Bankrupt Aaron Carter Values His Expensive English Bulldog at Zero in Fear of Losing Him

A hot piece of celebrity pet news recently came to my attention involving the perceived value of an dog owned by singer Aaron Carter and how that value plays into Carter’s bankruptcy claim. According to TMZ, Carter indicated the value of King, his English Bulldog, to be $0. Yes, that’s a zero or worthless value for a canine companion appearing to be such an integral member of family dynamic according to his Instagram page.

Carter reportedly then reneged on King’s zero value assertion, as TMZ reports “Aaron is telling his buds … he devalued the dog because he was worried the bankruptcy trustee would sell King to pay off his creditors … to whom he owes more than $2 million.”

So, it sounds like Carter’s claim of King being worthless was actually a strategy to increase the likelihood he’d be kept. Carter hasn’t yet publicly assigned monetary value to King, but this controversy brings up an interesting topic about how much money our pets are actually worth.

Value of a Pet

As per the Animal Legal & Historical Center, the value of an animal commonly comes into play when a pet is injured or killed:

In the United States, domesticated animals (either pets or animals of a commercial importance) are considered the personal property of the owner. Unfortunately, the traditional computation of damages for the loss of pet is the market value of the pet – the amount of money someone else would pay for the identical pet of the same, age, breed, and condition.

The typical English bulldog is an expensive dog to purchase, as breeder fees often start around $1500. Bulldoze English Bulldogs implies that paying $1500 for an English Bulldog gets the owner a less than ideal pooch in stating “average pricing however in most cases start at 2,500 & up. We do not sell 1500 dollar pups.”

The general perception here is that if you pay more for your English Bulldog you’ll get a better-quality pooch.  Unfortunately, such isn’t necessarily the case as the English Bulldog is a breed that’s well known to have a variety of health problems purely related to its genetics.

As a brachycephalic (“short faced”) breed, they are prone to respiratory and eye problems due to the conformation of their muzzle, nose, face, and skull.  Embrace Pet Insurance details some of the significant costs associated with diagnosing and treating conditions for which the English Bulldog is at “High to Very High” risk of developing, including:

Aortic stenosis

Colitis

Elbow Dysplasia

Deafness

Entropion

Fold (skin) Dermatitis

Gastric Dilatation Volvulus (GDV)

More Potential Health Issues

In seeing photos of King from Carter’s Instagram page, I have a few other concerns about his health and well-being.

Cherry Eye

From this early May 2014 Instagram photo, King shows a condition common to English Bulldogs called Cherry Eye on his left side. Technically, the condition is termed prolapsed nictitating membrane.  The nictitating membrane is also known as the “third eyelid” and functions as a protective mechanism that slides across the surface of the eyeball to help prevent trauma from an offensive stimulus.

Although not life-threatening, Cherry Eye compromises the protective ability of the nictitating membrane and could leave the eye more prone to trauma.  It requires surgical correction with a surgically-skilled veterinarian or veterinary ophthalmologist.

My hope is that Carter is planning on having King’s Cherry Eye fixed soon and that right side will also be surgically addressed as a preventative measure.

Pinch Collar

Another Instagram photo from May 2014 shows King wearing a type of cervical (neck) collar that is controversial from the perspective of dog trainers and veterinarians who believe it is less than effective and potentially harmful.

King sports a “prong collar”, a type of Aversion Collar, which according to Is Your Dog’s Collar Dangerous? is “sometimes recommended by trainers when the war of wills caused by a choke chain escalates.”  My views are in alignment with The Humane Society of the United States which states “more humane collars and good obedience training should make it unnecessary to resort to this aversive collar.”

I recommend my canine patients not wear prong collars but instead are fitted with a chest harness, which takes potentially harmful pressure off of the neck and redistributes along the entire chest cavity and shoulders.

Fortunately for Carter, his tax debt has been relieved.  It’s also a fortunate circumstance for King, as now Carter should have an improved financial means to schedule King’s Cherry Eye surgery and seek a safer and more humane restraint and training device than a pinch collar.

Copyright of this article (2014) is owned by Dr Patrick Mahaney, Veterinarian and Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist. Republishing any portion of this article must first be authorized by Dr Patrick Mahaney. Requests for republishing must be approved by Dr Patrick Mahaney and received in written format