Mr Whippy’s bill, and a debate over pampered pets
Evan Davis forced to defend ethics of paying £4,000 in vets’ bills for his ‘beloved mutt’
EVAN DAVIS’s dog Mr Whippy became the unlikely star of the Today programme after the BBC presenter revealed the staggering amount of money he has spent on his pet’s health.
During an on-air discussion, Davis divulged that treatment for his dog’s broken leg had cost £4,000, which included a course of hydrotherapy.
However, his fellow presenter Justin Webb trumped this, telling listeners that he had spent £5,000 on his dog Toffee’s treatment in a hospital in Potters Bar after it swallowed a sock.
The cost of both pets’ treatment was covered by insurance, but it prompted a debate on the current affairs pro- gramme about the scale of vet bills. Webb said he regarded the dilemma of how much to spend on veterinary bills as an “ethical” decision.
“You think of all the things that money should be spent on in the modern world, and you think, ‘Hang on a second, is this the right way to spend it?’” he said.
Davis said that the experience of owning a dog had changed his views on how much to spend on a pet.
He said: “When we got the dog I thought, look, he’s like a watch. If the repair is going to cost more than the new one – he cost 500 quid, this little mutt – if it’s going to cost more to repair it, then you basically throw the dog away and get a new one.
“But of course once you’ve got the dog you don’t think that way.”
Davis, whose dog was in the studio with him, added: “When we got the dog we were never going to be one of these stupid owners who gets hydrotherapy for the dog, but when we did get hydrotherapy for the dog it really made a difference.”
He said it was natural to question the wisdom of such spending, but added: “If you compare the dog’s leg to the life of a small child in a poor country, obviously the child prevails. But if you compare the dog’s leg to a holiday, I would pay for the dog’s leg any day.” Almost half of British pet owners (46 per cent) insure their animals, with six in 10 people insuring their dogs compared with just four in 10 cat-owners, according to Petplan, the pet insurer.
Dr Huw Stacey, the director of clinical services at Vets4Pets, which runs more than 300 veterinary practices, said that hydrotherapy for dogs was common after big operations and that four-figure bills for treatment at referral hospitals were to be expected.
“The reason people have pets is because they get something out of it; there is a human-animal bond. People spend money on vets because the animal is worth more than just its ticket price,” he said.
Sean Wensley, president of the British Veterinary Association, said he welcomed the Today discussion, as people should expect steep medical bills to be “part and parcel” of pet ownership.