Britain is a nation of pet lovers, with 53% of all households having a pet (PDSA, 2012). It seems people are very much aware of the benefits pets bring to society as hardly a day goes by without new statistics or a news story being published about how much pets benefit people, and how people would do ‘anything’ for their pets. Yet this love is not always transposed into knowledge, and there remains a lack of understanding of what pets need in order to remain healthy — something borne out by publications such as the series of PDSA Animal Wellbeing Reports, the most recent being in December 2013 (PDSA, 2013). Many owners are unaware of the Five Welfare Needs (which are part of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (DEFRA, 2006)) of their pets which means they are (unintentionally) failing to take preventative healthcare measures on their behalf. A better dialogue is required between pet owners and experts such as veterinary nursing professionals. This will help to ensure that owners take responsibility for their pets' healthcare and animals remain healthy throughout their lives.
The impact of pets on lives
Pet ownership is known to have a number of positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of owners. According to a 2005 paper written for the British Medical Journal (McNicholas et al, 2005), benefits include the fact that pets act as ‘social catalysts’, leading to greater social contact between people, as well as the fact that pets may be of particular value to older people and patients recovering from major illness.
A 2008 survey commissioned by NOAH also found that 91% of people said they felt pets have a positive impact on children and over half believe pet owners are more responsible citizens (NOAH, 2008). In addition, seven out of ten people surveyed believed that pet ownership makes you more intuitive to the needs of others, while almost two thirds (62%) said pet owners are more caring.
The research illustrated the significant benefits and rewards of pet ownership with 78% quoting companionship as the most rewarding aspect in the survey. Over half of people (58%) went on to admit that their pet cheers them up and just under a third (32%) revealed that their pet does wonders for their sense of humour.
There is increasing evidence that pets really do benefit physical and psychological health as well as social wellbeing, particularly in groups such as children and the elderly. In 2007, Wells from Queens University in Belfast carried out an extensive review of literature and concluded that dogs do have a prophylactic and therapeutic value for people (Wells, 2007), while the Cats Protection concluded cats cheer children and elderly people (Osbourne, 2008). There are many other studies of this type, and the links to some can be found on the Pet Health Council website at http://www.pethealthcouncil.co.uk/people.shtml
In 2012, a NOAH survey of 1094 UK pet owners provided insights which suggested that the benefits pets bring were, for the most part, reciprocated with some quite dramatic claims as to the lengths that participants would go to in support of their pets. For example, 46% said they would spend any amount of money on medical care to save their pet's life and 40% saying they would take time off work to care for their pets, while 31% would sleep on the floor next to them if they were sick.
Attitudes about preventative health care for pets
As a nation, while people in the UK plainly recognise the value of pets to society, and love their pets, this does not always translate into proper care and attention in relation to pets' health.
Potentially the biggest study into the health of the pet nation has been the PDSA Animal Wellbeing Report (the PAW report) carried out in 2011 and repeated in 2012 and 2013 (PDSA, 2011, 2012, 2013). This concluded that millions of UK pets are not receiving vital and often life-saving preventative care, such as vaccination, neutering, flea and worming treatments and microchipping. Millions were not even registered with a veterinary surgeon.
Encouragingly, the 2012 report (Table 1) found that more animals were receiving a primary course of vaccination in 2011 compared with 2012, which showed that perhaps the message on the need to prevent disease might have started to be understood. The reasons for this are not known, but could perhaps be due to the fact that there seems to be an increase recently in the number and geographical spread of cases of diseases such as parvovirus, and the fact that the tragic consequences of not vaccinating are often published in local newspapers. This could point to the value of case studies in helping to change behaviour.
Table 1. Figures from PDSA PAW reports
| % receiving primary vaccination course | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dog | Cat | Rabbit | |
| 2011 | 82 | 72 | 46 |
| 2012 | 86 | 78 | 52 |
Questioning those owners that chose not to vaccinate, the PDSA found that dog, cat and rabbit owners alike cited their top three reasons for not vaccinating as: ‘not necessary’, ‘too expensive’ or ‘haven't thought about it’.
The studies commissioned by NOAH in 2007 and 2010, did not examine the numbers of pet owners actively preventing disease in their pets; they set out to explore the difference in attitude between those who did routinely prevent disease and those that did not. NOAH's initial research was carried out in 2007 (NOAH, 2007) and repeated in 2010 (NOAH, 2011) to see if things had changed.
In looking at pet owners' attitudes, the surveys divided pet owners into two categories; those who are ‘preventers’ and those who are ‘non-preventers’ (NOAH 2007, 2011) and explored the attitudes of each.
‘Preventers’ made a conscious effort to ensure their pet was protected from a wide range of problems with 96% regarding worming as a regular part of pet health care, whereas ‘non-preventers’ were more likely not to worm their pet. This was not through any inherent stand against worming, or even for financial reasons: it was because they saw no reason to do so (they saw no worms), with over a quarter (28%) not deeming it to be necessary.
In 2010, with recession austerity measures filling every news channel, the second NOAH study (NOAH, 2011) showed that the owners who believed in preventative health care were not decreasing their financial commitment, with more (84%) visiting the veterinary practice at least once a year in 2010 compared to 2007 (78%). In addition 44% increased the amount spent on their pets over the previous year with only a very small number (5%) decreasing it. There was also an increase in the number of dogs insured by this group since 2007, which stood at 55% compared to 41% in 2007.
The research again covered both ‘preventer’ and ‘non-preventer’ pet owners and sought to understand: awareness of preventative medicine in cats and dogs; how the decision is made as to what areas of preventative medicine are important and which to adopt; what types of preventative medicine are carried out and the reasons and frequency of this behaviour as well as the sources of information.
In addition to visiting their veterinary practice more frequently and spending more on their pets, preventers also visited a pet shop more often than non-preventers for undisclosed reasons with nearly two thirds (61%) of preventers visiting at least once a month compared with 36% of non-preventers, a figure that has decreased from 43% in 2007.
Looking at specific preventative treatments, attitudes to vaccination had not changed between the 2007 and 2010 surveys, with preventers believing that being a responsible pet owner means regularly vaccinating your pet, while non-preventers did not believe vaccination was relevant to their situation. This pointed to a clear need to educate non-preventers to break habits that have sometimes been handed down from generation to generation, and amongst friends. Half of the preventers (51%) in the 2010 NOAH study agreed with the statement ‘All my friends and family vaccinate and so do I’ compared with only 13% non-preventers.
Most owners from both groups had used a flea treatment on their pets in the past 2 years although 68% of preventers were more proactive in their usage of flea products compared to only 40% of non-preventers (Figures 1 and 2). Cats (80%) are more likely to have been treated than dogs (69%) among both groups of owners although flea treatment of cats had significantly decreased among non-preventers since 2007.
Use of wormers was also in decline between 2007 and 2010. Although 86% of preventers wormed proactively as part of a healthcare routine for their pet in 2010, this figure had decreased from 96% in 2007. Non-preventers chose not to worm because they did not see the need, citing reasons such as their pet being fit and well or not going outdoors. Likewise, although preventers were more likely than non-preventers to be aware of the zoonotic implications of some pet parasites, this awareness had decreased since 2007 pointing to the need for more work to be done on this aspect of pet health. On a more upbeat note, those that were worming proactively wormed their pets more frequently with 50% worming at least every 3 months in 2010 which was significantly more than the 41% in 2007.
When asked where they obtained general healthcare advice, the veterinary surgeon was the most frequently cited source of information with 84% of preventers and 58% of non-preventers referencing their veterinary surgeon. The internet is an increasingly important information channel for non-preventers with almost a third (31%) citing it as their source for pet healthcare advice, an increase from 25% in 2007.
This was echoed by the PDSA in the 2012 PAW report with three quarters citing the veterinary surgeon as their primary reference source and over half also using the internet.
Influence of online veterinary advice
The explosion in immediate access to online pet care advice through websites, pet forums and through social media platforms such as Twitter and Face-book is changing the way that pet owners think about health care and how they access advice. With the internet comes immediacy and it seems that the ability to seek basic healthcare advice quickly, independently and without having to visit a veterinary professional in person, could be argued to have broken down barriers for some pet owners. With the increased trend of accessing preventative pet health information from the web, people are more inclined to take action from a site that they saw as independent and written by experts. From the NOAH 2007 survey, 31% of preventers and 29% of non-preventers valued independence in a site, while 28% preventers and 32% non-preventers valued it being written by experts. There was great interest from both types of pet-owning groups who took part in the 2011 NOAH study (87% of preventers and 79% of non-preventers) in using a dedicated website such as NOAH's www.pethealthinfo.org.uk, which only 10% of the pet owners surveyed had heard of. Owners welcomed the idea of a site that provided easy access, immediate, independent advice and that was written by veterinary experts.
It is clear that efforts must continue towards those who do not visit their veterinary practice and to this end, over the past year, NOAH has been supporting the information with its ‘I Heart My Pet’ campaign, through traditional and social media (on Facebook as IHeartmyPetUK and on Twitter @Iheartmy-petUK). The campaign channels the joy that pets bring, while bringing the message back to the health needs of animals, and will continue throughout 2014. Infographics also support the messages on the site (Figure 3).
Effects of knowledge dissemination on preventative healthcare attitudes
While there is no evidence yet of an increase in worming and de-fleaing activities, it seems from both the NOAH and PDSA figures that the message about the benefits of preventative healthcare may be starting to get through. NOAH showed increased veterinary visits between 2007 and 2010 while PDSA showed an increase in numbers registered with a veterinary practice (Table 2).
Table 2. Figures from PDSA PAW 2011 and 2012 reports
| % registered with a vet | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dog | Cat | Rabbit | |
| 2011 | 90 | 83 | 56 |
| 2012 | 93 | 88 | 69 |
While the vast majority of pet owners consider themselves to be ‘responsible’, clearly some do not see regular preventative health care as part of that responsibility. With those responsible for animals required to protect the animals in their care from pain, suffering, injury and disease as included in the five welfare needs, embraced by the legal duty of care in UK animal welfare legislation (DEFRA, 2006), this must change.
Conclusion
There remains a clear need to educate pet owners, particularly the non-preventers, to change some of their patterns of behaviour and complacency regarding their pet's health that have become entrenched and seem to have been influenced by friends and family. While internet communication can play its part in raising general awareness and giving advice, to address this effectively, it is essential that any communications on this subject actively encourage pet owners to seek expert advice on caring for their pet from veterinary professionals and other pet care professionals such as animal health advisors, experts within pet shops, behaviour and training experts tailored to their individual pet. It is also important that the way in which the public is engaged on this subject actively encourages behaviour change by avoiding guilt-based messaging and instead, promoting positive, empowering messages about pet ownership and its benefits to animals and their owners.
Key Points
- Britain is a nation of pet lovers yet many owners are not aware of the welfare needs of their pets and are not actively taking preventative healthcare measures on behalf of their pets.
- There is evidence that pets bring their owners benefits both in terms of psychological health and social wellbeing.
- NOAH's own research in 2012 shows that these benefits are reciprocated with owners going to extraordinary lengths to support their pets — for exam pie, spending any amount of money on medical care to save their pet's life.
- The PDSA Animal Wellbeing Reports conclude that millions of UK pets are not receiving vita I and often life-saving preventative care such as vaccination, neutering, flea and worming treatments and micro-chipping.
- When it comes to seeking advice on preventative healthcare, the veterinary surgeon is still the most frequently cited source of information according to both NOAH and PDSA studies.
- There remains a clear need to educate pet owners and change behaviours to ensure that animals remain protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.