Where did Fido come from? Most pets gifts or strays - TwinCities.com

LOS ANGELES - Where do people get their pets? An AP-Petside.com poll found that the most common way is as a gift, followed by taking in a stray.

About four in 10 owners say at least one of their pets was given to them by friends or family, while a third say they have a pet that showed up on their doorstep.

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."

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 owners said they've taken in a shelter animal at some point, and two-thirds of them say their experiences have been extremely positive.

Jackie Schulze, 77, of Williamsport, Pa., got Sassafras, a white cat with periwinkle eyes, from Lycoming Animal Protection Society, a no-kill cat rescue that operates a local shelter. The cat - rescued from a meth lab - is very attached to Schulze, following her around. "Sassy chose me," Schulze said.

Among those who had the most positive shelter experiences, 44 percent cite

positive interactions with shelter staff. Just 3 percent say they'd had a moderately or very negative experience.

Edward Acosta, 46, of Thomasville, N.C., said if he were getting a new pet today, he would probably go to a pet store or breeder, not because he doesn't like shelters but "because I like thoroughbreds." He and his wife, Vicki, bred Pomeranians for years and still have three descended from their original pair. They also own five chickens - Rhode Island Reds bought at a feed store - whom they call pets.

Cat owners are more likely than dog owners to have adopted a stray or shelter animal. Forty-three percent of cat owners said one of their pets came from a shelter, compared with 29 percent of dog owners. More than half of cat owners (52 percent) said one of their current pets was a stray, compared with 30 percent of dog owners.

Fifty-eight percent of shelter adopters say being socially responsible was extremely or very important in their decision to use a shelter. It is usually less expensive to adopt than to buy from a breeder, but 60 percent of those with shelter pets say the cost made no difference.

Thirty-six percent of shelter users say they had more confidence in the staff at pet shelters than they did in the staff at pet stores or breeders. Thirty-six percent of those who obtained animals from shelters also say they believe shelter animals were more likely to have had recent veterinary care.

More than two-thirds of those who adopted from a shelter - 68 percent - say they would do so again.

Not all pet owners see shelter adoptions as a positive. Thirty-six percent of those polled say that if they were to adopt an animal from a shelter, they would be extremely or very concerned that the pet might have medical problems; 29 percent express concern about psychological problems and 33 percent say they would worry the animal wouldn't fit in with their families.

Ojala Reino, 31, of Fairmount, Ga., who got his boxer bulldog, Bruster, from a friend, said he was one of those who would worry about the physical and mental health of a shelter dog.

"I watch of lot of those shows on TV where the animals come in and have been abused," he said.

Fifty-two percent of pet owners say they have gotten a pet from a shelter or rescue at some time, but only 23 percent have taken an animal to a shelter. Of those who turned in animals, 59 percent say the animal belonged to someone else.

If shelters started charging a $25 fee to accept unwanted or stray animals, about a third of those polled (34 percent) say they would be dissuaded from leaving animals.

Adopting a stray is most common in the West, where 39 percent got a pet that way compared with 34 percent in the South, 30 percent in the Northeast and 29 percent in the Midwest. Forty-one percent of rural-dwelling pet owners say their pet was a stray, compared with 28 percent of suburbanites and 34 percent of urbanites. And suburbanites were most likely to have adopted from a shelter: 36 percent compared with 30 percent in urban areas and 22 percent in rural parts of the country.

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-17, 2011, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved land line and cellphone interviews with 1,118 pet owners. Results among pet owners have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_19648022?source=rss

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