| dc.description.abstract | Background: In the past few decades the animal keeping culture and habits
have changed a lot internationally, some animals have become family members.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented situation in the world,
including Hungary. In many places, the quarantine period was associated with
isolation and, therefore, an increase in the number of companion animals.
Objectives: Our aims were to 1) survey the animal keeping culture and habits, 2)
examine the motivation of the owners and 3) explore the attitudes about adoption,
neutering, breeding and the use of livestock animals in Hungary.
Materials and Methods: Specialized surveys were conducted among 843
persons through social media and personal interviews from 20 June to 30 August
2021 by using a questionnaire including 46 questions. The chosen groups were
compared with Fisher’s Exact test and Chi-square test.
Results and Discussion: 97.0% of the respondents regard their dog as a family
member. Nearly 25% of the respondents do not wish to neuter their dogs, because
they want to breed the dogs or they find it unnecessary. The primary reason
for cat keepers not to neuter their pet is the financial issue. Animal keepers
and women are significantly more likely to consider their animal as a family
member (p < 0.001). Men, the elderly, people who live in the countryside and those
who have only elementary education think that neutering is of less importance
(p < 0.001). Non-animal keepers, elderly people and men think more negatively
about adoption. Buying an animal from a breeder is more important to the younger
age groups (p < 0.001) and those who live in Budapest (p < 0.01). 42.3% of the
respondents gave the lowest evaluation scores to the assessment of the livestock
units. Women, people from younger age groups (p < 0.05) and those who have higher
education (p < 0.001) think more negatively about the use of farm animals. Nonanimal keepers, the elderly and people of lower education consider the livestock
animals’ emotional intelligence lower (p < 0.05). Men (p < 0.001), people over 65 years
of age (p < 0.001) and of lower education (p < 0.01), and also non-animal keepers
(p < 0.001) accept significantly easier the use of livestock animals. | en_US |
