In many countries, pets are treated as family members and people spend a lot of money on them. What are the advantages (pros, benefits, positive aspects) and disadvantages (cons, negative aspects, drawbacks) of having a pet? v.1

Internationally, domestic animals are considered to be part of family, as a consequence, pet owners spend a significant amount of their budget on them. Although there are positive aspects of creating animals at home, a few drawbacks can be metioned. A first pro of having pets is improving mental health, since individuals commonly feel more comfortable to express love and care over animals than with humans, consequently seen in them a love support. For example, statistics show that a representative number of dogs owners have deep conversations about feelings and issues with their animals, and most of them described having an improvement in self-confidence after that. Additionally, pets force individuals to spend more time outdoors, due to their basic necessaries as well as natural energy, which leads to more active adults and children. In contrast, having animals can be expensive, especially because there is no health insurance or public hospitals available for them, which leads to costly bills to owners that need to pay for vaccines, medicines, and treatments. For instance, if a cat needed an appointment in Vancouver with a veterinarian, his owner would have to spend an average of $400 without considering extras, price that is unreasonable for most canadians considering the minimum salary of $14/hour. Moreover, pets can be carries of bacterias and virus that are transmitted to humans, because of the direct and careless contact with nature, as a result, children, in special, can be constantly sick while having animals inside their houses. To conclude, there are both pros and cons of creating animals closely. Since not only do they generally improve mental health and active rates, but also can negatively affect the family budget and bring more diseases to the most vulnerables.