The issue with pets is exactly this :
It takes 0 skill to use pets and they are incredibly overpowered.
The amount of time it takes to acquire a pet, get it to safety, raise it to a combat ready level and start using it is, of course very high.
But is it higher than a footfighter's amount of time to get a full set of steel plate and a steel weapon? GUESS. Nope.
And not only that, a mage's full potential can be reached with nothing but cheap armor, max level white bear. That is basically the most amount of power a mage can have. What is the max amount of power a footfighter can have? Full oghmium set with an oghmium weapon right? How expensive is a max white bear? let's say for the sake of the argument that you get scammed and buy it for 1000 gold, that won't cover even half of the set of the footie.
And, guess what, a mage with a white bear is stronger than any footie with ful oghmium, simply because magic goes through it
Pets are broken, absolutely stupid, take 0 skill and should be 100% eradicated, removed from the game until a better solution is created.