It happens every time a big animal-related event takes place:

• Feature a Jack Russell Terrier in a blockbuster Hollywood movie, and suddenly everyone’s buying Jack Russells, even though this breed of dog is not easy to handle.


• Put a cute bunny in a popular advertisement and everyone starts buying rabbits, although few people know how to take proper care of them.


• In this new Chinese Year of the Rat, pet rodents like hamsters and guinea pigs have become immensely popular in places with large ethnic-Chinese populations, like Singapore.

How do you know when you are truly ready to care for a pet, and when you are merely succumbing to the latest fad?

The question to ask yourself is this: Would I be getting this particular pet if it were not a special occasion/ I hadn’t watched that fabulous movie/ I didn’t just melt over that picture of the cute animal in the advertisement?

If your honest answer is no, then you should not get that pet.

Pet ownership that comes about in response to a fad almost always involves an impulse-buy or impulse gift, and the interest in the real-life animal, warts and all, is almost guaranteed to fade quickly.

Responsible ownership, on the other hand, almost always grows from a conscious, well-thought-out decision-and-analysis process, where a person knows that he is both willing and able to give the chosen animal a good, loving home for its whole lifespan.