Very Concerning Puppy Trend a Quarter of Australians are Falling For

[Deeds]

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/very-concerning-puppy-trend-a-quarter-of-aussies-are-falling-for/news-story/4e5fa6933523a5850f57c38e92784a14

 

 

[tdierikx]

"The Savanta research agency, which worked with Four Paws on the survey during 2022, received responses from 3037 people across Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Belgium to compile the results."

 

Of those 3037, only 247 were from Australia (once you click the link to the report for Australia from that survey)... not exactly a massive number from which to correlate meaningful results.

 

The other red flag here is that Four Paws isn't an animal "welfare" group... it is an animal rights group. There is a massive difference between animal welfare and animal rights agendas. Animal rights groups will also often call themselves "animal protection" or "animal welfare" in order to try to legitimise their stance on animal ownership. Animal welfare is based around the practices we must adhere to when we own animal to maximise their health and wellbeing, whereas animal rights is a stance that seeks to remove the ownership status between animals and humans.

 

I will concede that there are a decent number of people who don't research much of anything when looking to source a pet for their family... which has always been the case throughout history.

 

The paragraph regarding "health" issues in the report is also somewhat misleading... 53 of 247 people reported health issues with their pup - so a little over a quarter there. Of that quarter of respondents, 32% reported allergies, 28% reported behavioural issues, and 25% reported diarrhoea. As we "dog people" all know, diarrhoea is a fairly normal occurrence when one brings a puppy home and feeds it something completely different to what it was fed by the breeder, and that this issue isn't usually a permanent one - once the pup has adjusted to the diet changes, the problem usually clears up just fine. Behavioural issues are not inherently genetic, basic training and socialisation plays a part there too, not to mention that puppies don't come to anyone fully trained to do our bidding, the new owner needs to put in some effort there if they want a well balanced little canine companion. As for allergies, without a breakdown as to what the definition of "allergies" is in the context of this survey/report, who knows what the parameters were to measure that response - but only around 17 of the 53 people reporting health issues noted allergies when you extrapolate the numbers there.

 

As for the results regarding microchipping and registration - which the report says both are required by law in Australia, which isn't totally true, only microchipping is legally required for pets bought/sold under 12 weeks of age. I will say that it is concerning the amount of people who reported not even knowing if their pup was chipped or not though... not to mention the numbers bought without a microchip. Funny how the survey/report didn't ask about vaccination or worming status, as those results would have been even more advantageous to their agenda, don't you think?

 

I think what this survey/report actually highlights is not so much the poor practices of some of those who breed pets, but moreso the fact that those looking to buy a pet are not really thinking through the long term (or even short term) reality of owning a pet... it leans toward a good number of people technically "impulse buying" a pet because they just want one at the time. I would be looking at ways to provide better advice and advertising to educate prospective pet buyers rather than looking to simply demonise those who breed pets...

 

T.

[sandgrubber]

3 hours ago, tdierikx said:

Of those 3037, only 247 were from Australia (once you click the link to the report for Australia from that survey)... not exactly a massive number from which to correlate meaningful results.

Not to mention the likely problem of sampling bias.  Quite likely 4Paws got replies from a relatively large number of people who had problems.

[tdierikx]

20 hours ago, sandgrubber said:

Not to mention the likely problem of sampling bias.  Quite likely 4Paws got replies from a relatively large number of people who had problems.

 

Or people from their own "fan base"... FourPaws being an animal rights organisation and all...

 

Also, we have no idea what the actual questions or available answer selections were for this survey... the odds that the questions were not open ended is high here...

 

T.