SOUTH WEST IS BEST FOR UKS PAMPERED PETS
West Country is Pets’ Best Place to Live – One in five ‘love pets as much as children’
North of Scotland is pet purgatory. It’s pet paradise in the West Country, but a dog’s life in the North of Scotland according to a new nationwide survey into the lives of the UK’s pets.
Coming hard on the heels of Channel 4’s Best and Worst Places to Live, the survey by YouGov for the UK’s largest provider of Pet Insurance, Petplan, has identified the West Country as the home of the UK’s most pampered pooches and cats. The survey talked to 2,000 pet owners nationwide about their pets’ diet, living conditions, gifts and lifestyle.
The West Country’s Pampered Pets
One in five owners ‘love pets as much as their children’West Country pet owners are the most likely in UK to consider a pet-related pre-nuptial agreementMost likely to prepare hand-cooked, organic food for petsMost likely to give pets Christmas and birthday presentsMost likely to give pets a specially designed bed Most likely to buy a family car to suit the petMost likely to pay a month’s wages in rewards for lost petsMore than a quarter have pet insuranceOne in five of the West Country’s pet owners say that they love their four-legged friends ‘as much as their children’. This may account for the fact that 17 per cent of owners in the West Country have included their pets on pre-nuptial agreements – the highest proportion in the UK.
This affection for their pets also shows in the way they are fed: 20 per cent of West Country pets have developed a taste for hand-cooked meals – the highest percentage in the country. And almost ten percent of their lovingly-prepared meals are made with pure organic ingredients.
With more than 80 per cent of the South West’s dog owners spending more than £10 per month on food for their pets – one of the highest levels in the country – they are clearly prepared to put their money where their heart is.
If a pet were lost, one in five per cent of pet owners in the South West would happily stump up a month’s wages to get it back – again, the highest proportion in the country.
Almost three quarters of pets in the South West can look forward to a Christmas present this year, with almost a third also getting a birthday present. One in five owners will happily spend more than £10 a time on pet presents.
It’s a very different outlook for pets in the North of Scotland where canny owners take a far less sentimental view of their pets.
It is perhaps not surprising that pet owners in the North of Scotland reported a higher percentage of ‘nervous pets’ than anywhere else in the UK.
North of Scotland’s Pet Purgatory
Less money per dog spent on food than anywhere in UKOwners are least likely in the UK to offer a significant reward for a missing petPets less likely to be micro-chipped and insured than anywhere else in UKPets least likely to enjoy hand-cooked foodDeceased pets least likely to be ‘formally’ buried Highest proportion of owners who say their pets are nervous TV Vet Scott Miller, Petplan’s Veterinary Consultant, comments:-
“The age old perception of the ‘soft south’ and the ‘tough north’ certainly seems to hold true for pet owners in the UK. Pets certainly do seem to have it better down south.
“One surprising conundrum leaped out at me though: a higher proportion of owners in the North of Scotland have taken their dog to a vet for tooth or gum work in the last year than any other group in the UK. Yet the proportion of pets in the North of Scotland which have health insurance to cover vet visits is the lowest in the country.
“You’d think the canny Scots would have cottoned on to the fact that they could be saving money at the vet if they had some insurance in place!”
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