Cats and dogs escape financial cutbacks

While it’s impossible to go through a day without hearing about new austerity measures, pet owners who believe in preventative healthcare, it seems, are bucking the trend, with significantly more (84%) visiting the vet at least once a year in 2010 compared to 2007 (78%). What’s more, 44% have increased their spend on their pets in the last year with only a very small number (5%) decreasing it. There has also been a significant increase in the number of dogs insured by this group since 2007, which now stands at 55% compared to 41% in 2007.

These findings are part of a recent Noesis survey (January 2011) commissioned by the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) of 1,000 pet owners, which was originally run in 2007. The research 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 vet more frequently and spending more on their pets, preventers also visited a pet shop significantly more often than non-preventers with nearly two thirds (61%) of preventers visiting at least once a month compared to 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 points to a clear need to educate non-preventers to break habits that have sometimes been handed down from generation to generation.

Most owners from both groups had used a flea treatment on their pets in the past two years although 68% of preventers were much more proactive in their usage of flea products compared to only 40% of non-preventers. Cats (80%) are more likely to have been treated than dogs (69%) among both groups of owners although flea treatment of cats has significantly decreased among non-preventers since 2007.

Use of wormers was also in decline. Although 86% of preventers worm proactively as part of a healthcare routine for their pet, this figure has 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 are more likely than non-preventers to be aware of the zoonotic implications of 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 three months in 2010 which was significantly more than compared to 41% in 2007.

When asked where they obtained general healthcare advice, the vet was the most frequently cited source of information with 84% of preventers and 58% of non-preventers referencing their vet. 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.

There was huge interest from both groups (87% of preventers and 79% of non-preventers) in using a dedicated website such as NOAH’s www.pethealthinfo.org.uk which 10% of the pet owners surveyed had heard of. It was welcomed for providing easy access, immediate, independent advice and being written by veterinary experts.

Commenting on the research, Phil Sketchley, chief executive of NOAH says: “We commissioned the original piece of research in 2007 to understand the differences between both groups of pet owners and understand where they sourced their information in order to influence the pet healthcare habits of the non-preventers in particular. The importance of the internet as a source of information proved that our strategy to launch www.pethealthinfo.org.uk was on target and the latest survey shows that this channel is increasingly important, particularly among non-preventers.

“The 2011 survey also reveals some positive insights into the preventative healthcare habits of those pet owners that we termed preventers. This group are more likely to insure their pet (45% vs 12%), go to the vet at least once a year (84% vs 30%) and visit a pet shop at least on a monthly basis (61% vs 36%). And, as a final piece of good news, this group have increased their total spend on their pets in the last year and very few members of either group had decreased their spend.

“Whilst all pet owners consider themselves responsible clearly some do not see regular preventative healthcare as part of that responsibility. So there remains a clear need to educate pet owners, particularly the non-preventers, to change some of the patterns of behaviour and complacency regarding their pet’s health that have become entrenched and seem to have been influenced by friends and family.”

Ends

19 October 2011

Notes for Editors

1. The National Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent UK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animal health products.

2. A quantitative survey of 1,091 pet owners was carried out on the internet in December 2010 by Noesis and presented by Dr Mo Gannon of MoGannon Associates at NOAH’s 26th Annual Conference on October 18th. This was a repeat of a survey of 1,024 pet owners carried out in May / June 2007
3. *‘Preventers’ are defined as those pet owners who had wormed their pet in the last year and / or vaccinated their pet in the last 2 years. ‘Non-preventers’ are defined as those pet owners who had neither wormed their pet in the last year nor vaccinated in the last 2 years.
4. For a copy of the complete survey follow this link
5. For further information, please contact Diana Rhodes, Blue Zebra PR, Tel: 01235 434360. Email: diana.rhodes@bluezebrapr.com. For further information on NOAH contact Phil Sketchley or Alison Glennon at NOAH, tel. +44 (0)20 8367 3131