Monday, November 19, 2007

Do You Know The True Cost Of Owning A Pet

Article Title: Do You Know The True Cost Of Owning A Pet
Author: Simon Markham

Bringing home a pet can be one of the most enjoyable times for
any family but the potential costs of caring for your new family
member are often ignored. There are the initial costs of the
food, toys, and accessories for our beloved pets, to begin with,
and then of course there is the cost of actually buying the pet,
whether that be a shelter fee or the cost of a purebred animal.
Once you have your new pet, they will require veterinary
checkups, examinations, and vaccinations to keep them healthy
and active.

You may think that this is the end of the expenses for the most
part, except for the occasional injury or illness, but those
occasional vet bills can really begin to add up, and from the
costs of food and toys to the costs of health care, the expenses
of a pet can climb surprisingly high over that pet's lifetime.
The fact is that the cost of owning a dog is approximately
£9,000 in the UK, and the corresponding figure for a feline is
just a bit over £7,200.

These numbers might seem staggering to someone who is
considering bringing home a family pet for the first time, and
indeed, pet costs can be much higher than we anticipate. There
is nothing we can really do to offset many of those costs,
including things like food, shelter, and toys, all pretty much
like children need. Another need that children and our animal
friends have in common is medical care, and this is something
that we can do something about financially.

Many people consider medical care for our pets to be
unnecessary and even wasteful, but if you consider the annual
cost of pet ownership when faced with mounting vet bills, it's
very wise to look into ways to prepare for those costs. Like
medical insurance for people, pet insurance helps to protect us
from high bills when the dog swallows rat poison or the cat
burns itself on the stove. You may pay an entire year of
premiums and not use your plan once, but cancelling it could
mean paying a single veterinary bill that equals the expense of
several years of cover.

Especially for chronic conditions, which many pets develop in
some form or other over their lifetimes, medical care can be
hugely expensive runing into many thousands. With pet
insurance, you are able to defer many of these costs such as
regular medications and still treat your pet with the love and
care it deserves.

No one wants to be forced into a position where they have to
make an emotional decision based on their financial budget.
When you are faced with your monthly premiums versus a one time
cost that could break the bank, which would you choose? And yet
without pet insurance, you lose that chance to choose, possibly
dooming your pet because you cannot afford the costs of
emergency care or of a costly procedure that might otherwise be
covered by a simple pet insurance plan.

About The Author: To find out more about pet insurance and how
it can protect your and your pet financially, visit
http://www.uk-insurance-index.co.uk/pet-insurance-companies-1.html.

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