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Post by birdseye on Jun 14, 2022 7:37:25 GMT
Daughter was given a cockerpoo by a couple where the wife is dieing of cancer. Lovely animal but recently it developed some sort of stomach illness that resulted in diarroheia and freash blood in the crap. As she does with her kids she reacted by rushing off for medical assistance and the animal was X rayed and on a drip for a couple of days. But unlike the kids where the NHS is nominally free, the vet charged something over £2k.
We can afford that so its not an issue in that sense. But in my youth, this would never have happened. Instead the dog would have been "put down" and you would if you wished have got a replace. I say that as a dog lover who currently has a dog.
What leaves me very uneasy is the morality of spending that much on a dog when some people in the UK are short of food. At the same time what is the point of working hard and making a good life for yourself if you cant spend money on things that matter to you?
How do you rationalise such situations?
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Jun 14, 2022 8:15:12 GMT
In the same way you can justify spending a lot of money on holidays, jewelery, luxury cars, boats etc.
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Post by alec on Jun 14, 2022 15:19:23 GMT
I guess the next question from the philosopher would be how do you justify elevating the value of a human life above that of another mammal, such as a dog?
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Post by mercian on Jun 15, 2022 21:32:04 GMT
Or sentient AI.
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Post by moby on Jun 22, 2022 6:06:17 GMT
Daughter was given a cockerpoo by a couple where the wife is dieing of cancer. Lovely animal but recently it developed some sort of stomach illness that resulted in diarroheia and freash blood in the crap. As she does with her kids she reacted by rushing off for medical assistance and the animal was X rayed and on a drip for a couple of days. But unlike the kids where the NHS is nominally free, the vet charged something over £2k.
We can afford that so its not an issue in that sense. But in my youth, this would never have happened. Instead the dog would have been "put down" and you would if you wished have got a replace. I say that as a dog lover who currently has a dog.
What leaves me very uneasy is the morality of spending that much on a dog when some people in the UK are short of food. At the same time what is the point of working hard and making a good life for yourself if you cant spend money on things that matter to you?
How do you rationalise such situations?
I spent 6k on an operation to repair a slipped disc in one of my dogs. I was spending the money on something that was important to me, ie caring for another sentient creature I was responsible for. Your statement above does not indicate that you are a "dog lover". |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2022 17:01:47 GMT
Daughter was given a cockerpoo by a couple where the wife is dieing of cancer. Lovely animal but recently it developed some sort of stomach illness that resulted in diarroheia and freash blood in the crap. As she does with her kids she reacted by rushing off for medical assistance and the animal was X rayed and on a drip for a couple of days. But unlike the kids where the NHS is nominally free, the vet charged something over £2k.
We can afford that so its not an issue in that sense. But in my youth, this would never have happened. Instead the dog would have been "put down" and you would if you wished have got a replace. I say that as a dog lover who currently has a dog.
What leaves me very uneasy is the morality of spending that much on a dog when some people in the UK are short of food. At the same time what is the point of working hard and making a good life for yourself if you cant spend money on things that matter to you?
How do you rationalise such situations?
How do you rationalise the deliberate selection ,by breeding , of dogs whose lives are blighted by congenital illness and defects ?. Every time I hear one of the latest "toy dog " fads-the "French Bulldog" -gasping for breath through its malformed skull ,as it is dragged along by its idiot owner, I want to be sick. The people responsible have no morals :- www.independent.co.uk/voices/crufts-pedigree-dogs-animal-cruelty-lives-full-of-pain-why-glorify-them-a8248276.html |
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Post by birdseye on Jul 16, 2022 19:52:16 GMT
You arent answering the question Moby. I used my daughters dog as the example and it was a good one because the bill has now hit £4k. But I could equally have used her wedding a decade ago which from memory cost me £15k. Or worse still my wifes wedding outfit that was £1k. The point really is that comfortably well off middle class professionals like myself or my daughter spend decent sums on unimportant issues whilst there are in this still reasonably affluent country people without sufficient food.
But I am not a socialist and I can see the economic desireability of people being able to earn high and there is no point in doing this if you cant spend it on what you want.
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Post by birdseye on Jul 30, 2022 16:39:13 GMT
It gets better - or maybe I should say worse. The dog has now had to have an operation to remove a lump. A minor issue in surgical terms but one the vet has ramped up to £2k. So in the last 6 months the daughter has spent £4k on the pooch. Try justifying that when old people cant afford food
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Jul 30, 2022 17:22:18 GMT
It gets better - or maybe I should say worse. The dog has now had to have an operation to remove a lump. A minor issue in surgical terms but one the vet has ramped up to £2k. So in the last 6 months the daughter has spent £4k on the pooch. Try justifying that when old people cant afford food It's all relative, some one spending £100,000 on wallpaper while resisting free school meals for kids over the summer and taking £20 a week from the poorest seems a lot worse to me |
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