Pet Ownership in Australia 2013

 

 

Every three years The Animal Health Alliance of Australia, an association of pet health companies, commissions a research company to undertake a survey of pet owners and non-pet owners in Australia – the Australian Pet Ownership Survey. The findings of this survey are used to help these companies determine their strategies and identify pet industry trends and opportunities. Survey respondents were asked to identify the number of pets in their household, details on how they keep their pets and some information on their beliefs about pet care.

While this report is produced by for-profit companies, for us as animal welfare organisations it gives an extremely helpful and detailed review of the pet industry. The pet care industry in Australia is estimated to be worth $8.0 billion annually, so it is no surprise large investments are made in studying it by those who make their living providing services to pets. The full 94 page report is available for free here, but I’ve pulled some of the more relevant details out below;

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Dogs

Population and spend

– Dogs are the most common pet and 39% of households own a dog
– There are estimated to be 4.2 million pet dogs in Australia
– The majority of expenditure is on dogs – $4.7 billion per year
– The average dog owning household spends $1,471 per year on their dogs

 

The amount people spend on caring for their dogs is nearly five billion dollars each year. Five BILLION! And nearly $1,500 per household keeping a dog. By any standard, that means our dogs are living a very cherished life. They also have access to daily care and veterinary services the envy of much of the world.

It’s also worth comparing the overall dog population, to the number who enter shelters and aren’t claimed (around 100,000 dogs a year). Doing this, we can see that just 2% of the overall dog population are entering pounds and remaining there, rather than returning home – or just 2% of dogs are ‘dumped’ as many in animal welfare like call it.

While many in animal welfare find nothing good to say about dog owners, this paints a rather more positive picture. Rather than spend all of our time worrying about the 2% of dog owners who are doing the wrong thing by their pets, a much larger and much more fruitful audience is found in examining the 98% of dog owners who are living successfully with their companion animals and whom could be convinced to open their homes to a rescue.

 

Keeping a dog

– 76% of dogs are kept either exclusively or partly indoors.
– 78% of dogs are desexed
– 76% of dogs are microchipped.
– Mixed breeds make up 42% of Australia’s dog population
– Australians tend to favour mid-sized dogs, from 4kg to 25kg

 

Most dogs are living indoors. The majority of dogs are desexed and microchipped. While smaller dogs and breeds are more popular, 25kgs is no lightweight. All of this is a wonderful reflection on the community and indicates a big new potential audience for rescue, as it seems some of the preferences for purebreds and speciality breeds are losing favour in preference for lovely, mixxy mutts.

 

Getting a dog 

– A third (31%) of dogs were obtained free of charge
– The average price paid for a new puppy or dog is $313
– Just 2% of  dog owners reported getting a dog for the purposes of breeding it
– The most common way to obtain a dog is through a breeder (30%). The second most common is from a friend or neighbour (20%), followed by a pet shop (16%), or the RSPCA or an animal shelter (15%)
– 658,000 dogs were acquired in the last 12 months

 

What is surprising about this stat, is just how many dogs are being adopted with little or no cost whatsoever. When the dog is purchased, it is for a few hundred dollars only in most cases. If rescue is going to compete with other sources of pets, then we have to find other sources of income, other than adoption fee.

This also further challenges the notion that ‘free’ pet acquisition, or those obtained for low cost, goes on to equal an unsuccessful pet/owner relationship. In practically all instances (98% of the time) pets stay in their homes, regardless of the purchase price.

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Cats

Population and spend

– Cats are the second most common pet and 29% of households owning a cat
– There are estimated to be 3.3 million pet cats in Australia
– Expenditure on cats totals $2.4 billion.
– The average cat owning household spends $1,057 per year on their cats, equivalent to $705 per animal.

 

Rather than being an unvalued animal cats are a respected part of everyday life, and cat owners are showing their love through their wallets – spending $2.4 BILLION dollars every year on keeping their pet cats happy and healthy.

3.3 million cats (and around one third of households) is an enormous chunk of the population who does appreciate and value the cat. Certainly engaging these people and building compassion amongst them to benefit less fortunate cats, would be an extremely powerful way to improve cat welfare.

 

Keeping a cat

– 92% of cats are kept either exclusively or partly indoors
– 91% of cats are desexed
– 64% of cats are microchipped
– Most cats are mixed breeds (75%)
– 92% of cats are welcomed into homes – over a third of cats live exclusively indoors
– On the flip side, just 8% of cats are kept exclusively outdoors

 

Pet cats are practically always given the protection of desexing, and most live indoors at least part of the time. And they’re nearly always moggies.

 

Getting a cat

– Almost half (49%) of all cats were obtained free of charge
– The average price paid for a new kitten or cat is $119
– Zero cat owners reported getting a cat for the purposes of breeding it
– 22% of cats are obtained from the RSPCA or an animal shelter, 22% are from from friends or neighbours and 14% adopted stray cats
– 444,000 cats were acquired in the last 12 months

 

The fact nearly half of all cats are obtained free should be a clear message to anyone trying to place rescue cats into homes – you must be able to find a way to support your work with sources of income which don’t put the costs of adoption onto the take home cost of the cat. Fact.

22% of cats obtained from animal shelters and the RSPCA might seem like a relatively low number, but unless we start some kind of outreach desexing for unowned and semi-owned cats, seasonal kittens are going to be a free, adorable and regular competitor to the adult shelter cat placement. In many ways the kindness of the community – people taking in a stray cat family and placing the kittens, or adopting a stray – is doing just as much good for cats as shelters do. Until we are willing to adopt TNR to assist these cats, we will struggle to ever build the shelter cat adoption segment.

That zero cats were acquired for the purpose of breeding them, further confirms that breeding cats is a wholly unpopular pastime for pet owners.

 

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More info about ownership and acquisition

– 63% of Australian households are home to companion animals

– Nearly 90% of dog and cat owners consider their pets to be members of the family or valued companions

– Seven out of ten Australians cite ‘companionship’ as the main reason for getting a dog or cat

– People living in suburban and regional locations are equally likely to own pets (67%), while the ownership rate in urban areas is lower (54%)

– Over half of pet owners consider veterinarians to be the best source of information on pet related issues – another quarter viewing the internet as the best source of information.

– The major trend driving consumer behaviour when it comes to pet food is the humanisation of companion animals

– Pet food has been compared to baby food in terms of its resilient market performance, with people prioritising spending on their pets as they would a member of their immediate family

– More than 1.1 million Australian households are planning to get a companion animal in the next 12 months. About half are looking to acquire dogs, and 25% are wanting to acquire cats.

– A huge 59% of Australians surveyed who don’t currently have a companion animal would like to own one

– Of those people who do have a companion animal, two out of five (41%) would like another one

– The key considerations when thinking about getting a pet are the added responsibility (41%), price (39%) and whether the pet can be taken on holidays (34%)

 

With more than a million people looking for pets – dogs (550,000) and cats (275,000) – in the next twelve months, there is an enormous opportunity for rescue pets to be placed with new families. These numbers well exceed the number of dogs (100,000) and cats (50,000) looking for homes via rescue, so to continue to blame ‘overpopulation’ for a lack of placements, is bogus.

That veterinarians are considered the best source of information by more than half of pet owners, shows an enormous potential opportunity for rescue to partner with vets to get our message about adoption to the public. Does your local vet recommend you to their clients?

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Pet owners in Australia are overwhelmingly responsible and compassionate. Tapping into that enormous potential by showing them that adoption truly is the best option can and will easily overcome the challenges presented by the tiny segment who do the wrong thing. Our massive love for our companion animals can save every life.