Just How Much Do Our Pets Cost Us?

In some of my recent articles we discussed the actual cost of having children. My very conservative estimate came in well below estimates of other so-called experts, but I still observed that it takes somewhere around $86,000 to raise a child to age 18. As a follow-up to that exercise I have also studied how much it takes to care for our pets. All of this was inspired by a new book I am writing about Family Finances. Here is some of what I learned about raising our 4-legged friends, largely taken directly from my book:

Few folks give sufficient consideration to the overall cost of raising a pet. I am not trying to tell you whether you should own a pet or not. Obviously, that choice is yours. I am merely trying to shed light on the actual cost of such a relationship so that you can decide how much of a role that these little dependants should play in your own financial lives.

The first thing we must consider is, what does it take to properly care for a dog or cat. If we cannot afford to do it right, we really shouldn’t do it at all. Unfortunately, there are literally hundreds of thousands of pets that suffer through unpleasant lives because their owners don’t really take care of them properly. For our purposes we shall assume that at a minimum, it is necessary to feed your pet and give it all of the shots and medications it needs and avoid exposing it to extreme or dangerous weather conditions. If you have more resources, you can upgrade the food quality and take your pet to get professional grooming from time to time or even enroll them in doggie day-care if you would like. But, for now we will focus on the most common practices.



First, there is the acquisition of the lovable critter. Some of us take in a stray cat or accept a puppy from the kids down the block or from somebody advertising on Craig’s List, but that approach is fraught with risk. Ordinarily, you would not know why a cat is roaming the neighborhood. It could be sick or carrying disease or hate children. That mutt puppy might look particularly cute, but it is difficult to know if it is going to be prone to aggression or have hip problems or other diseases.

If you get a professionally bred dog or cat, you have a better chance of knowing what traits your pet may have, but all of that early knowledge and expertise is likely to be accompanied by a stout purchase price. Some such dogs sell for two-thousand dollars or more.

Another option is to “rescue” a pet from one of the many shelters. The administrators usually know some details about the particular animal. The pets are usually spayed or neutered and have had their shots. It is also common for them to be checked and treated for customary diseases. There is usually over a quarter of a million pets available via this procedure at any given time. (If you want to check some of them out, simply go to www.PetFinders.com.) Whenever they give over a pet for adoption the shelters try to recoup their investment, so expect to pay several hundred dollars for any new family members acquired in this manner.
Once you bring the new friend home you have some additional start-up fees. Those add up to several hundred dollars and include customary items such as food, collar, bowl, leash, grooming tools, flea control, treats, vaccines, spot remover, sleeping bed, crate and so forth. A study by a group known as Pet Education says the minimum first-year cost is $511 and they set the maximum at $6,600 which includes a higher purchase price for the critter plus upgrading fencing, fancy grooming and advanced training.

As time goes by, there are still ongoing expenses. According to the same study the low end of the range is $287 per year and the higher priced pets require around $2,485 per year in recurring costs. If we assume your doggie will live for 14 years, you have a total expense of $6,000 to $38,000 over the life of your pet.
Since many families will have two or more pets at a time and acquire new ones whenever the old ones pass away, a family can have eight such pets over several decades, and that can easily add up to $50,000 or a whole bunch more.
There are other ways that pets chew into the family budget. For example, if you hire somebody to walk your dog or clean up the yard, you will need your checkbook. Or if your dog happens to be a digger or likes to chew on furniture, or your cat pees in the carpet you have other losses. And we must not overlook the likelihood that your pet will take ill from time to time. Some of us will spend a fortune to prolong or improve our pets’ lives in such cases. Or, if your dog gets out of the yard and gets into a fight with some other dog, you have to deal with all of the medical and possible legal matters. In our home, we even have a recurring pet expense for pets we don’t even own. My wife buys Christmas presents (treats) for our kids’ dogs.

As was the case in the previous studies about the cost of raising children, I think the “experts” tend to puff the cost quite a bit. But even if we cut their estimates, the total cost of raising an “average” dog is somewhere around $4,000 and a cat is a little less than that.

There is no doubt that many pet owners will gladly live with those problems and expenses in exchange for the many blessings the animals offer; but, at least now you will know what kind of financial commitment you are making the next time you get the urge to buy a puppy or kitty.

Feel free to bark back or give a meow of your own.

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