Regular vet, quality food, bedding, emergency vet and treatments, senior care all cost money. I've seen people quibbling in comments about the costs of adoption from shelters - if $400 seems like a lot to outlay for a living creature that will rely on them for their entire life, then I wonder at the quality of life they're expecting to give the animal.

I like the idea of clearing the shelters through discounts, but people complaining about a vaccinated, health and temperament checked pet costing a few hundred dollars is alarming.

My rescue dog, $450, was vaccinated, desexed and toilet trained when we got him as a puppy. All by fosters. We burn through about $100 a month in good food, flea and worming treatments, and now that's he's a senior, about $200 a month in vet visits for injections and other meds. He has had x-rays and overnight stays and all kinds of meds over the years, attracting the weekend emergency vet fees and surgeons and anaesthetists fees, racking up probably about $10k in his lifetime. We pay extra for him to stay with us on holiday in Airbnbs. He has leads and car harnesses, pyjamas for our Canberra winters, a bed in most rooms and one outside all of which cost about $200 each, a kennel for about the same.

My point is, we're giving him a good quality of life and expenses come with that. The $450 just got him in our car. But pets are and expensive in the long run but if they're not, then maybe something's missing. I had a cat in the past and while the food costs were lower, not much else was.