ABSTRACT

Understanding pet ownership in a community is an important factor for assessing the effectiveness of animal welfare programming. Data on pet ownership were collected from 2,327 households in two urban and two rural zip codes. The percentage of households owning pets and the species owned were calculated for the individual communities, the urban and rural pairs, and the aggregate data. Findings were compared to the 2017–2018 AVMA Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook data. The rural communities had an 11.5% higher rate of overall pet keeping and a 19% higher dog ownership rate than the urban communities, but the measured cat ownership rate was similar in all four sites at an average of 19.4% (SD = 2.1%). The community-specific rates of pet ownership were different (p < .0001) than the rates predicted fromthe AVMA-recommended formula, but at 56.8%, the aggregate pet-keeping rate was exactly the same as that calculated by the AVMA. The findings reveal community-level variability in pet-keeping rates that must be accounted for when assessing pet service, emergency planning, and animal welfare programming needs.

摘要

了解社区中的宠物所有权是评估动物福利计划有效性的重要因素。宠物所有权数据来自两个城市和两个农村邮政编码的 2,327 户家庭。计算了个体社区、城乡对和汇总数据的家庭拥有宠物和拥有的物种的百分比。调查结果与 2017-2018 年 AVMA 宠物所有权和人口统计资料来源数据进行了比较。与城市社区相比，农村社区的总体宠物饲养率高 11.5%，养狗率高 19%，但在所有四个地点测得的猫拥有率相似，平均为 19.4%（SD = 2.1%） . 特定社区的宠物拥有率与根据 AVMA 推荐公式预测的比率不同 (p < .0001)，但 56.8% 的总宠物饲养率与 AVMA 的计算结果完全相同。研究结果揭示了在评估宠物服务、应急计划和动物福利规划需求时必须考虑到宠物饲养率在社区层面的变化。