Christmas is a week away and I know who’s on many of your gift lists: Your pets.
The London Daily Mail reports, “According to a survey by Rover.com of 1,000 U.S. pet owners, an incredible 95 percent admit to buying Christmas gifts for their pets.”
The survey’s other findings on U.S. pet owners include:
• More than a third say they buy their pet a present for birthdays (61 percent) and other holidays (11 percent for Valentine’s Day).
• They pay an average of $36 for a pet gift, but one in 20 admits to spending more than $100.
• One in 10 takes their pet to the groomer once a month. Eight percent pay for regular pedicures.
• More than 30 percent have brought home “people food” specifically for preparing or cooking for their pet, and 7 percent say they do it on a regular basis.
• Seven percent say they dress up their pets on a regular basis; 45 percent say they’ve done it at least once.
Am I surprised to hear that 95 percent of U.S. pet owners give Christmas presents to their pets? Yes. I figured it would be 100 percent.
“The pet is an important part of the family, and many people think, ‘We should be buying a gift,’” James Russo, senior vice president of global consumer insights at Nielsen, told the Los Angeles Times.
One Commonwealth colleague bought her very large dog a very large bed for Christmas. She’s hiding the bed in a closet so that it will be a surprise for him on Christmas Day.
My former wife has two dogs (a needy dachshund and a wandering shih tzu) and a cat (old and temperamental). Anne claims that she “never” buys Christmas present for her pets.
This is not true. The dachshund gets a new outfit every Christmas. The shih tzu gets toys. Unfortunately, the dachshund always steals the toys, and the shih tzu refuses to have anything more to do with them. Even some of the Christmas decorations in Anne’s yard are dachshund-shaped.
The cat hasn’t gotten anything for Christmas lately. But what do you buy for a sullen, senior-citizen tomcat?
Mental health experts say it’s not crazy to want to give gifts to pets. It’s part of the innate human “need to nurture,” one psychologist told USA Today.
“What’s the harm?” said Stanley Coren, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and a Psychology Today columnist on human-pet interactions. “Someone may go spend $20 on a rhinestone collar. That’s pretty much the worst that will happen.”
The impulse to buy gifts for pets can turn up in unexpected places.
My parents were conservative (in life and politics) and serious-minded people. They grew up on farms and had more pragmatic views about animals than a city kid like me.
They were also animal lovers, even though my mother never wanted to admit it. The Corder pets received plenty of love and attention, even the ones that were dumped on my parents by their children.
The Corder pets also got Christmas presents every year. Some years, the pets even had Christmas stockings. After all, why wouldn’t Santa Claus bring a present for every member of the family?
• Contact Charles Corder at 581-7241 or ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
