Beloved Bear Research Paper

Our Beloved Bear By the time I was three, my parents had decided to get a family pet for us. Our neighbor’s chow chow had just had puppies so we took one of them and named him Bear because he was black, fluffy and resembled a little bear cub. I have very fond memories of him and one certain one comes to mind every now and then. When I was around the age of seven, I would climb on Bear’s back and he would carry me around the backyard. Looking back, I can remember feeling so on top of the world and full of excitement. He was one of my best friends growing up and every day after school I would look forward to seeing him. In 2006, we moved and of course brought Bear along with us, but he wasn’t adapting well to his new home. Within the first couple months we were living here, he would eat the rocks in our backyard and after a while, we had to take him to a veterinarian to get the rocks out. Even after this happened, Bear continued to eat them and eventually passed away due to
digestive complications. It took me a while to get over the death of, who I consider, a family member. Of course people are going to love and take care of their pets, but in my opinion, it should only go to a certain extent and not be so exaggerated. Losing a loved pet is always a tragedy but the matter of the fact is that as time goes by, the loss gets easy to deal with and we eventually get over it. In “The Last Meow”, an article from The New Yorker, Bilger argues that Americans nowadays have been going to great lengths to keep their pets alive. For example, Shawn Levering from the article was referring to his pet cat when he stated, "I think she would definitely benefit from dialysis. It won't make her kidneys better, but it will buy her time to see if she's a good candidate for a transplant." This is a sort of extreme that people go to, in which they put aside the recognition of the expenses to keep their pets living longer. And another point I want to address is the fact that many Americans have made their pets go through painful surgeries and put them through more suffering without even realizing it. By having their pets endure these kinds of procedures and surgeries, they have been oblivious to what the actual meaning of caring is, and for the most part they hurt more than help. Instead of putting our pets through such rough times, we should just allow for them to live healthy and regular lives.
The article also states, ”Add that to the cost of pet food and other supplies, and the number rises to $47 billion, nearly three times as much as the federal government spends on welfare grant” implying that more money is spent on pampering and spoiling pets, than helping to support the needy. By resorting to such ridiculous expenses, we aren’t doing many favors for ourselves. All these health issues in regards to pets are extremely outrageous and no matter the situation, the owners should make the right decisions to put their loved pets out of their misery and suffering. No animal should have to go through these long, horrifying, painful and expensive procedures. It seems as if our priorities aren’t quite in their proper place; we have people who are struggling to support their families and have low income and then we have the people who are spoiling their pets by purchasing brand name materials for them. Americans can be so infatuated and materialistic by drowning their pets in expensive diamond collars, cashmere sweaters, and leopard-skin beds. I’ve even noticed that my aunt pays more attention and buys more things for her Yorkie than she does to her boyfriend, who bought the puppy for her. I’m already astonished that so many people pamper and spoil their pets the way they do, it’s absolutely beyond belief.
Bilger does make a point concerning American people in general, we love to flaunt whatever we own and show it off, as opposed to being modest. Rather than purchasing useful things or using our money towards something meaningful, we tend to buy insignificant things and essentially waste our money on objects to show off to other people. The same applies to spoiling our pets, we purchase things for them to flaunt in front of others so that we could get a positive response from them. The citizens of America are focusing their expenses towards irrelevant and unimportant things that also include expensive clothing, cars and electronics. We all have the right to spend money on our loved pets but it should be limited because then people go beyond the limit and want to parade what they have.
And this problem to how we choose to spend our money will constantly be obtaining the same cycle, which means it may not be answered. But from my perspective, I think that we shouldn’t put our money towards these surgeries that won’t pay off in the long run. Even if the procedure does help the animal to survive, the poor thing will still have to go through suffering and within a couple months, new complications may surface. And when the pet finally does pass away, their owner will have to go through both financial and emotional anguish. So above all, Americans should focus their money on more important things but also, really think about the decisions they will make and if the expenses are truly worth it and will have significance. But one thing we all need to keep in mind is that no living thing, person or animals, can live
forever.