Furry friends and fewer children

Fertility rates at their lowest – and now our kids are identifying as animals

Column By Alice Jones

NOTHING much surprises me these days as the lines appear to blur between man, woman and animal kind. When a woman passed me in a stroller recently, I expected to glance at a rosy-cheeked baby but instead, bundled in a fluffy blanket – long ears, a snout and a waggy tail… a fur baby!

Attire and a plethora of accessories for dogs leave the sensible waterproof coat or cosy fleece for dust. A search on Amazon for ‘clothes for dogs’ reaches seven pages and it seems our pampered pooches can now be dressed in anything from pyjamas to kilts and squeezed into relevant costumes to mark every calendar event – think Tiddles in Tinsel, or Charlie the Christmas cracker…

The Chihuahua donning a pink bow in its hair is mere child’s play. These days, we need lampposts on a cat walk because it’s a veritable furry fashion bonanza and it seems people may be forgetting that dogs are born with natural protective coats, they do need to walk, sniff and check their ‘peemails’ and most importantly, they’re NOT human.

Personification of pets has got totally out of control. Pooches and kitties have “their own” social media accounts, sometimes garnering hundreds of thousands of followers. Pets are referred to as part of the family, like any other human member.

And now we find that they are eclipsing actual human stars, earning millions as they go. Behold the rise of the “nepo pet” – the animal version of the “nepo baby” (a young person riding on the coat-tails of a famous parent).

Yet again, thanks to the lockdown fiascos, dog ownership rose notably, with people stuck at home believing a puppy might be a good idea. Tragically, a record number of these dogs are now requiring rehoming. Issues have also arisen around a lack of socialisation and training and once people returned to a more normal working routine, the costs of doggy day care or kennelling for holidays quickly became a cost too far. ‘Own a dog for life, not just for lockdown’ may have saved a lot of broken hearts but it was not to be.

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