Burkhard Bilger's The Last Meow

Have you ever wondered how much it costs to have and maintain a pet? Burkhard Bilger, the author of “The Last Meow”, explains how Americans spend a lot of money on their pets and that people's “love affair” with their pets has gotten out of control. An observation I have made is that in many movies dogs are treated very well. When I was younger, I watched a movie called Bratz and one character would always have her dog inside a dog purse and they would even get manicures and pedicures together. The dog always had shiny clothes on and it was always very clean. Therefore, I agree with Bilger's argument that Americans “love affair” with their pets has gotten out of control.

“As the birthrate dropped, pets came to take the place of children in some families.” I think this means that pets are basically replacing children in some people's lives. In his article, Bilger says that a man refused to come back from Europe when his son died of a brain tumor, but he had a vet flown in when his dog got cancer. He cared more about his dog than his child.

In 2016, the American Pet Products Association found that pet owners are expected to spend 62.75 billion dollars on their pets. This amount is about 4% higher than the amount from 2015 which was 60.28 billion dollars. It’s sad that people spend this much money on their pets, but what’s even worse is that pets don’t have a say in their owners decisions. If a pet is suffering they probably don’t want to live anymore but their owners keep pushing them by paying whatever amount is necessary to keep them alive. In “the Last Meow”, Billger mentions that a German countess left her 80 million dollar estate to her dog Gunther. Instead of doing this she could have donated it to a better