NPR for Northern Colorado

If Forced To Choose, Some Would Stick With Pets Before Spouses

Me? Or her?
Vanderlei Almeida

If confronted with an "it's me or the dog" ultimatum, it looks like about 1 in 7 Americans would go with Fido.

At least that's what a national survey done for the Associated Press and Petside.com indicates.

When asked "just hypothetically, if you had to choose between a spouse or significant other, and your pet, which do you think you would choose?" of the 1,000 people surveyed:

— 84 percent said they would stick with their spouse or significant other.

— 14 percent chose the pet.

— 1 percent said they didn't know.

— 1 percent wouldn't answer (perhaps someone was listening?).

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.