How to: Work out how much your pet costs
RICHARD MEADOWS
REALITY BITES: How much are these doggies? Expensive - but cheaper than raising a child.
How much is that doggy in the window?
His "waggly tail" needs surgical correction. He only eats the best chow. He needs to be microchipped, registered, groomed, clipped, spayed, de-fleaed, and sent to doggy day-care. Then there are collars, leads, a coat when it's cold, a snug kennel and a selection of toys.
On closer inspection, the little doggy's price tag reads anywhere between $10,000- $15,000.
Getting a pet is a big financial decision when you calculate the expenses over the lifespan of the animal. Not many people think about it in those terms, but perhaps they should.
"If we look at why animals are abandoned or surrendered...probably the biggest element would be cost," says SPCA national president Bob Kerridge.
The SPCA's intake of unwanted animals would probably make a good economic index. It spikes when times are hard.
"Quite often, sadly, the animal is down the list," Kerridge says.
Luckily the animal kingdom has provided us with a rich selection of companions that can match any price range.
We've worked out how much popular pets will cost you over the course of their lifetime- all the way from goldfish to giraffes.
Just for fun we've also compared the cost of each animal to the expense of raising a human child to age 18, which Inland Revenue pegged at $250,000 a few years ago.
GOLDFISH
$100 startup cost, $20 annual expenses, $300 lifetime cost over 10 years.
GUINEA PIG
$250 startup cost, $150 annual expenses, $1,150 lifetime cost over six years.
BUDGIE
$150 startup cost, $150 annual expenses, $1,650 lifetime cost over 10 years.
CAT
$250 startup cost, $466 annual expenses, $7,250 lifetime cost over 15 years.
DOG
$700 startup cost, $1,047 annual expenses, $13,250 lifetime cost over 12 years.
(Canine companions are roughly twice as expensive as cats.)
HORSE
$6,000 startup cost, $3,000 annual expenses, $80,000 lifetime cost over 25 years
GIRAFFE
Unknown startup cost, $5,000-$10,000 annual expenses, $250,000 lifetime cost over 25 years
Taking a wild guess, we'll say the cost of giraffe ownership works out at least on par with a child, and probably much more.
...more at link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7 ... pet-costs/
(FWIW NZ$1.00 = US$0.82)
