Name: Jessica Mena
From: Moreno Valley , Ca
Votes: 0
Mena 2
Jessica Mena
Ms.Palis
English III
20
March 2018
“The Last Meow”
In the article “The Last Meow” Bilger’s
argument is that people are spending way too much money on their
pet. Way more that in recent years. Saving their animal by spending
thousands of dollars to prolong the life of their companion for just
a few more weeks. Even if a putting their animal to sleep is the
right thing to do. I agree with Bilger’s statement. I feel as an
owner, you need to not be selfish, you need to put your animal out of
its misery. Prolonging their life is wrong, saving their life, if
they are still able to be saved,is one thing, but basically forcing
it to live in pain is wrong. I understand putting your bet to sleep
is an extremely difficult decision to make, but it’s the right thing
to do.
In “The Last Meow” Bilger also discusses
about a family dealing with their sick pet cat. The Levering’s cat
Lady was anemic, asthmatic, and congenitally blind already, and now
her kidneys aren’t filtering out the toxins in her blood anymore, the
vet’s thought she would benefit from dialysis, if the dialysis was
done too quickly it would cause Lady to have seizures or even be in a
coma. A good choice for the leverings was to just put Lady to sleep,
but that wasn’t an option for shawns wife karen. The income of the
leverings was $27,000 and Ladys surgery would be $15,000, more than
half their income. The Leverings still decided to go with the surgery
to prolong Lady’s life. “I don’t know what I would I would have
done without the cats” , said Karen Levering. The leverings had
such a close connection with their pets that they went to the extreme
to pay thousands of dollars.
In my opinion animals make great companions and
having a pet can really be like adding someone to your family. Pets
need the love that humans need, as well as their basic necessities. I
do feel like pets need to to also go to the vet and get checkups. The
only thing I don’t agree with is spend thousands on your pet just to
prolong their lives. It is almost cruel to make your pet suffer for
longer. “Every year while pets like theirs are saved, by the most
elaborate means, some SIX MILLION strays are put to sleep.” This is
an astonishing number because most of these animals aren’t even sick
and they are essentially put to sleep because they don’t have a home.
We should start a change in this and instead of putting thousands in
on just one pet to live 6 months more we should raise money to get
these strays out of the streets. “In 2012 there are 6 million to 8
million cats and dogs entering shelters and only 3 million to 4
million making it out. One of the ways we are dealing with
overpopulation crisis is by killing more than 50 percent of the
adoptable animals in shelters.”
To conclude, I do agree with Bilger’s claim that
humans are overspending on their pets healthcare. We can begin with
doing more about the problem with strays. We can help save millions
of pets lives. I think as pet lovers we need to make a change with
this before anything else.
