I agree with this completely. Animals sometimes need veterinary care, and it is often not cheap. But it is an essential expense if you want to keep an animal. An emergency can happen anytime.
In fact, I had to have a livestock vet visit in the middle of the night to save a goat doe with a stuck kid (bad stuck). Was it cheap? Absolutely not! But her health is my responsibility. And by no means do I make a lot of money. I basically live paycheck to paycheck. But part of that paycheck is set aside into a savings account just for veterinary care (routine or emergency) and some goes into my savings account. If a veterinary expense is larger than my needs, I dip into my savings rather than letting that animal suffer.
Alas, it seems many people now are viewing their animals as disposable and that they do not have a need for medical care. I would imagine if the owner of that dog had instead been the one bitten in the neck, they would have promptly gotten their behinds to an emergency room.
Though I am sure we can discuss the merits of irresponsible pet ownership until the day we die, it still won't change the folks who sit on their thumbs when their animal is hurting.
Perhaps I choose to take a kinder, gentler view of an owner, or wishful thinking, but here goes what I would like to believe. A person sees a pup and it's 'OH SO CUTE' and they want a dog SO bad and without giving proper thought to what owning said animal entails they load it up and bring it home.
All goes well and the dog is healthy and maybe they get it's shots, maybe they don't, either out of ignorance or thinking it's not necessary, but the dog continues to live and do fine.
Then one day something major happens (puppy develops symptoms of parvo/dog's attacked) and the owner suddenly is faced with the realism that, 'OH MAN I don't have the money for this'.
An ignorant (not meaning a dumb person, but an uneducated one on the topic of animal husbandry) owner now has to deal with an injured/sick animal and no funds to handle it proper.
I DO believe this scenario happens more times than not and others can educate people if they're willing to learn. Some people have animals and just
want them, but do NOT care about them. These are the people who confuse me and anger me. Why have it if you don't care about it?!
But, for the most part I almost always try to see the good in people and believe their ignorant over cruel.
An example of educating people:
My daughter in law decided she wanted to get my almost 3yr old grand-baby a puppy. Since she's never owned a dog and I have owned many, I shared with her my experiences, do's and don'ts and the basic needs of this animal: vaccinations, rabies given by a vet, worming, obedience training, potty training, mandatory walks twice a day NO matter the weather. A bored dog is a destructive dog, period! After our conversation she said, "Wow, there's SO much more to it than I thought"! I said, "Yes, it is a living, breathing, ball of needs just like a human baby except it has fur"! She is taking the responsibility seriously, as is my son, and the pup is doing great!! I have no doubt in the event this pup needs medical attention he'll receive it, especially since his first trip out of the apartment was for a well check at the vet's