Pets twice outnumber children in 86 of the 103 municipalities across Malaga province, and this is why...

In Philip K. Dick's famous science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? there are no children. This literary work, which inspired Ridley Scott's famous film Blade Runner, really explores the essence of the human species. The leading man, android-hunter Rick Deckard, spends the whole story obsessed with acquiring a real flesh and blood pet - he already has an electric sheep. He doesn't even think about having a son or daughter.

What was written in the 1960s does not seem so much like science fiction today. For several years now, the number of pets has outnumbered children in many countries around the world. Spain is one of them, where pets outnumber children by a factor of two. At provincial level, in Malaga this proportion was almost repeated on 1 January 2024, with 499,172 known and logged dogs and cats compared to the census figure of 289,836 children and adolescents (population aged from zero to sixteen years). That makes a ratio of 1.7 pets per child. The data are from Cacov (the Andalusian council of official veterinary associations) and IECA (Andalucía's institute of statistics and cartography).

"In 'screen societies' we need to humanise that animal instinct to express emotions. It is paradoxical, but digital societies are simultaneously cold and emotional. And that emotional need, in a cold society, finds refuge in domestic animals," explained sociology professor Luis Ayuso from the University of Malaga (UMA).

This is compounded by an ageing population and, consequently, a declining birth rate. This phenomenon becomes more concerning in rural areas and small towns.

This is confirmed by the data. In all the municipalities of Malaga there are more pets than children and under-17s. Moreover, in 86 of the 103 municipalities in the province (83.5%), dogs and cats outnumber those under 17. This pets to children ratio is only lessened in the larger towns, with the city of Malaga as the main stronghold, (it has the lowest figure in the whole province of 1.19). At the other end of the scale the proportion of pets soars in villages such as Júzcar in the Serranía de Ronda, with the highest ratio of 11.85 pets per child.

There are various factors that encourage this state of affairs. Juan Antonio de Luque, president of the Malaga Veterinary Association, lists them as follows: "The rural infrastructure itself, the customs, the depopulation of these areas, the tradition of keeping animals..." Furthermore, it is a fact that, contrary to what happens with children, even if there is a lower population in a given municipality, the number of pets per household does not change and it even increases. Villages such as Cartajima, Benadalid, Cañete la Real, Sedella, Comares, Serrato or Jubrique are above a pets to children ratio of seven to one.

"Rural areas are much friendlier to animals, they require less care, there is more living space to have two or three pets... I don't think it is so much the ageing that exists in these small towns, because in big cities there are also a lot of elderly people living on their own. I think it's more the quality of life that the countryside offers to any animal," explained Dr José Sáez, an academic in social work from the University of Murcia.

This researcher is one of the leading experts in Spain on the role of pets in new family models, so much so that he is one of the advocates of the concept of the 'multi-species family'. He explained it as follows: "It is the bond established from animals to people and from people to animals. But it is not seen as a substitute, but as complementary. You can wish to have children at the same time as you wish to have pets."

This "desire to have pets" is, on many occasions, based on human need or opportunism. This is made clear by the data on how dog registrations have progressed over the last ten years in Malaga province. In the year of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020), the annual variation shot up by 8%. Yet in 2021 the decrease was almost double, 15.1%. During the main lockdown phase when we were confined to our homes, one of the exceptions to being allowed to leave the house was to walk the dog so it could do its business.

"I don't rule out that many sought pet adoption in order to get out of the house. But most of them, I think, also needed to combat the loneliness. Post-confinement did not mean an abandonment of animals, quite the contrary. There was an upturn in adoptions and veterinary care", said Juan Antonio de Luque, who also maintains that "looking after the health of the family also means looking after the health of the pet. And this is being penalised with the IVA (Spain's sales tax) rate at 21%."

While dogs still outnumber cats in the official pet registers, in Malaga city the felines are showing a steady increase. From 2021 to 2023 cat registrations have increased by 4,381 (24.8% up) compared to a decrease in dog registrations for the same period, that means 13,787 fewer canines (-15.6%).

Another analysis of the data reinforces what experts such as Luis Ayuso advocate: "Pets allow us to enter a new phase of human individualisation. You are accompanied, but at the same time alone. You are more individual with animals than with children. But you still have to take an animal to the vet, feed it, take the dog outside to urinate... Now it's pets that provide that companionship instead of children. In the future, it will be machines."

A powerful conclusion: will children and adolescents dream of electric sheep?

Sources and methodology: The data on pets refer only to dogs and cats (as they are the most representative domestic animals) registered at the end of each year; and come from the Andalusian council of official colleges of veterinarians. These can be consulted at the provincial level and at a lower geographic level (municipalities, towns, localities and residential developments), which have been grouped into municipalities to produce this information. The data on children and adolescents refer to the population from zero to sixteen years of age, inclusive, at the end of each year; and come from the Junta de Andalucía's institute of statistics and cartography. The index of the weight of pets on children and adolescents has been calculated by dividing the number of dogs and cats by the population from zero to sixteen years of age.