[Jan Fisher]

A report released last week has recommended subsidised pet care for low income earners, pensioners and animal rescue groups as well as a raft of suggestions to keep vets in the industry.

The report is aimed at relieving pressure on vets and pet owners who are being forced to make some horrible decisions when it comes to paying for care.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry has found ‘compassion fatigue’ heavy workloads, poor pay and working conditions were weighing heavily on vets and many had left the job five years after graduating which is leaving the industry in a job shortfall, especially in rural or regional areas.

It also found many people are surrendering their pets due to high medical costs.
As part of its recommendations, the report suggested waiving HECS fees for vet students and including vet students in the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme.

The scheme pays students expected to complete professional placements $319.50 per week, but is currently restricted to nursing, teaching and social work students.

Do you think we need to subsidise pet care for low income households?

[BevMcM]

Usually when something gets subsidised everything goes up in price. So I say no to subsidising people for vet care. If you can’t afford costs of say a dog or cat then look at getting your kids a bird instead.
Subsidising cost of desexing for cats and dogs (males and females) would be the only surgery that i believe would be advantageous.

[Kiri]

Waiving HECS fees would be great, bringing vet students into line with other medical professionals. It would encourage more students to stay the course and acknowledge that pets are important to the mental and physical wellbeing of families today.

[Alan]

It seems that the universal answer to any economic problem faced by people is to subsidise expenditure by the taxpayer and relieve people of the responsibiulity for making decisonsabout their priorities. There are some areas, such as Medicare, where this makes sense as there are benefits to the community of having access to public health at a reasonable cost.

However the overall impact of including this and that under some unbrella does lead to higher costs for all but the subsidised group as there is no such thing as a free meal.

[Mocha]

No we do not need medicare for pets. If anything dental should be added to human medicare. Why would the HECS fees be waived for Vetrinary students when there are so many other health students who will be paying off their debts for decades. I’m sorry but if you can’t afford a pet then you can’t and if you can than you take out insurance. Unfortunately, we need to look at human hospitals to cater for the many people that are on long waiting lists, get ramped in an ambulance or wait for hours in ER.

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[Pizza]

I don’t think we need medicare for pets. Caring for the people is enough as some people still pay out of their own pockets on some illness. If one cannot afford all the expenses incurred to keeping a pet, then they should not have one.

[Author]

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