My daughter wants the pets and would love the vet option.
I do think for those who don't want pets, there should also be an option to turn the pets off on certain game save or even to lock your lot so no pets can come onto it. I also like the idea of making pets so you can interact with them like the sims, so you have their needs that decrease and and you can make them do the different things to raise the needs back up. My daughter would play only the pets if it was an option. She plays Sims3 with a mod so she only has pets and she has a ton of them.
Please have pets be one of the next expansions.