Pet peeve: Dog owners can make mistakes from day one

People often fail to give sufficient thought to what they are taking on when choosing a pet which in turn can lead to problems down the road

Packed dog shelters are finding it difficult to keep up with demands created by the surrender and abandonment of often mistreated pets. Picture: iStock

In spite of regular appeals not to bring invasive animals and plants into the country, people persist in doing so while supplying a ready market.

A key issue is that people don’t give sufficient thought to what they’re taking on, as in the case of buying an exotic animal as a pet, leading to problems down the road.