A Michael Broad Blog
We know from previous pronouncements that the current Pope Francis is vehemently against people having pets rather than children. He’s just reinforced that belief while visiting Indonesia. And in doing so he has reignited a long-standing quarrel with families who prefer to have a pet dog or cat rather than children. But they do …
Why should the shares of a clay mining company, Oil-Dri Corp, rise impressively year-on-year because millennials chose pets over parenthood? Because of the greatly increased demand for clay-based cat litter to accommodate the increased number of pets living in America’s homes. This article looks at the trend of millennials (born 1981-1996, 28-43 years old) …
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 …
Lone-parent families are more likely to experience financial difficulties particularly now during the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. But they will be less robust than the traditional family unit at any time in terms of coping with life’s vicissitudes. And it is now reported in The Times that nearly 50% of British children grow …
Ricky Gervais has weighed into the argument about the Pope’s hypocritical pronouncements about some people preferring companion animals over children. Many people have always preferred companion animals over children but this topic has become heated recently because of discussions about global warming and a recognition of the unsustainable and rapid rise in the world’s …
Why do domestic cats lick each other? The answer is the one you’re thinking about! It is a social exchange that can follow the friendly tail-up greeting. Mutual licking between cats is called allogrooming. Incidentally, the word, as you might imagine, is a combination of ‘allo’ and ‘grooming’. You know what grooming means. The …
This flow chart explains why I say life is getting better for the domestic cat: The information comes from the AVMA 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook. This obviously applies to the USA. However it could equally well apply to the UK. The specific numbers (USA) are as follows: Among divorced, widowed and …
