Pets: how many millions of friends?

If our compatriots appreciate animals, they are also champions of abandonment.

Nearly 100,000 domestic animals are thus abandoned by their masters each year in France, according to the animal rights association Trente Million Amis.

This cause is therefore at the heart of the bill which is coming to the Assembly this week.

There is no doubt that the deputies will be like dogs and cats when examining the text, and certain amendments, as the subject is so concerning for the French.

One in two French households has at least one pet, according to statistics given by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Here is a quantified breakdown disseminated by the Facco (Federation of animal feed manufacturers).

According to Facco, which is based on a Kantar survey, France has more than 14 million cats, nearly 8 million dogs and 32 million fish.

And that's not to mention birds, equines or rodents of all species ...

Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been a sharp increase in the number of cats in France, while the number of dogs has tended to drop, even if it is recovering in recent years.

These canine and feline populations are not evenly distributed throughout the territory.

Thus, according to an Ifop survey published in 2020, the proportions of dogs and cats per capita can vary from simple to double depending on the region.

Here is the breakdown for cats.

Likewise, the distribution for dogs varies greatly from region to region.

If it reaches 35% in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, it falls to 17% in Ile-de-France.

Finally, it would seem that the animal cause is a growing concern among our compatriots.

The numbers of adoptions do indeed tend to increase, if we are to believe the annual report provided by the SPA.

The last figure shows 49,971 adoptions of all species.

It exceeds 40,000 adoptions for dogs and cats.

The defense of the animal cause has become, for some, a national priority.

For nearly 7 in 10 French people (69%), animals are poorly defended by politicians, according to the latest Ifop barometer for the 30 Millions d'Amis Foundation.

This new aspiration seems to be confirmed by another indicator, which this time concerns the number of associations created with the aim of protecting animals.

The graph below, available on the geranimo.fr site, indeed shows strong growth in this area.