Owners likely pamper their pets, poll confirms

NEW YORK - Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair.

Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. But for Jacobs, 45, of Long Beach, Calif., he is like a child.

"The next time I travel, I'll probably take him with me," said Jacobs, a Mary Kay consultant and freelance writer. "I'm just used to him being around."

An Associated Press-Petside.com poll released yesterday found that half of all American pet owners consider their pets as much a part of the family as any other person in the household; another 36 percent said their pet is part of the family but not a full member.

And that means pets often get the human touch: Most pet owners admit feeding animals human food, nearly half give the animals human names and nearly a third let them sleep in a human bed. While just 19 percent had bought an outfit for a pet, 43 percent felt their pet had its own "sense of style."

Singles were more likely to say a pet was a full member of the family than married people - 66 percent of single women versus 46 percent of married women, for example. And men were less likely to call their pet a full member of the household.

Only a little over a quarter of those polled celebrate their pet's birthday or the day it came to live with them and just a third have included a pet's photo or name in a holiday card.

Still, 42 percent of pet owners have taken a pet on vacation, with dogs more likely to accompany the family than cats. Dog owners were also more likely to take their pets to work (21 percent) or somewhere the animal wasn't allowed (18 percent).

When it comes to feedings, nearly half of all dog owners and 40 percent of cat owners admit giving their pets human food at least sometimes.

The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from May 28-June 1, 2009. It is based on landline and cellular telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,110 pet owners. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. *