Tuesday, 24 March 2009

If they're free, I'll have 2 of them

I had to take the cat back to the vets today for his follow up appointment and fortunately everything seems to be OK with him now, which is good.
Due to my current financial situation I have had to take him to the PDSA for treatment, as I could not afford the cost of the operation he required last week. I donated as much as I could to the PDSA but the surgery and follow up visit would have cost hundreds of pounds that I simply do not have at the moment. It was with reluctance that I took him to the PDSA, because I don't like having to rely on charity, I like to sort things myself and pay my way. I intend to donate the rest of the treatment cost once I am working again. The thing that got me really riled though was that the majority of people taking their pets to the PDSA were pulling into the car park in really expensive new cars. Now to be eligible for PDSA support you have to be in receipt of council tax benefit, which you can generally only get when you are out of work. I realise that some of the people present will be in similar positions to me - they were working until recently and so still have the nice car/own home etc, but can no longer afford treatment. But I cannot believe that to be true of all the people I have seen there on the 3 visits I have made. Especially not the people with the flash cars and the pedigree puppies. It just annoys me, because I don't think you should take on an animal if you cannot afford to look after it properly, and people who abuse the benefits system are taking it away from those that really need help, like the elderly and the disabled.
I guess the only thing I can do is try to be honourable, and as soon as I am able donate the rest of the cost of treatment for my cat.

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