While most dog owners would do anything for their pets without question, they might think twice about doing their annoying sibling a favour.
A new study has revealed 57 per cent of millennials love their pets more than their siblings, with another 50 per cent saying the same about their mums.
Researchers at ConsumerAffairs, a customer review and consumer news platform, spoke to 1,000 pet owners, nearly half of which were millennials between 27 and 42-years-old, to determine how their pets ranked against family members.
A statement reads: "The study began with a heavy hitter: Which family members do you love less than your pet? To get a sense of how things may look in the future, we also asked respondents whether they’d rather have animals than human children of their own.
Sign up to our TeamDogs newsletter for your weekly dose of dog news, pictures and stories.
"The vast majority (81 per cent) of millennials admitted to loving their pets more than at least one family member — and this doesn’t mean a weird uncle or an estranged cousin.
"Our survey showed it was actually most often their own siblings: 57 per cent loved their pets more than their brother or sister, and exactly half claimed to love their pets more than their own mother. Even romantic partners still came second to a pet for 30 per cent of respondents.
"Previous studies have shown that millennials are less likely to own homes and have children than the generations before them. Evidently, pets may have a lot to do with this.
"58 percent of millennials said they’d prefer to have pets over human children. This was especially true for cat owners, among whom the percentage jumped to 63 per cent."
When it comes to taking care of their pet, most millennials were pretty confident they could afford a life-saving treatment for their pets within the next month.
The statement adds: "If push came to shove and millennials truly couldn’t afford a life-saving treatment for their animal, they reported a willingness to take on a part-time second job (49 per cent) or sell possessions such as TVs (43 per cent), laptops (41 per cent) or jewellery (29 per cent).
One of the most popular choices, however, was to start a GoFundMe page (46 per cent). This is a tried-and-tested tactic; many have already turned to the crowdfunding site to raise money for pet surgeries — so much so that GoFundMe has an entire article walking its users through this exact process."
Do you have a dog story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
