People Love Pets!
People love our pets and it definitely shows.
According to the 2007 “U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook” published by the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are 43 million dog owning households compared with 37.5 million cat owning households, but 81.7 million cats compared to 72 million dogs. 59.5% of all homes own a pet, while according to the Census Bureau, about 35% of US households have children.
About 64% of all pet-owning households own more than one pet. Over 20% of these households own at least five pets.
Pet owners spent a total of $24.5 billion on veterinary care in 2006. In 2001, Americans spent $22.4 billion.
Nearly half of all pet owners, 48.7%, consider their pets to be members of their family.
Also, because of the extra care that pet owners are giving to their pets, pets are living much longer. Today, 44% of dogs are older than six-years-old, while in 1987, only 32% of dogs were that age. For cats, currently 44% of cats are over six-years-old, while in 1987, only 28% of cats were of that age or older.
Turtle ownership has also greatly increased — it has jumped 86% from 2001.
Source: USA Today
(Thanks Carole)
December 14th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Uh…Cats over six? Big whoop!
In my family, the cats typically live to be 20 or so!
~The Lioness
December 14th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Hey, guess what? People love pets! ;-)
December 14th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
because it is so much easier to train, love and trust a pet than a human being. Ha!
December 15th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Yes KAEfamily it most definately is! In return our furry babies love, trust, and train us……:) At least my kitties have me very well trained.