Pet(ty) crimes

Pets are a pleasure. Some say they are de-stressers. Some say they bring good luck. There are so many positives said about these cute little ones but there are others too who don’t see eye-to-eye with such views.

It could be because these people look at the difficulties in bringing up a pet rather than the joy they bring. I think I have been fortunate enough to have a host of pets right from my childhood, starting from a cat to cows and buffaloes.

Cows and buffaloes? You may wonder. Yes, they do give you great joy. At one point of time during my childhood, I even pestered and got a pair of rabbits as a pet only to lose them. One to another dear pet, our dog called Baby, and the other, God knows how, went missing from the enclosure we had for it. We had a cow that breathed its last, following complications from a delivery, on my dad’s lap. There was another that my grandmother could milk at noon! Looking back, my take on pets is that they bring so much value to the table.

But for all the love and affection they give us, are we providing them the right care? We can claim that we have done this or that for the pet. In fact, some of us even could say that even having them at home itself is something big. But aren’t we supposed to provide this when they provide so much love and affection? Let me come to the point.

We have a Lhasa Apso cross-breed at home. And with it comes the problem of hair. So, every six months or so, we periodically opt to give it a hair-cut, though she isn’t one to allow that so easily. Our veterinarian can perhaps vouch on various problems she poses to have a simple hair-cut. Often, we have to sedate her since she is so uncooperative and wild. This time around when we took her for the hair-cut and she was lying sedated on the vet’s table, I really turned emotional. What if she passes away? was the thought that crossed my mind.

“Doctor, normally until what age does these breeds live?” I quizzed my veterinarian. “Normally, these can live at least up to 12 years. But it is likely that these can begin suffering from the age of eight itself,” he said, shocking me with his candid reply. “Oh! How?” I asked. “These days, these pets are exposed to a lot of pollution. If you smoke, passive smoke itself is enough to kill it early,” he said. Luckily for my pet, I don’t smoke.

Then, according to the veterinarian, the radiation emitted by television causes cancer. “So, you should start expecting problems from the time it turns eight. Then, you can expect problems every alternate year thereon,” he said. That’s so cruel on our part. These may not be covered under law but the reality is that we are committing a crime by not providing our pets a good environment they are entitled to live in.

Maybe, the next time when you decide to bring in a pet, it could be better to listen to your better half. “When there are so many animals at home here, why another one?” she could ask. And probably, she is right! (if you look at the cause that is unknown to her!)