June 2023

Research and Insights Blog June 2023

Welcome to June’s Research and Insights blog! Every month I will be sharing some of the recently released articles, reports and internal insights related to the pet welfare sector and wider pet ownership.

I’m introducing three of the most comprehensive pet welfare sector reports this month. I’m starting with these examples as each is highly respected and often the publication of the most recent version is eagerly awaited. These reports are amongst the first additions to the Insights Hub and are just a sample of the large-scale reports produced on an annual basis to provide comprehensive data on pet welfare and ownership. They highlight key stats and allow us to track trends and see how issues may be improving or worsening. All of this helps us as an organisation to consider developments that might help more pets and their people moving forwards.

All of the below reports can be accessed via the Insights Hub and links to the appropriate pages are included below.

PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report 2023

Every year since 2011, the PDSA has worked with YouGov (one of the UK’s leading research companies) to produce the annual PAW Report. For us at Woodgreen, this report provides a fascinating insight into the lives of dogs, cats and rabbits (and their owners) across the UK and is really helpful when we are considering the direction of organisational strategies or need some statistics to support a proposal relating to service development.

Each PAW report contains a selection of new and repeating questions. The idea is that trends can be tracked within the animal welfare sector across the years but also that topical themes such as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic or the Cost of Living crisis can be explored. The most recent report was released in May this year and focused on the Cost of Living crisis and Fertility clinics.

Here are just a few examples of the types of statistics included. I’d encourage everyone to have a look at these reports when you get a chance as they make fascinating reading.

• 72% of dogs, 57% of cats and 55% of rabbits were found online
• 83% of owners were concerned that the cost of living crisis would have a negative effect on the welfare of pets in the UK
• 33% of owners said that owning a pet was more expensive than they expected
  
• 34% of owners were making personal cost-saving decisions so they could continue to care for their pet
• The proportion of owners who say they haven’t currently registered their pet with a vet because it’s too expensive has increased in 2023 (17%) compared to February 2020 (11%)
• On average 1.49 litter trays are provided in households of 2 or more cats

Find out more here.

Cats Protection Cats and Their Stats (CATS) Report

The CATS report is the most comprehensive survey of cat owners in the UK. Undertaken annually by Cats Protection, the report provides insight into the cat population and the challenges owners face. It covers a range of different topics including cat ownership, where people are getting cats from, cat health and the role that cats play in our lives. The CATS report is relatively new, with the first version of the report produced in 2020.

Cats Protection work with an external and independent agency to produce the CATS report and use an online survey to collect data from a nationally representative sample.

The 2023 report is yet to be released so here are just a few of the findings from the 2022 report.

• There are around 11 million owned cats in the UK
• A higher proportion of younger people seem to be owning cats – 32% of 18-24 year olds now own a cat, compared with 25% in 2021
• 85% of cats are neutered. 71% of cats are microchipped.
  • Worryingly 39% of female cats remain unneutered by the time they reach a year old
• For almost a quarter (24%) of cat owners, the cost was the biggest barrier to making vet visits as often as they would like.
• 92% of owners consider their cat part of the family
• 29% of cats were brought, 24% were adopted from a rescue centre and 17% were taken on from a neighbour/friend or family member.

Watch this space for the 2023 CATS report to be published. If you’re interested in knowing more and hearing directly from Cats Protection about their findings check out this webinar in November.

A deep dive into Cats Protection’s Cats and Their Stats (CATS) Report 2023

You can find the report link on the Insights Hub here.

UK Pet Food 2023 UK Pet Data Report

Every year UK Pet Food (formerly Pet Food Manufacturers Association) produces the UK Pet Data report. This report focuses on the pet food market, pet populations and a topical theme, which this year unsurprisingly is the cost of living impact. From a Woodgreen perspective, it’s the pet population and topical issues insight that really interests us and provides us with valuable information about the wider pet sector.

The 2023 version reports a total pet population of around 38 million, which is an increase of around 3 million on the population reported in 2022. Here are the top ten types of pets in 2023 (not including fish, where the population is estimated to be 13 million):

For 2023, UK Pet Food asked a series of questions about the costs of pet ownership and the changes in owner behaviour because of the cost-of-living crisis. They also look at the percentage of owners who had had to give up a pet during the previous year.

Find out more here.

Next month will reflect on some of the talks at the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) conference which I’ve recently attended. The conference theme was ‘Anthrozoology: The Spectrum of Human-Animal Interactions and Relationships’ and the range of talks included everything from pet attachment and owner personality to shelter animals and pet adoption.

To end this blog, just a little reminder to check out the Insights Hub, where there are plenty of interesting articles to be found, and if you have any questions or just want to talk about research, please feel free to get in touch!

Happy Reading!

Nat