, a nursing woman would be made to nurse the dog. I have seen this done.
Not a comfortable thing to watch when a small infant is crying for food!
Now that is shocking. Never heard of that. Does it still go on? I love hearing from all around the world.
I lived in Paris for a good long time and in certain Parisian classes little dogs are given treatments I could not afford to give myself.
What kind of treatments? I’d love to hear.
A few years ago I heard of a dog bakery being opened, by an American woman in fact, but I will have to google the details. It must have been a good 5 years ago. I wonder if she was a success. Please let us know what you discover.
Traditionally calling a human as a dog is an insult, mainly in Arab countries but here too.
A couple of weeks ago I saw a tiny monkey in a cage, again the cage too small.
I don’t understand why we humans want to put animals into cages to suffer.
I guess it’s the same all over the world, here too, rich are richer and poor are and will be poor.
An animal is an animal. It doesn’t understand if his food is beautifully decorated or not.
We humans are really stupid and selfish!
Yes, I always feel sorry for animals in cages. Even in the zoos. The most amazing zoo I saw was in Belize, where the animals still had their jungle environment. It was the most eco/animal friendly zoo I’ve ever seen.
Anonymous said…
As I was filling out two pages of cat adoption forms and promising to never ever let kitty go outside, I had to wonder about all the children who need homes. I think priorities are sadly misplaced.
The problem is most want babies without problems, not orphans who are older with physical and mental problems.
What bothered me sometimes was going out to eat in a nice restaurant in whatever country we were staying, have a meal, a glass of wine, and spend 40 bucks or so and then feel guilty because 40 dollars would feed a local family of four for a month … and here we were just spending it on one meal because we felt like eating out.
I am in the US for now, and what really bothers me is people complaining about how expensive things are.
What do you think? Things are cheap here compared to say, Europe? I’d love to hear your views.
I don’t know what “outrageously expensive” is when it comes to vets. Last time I took our dog for a check up, it cost about Cdn$50.00. ….We worked hard to keep our dogs healthy, so about once a year was as often as they needed to go; $50. a year isn’t bad.
Too bad kids in Belize can’t be looked after for $50 per year, for food. Or even kids in the U.S., for health care.
So I guess you don’t get your dogs teeth cleaned where they put them under anesthesia. That costs a fortune at most vets in the U.S. The expensive vet I mentioned with granite countertops, wanted to do blood work first on Cookie, for $90.00 before he would clean her teeth, which was another $250. Forget that. Others wanted you to sign up for a monthly dental check-up. Not even I go for cleaning every month, so why should my dog?
I don’t know how I would manage living in places of truly grinding poverty. My stomach gets upset just thinking about it.
