Comments on: How to Buy a Puppy as a Gift

on 2/2/2007 You should never buy anybody a pet as a gift. If it is something that they really want, then let them pick it out.

When people buy animals as gifts, the animals usually end up at the animal shelter or a resuce group.

We have a pet overpopulation problem and many of these animals end up at the shelter. Please don't contribute to the problem.

http://www.mypetnanny.info/PD/index.htm

on 8/8/2006 Unless they're teddy bears. Even goldfish, which are much more complicated than most people know (and are worth so much when of high quality). Budgies that may cost $10-20 can live for 20 years. And they are very social animals. Puppies and kittens will grow up. They will not be a puppy forever. Put a lot of thought into a dog, since these animals depend on us for life. That really goes for any animal.

on 3/29/2006 Puppies are terrible gifts-- at least if it's a surprise to the recipient. They require immense amounts of care, attention, and work that may earn you some hostility if you don't bother to consult with the recipient before presenting them with a puppy. Please don't let yourself get caught up in some fantasy notion of how cute it would be to give somebody a puppy for Christmas or Easter or Valentine's or what have you. After the first excitement fades, as it all too often does, odds are strong that puppy will turn out to be unwelcome after all and taken to the pound or even just dumped by the side of the road.

Please don't give a puppy as a surprise gift unless you are prepared to give the puppy a home when it's new family tires of it-- or else can stomach the knowledge that it may be put to sleep in a shelter or simply starve in the middle of nowhere.

on 3/8/2006 Do not buy an animal as a gift without the consent of the owner-to-be or their parents. The safest way is don't buy an animal for a pet in the first place. I have a friend whose little sister received two mice for her birthday. The gift-giver assured her parents that they were both females. 7 months later they were up to their eyeballs in baby mice. Every day hundreds of animals wind up in shelters and are put to sleep because they were unwanted gifts. A puppy is always the life of the party, but when the party is over and the responsibility begins, the puppy is an unwanted responsibility that winds up in a shelter. This goes for any other animal you can think of except for maybe a feeder fish which will die in three days and be forgotten in three more. Also, take into account the fact that the child might have an unknown allergy, or if the family already has pets the new arrival won't get along with the old pet. It has happened to me, so please don't give anything other than a feeder fish as a pet.

on 11/22/2005 Please do not take your new puppy home until they are EIGHT weeks old. I have seen puppies taken home as young as five weeks old. This is TOO young. Leaving mom, siblings and a familiar home is the worst day of his/her life. Consider all these things.