Tuesday, May 4, 2010

“Poll: 1 in 3 women say pets listen better than husbands - 10 Connects” plus 2 more

“Poll: 1 in 3 women say pets listen better than husbands - 10 Connects” plus 2 more

Poll: 1 in 3 women say pets listen better than husbands - 10 Connects

Posted: 04 May 2010 04:57 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A third of pet-owning married women in the U.S. said their pets are better listeners than their husbands, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll released Wednesday.

Eighteen percent of pet-owning married men said their pets are better listeners than their wives.

Christina Holmdahl, 40, talks all the time to her cat, two dogs or three horses about her husband, naturally.

"Whoever happens to be with me when I'm rambling," said Holmdahl, who's stationed with her husband at Fort Stewart in Georgia. "A lot of times, I'm just venting about work or complaining about the husband."

She thinks everyone should have a pet to talk to like her horse, Whistle, who's been with her since she was 19.

"We all say things we don't mean when we are upset about stuff," she said. "When we have time to talk it out and rationalize it, we can think about it better and we can calm down and see both sides better."

It would be a toss-up whether Bill Rothschild would take a problem to his wife of 19 years or the animal he considers a pet a palm-sized crayfish named Cray Aiken. His daughter brought it home four years ago at the end of a second grade science project.

Rothschild, 44, of Granite Springs, New York, considers Cray a better listener than his wife, "absolutely. She doesn't listen worth anything." He doesn't get much feedback from the crustacean, but it's been a different story over the years with family dogs and cats.

"You definitely feel much more comfortable sharing your problems with them," he said. "A little lick from a big dog can go a long way."

Overall, about one in 10 pet owners said they would talk their troubles over with their pets.

The AP-Petside.com poll also found that most people believe their pets are stable and seldom struggle with depression. Just 5% of all pet owners said they had taken an animal to a veterinarian or pet psychologist because it seemed down in the dumps. Even fewer said they'd ever given antidepressants to a pet.

But they weren't opposed to the idea: 18% of those polled said they were at least somewhat likely to take a pet to a vet or pet psychologist if it was dejected.

When pets become the therapists, the dogs have it. Twenty-five percent of dog owners said their canines listened better than a spouse, while only 14% of cat owners chose the feline.

A pet psychologist is also called a veterinary behaviorist. Veterinarian Karen Sueda, whose office is at the VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital is one of 50 certified by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Most of her canine patients have problems with aggression and anxiety, while her cats' biggest problem is failure to use a litter box, she said.

Sueda said she thinks everyone talks to their animals.

"Pets are great because they provide us with unconditional support. They never talk back, never give us the wrong opinion and they are always there for us," she said. "As much as we love our spouses or significant others, sometimes they are not there, sometimes they have their own thoughts about how we should deal with situations. And sometimes, especially when it's a husband or male significant other, they want to solve the problem rather than just listening to the problem."

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted April 7-12, 2010, and involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,112 pet owners nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Husbands: Join discussions on MomsLikeMe.com with women complaining about men.

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Who's a better listener: Spouse or pet? - Dubuque Telegraph Herald

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 07:55 AM PDT

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Economy unleashes hard times for pets - Tulsa World

Posted: 03 May 2010 03:25 AM PDT

COLLINSVILLE — A depressed economy is putting the pinch on area animal shelters and rescue groups, which have seen donations dip and the number of abandoned pets increase.

"People who've been able to give me several thousand (dollars) can give me $500 now," a Collinsville shelter operator, Susan Babbitt, said.

Babbitt founded the nonprofit Friends of the Collinsville Animal Shelter. That effort led to the January 2008 opening of the Ward-Wiseman Animal Haven in Collinsville.

"So many more people are losing their homes and jobs that they can't afford to take care of their dogs and cats," Babbitt said. "They are bringing them to us as a surrender. At a certain point, you only have a certain amount of money and you can only do so much."

Pet owners who have had their animals for years have come to Babbitt in tears, she said.

"In some places, the dogs they are leaving are just beautiful, registered, pedigreed dogs that they cannot afford to take care of anymore, or they are having to go to an apartment where they aren't allowed to have a dog," said Babbitt, who said her organization has saved more than 400 pets.

"It's just unbelievably intense with the pets right now. I'm just pedaling as fast as I can to bring in different money."

Jamie Suarez is president and founder of Oklahoma Alliance for Animals. A Tulsa-based nonprofit, it acts as a statewide umbrella group to address spay/neuter problems, animal cruelty, education and adoption standards.

She

said many shelters and rescue groups are "inundated with animals right now because of the economic climate."

Recently, a breeder in Bristow who couldn't afford to feed more than 105 dogs requested the help of the Alliance and another rescue group, Suarez said.

"They have big hearts," she said. "But it is real difficult for them right now."

Suarez also knows of instances in which people have left behind pets in foreclosed-upon homes.

"People are terrified to take them to the shelter," Suarez said. "But they have a better chance at the Tulsa shelter than they do left at a home with no food or water."

She urges consumers to remember to spay/neuter their pets and adopt from a shelter or rescue group.

"It's everybody and they are starting to feel it," Suarez said. "Probably a lot of the groups are starting to get discouraged. I hope they don't."

"It's the times. I hear it from everybody I talk to."

To help

To contribute toward animal rescue groups, donations may be made to:

Oklahoma Alliance For Animals
2642 E. 21st St., Suite 120
Tulsa OK 74114

For donations or volunteering, call 742-3700

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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