Cats even more popular than dogs – experts are calling for more education about pets
Created: 01/10/2023, 02:00 p.m
By: Anne Hund
The house tiger is still at the top of the popularity scale.
Anyone who buys a pet should do some research beforehand, connoisseurs emphasize.
A pet wants to be well cared for and can bring a lot of joy.
Cats are particularly popular.
The German Press Agency (dpa) reported on this at the beginning of the year: according to information from retailers, the cat is still at the top of the popularity scale for animal lovers in Germany, the report says.
In 2021, around 34.7 million pets lived in German households - around 16.7 million of them were cats, according to Antje Schreiber from the Central Association of Zoological Specialists (ZZF) dpa.
The association is currently evaluating the data for 2022: according to the current status, the cat will continue to lead the ranking, closely followed by the dog.
This is followed by small mammals such as rabbits, hamsters or guinea pigs.
Cats are even more popular than dogs – small animals follow in third place
House tigers are still particularly popular.
(Iconic image) © CHROMORANGE/Imago
The association has published some figures on the “Pet Population in Germany 2021” on its website.
"In 2021, as in the previous year, there were pets in almost half of all households in Germany (47 percent)," it says, among other things.
The proportion of households with different types of pets also remained the same.
“All in all, people in this country lived with 34.7 million dogs, cats, small mammals and ornamental birds.
There were also numerous ornamental fish and terrarium animals.
69 percent of all families with children had a pet and 15 percent of all households had at least two types of pets.” This is the result of a representative household survey.
Pets in Germany (2021) | number | households |
cats | 16.7 million | 26 percent |
dogs | 10.3 million | 21 percent |
small animals | 4.6 million | 5 percent |
ornamental birds | 3.1 million | 3 percent |
aquariums | 2.3 million | 4 percent |
garden ponds* | 1.4 Million | 3 percent |
terrariums | 1.2 million | 2 percent |
*with ornamental fish
Source: www.zzf.de
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Cats are the most popular animal - More education about pets is required
Advice for future pet owners when purchasing animals will continue to be essential in the future, according to the experts.
According to dpa, Antje Schreiber explained that the pet shop provides information about legal animal husbandry in accordance with the Species Protection and Animal Welfare Act.
The association warns, for example, against the purchase of torture breeds, as some of them are offered on the Internet.
Examples are characteristics relevant to animal welfare such as hairlessness and lack of scales or dwarfism, short legs or short heads.
Cats with large, rounded heads and snub noses, for example, suffer more from misaligned teeth and restricted breathing.
"Legally binding lists of breeding forms and individual characteristics that are to be regarded as tormented breeds would provide more clarity," said the association.