Companion animals are kept for company, not labor
A pet is an animal kept mainly for company rather than work, food, or the lab. Dogs and cats top the charts; rabbits, rodents, birds, and many others fill the rest. Guardians cite companionship, protection, and beauty as motives.
Beyond dogs and cats, people keep ferrets, pigs, gerbils, chinchillas, parrots, iguanas, freshwater snails, salamanders, tarantulas, and hermit crabs, with horses and cattle among the largest companions. A 1994 Canadian survey of non-owners found the top obstacles were having no one to care for the animal during travel (34.6%), lack of time (28.6%), and unsuitable housing (28.3%); only 19.6% simply disliked pets.
The numbers are huge. China counted 755 million pets, up from 389 million in 2013, and annual spending on them climbed to $25 billion by 2018, from about $3.12 billion eight years earlier. The United States has roughly 86.4 million cats and 78.2 million dogs; more households own dogs, but cats are more numerous, and in 2013 American pets outnumbered children four to one. A University of Bristol survey found cats in 26% of UK households and dogs in 31%.
Health effects cut both ways. In a 1986 study of 92 heart patients, 11 of 29 without pets died within a year versus 3 of 52 with them, yet a 2017 RAND study found that children with pets were not measurably healthier, since already healthy children were likelier to get one. Tripping over pets sends more than 86,000 Americans to emergency rooms each year. For the animals, chocolate or grapes can kill a dog, onions and garlic cause anemia, and Easter lilies damage cats’ kidneys, while obesity raises their risk of diabetes and cancer.
Sociologist Leslie Irvine found that homeless owners often avoid drugs and refuse shelters that bar their animals. The Council of Europe’s 1987 pet-protection convention took effect on 1 May 1992, and since 2000 some North American jurisdictions have relabelled owners as guardians. Britain sets 16 as the minimum age to own a pet.
Source: Pet
