1.5 iRant: Pets in the West have life the best...

Now I'm going to be very careful about how I approach this rant, because I know there are very many animal lovers out there. I too am an animal lover...ish, kinda, of sorts.

OK...let me put it to you straight, Simple Simon loves animals, but Simple Simon REALLY loves animals that are in their own habitats! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know, they make great pets and are part of the family and all that good stuff, but Simple Simon can't share his apartment, flat ,condo or house with 'Lassie'. It just won't happen...

What is interesting however, (hence the name of the post) is this relationship close relationship with animals (dogs and cats especially) seems to really only occur or be prominent in the western world (Western world = Europe and America...IMO). I'm fortunate enough to have friends from all over the world, OK that is an open statement let me list where they are from *takes deep breathe*

Bangledesh
Indian
Pakistan
Sri-Lanka
Vietnam
Japan
China
Phillipines
Australia
St Lucia
Jamaica
Barbados
Puerto Rico
Europe
Nigeria
Ghana
Angola
Zimbabwe
South Africa


*Takes deep breath*

So with the list above ( I hope I've remembered everyone) I have taken a look at their habits with pets, sort of my own experiment if you will. Here are my findings:

(Do not take offense to the grouping!)

My friends from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka do not have dogs period. I think this may have a little to do with religious beliefs, I think its said that angels will not enter a house which contains a dog. Or something along those lines.

My friends from China, Japan, Philippines, and Vietnam don't seem to have any Cats, Dogs, Gerbils, Snakes, Hamsters, Ferrets or Guinea Pigs and I can't work out for the life of me why. In fact come to think of it, they all seem to live in neighborhoods where the local population doesn't seem to have dogs or cats either...I'll have to think more into that one.

My friends from Australia, St Lucia, Barbados, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have dogs, but they are all for practical purposes...the dogs guard the household. The dogs are shown an heir of love to an extent but that love/respect allows the animal to know that it's realm is outside the house and the owners realm is inside. You are very unlikely to see a dog on the front room chair or in someones bed in these countries.

My friends from Europe all have houses heaving with pets that have equal or greater rights than the human occupants, the dog can piss on the carpet in the lounge and all that will happen is the humans in the house will argue over who didn't take 'Rex' for a walk. Meanwhile 'Mutley' is in the corner watching the humans mop up his piss and laughing his head off.

My friends from Nigeria, Ghana and Angola have dogs under the same agreement as those from the Carribean and Australia.

The reason I'm breaking up and seemingly segrigating Zimbabwe and South African is because I'm fortunate enough to have a mixture of black and white friends from these countries and I must say there is a bit of a pattern...

My white friends from Zimbabwe and South Africa have a very European attitude towards pets, I don't find this surprising due to historic links with the Dutch and again my black friends from said places have dogs for practical reasons.

Right so thats the patterns out the way...time for some facts and figures!

*Lets do the math*

I kid you not some people have done some math on how much exactly it costs to own a dog...here are the findings:

Blood Hound - Life expectancy 9yrs - Cost for 9yr period = £19,833
Boxer - Life expectancy 12yrs - Cost for 12yr period = £21,760
Rottweiler - Life expectancy 12yrs - Cost for 12yr period = £24,340

I'm going to stop there, if you want to know about other breeds go here.

Now stop me if I'm wrong but these lifetime costs are looking like salaries...and simple math will have me find that these dogs are costing over £1,500 a year, easily.

I'm going to be an advocate now and list the governments spending on the homeless:

...and that is where I managed to undo myself can you believe it took me about 5mins (less) to find the average spend for the lifetime of a pet, yet I searched for over a week (the reason there haven't been any new posts!) and still didn't find any figures for the national budget spend for the homeless in the UK. I have loads of estimates on the total number of homeless in the UK, breakdowns for number of homeless per local council, political constituency, almost every other type of breakdown EXCEPT £ sterling spend per person!

So..alas, I can't make the cross reference comparison I so badly wanted to, in order to prove my point that pets in the west have life the best...I'm blatantly upset about that!

..but then again the fact that there aren't any monetary figures, could be case in point? As in, the UK government cares less about the homeless than they do about pets?? I'm jus sayin....


I'm still saying "Pets in the west have life the best" I don't care!...oh look 'Rex' just took a dump in the kitchen.


P.s.

Killing a police dog carries the same penalty as killing a police officer

Knocking over a dog and not stopping could also see you in serious trouble with the law (if there are witnesses that shop you).


...irant even with no opposing evidence.

P.s.s If you can find figures for the amount spent on the homeless for any country or government please post me a link...thanks!