I am often being asked by people who wish to have a pet about the breed they should choose or if a certain breed is a good choice. My own opinion, also my professional opinion is that if you don’t care much about being fashionable and you don’t intend to train an animal for participating in competitions, then you can choose to get a pet from a shelter where there are many half-breed animals in great need of a home and a loving owner. The animals coming from shelters, and the same goes for the animals saved from the streets, no matter if they are cats or dogs, will give you lots of love and, ultimately, as much satisfaction as the breed pets. They can even have a better life expectancy, many times being healthier than the breed ones. This is due to the fact that, statistically, the purer a breed gets, the higher the possibility to cosanguinity, which brings about genetic issues. As the mating has not always been very well controlled, especially in the past, some pure breed animals may have various conditions because of the combination of recessive genes.
If you have certain practical criteria to choose a pet by, for instance if you have an issue with animal fur, then it would be ideal to get a Poodle dog, and if you want a feline, then you can choose a Sphynx. This one is many times considered a bit weird or even ugly, but it is just a stereotype. It is true that these cats look different than those with long or medium size hair, but we should not treat them on the basis of a preconception, as they are really loving, have a gentle touch and a warm and delicate skin. But if you want a “classical” type of cat, you need to know that long hair come out more easily than medium size hair, if this is at all an important aspect for you.
With regards to allergies, those suffering from them get better many times because they take a pet and this way they become immune. I have seen many cases like this in my career, both in adults and children. For children, there are actually a lot more benefits than allergy immunization. For instance, they develop more harmoniously from pshycho-emotional perspective if they have dogs or cats around, thus becoming calmer and more balanced. And this is actually happening even if the chosen pet is of pure breed or a stray animal.
Florentin Vrînceanu
Veterinarian, Founder and Manager Novavet Clinic
