Aug 5, 2014
PeopleSkool has made me feel independent and heard, by writing about things that matter to me and other people at POOR Magazine. In POOR Community Newsroom at the beginning of July, I expressed my trauma from the medical treatment of my cat.
They have welfare for children, but what about people who suffer from illnesses and keep animals to help make us happy? Not everybody has kids for the sake of happiness, but it's hard to take care of a child when you're disabled, at least speaking for myself. A lot of psychiatrists recommend animals to help people cope with tough things they may go through. For example, depression makes some people stay inside for weeks without connecting to the world, and other people give up on themselves. I go through hard times and my cat, Cinnamon, cuddles up to me.
I recently read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle and a lot of people expressed how they cannot find apartments that are pet friendly. I know for disabled people you can say it's a companion animal, and the law permits anyone with a disability to have a pet in their home. A woman in the article has a dog and nobody will accept her pet. They have a pet apartment list at the SPCA for people who do not have legally-recognized companion animals.
It's extremely hard to keep pets because of hospital vet bills. An exam for my sick cat was $1000 just for testing, not including treatment and other necessities. I'm crushed my cat might die because I cannot afford health care for my Cinnamon.
Something like this makes it extremely stressful, and it's not fair when someone may get a disability, and that is more than one check just to get your animal treatment. I discovered pet insurance, but they do not cover sick animals and it is around $60/month. They do not include emergency fees, lab testing, grooming, and a lot of things that need to be done by doctors.
They have health coverage for people, but animal coverage is also a must for welfare, because they pets are important assets for people like me, and a lot of people feel for their animals. It's a bad thing to get your cat or pet put to sleep. I would never do that and that was the suggestion the SPCA gave me. I took Cinnamon home and went to another vet that was a little bit cheaper, but I spent my whole paycheck on Cinnamon and I am only a temp position at my job. This is heartbreaking.
People need to realize that mental health is very critical, but an animal can make wonders, and so there should be subsidized coverage for pet care.