My parents don't have pets anymore, now that all the kids are grown. They let us have dogs and birds and fish when we lived at home, though. My parents love my dogs and birds, and like to come visit them, they are simply to the stage in their life where they'd rather not have pets to tie them down. They certainly got the pets for us kids, but they also made sure these animals were cared for, for their entire lives.

I think it is FAR, FAR worse for uncommited parents to get a pet "for the kids, to teach them responsiblity", than to not have a pet at all. What these parents usually teach their kids is that its ok to get a living creature, treat it well until the "new wears off", then either toss it in the backyard, let it die from neglect, or take it to the shelter. Every pet I've gotten "for my son", I was firmly aware that the responsibility was ultimately mine for the animal, him being a child and me being an adult. But there's a lot of parents that view "the kids' dog" they same way the view "the kids' bike" or "the kids' scooter" ... amusing for the kids for a while, but when they lose interest, it's just in the way and we'll get rid of it and get something new. These people should NOT have pets, they are doing their kids NO favors.

P.S. I LOVE Chinese Crested dogs ... I hope to get one someday.