With Christmas also comes the time to think about gifts and to make no mistake many rely on the recipient’s requests, especially if this is a child. And what do children usually want? Most of the time a puppy under the tree and the parents choose the Christmas period to please them.
Giving a dog for Christmas (or a cat), though, doesn’t have to be a choice to take with lightnesswithout first thinking about the pros and cons of such an important choice.
What to consider before giving a dog for Christmas?
Before giving a dog for Christmas or another pet, you need to evaluate many factors, to understand if it is actually a good idea.
It just is think about it: Has the person to whom you are going to give a dog or cat expressly said he wants one and is he old and mature enough to have knowingly said so? These are just two of the questions to ask yourself before adopting an animal.
Furthermore, before giving a puppy for Christmas, it is necessary to evaluate whether can take care of it in the long runconsidering that a dog lives on average 10-12 years, and if he is willing to make all the sacrifices that having an animal entails.
Above all, however, lifestyle should be evaluated of the recipient, if he has the possibility, the means and the time to share his days with a new member of the family, a 4-legged friend.
If the answers are all affirmative, then giving a pet as a gift could be the right choice.
When shouldn’t you give a dog for Christmas?
Of course it is better to avoid giving a dog at Christmas if the gift is made just to please someone who doesn’t have full awareness of what it means to adopt an animal, like a child, for example.
Animals are not toys to give at Christmasbut living beings and as such need respect and care.
Make sure, then, that whoever should receive the gift is not allergic.
Furthermore, giving away a puppy dog would prove to be a very bad idea if the time available to the recipient is short and at the end of the month he has to tighten his belt.
Animals can get sick, they need to be fed and kept healthy, through walks and medical care. Therefore, anyone who works all day and already makes many sacrifices is not the ideal candidate to receive a dog!
The awareness campaign: don’t give a dog for Christmas!
In 2018, in view of the Christmas holidays and the annual increase in sales of dogs and cats that takes place at Christmas, the dog school ThinkDog had thought of discourage the idea of giving an animal as a gift through a campaign that aimed to make people think through the social cry of three hashtags.
The message was clear in just three hashtags:
- #icanonsiregalano;
- #icanisiaadopt;
- #aware adoption.
This is because dogs are living beings and not inanimate objects, so who adopts one must have full awareness and not end up with an animal because they gave it to him.
“It must be an adoption aware of the fact that one welcomes a “person” in all respects into one’s life and that our existence will change radically and for the better”, specified the founder of ThinkDog, Angelo Vaira.
Todocat’s poll
We had seen in our survey that one slight percentage of Italian pet owners are against giving a pet for Christmas.
It must be said, however, that the percentage of 40% in favor remains quite high, if we think that in countries close to ours, such as Germania for example, i negative votes reach 93%.
In fact, for over 10 years, most German shelters have banned adoptions during the Christmas period.
Adopting a four-legged friend is a wonderful thing, but the choice must be careful. An animal is forever!