While I was providing emotional support for my roommate yesterday, I came to a revelation — pets are expensive.
My roommate has five chinchillas, which look like a cross among a mouse, squirrel and rabbit.
Over the three years I have known her she has had seven.
But, one died because someone stepped on it and the other passed away before it could get a $200 operation.
Yesterday, I provided emotional support because her chinchillas are sick. One is losing weight and the other four all have diarrhea.
Thankfully for my roommate they require very few medications totaling about $70.
But, what would happen if my roommate didn’t have money to pay for the vet and medicine?
As she was filing out new patient forms on her chinchilla, I felt like I was in an emergency room where they should be asking for what type of insurance she had. But, pet owners really do not have pet insurance.
I have a 13-year-old dashaund (a wiener dog) who seems to be healthy, but he is getting to that age where his hips may go out, and that scares me.
I do not have the money to pay for medical bills and I have no insurance to cover him.
A quick search on the Internet today showed there are a few places that offer health insurance for pets, but at what price?
For my roommate it would cost about $12 per month per chinchilla totaling $720 a year, according to petinsurance.com.
If you are thinking that human insurance is more expensive, you are right.
However, an employer usually pays a large portion of one’s insurance policy.
According to an instant quote covering my roommate and her chinchillas (children) from ehealthinsurance.com, her insurance would range from $242 to $812 per month.
If my roommate was covered by her employer, most of that is covered.
Taking the most expensive policy and having her employer pay 80 percent of the cost, my roommate would pay about $167 a month.
But, there is more known about human illnesses and how to treat them.
Animals can get those same illnesses, but it takes more to diagnose them and to treat them.
American pet Products Manufactures Association estimates $31 billion was spent on pets in 2003 with $6.7 billion going to vet care, $7.6 billion to supplies/medicine.
Most people tend to animals much like their own children, and some people have pets in lieu of children.
Animals should be treated just like you treat a child.
By having a pet, a person commits himself to providing that animal with a loving home and all of the necessities like food and love that it needs.
The only thing a parent has to supply for a child but not for a pet is clothes and shoes, and many people do buy these for their animals.
In order to treat animals with full care, there should be an affordable way to provide full insurance coverage for animals.
Ghandi said “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” How great is our country if we cannot afford to give animals the care they need?