In recent years, whether it is a first-tier city, or a second-tier or third-tier city, more and more young people choose to keep pets to accompany themselves. As a developed country in Europe, Spaniards have the habit of keeping pets even earlier, especially Spaniards who like to live alone and marry late.
The recent news of Spaniards walking their dogs as a result of the epidemic has been hilarious, and there has even been the bizarre news of renting a dog to walk. With this news, we can understand the things that Spaniards and pets. There are more pets than children in Spain, with 67% of people raising their pets as children!
How many pets do Spaniards have?
According to the data, Spain, with a population of only 46.73 million, has around 20 million pets (fewer will actually be registered), which is much more than the number of children in Spain, and is the largest per capita pet population in Europe.
The number of registered dogs accounted for 22% of the total, with an average of 1.31 dogs per household. (In reality it is a bit more.)
But it’s cats that are the favorite pets of Spaniards, accounting for about 50% of the total, with birds, rabbits, and all sorts of weird and wonderful small pets making up the rest.
How spoiled are pets in Spain?
67% of Spaniards refer to their pets as their “children”.
62% of Spaniards celebrate their beloved pet’s birthday every year.
18% have birthday parties for their pets.
More than 30% of Spaniards, take photographic pictures of their pets once a year.
More than 1/5 of Spaniards, spend more on their pets than they do on themselves, on average between 300-1000 euros a year.
In Spain, there are more hospitals that specialize in rescuing pets and grooming hospitals that serve pets than there are hospitals that serve people.
Truly treating your pet as your family member
Sixty percent of Spaniards believe in providing themselves with bereavement leave for the passing of a pet.
Around 30% of Spaniards, support pet parental leave.
Therefore, in Spanish companies, pets’ illnesses, births and deaths are very common reasons for taking time off. If the employer does not approve the leave, the employer will be “criticized” by the employees for being inhuman or fired.
That’s why even in the face of a serious epidemic, Spain allows dogs to be walked outside because they get unhappy when they spend too much time at home.
Behind the scenes is the reflection of a lonely Spain
With Spain’s low birth rate, the idea of choosing a pet as a companion will only increase. This is a phenomenon that inevitably occurs with the rapid development of cities, and the same phenomenon is also occurring in our country. Those you see “dog son” “cat daughter” will only be more not less, and similar to the pet funeral, pet cemetery of the strange news, perhaps in the future will only be more refreshing your knowledge.
The more highly developed the city is, the more independent people become and the more lonely they feel. In the past, we could have a long relationship, and accomplished life events such as getting married and having children before the age of 30. And with the rapid development of urban civilization, we talk about shorter and shorter relationships, the object also from the only to several, gradually people find that can always be with their side is only their pets, so much so that many people break up, the fight to tear the most is the custody of pets.
As we all know, compared to the Chinese concept of family, Westerners have always promoted the concept of independent and autonomous life, and many people live their own lives separately from their parents when they become adults. Retired elderly people seldom help their children to bring up their children, and usually they keep pets to keep them company.
Young people also choose pets as their “companions”, in people’s opinion, pets are more willing to listen to their voices than people. In the life of living alone, pets are like their own family members who can accompany them to go out, to travel, to go to a warm life, and to solve their loneliness after leaving their parents.
This mentality is widely recognized as one grows older. Spain is a country of late marriage and late childbearing, with women having children at 31.9 years of age per capita, and the average woman having her first child at the age of 35 or even later, at 40. So during the time when they leave their parents and start their own families, people need to find an emotional support, and cats and dogs become the best companions.
