Dear LPG,

As I have written before I am quite happy to skip the news, and most of the time I do.  Recently I have become one of those people that has the television on most of the day, even though I am not always watching, because it does keep me company and in some weird way gives me a feeling of having someone else in an otherwise lonely lockdown house.

I recently had the television on quite early one morning and heard some guest on one of those early morning breakfast discussion shows suggesting that our pets are a drain on our climate that we cannot afford. The inference was that we should not replace them when they go because of all the food we must provide for them and the poo they leave us in return amongst other things. This really upset me because I think that, for those who live alone, a pet can be a best friend; a fact that I can personally attest to. 

I know that pets are not the only possessions that we have become use to which are under attack.  But I believe our pets to be a lifeline, especially for those who have had to live through lockdown alone.  

I think that the world in general has come to a stage where we have been given the grace for so many things to be invented and now, after years of the hard work, just when everyday people are finally managing to benefit from them, they are either deemed a drain on resources, and someone will find a reason to tell us we would be better off without them, or some governing body or other will find a way of limiting them by inventing a new tax that pushes them just beyond our financial reach again.  This is happening with older cars in London now with the new proposed levy targeting the older models that older people are more likely to have, and the limitations that have been put on the effectiveness of household appliances such as vacuum cleaners. But now some are beginning to target lives, and I wonder how long it will be before the lives of older people will be perceived as not worth maintaining which is a really frightening thought as I get older and one that brings me back to why I avoid watching, reading or listening to the news.

I can do little to change what I have heard on the subject and while we continue to not have that interaction with others, outside interests and the social aspect of life that so many of us really miss now, I am guessing that this issue will play on many pet owners’ minds.

So, now I am the harbinger of bad news because, having heard the report, I find that passing my thoughts on by writing them down is one way of feeling better now that I have heard it.   I think that there must be an argument for quality as well as quantity in all things and the report that I heard about pets has just reminded me exactly why I try my best not to listen to the news.

PK, Telegraph Hill

LPG found the report that has upset PK so much…

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