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By Korky Vann
The Hartford Courant
The
United States is a nation of pet lovers. We pamper our
animals, shower them with af-fection, treat them like members, of
the family and grieve for them when they die. What we don't
do is plan for when we won't be there to care for them. That
oversight can be a death sen-tence for adored animal com-panions
left alone by an owner's illness or demise.
"Many of the
pets that are in shelters are there because their owners became
ill, went into a nursing home, or died without making plans for
their care," says Lisa Rogak, author of "PerPETual Care: Who
Will Look After Your Pet If You're Not Around?"(Litterature Inc.).
"And without a plan in place, the majority of these much loved,
healthy animals are euthanized."
In a study by
the Buehler Center on Aging at Northwest-ern University,
researchers found that predeceasing a pet is a problem many
elderly people
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ignore. Fewer than 2 percent of those surveyed had
made legal provisions for money to support the pet. Most
participants as-sumed that a family member or neighbor would take
care of their pet after the owner's death. Animal experts
call that as-sumption the ultimate pet owner denial.
"In reality, pets may end up at
overextended animal shelters, where they will be put down if not
adopted within a certain amount of time," Rogak said. "As
awful as it sound, that's a good outcome. I've seen pets
abandoned, dumped and worse."
Older pets with an illness or need for
special care are at greater risk.
"Some shelters won't even take older
animals, and if they do, the chances for adoption are not good,"
says Patricia Kaufman, manager of the Humane Society of the United
States' Humane Legacy program.
To help pet owners prepare for the
unexpected, the Humane Society has compiled a compre-hensive
kit, "Providing for Your Pet's Future Without You." The kit
includes forms and sample
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language to help design a
will and other estate plans to pro-vide financially for your pet,
as well as outlining possibilities for future care.
Options include finding a per-manent
caretaker or making ar-rangements with a pet retirement home or
sanctuary that special-izes in long-term pet care. A few
veterinary schools in the United Sates, including Purdue and Texas
A&M, have perpetual pet care programs, but the price can be high.
Purdue's Peace of Mind pro-gram, for
example, asks pet owners to pledge $25,000 per animal. After
the owner's death, the school finds a suitable home for the pet.
The money covers the pet's lifetime care. Any money
remaining after the pet dies is donated to the school.
Whatever decisions you make, be sure
to review them period-ically and make necessary changes.
Over time, people's cir-cumstances can change and businesses can
close. Remem-ber that in the confusion that accompanies
a person's unex-pected illness, accident,
or death, pets are discovered in the person's home
days after the
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tragedy. To
prevent this from happening, the Humane Society offers the
following sugges-tions:
Find at least two responsible friends
or relatives who agree to serve as temporary emergency caregivers
in the event that something unexpected happens to you.
Provide them with keys to your home; feeding and care
instructions; the name of your veterinarian; and information about
the provisions you have made for your pet. Make sure your
neighbors, friends, and rel-atives know how many pets you have and
the names and num-bers of your emergency pet caregivers and post
signs inside your front and back doors with the same information.
To receive the free kit: "Plan-ning
For Your Pet's Future Without You," e-mail giftshsu-s.org, call
(202) 452-1100 or write The HSUS, Major & Planned Gifts, 2100 L
St., NE, Washing-ton, DC 20037. Include your name,
address and publication title.
- Times Picayune, July 28, 2003 |
