About four in 10 pet owners say at least one of their current pets was given to them by friends or family, while a third say they have a pet that showed up on their doorstep as a stray.
Shelters and breeders are next on the list as sources for pets. Thirty percent of those polled say they adopted through a shelter, 31 percent got a pet from a breeder and 14 percent bought an animal at a pet store.
Karen Hulsey, 63, adopted a cat from a Texas shelter. Greyson is about a year old now and "he's cuddly and clean," she says.
She calls her shelter experience very upbeat because the cat "has turned into a wonderful pet with a good attitude and I felt like I was doing something positive."
Another quarter obtained a pet in some other way, including 3 percent who say they went to an animal rescue group and 2 percent who purchased them using an online or print classified ad.
More than half of the pet owners polled say they've taken in a shelter animal at some point, and two-thirds of them say their experiences have been extremely positive.
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Interesting stats BJ. We've had 4 cats; 1 from a rescue site in Fla many years ago, 2nd one was from friends of friends who had too many cats (was a lovely cat too), one from a newspaper ad that had been rescued and was in foster care awaiting adoption (another lovely cat). Now Mario, who comes from the Humane Society. We don't seem to have any ferals running around our neighborhood - ever, which is good, but I'm not sure why.
ReplyDeleteI was pleasantly surprised to see the low number of animals purchased through pet stores. And I read an article yesterday saying that adoptions through shelters have been going up over the past couple of years!
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased as well to see the low number of animals purchased through pet stores. It was an online poll, though, so perhaps "those types" of owners aren't typically online and voting proudly about where they got their dog or cat?
ReplyDeleteAnyway. I do dearly wish for this to be a trend that continues! Puppy mills are just heartbreaking, and they are not self sufficient. They rely very heavily on pet store sales.
I am not surprised, people with pets are usually people with soft hearts - and soft hearts are attracted to strays and rescues!!
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked that the number one way people get pets is through gifts. In a lot of cases, that doesn't seem to be the most wise way to acquire a pet. I am also pleased to see the low number of pet-store pets.
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