verfasst von ifta Translation am Freitag, 13. Januar 2006, 15:22 Uhr
Munich (dpa) - In German houses it barks, meows or it beeps: Three-quarter of women (75 percent) and two thirds of men (68 percent) have or have had a pet, to some extent more than one at the same time. This is a result of a representative public-opinion poll from TNS-Emnid.
The absolute front-runner by women is the cat. 41 percent have one. By men 30 percent prefer cats. Every third German - with 31 percent - has a dog. By each third woman (33 percent) there's a bird in the house whilst by men only 19 percent want to have a feathered room mate. In every fourth household are living mini-rodents, in every fifth are hobbling hares or rabbits. Only three percent of the Germans have decided themselves for exotic animals like snakes or reptiles.
The reasons for the purchase of dog, cat or hamster are manifold: Living with pets makes more fun, said 76 percent who have or have had animals. In each second case (51 percent) the pet was acquired as playmate for the children. 40 percent love their animal because it is so cuddly. Every fourth (27 percent) means: «So faithful like a pet is no man.» The 464 polled women and men could give more answers on the question after the causes for the purchase. The magazine «Lisa» had given the poll in commission.
