OzVet

One interesting thing about vet medicine is many of the procedures vets do are optional procedures that may improve quality of life, but sometimes are purely aesthetic or purely to make the owner happier. (Think, for example, of things like docking tails and ears, declawing cats, and even things such as spaying and neutering.)
Also, many procedures that are fairly necessary for improving quality of life are weighed against factors such as owner’s budget, age of pet, etc. Some procedures that a human doctor wouldn’t hesitate to do on a person a vet might not do either because the animal’s owner doesn’t have the money or because the pet is incredibly old, or because it just doesn’t make sense to spend that much money on the animal.

Now days, people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on their pets. (The average lifetime cost of a medium sized dog is over $10,000. From this NYtimes article.) Now, I have no problem with people spending thousands and thousands of dollars on Fluffy or Rex or Blaze. (For example, these people spent $3,000 on a prosthetic eye for a miniature horse. Here’s the story . The horse didn’t need the prosthetic eye, but they want him to be a show horse, so they are willing to do something like this for purely cosmetic reasons.) I have no problem with things like this as long as people have money for the procedures.

However, what doesn’t make sense to me is when animal rescues try and raise thousands and thousands of dollars to save one animal, when they could probably rescue 10 or 20 animals for the amount of money they pour into that one. I guess people feel sorry for some of these special needs pets and want to offer them a great life. However, if you’re choosing to save one sickly dog who might not make it anyways, instead of using that money and saving 10 others, I don’t think you have your priorities completely in line.
One of the recent fads is putting prosthetic legs on rescue horses. Here’s an article about a filly in Texas named Peggy Sue. Now, I have no issue with people using their own money to put prosthetics on horses. However, when you don’t have the money and are begging on the internet for donations for a procedure that’s going to cost well over $15,000 I think the money is misspent. Peggy Sue’s website is here: http://www.ridingpals.com/peggysue.html. Yes she’s a cute filly, and yes it would be nice for her to live a happy life, but think of the amount of healthy rescue horses you could save for that amount of money. (Heck, think of the amount of hungry kids you could feed for that amount of money.) Also, she’ll almost certainly not be ridable, she’ll just be a cute pasture pet who is going to need daily care to take care of her stump.

Yes, I think it’s good to try and save animals, even ones with medical issues and special needs. However, I think it’s also important for people who rescue animals to be realistic and consider how they can best use their resources to help the hundreds of animals that are in need.