There was a virtue-signaling piece that ran on NPR this week all about how pets are just like kids. We've heard that nonsense before, but the article introduced a new spin on the usual leftist anti-human tripe.
The article was all about how, thanks to inflation, people can't afford to buy their own food, but they're not skimping on buying expensive food for their cats and dogs.
One of the featured women said,
'It costs me almost $100 to feed my cat per month. It's kind of crazy — like, why is it so expensive?' she says.
The kicker is that she's cut her own grocery bill down to $100 per month too.
She clips coupons, buys clothing only when hers gets worn out and grows her own tomatoes, onions, lettuce and sweet potatoes to save on produce.
But she refuses to skimp on the more expensive Wellness Core grain-free wet food for her Bengal cat, Benny.
Instead of buying cheaper cat food, she's starving herself.
'He's something I can't cut back on, because if I do, he's going to suffer,' she says. 'He won't be able to tell me because he doesn't have a voice.'
(Totally random side thought: Notice how almost every media outlet is criticizing JD Vance this week for saying "cat ladies" shouldn't run the country? Haha, good times.)
To be fair, like everything else in the Biden-Harris economy, the costs of owning a pet are ridiculously high right now. In fact, pet costs have outpaced overall inflation for the last five years.
Prices for pets and pet products and services have surged 25.8% in the last five years, outpacing inflation. Veterinary services alone have surged even more, rising 38.6% in the same time frame.
It's terribly sad.
But most normal people aren't going to sacrifice their families for an animal.
So, it's no wonder that pet shelters across the nation are at capacity.
Euthanisations have hit a five-year peak, with over 600,000 animals killed last year at shelters. Most shelters now have a one-month waitlist for dropping off an animal.
(Which means that pet dumping is becoming an ever more prominent issue.)
Krystal Burgos of Greensboro, N.C., gave a typical example:
'There was this white truck that stopped right in front of me. So it got off the interstate, stopped right in front of me, and out opens the driver's side door, and a dog comes tumbling out. At first, I thought maybe the dog had jumped out on accident, but then the driver closes the door and speeds off into the interstate, does not look back. And the dog's left on the side of the road,' Burgos said. 'It's horrible. You know, the dog, he was friendly. He was nice. I opened my back door of my car, and the dog came up to me and approached me. It sniffed me. It flopped right onto its back. Let me rub its tummy and everything. And then it hopped into the back of my car.'
But Burgos didn't take the dog home with her. She took it to the local shelter and dropped it off; something the owner couldn't do without getting put on a waiting list.
Consider that there has also been a significant rise in the number of fatal dog attacks associated with this trend.
With all the pandemic dogs in homes out there; if there isn't an economic change that comes soon, this problem is going to get much worse before it gets better.
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