The Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) is organizing its open house this weekend. Visitors can come and meet the animals present in the association’s 63 shelters and SPA houses. More than 3,900 animals are currently up for adoption, according to the SPA website.
For this occasion, the SPA unveiled a survey. Produced by Opinionway from March 15 to 22, 2023, it analyzes the obstacles and levers to adopting an animal. This reveals that “the rise in the cost of living has an impact on the adoption project even if it is not major”.
Financial barriers to adoption
Thus, among the French who plan to have a pet, 25% cite financial reasons linked to inflation to explain the lack of immediate adoption. This is the second reason most frequently cited by respondents, behind the hesitation on the place of purchase or adoption. They are also 16% to mention as a brake financial reasons other than inflation or the rise in the cost of living.
In all, 41% of respondents with an adoption project in the next 12 months mention financial limits to this project.
Among people with a longer-term adoption plan (beyond the next 12 months), 34% cite financial reasons as the explanation for this delay, including 18% financial reasons related to inflation and rising prices. of the cost of living.
The frequent absence from home is the reason most cited by respondents (39%), ahead of the lack of space at home (30%).
On the other hand, among people who do not have pets and do not wish to have one, it is more the constraints that are mentioned.
Half of them believe that a pet represents too many constraints on a daily basis and 40% that it is too many constraints for the holidays. Only 21% mention financial reasons related to the acquisition and maintenance of the animal.
Refuges still not very popular
If the financial reasons are mentioned by many as a limit to the adoption or purchase of a pet, the SPA nevertheless reminds that it is possible to have one at a lower cost by turning to shelters and associations.
55% of future owners also indicate that they consider associations or shelters as a place to acquire their future pet. The shelter or association is favored to allow an animal to have a better life (65% of respondents mention it as the lever of their choice), to support the animal cause (53%), to adopt an animal already vaccinated , identified and sterilized (36%) or to adopt close to home (23%).
On the other hand, among the current owners, 79% acquired their animal other than via an association or a shelter. For 45% of them, their animal was donated or purchased from private individuals.
Respondents mention as a barrier to adoption in a shelter or association the desire to have a baby animal (28%), to know the origin or history of the animal (15%), to know the mental health of the animal (14%) or the desire to choose a particular breed (13%).
