aww

Yeah! No idea about where you live, but here in Sweden there is at least. Vet costs can get really high, so you need to have an insurance to help cover it, provided you're not hella rich that is. My old boss' daughter got a french bulldog that developed hip problems as a puppy, they could fix it surgically and I think the entire thing ended up costing around $20k, including rehab, meds, and surgery. Insurance covered most of that, but I think they still had to pay around $4k out of pocket.

Looking at the post again, and reading the description, the people are in Sweden, and 108k doesn't strike me as particularly outlandish for the damage incurred. If they are touting having to pay this amount they likely don't have insurance. They seem to run a dog sledding business up in Jämtland. Thus they likely have a lot of dogs, but I don't see why that's a reason to not insure them. I know people that have a lot of horses as a hobby yet have every single horse insured.

I'm of the opinion that if you can't afford insurance for your pet, then you can't afford your pet. It's a basic necessity, like food. Paying 900SEK a month for insurance is a lot cheaper than having to pay 108000SEK for not having it, when accident strikes. Plus, most insurance companies give you a bulk discount.

I grew up poor. I had a cat whom I really loved, and towards the end of his days his organs started failing, I suspect this is from my mother overfeeding him. We could only afford the rubbish they call food in the supermarkets, so he wasn't doing great. He was miserable in the final days of his life, but we couldn't afford to go and put him down. So he had to suffer. I still remember his death throes in my arms, choking for breath. It was horrible.

Thus, while it costs a lot, I'm not skimping out on food, health checks, and insurance for my boy. Like I said, if you cannot afford it, you cannot afford having a pet. Should the day come where I need to put him down, I'll hire a vet to come over and do it at home.