In what I would consider to be a developed world trend, in Taiwan newborn pet cats outnumber newborn babies (2023). The Taipei Times reports that “as of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year.” My research indicates that there are overall 1.4m dogs and 830k cats in Taiwan. The stats on newborns comes fom the Tapei Times of April 15th.
In Taiwan, adopting cats just outstripped newborn babies and dogs are not far behind. The data also indicates that Taiwan citizens prefer cats to dogs at least at the moment. Is this a trend? It might be one in line with modern life which leaves the companion alone more often which people believe cats can cope with better than dogs, which is not necessarily true by the way.
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In line with the increased pet population, demand for their medical treatment has also increased. This means an increase in veterinarians. This year there are 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan. Veterinarians treating pets numbered 3993. The information comes from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency.
There were 3,077 paediatricians in Taiwan as at 2022. There are, therefore, more veterinarians treating companion animals than there are doctors treating kids it seems to me. 💕
Animal hospitals are increasing investment in medical facilities.
The chairman of the Taipei Veterinary Medical Association, Yang Hsiao-po (楊孝柏) said this about the development,
“In the past, veterinarians could open an animal hospital with just a table and a stethoscope. A large percentage of people treated their pets as nothing more than animals. If a dog or a cat vomited, you only needed to prescribe some medications, and if it did not work, pet owners just came back for more visits.”
He added:
“People now treat dogs and cats as family members, and they could live as long as humans,” he said. “Animals now receive the same medical treatment as humans do. If they throw up, you have to do blood tests and an ultrasound to determine [whether] they have gastroenteritis.”
Comment: my thoughts immediately go to Pope Frances who does not want people to have pets rather than kids. He thinks it is the duty of parents to have a human family! I think he believes that having pets instead is ungodly and against the Christian faith.
And my thoughts also go to a recent article about a substantial number of families having “starter babies”. This means having a pet animal first to see whether you can cope and then going to the next stage of having a baby! I had never heard of that before until recently but depending upon your attitude it’s either a good idea or a bad one.
Yang added: “Raising dogs and cats has healing effects, and people would choose to have pets to accompany their elderly parents so that their parents can have a normal and more social life.”
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