Canadians love their pets. Over fifty percent of Canadian households own at least one pet. We spend nearly seven billion dollars annually on our pets.
But when it comes to the proper care of pets, there’s often a downside. It’s the cost of providing for them. When does it become just too costly to own one? And do the benefits of owning one outweigh those costs?
Pets and Your Well-Being
I couldn’t agree more with a recent post in Reader’s Digest, on the benefits of owning a pet. They’re great companions in a sometimes lonely world. They help increase our activity levels, and reduce our stress levels in a sometimes all too stressful world.
Dogs can also detect early signs of cancer. Pets help reduce heart disease. Having dogs or cats around your kids will decrease their sensitivity to allergies. And perhaps build some compassion for the animal world out there. Pets also help ease our pain when we’re sick and keep our brains sharp. This last benefit caught my aging eye (that’s why I own three dogs).
The Cost of Pet Ownership
But are those cuddly fur balls worth doling out nearly seven billion dollars a year in Canada? As Canadians, have we taken the pet thing too far? Well, if we have, we’re not alone. Most of the more prosperous countries in the world are either close behind, or ahead of us, when it comes to spending on pets:
| Country | Amount Spent on Pets/year (billions of dollars) | Percent Households with Pets | Amount Spent by Person/Year | Amount Spent by Household/Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 6.6 | 38 | $175 | $1,234.4 |
| USA | 70 | 39 | $213.3 | $1,402.2 |
| UK | 5 | 41 | $74 | $424.9 |
| Australia | 12.2 | 42 | $610 | $3,458 |
Health Costs for Pets in Canada
In Canada the average amount spent on either a puppy or kitten during its first year of life is $710.00 and $621.00 respectively. But that’s only the beginning.
Then comes care and the medical bills. Here are parts of a table from the Canadian Veterinary Journal, March, 2016. It lists the fees for a few basic veterinary procedures across Canada:
| Treatment | NFL | PEI | NB | NS | QC | ON | MB | SK | AB | BC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Companion animal examination | $66.11 | $68.13 | $84.03 | $84.21 | $63.67 | $74.67 | $73.51 | $71.79 | $62.59 | $70.13 |
| Canine examination and vaccines | $106.17 | $110.62 | $123.33 | $111.29 | $136.57 | $110.02 | $115.34 | $101.72 | $95.87 | $109.39 |
| Feline ovariohysterectomy | $309.12 | $227.68 | $270.99 | $264.49 | $191.00 | $327.49 | $249.13 | $232.47 | $242.99 | $234.38 |
Even when adjusted to average cost of living in each province, these veterinarian fees are highly variable across the Country. But what caught my eye was how this variability then justified raising treatment fees:
“In an economically ideal situation, once the cost-of-living adjustment is applied, each treatment should have a very similar, if not identical, average fee in all provinces. For provinces that are lagging their neighbors, this investigation can serve as evidence for those veterinarians that there is indeed room to increase their fees.”
Interesting. The authors, instead of suggesting that veterinarians in some provinces might consider lowering their fees, they suggest raising fees instead.
Should Veterinary Costs Be Regulated?
Is it time to starting thinking about regulating and standardizing fees in the veterinary industry in Canada? Is it even legally possible?
According to the Canadian Veterinary Association, the average income for a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 was $67,000. In 2017, their income was higher, as reported in IM: The Canadian Magazine of Immigration:
| VETERINARIANS (NOC 3114-A) | |||
| 2017 | Wages ($/yr) | ||
| Province/Territory | Low | Median | High |
| Canada | 30,079 | 81,640 | 147,954 |
| Québec | 35,682 | 80,857 | 185,774 |
| Ontario | 24,126 | 83,175 | 160,808 |
| Alberta | 33,040 | 86,620 | 145,471 |
| British Columbia | 32,764 | 78,026 | 139,403 |
| Manitoba | 59,915 | 94,922 | 131,548 |
| Saskatchewan | 23,969 | 72,178 | 128,002 |
| Nova Scotia | 22,101 | 70,254 | 124,281 |
| New Brunswick | 45,924 | 82,914 | 104,141 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Northwest Territories | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Nunavut | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Prince Edward Island | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Yukon | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Source: Job Bank. September 2017* |
I tinkered some more with these numbers. I compared the median wages of veterinarians to the sum-average costs of the procedures mentioned above for each province. The correlation was very poor. In other words, higher median wages aren’t related to higher cost of procedures.
Then I made the same comparison between the highest mean wages per province to the mean costs of the procedures in each province. The results were a little surprising:
Occasionally there’s an outcry in the media and the public about the high costs of veterinary services. Many of us assume that the reason for those high costs are veterinarians’ high salaries. Check out this post by Dr. Debora Lichtenberg, VMD. There’s anger on both sides of the debate. But, it certainly isn’t exorbitant wages that are driving up those costs in Canada.
So, when one of my dogs or cats gets really sick and I have to fork out a lot of money, what’s really to blame? In one year alone, I spent nearly five-thousand dollars on my thirteen year old springier spaniel, Ceili. And I have two more aging dogs to go. That’s a lot of money to spend to keep my mind ‘sharp’! (I’m debating whether it’s even working.)
Like our human health care system in Canada, veterinarians have a lot of bills to pay. It’s likely the high overhead (rent, cost of equipment and procedures, staff, etc.) that’s driving up those costs for pet owners.
Operating a Dog Pound in Canada
Does the high cost of keeping an animal lead to more abandonment of animals in Canada? Because their owners couldn’t keep up with the bills? Part of the answer lies in the many shelters where these animals end up.
My wife and I ran a dog boarding business (Blackgold Kennels) near Leduc, Alberta for about ten years. We also operated the local pound for the County of Leduc, City of Leduc, and nearby Beaumont. It was a great experience but also a bit of a reality check.
What we saw in those ten years was occasionally quite horrifying and heart-breaking. And, when an owner picked up their lost pet, or we re-homed an abandoned animal, there was a short period of satisfaction. At least until the next lost or abandoned animal arrived.
The number of owners who reclaimed their pets was on average about sixty-percent for dogs and less than twenty-percent for cats (we have yet to come up with an adequate explanation for the differences in the reclaim rates of these two animals).
For ten years we fought a mini-war trying to re-home or adopt out the abandoned animals in our shelter. Instead of euthanizing them. Fortunately, we teamed up with a number of great dog and cat rescue groups and managed to save most of the ones not reclaimed.
But the reality is that tens of thousands of sound animals are euthanized every year in Canada. Here are some sobering statistics from SPCA organizations in Canada and a few other countries:
| Country | Total Animals Sheltered per Year | % Animals Surrendered per Capita | Reclaimed (Percent) | Re-homed (Percent) | Euthanized (Percent) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 110,000 | 0.29 | 11 | 58 | 14 |
| USA | 6,500,000 | 0.20 | 11 | 49 | 23 |
| Australia | 124,146 | 0.62 | 7.2 | 40 | 12.9 |
| UK | 102,900 | 0.15 | — | 40 | — |
| Germany | 15,000 | 0.02 | — | 90+ | — |
Here’s how our pound stacked up the National and International numbers:
Were we the norm when it comes to other animal shelters across the country (aside from the SPCA)? We wish it was. We believe not. And the reason for thinking so is the wording and interpretation of various provincial animal protection acts.
Do the SPCA Figures Represent the True Reality of Abandoned Pets in Canada?
Keep in mind that the SPCA represents only a small fraction of shelters taking in animals across the country. Every town, City and local municipality, much like our facility, has their own shelter to deal with abandoned animals. And there are many animal rescue groups working out there as well. This means that the total number of dogs and cats abandoned across Canada is essentially unknown. And what’s done with those animals is also mostly a mystery.
All those shelters and pounds operate under provincial government legislation guidelines regarding the care and protection of domestic animals. Once the animal is brought to our facility, then what? Here’s where things get a little murky and are open to interpretation. For example, under Section Eight of the Alberta Animal Protection Act:
“Destruction of animal 8. A humane society, in respect of an animal that has been delivered to it, or a peace officer, in respect of an animal that has been delivered to a caretaker, may destroy the animal or cause the animal to be destroyed if it has not been claimed by its owner and in the opinion of the humane society or peace officer, as the case may be, the animal is not suitable to be sold or given away in accordance with section 7.”
The exact intent of this clause is rarely followed in Alberta. It clearly states that if an animal is not claimed by its owner and “is not suitable to be sold or given away…”, it can be destroyed within a certain number of days. In Alberta, this last part of this clause is mostly ignored. After a certain number of days, if the owner is not found, the animal is destroyed. When we first started the pound, that was generally the method of operation one of our clients had previously adopted. Little effort was made to re-home animals who, for the most part, were once peoples’ loving pets. Most certainly were quite ‘suitable’ to be sold or given away.
Wording in the Animal Protection Acts of other provinces are relatively similar to ours. This clause should be rewritten emphasizing re-homing first: “every effort should be made to sell or give away a suitable animal, before it can be destroyed.”
The truth of the matter is no one really knows what other towns, cities and municipalities in the country are doing with abandoned animals. Hopefully it’s not along the lines of what a former Alberta premier once said when faced with mad cow disease in the province: ‘Shoot, Shovel, and Shut-up.’
Why Do People Abandon Their Pets?
I read an interesting article by Lisa Towell who lists five reasons people abandon their animals. They range from having to move, to allergies, or a new landlord that doesn’t allow pets. There are also those troublesome behavioral problems (aggression, cleanliness, etc.).
However, in a recent article in the Dodo, according to a major study in the US, a major reason for pet abandonment:
” A major reason? Economics….But, if there is a villain in all of this, the study suggests, it’s economics. According to the study, people with income below $50,000 were significantly more likely to re-home due to cost and housing issues.”
Is the major culprit for pet abandonment also economics in Canada? I don’t know. I’m not aware of any similar Canadian studies to the one conducted by the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
ex-rays, ultrasound, and medication. Was near death but pulled through.
Another Possible Reason for Low Pet Reclaim Rates in Canada
We found one contributing culprit that potentially leads to abandonment. No proper I.D. on the animal. And when it did have a tattoo or micro-chip, often the owner’s personal information (address and phone number) was out of date.
Please I.D. your animals properly and keep your personal information up to date if you move or change phone numbers. You’re protecting your pet by doing so.
After our animal pound experience, we feel it should be law to have every animal properly I.D.’d. Thousands more animals would be reclaimed. And the cost of dealing with lost or abandoned animals would decrease.
Any Good News?
In Canada’s 2018 SPCA annual report, over 80,000 cats and approximately 30,000 dogs were sheltered. A lot of animals are still being abandoned, that we know of. Even more that we don’t know of. But here’s the good news. Over the last decade these figures have steadily dropped:
Are they also dropping in the many local pounds across the country? There’s no way of telling. The only thing we noticed over the years was a slow change in attitude and perhaps more care for animals. Also, more pets have proper I.D’s. What about the ones that still enter a pound or shelter? Over the years we noticed it was becoming more popular to say to your general public that you are a zero-kill facility. Meaning, every effort is made to try first to re-home abandoned animals, before destroying them. Hopefully that attitude has caught on across Canada.
Life with Our Pets
Humanity’s relationship with animals goes back tens of thousands of years. Horses and dogs, for example, played invaluable roles in Canadians society.
Over the last one-hundred years, our relationship with animals has gradually changed. They are no longer primarily work animals. They are our loved companions, who bring a lot of joy and completeness to our lives. The cost of keeping them, however, continues to grow. In fairness, so does the quality of health care for them.
Should it be the right of every Canadian to enjoy a pet if they choose, regardless of their income level? Perhaps. But that may no longer be possible. The high cost of owning and caring for an animal is no longer within financial reach of many Canadians.
If this current trend continues, in the future will we see history repeat itself? Will ownership of pets will be solely for a select few in society with the means to properly care for them? Is pet insurance the new future for Canadian pet owners? Or will many Canadians be forced to make some very hard ethical decisions about where to draw the line with the cost of caring for their pets?
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STAY SAFE