Why are poor people always in a constant rotation of animals?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in urban poverty. I saw that, too. Also furniture. Entire living room and dining room sets from Rent-a-center replaced every year. Not my immediate family, but my cousins. They would get this cheap pressboard canopy bed set every 12 months, but have stained sheets for curtains and cook on a hot plate because the gas was shut off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Because, like it or not, generational poverty is associated with lack of executive functioning skills, since parents for whatever reason (abuse, low IQ, drugs, health issues or simply having no one to teach them this) have not developed these skills and cannot pass then along to their children.

Executive functioning, more than cognitive thinking skills, and assuming an IQ in the average range, is what make people successful. It's how to start a task (planning and timing), how to continue a task (persistence), and follow-through (resilience during setbacks). Everything in life requires executive functioning skills. Training and keeping a puppy or another animal requires a lot of observational and executive functioning skills.

So people who lack impulse control and seek immediate gratification, who are generally either light on their IQ, or more frequently light in executive functioning, will take on appealing burdens then be tempted to abandon them because follow-through is an effort and skill that is sometimes beyond them.

Man this rings true

I'd say so as well. I know poor people whose lives have plenty of stability (although a major crisis can seriously derail that) and who keep relationships--and pets--for the animal's lifespan (except perhaps when housing changes). They tend not be reflect generational poverty so much although they are likely to come from lower-income backgrounds. Plus the executive functioning deficits are definitely compounded by the lack of money. Say, for example, an unpaid ticket for not having insurance on a vehicle. No money for the ticket. Forget the court date or find yourself without child care that day, months later a chance event puts you in front of an officer who discovers a bench warrant--small things can snowball into big things.

There can also be an element of learned helplessness as well--someone embarks on a positive path (job, schooling, budgeting, wahatever) but financially the ground is shaky and boom. Attempts at persistence are not necessarily rewarded.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PPs about the lack of executive function and poverty. European esp Scandinavian countries don't have millions of unwanted pets killed every year in shelters. I lived in England and there were shelter pets but not like this bizzare disposable pet culture here in the US.

[Anonymous]

Got it. Poor people are poor because they're stupid. No other possible explanation. You are wealthy because of your superior life choices, nothing else. You gotta love a simplistic worldview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got it. Poor people are poor because they're stupid. No other possible explanation. You are wealthy because of your superior life choices, nothing else. You gotta love a simplistic worldview.

No it's actually the opposite. They've done studies...poverty makes you have poor executive function and sadly that reinforces it. Vicious cycle.

https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/indicator/2013/01/poverty-behaviors#:~:text=So%2C%20a%20review%20of%20the,social%20comprehension%20and%20emotion%20regulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got it. Poor people are poor because they're stupid. No other possible explanation. You are wealthy because of your superior life choices, nothing else. You gotta love a simplistic worldview.

No it's actually the opposite. They've done studies...poverty makes you have poor executive function and sadly that reinforces it. Vicious cycle.

https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/indicator/2013/01/poverty-behaviors#:~:text=So%2C%20a%20review%20of%20the,social%20comprehension%20and%20emotion%20regulation.

Here's a good one https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5913739/

[Anonymous]

People throw around the term "executive function" on DCUM as if it means organizational skills. It doesn't.

This thread is disgusting. Do you know how many animals are surrendered due to divorce? Diplomatic moves? Expensive apartments that won't accept pets? Failure to spay and neuter? Why in the h#&* do you presume this a poor peoples' problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have to laugh when people here say horses are a mark of rich people, even in rural areas. I knew several people on Medicaid who had horses out back in our rural area.

Also, the dog thing--a lot of people get dogs for hunting season, then abandon them, or they abandon or give away puppies that are bad hunters. That's how we adopted our puppy.

Haha, that’s how we got our dog.

He was clearly bred to be some kind of hunting dog (border collie-greyhound-pointer mix) but he must’ve sucked at it. Clearly exposed to abuse/trauma, then abandoned and wound up in a shelter.

He’s a good dog, but clearly haunted by experiences of his first 18 months before we got him.

I am from rural Appalachia and grew up in poverty. We had hunting dogs. I think it is funny you think your mutt was “bred” for that purpose. You don’t hunt with mutts and no one “breeds” that kind of cross. They just happen in a culture where many dogs are kept outside. I have one myself. We call her a WV road hound, it is a common joke.

A well bred hunting dog puppy is as expensive as your designer doodles.

I also know no one who rotates through pets like in OP’s post. It might happen sometimes but it is pretty rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have to laugh when people here say horses are a mark of rich people, even in rural areas. I knew several people on Medicaid who had horses out back in our rural area.

Also, the dog thing--a lot of people get dogs for hunting season, then abandon them, or they abandon or give away puppies that are bad hunters. That's how we adopted our puppy.

Haha, that’s how we got our dog.

He was clearly bred to be some kind of hunting dog (border collie-greyhound-pointer mix) but he must’ve sucked at it. Clearly exposed to abuse/trauma, then abandoned and wound up in a shelter.

He’s a good dog, but clearly haunted by experiences of his first 18 months before we got him.

I am from rural Appalachia and grew up in poverty. We had hunting dogs. I think it is funny you think your mutt was “bred” for that purpose. You don’t hunt with mutts and no one “breeds” that kind of cross. They just happen in a culture where many dogs are kept outside. I have one myself. We call her a WV road hound, it is a common joke.

A well bred hunting dog puppy is as expensive as your designer doodles.

I also know no one who rotates through pets like in OP’s post. It might happen sometimes but it is pretty rare.

Go volunteer at a rural shelter. Then get back to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Because, like it or not, generational poverty is associated with lack of executive functioning skills, since parents for whatever reason (abuse, low IQ, drugs, health issues or simply having no one to teach them this) have not developed these skills and cannot pass then along to their children.

Executive functioning, more than cognitive thinking skills, and assuming an IQ in the average range, is what make people successful. It's how to start a task (planning and timing), how to continue a task (persistence), and follow-through (resilience during setbacks). Everything in life requires executive functioning skills. Training and keeping a puppy or another animal requires a lot of observational and executive functioning skills.

So people who lack impulse control and seek immediate gratification, who are generally either light on their IQ, or more frequently light in executive functioning, will take on appealing burdens then be tempted to abandon them because follow-through is an effort and skill that is sometimes beyond them.

Man, you hit the nail on the head.

I'm not a heavyweight in the IQ dept, but I've always joked up I make up in persistence. I have an engineering degree, despite my math skills (or lack thereof). But I learn what I need to. We borrowed a 8 month old dog for several days and made sure we were up for the work, and it was work....she was only paper trained and I got her outdoor-trained by the time she went home! I feel better once I've proven to myself I can handle something, then just be patient.

I think even if I were poor I'd keep the skills, but, maybe if I were generationally poor I wouldn't have them at all. But there are always good examples of people to study and follow if you are willing to look around. Which, again, requires some self awareness...

[Anonymous]

My family lives in a poor southern state. Many people there don’t really treat their dogs like members of the family. The dogs live outside and are welcome to roam along their property which is often on 2 lane roads with 45 mph speed limit. Dogs get hit, they get a new one. They don’t take their pets to the vet, so they get heartworm. It’s just different there. One dog died, they just get another one. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

I feel like OP is describing something very specific, and poverty might be one piece but it isn't the whole puzzle.

I grew up in rural poverty, but in Idaho. People had dogs, and they may have been outdoor dogs like PPs have said, but no one I knew rotated through puppies.

Now I live in a part of DC with lots of first generation Americans (most of whom are poor) and dogs are actually pretty rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have to laugh when people here say horses are a mark of rich people, even in rural areas. I knew several people on Medicaid who had horses out back in our rural area.

Also, the dog thing--a lot of people get dogs for hunting season, then abandon them, or they abandon or give away puppies that are bad hunters. That's how we adopted our puppy.

Haha, that’s how we got our dog.

He was clearly bred to be some kind of hunting dog (border collie-greyhound-pointer mix) but he must’ve sucked at it. Clearly exposed to abuse/trauma, then abandoned and wound up in a shelter.

He’s a good dog, but clearly haunted by experiences of his first 18 months before we got him.

I am from rural Appalachia and grew up in poverty. We had hunting dogs. I think it is funny you think your mutt was “bred” for that purpose. You don’t hunt with mutts and no one “breeds” that kind of cross. They just happen in a culture where many dogs are kept outside. I have one myself. We call her a WV road hound, it is a common joke.

A well bred hunting dog puppy is as expensive as your designer doodles.

I also know no one who rotates through pets like in OP’s post. It might happen sometimes but it is pretty rare.

Go volunteer at a rural shelter. Then get back to me.

I don’t need to. I am actually friends with rural poor people I grew up with and this is not a fair generalization of them. I know many of their pets too. I myself am a huge animal person and have never given a pet away and do give them medical treatment. 2020 being 2020, to the tune of 5 figures-worth, sigh

[Anonymous]

Because, like it or not, generational poverty is associated with lack of executive functioning skills, since parents for whatever reason (abuse, low IQ, drugs, health issues or simply having no one to teach them this) have not developed these skills and cannot pass then along to their children.

Executive functioning, more than cognitive thinking skills, and assuming an IQ in the average range, is what make people successful. It's how to start a task (planning and timing), how to continue a task (persistence), and follow-through (resilience during setbacks). Everything in life requires executive functioning skills. Training and keeping a puppy or another animal requires a lot of observational and executive functioning skills.

So people who lack impulse control and seek immediate gratification, who are generally either light on their IQ, or more frequently light in executive functioning, will take on appealing burdens then be tempted to abandon them because follow-through is an effort and skill that is sometimes beyond them.

This is exactly right. One thing that you left out is that prenatal exposures to drugs and alcohol decrease capacity for executive functioning. In the example given by a subsequent poster re the parking ticket, someone with sufficient executive functioning skills can see through to the eventual bench warrant if they cannot get the ticket paid and exhibit persistence---in terms of securing childcare, a ride to get ticket paid. But if no one around you is demonstrating those skills and thought processes, then multigenerational poverty continues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have to laugh when people here say horses are a mark of rich people, even in rural areas. I knew several people on Medicaid who had horses out back in our rural area.

Also, the dog thing--a lot of people get dogs for hunting season, then abandon them, or they abandon or give away puppies that are bad hunters. That's how we adopted our puppy.

Yeah OP did you grow up in a hunting area? People are always looking for a puppy who is a great hunter that they can breed/sell. Unfortunately a lot are bad/mediocre hunters and get abandoned in this effort.

Never knew this. I'll keep an eye out for options for adoption around end of hunting season.