Don’t Give Someone a Dog for Christmas
Reading the title of this post, you are probably expecting this article to be a bit of a moan. You might already be annoyed at the premise, and want to jump straight into the comments section to tell me how wrong I am, and how it all worked out for you and everyone you know. That is fine, but you should never let your own experiences colour your judgement on the rest of the world.
Now, this has been talked about to death on countless occasions, going back since giving presents at Christmas was even at thing. ‘Dogs are not just for Christmas, they are for life’. Everybody knows that saying, and most people intend to stand by it. But that’s just the problem, they have the best intentions, but they may not be aware what they are getting into.
When you buy someone a gift, in a way you are taking the responsibility from them onto you. It’s not fair to give someone a life choice they may not have thought through. Owning a pet is a life choice, it is an agreement with that animal to take full ownership of its life until it dies, you are its guardian and you are the one responsible for taking care of it. You can’t just give that kind of responsibility, it is something that has to be decided by the the person who will live by it. They may love the cute little puppy on Christmas, but once they have to start properly taking care of it, paying for expensive medicine, taking it for walks when they don’t have time, cleaning up its mess, teaching it correct behaviour, and all of the countless other things that go with that, they may not be ready for it.
It’s one of the biggest decisions anybody can make. And I firmly believe that’s why pets should never be gifts. They are something that you have to get for yourself after a long period of working out how your life will change to accommodate the new addition, and a lot of careful planning. Especially if the animal is young – it just isn’t fair to it to have to go from home to home because people didn’t think things through. On a side note if you are buying an animal, consider getting a stray or a rescue dog from a pound, there are plenty out there. Puppy farms are not always strictly abiding by the law, and even so there are ethical questions to be raised. Mongrels too are generally more healthy than purebreds, and cheaper.
This doesn’t just go for dogs, but for all animals. Cats are more independent, but that often means they get into more fights and require more trips to the vets to get patched up. Animals like reptiles and rodents often require special diets and living conditions that can be expensive depending on the animal, and require a lot of research beforehand. I guess a couple of goldfish is alright. If you are a parent considering getting an animal for a child, make sure you are fully ready to take ownership of that animal if the child does not step up and take responsibility. If you choose to give a life to a child, you have to be prepared to take over if they are not looking after it correctly. It’s only fair to the animal you bought.
The point of this article wasn’t to have a moan. But to think twice. A little dog wrapped in a Christmas bow is extremely cute, but animals aren’t there to be cute. They want to have a life and be happy, and it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure we are giving any creature the best life it can have. That’s why you should never give someone an animal, only you know yourself well enough to know if you can make that happen. Animals are for life. Ultimately, you can not give responsibility.
