Pensions For Pets In U.S.

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 7

Pensions For Pets In U.S.

(N.Z.P.A.-Rtutgr)

NEW YORK. In the United States, where 10,000 dogs and cats are bom every hour, many of them destined for lives of tender loving care, a humane organisation is running a pension plan for aged pets. This summer the organisatoin, the Bide-a-Wee Home Association, in New York, will open a 10,000-dollar animal shelter to house

300 dogs and cats. The British writer, Mr P. G. Wodehouse, and his wife, who live in New York, have given 35,000 dollars towards the shelter, which is on 200 acres of rural land on Long Island. An association spokesmen, Mrs Gretchen Scanlan, admits that the pension plan is a losing proposition, because, as she explains, “the cost of maintaining an ageing animal is really more than the average charge we make.” The pension plan costs 300 dollars a year.

"We have refused recent requests because we are filled to capacity,” Mrs Scanlan said. Once admitted as a member of the plan, pets are guaranteed modem heating to maintain even temperature, outdoor runs with plenty of sunshine and shady areas, medical treatment when necessary, nourishing foods and special diets, treined attendants, a visitors’ room, and landscaped grounds. The pension plan agreement has a stipulation that all pensioned eats remain the property of the owner and may be taken hoine at any time.

Mrs Scanlan says that though the pension plan Is financially unrewarding it will be continued aa a humane gesture, because in many cases people are physically unable to maintain their own pets. Thirty dogs and 15 cats are at present enrolled. Bide-a-Wee is a non-profit corporation with a board of directors and an elected paid staff, headed by an executive director.

Mrs Scanlan says that Mr and Mrs Wodehouse, distressed by the state of homeless dogs and cats on Long Island, approached the association last year to start a new shelter. /

“Basically, we maintain a shelter for homeless animals,” Mrs Scanlan says. Ibe shelter is run separately from the pension plan. The new 100,000-dollar shelter, equipped with radiant heating in the floors, will have facilities for 200 animals. Mrs Scanlan said 90,000,000 dogs and cats are bom every year in the United States. “There are only 45,000,000 families in the country, so there is no room for the great majority of animals born.” An animal fortunate enough to secure a master can look forward to an exceptionally comfortable life In America, where perhaps the care of pets is unrivalled in the world, Six pages of the New York classified telephone directory advertise services for dogs. There are poodle boutiques dog is an aristocrat,”