What does your love of animals reveal about you?

Question: Why would the University of Oregon College of Business Administration be profiling 667 pet owners?

Answer: People with pets are major players in the world of business.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association reports in its 2003/2004 National Pet Owners Survey that 62 percent of U.S. households now welcome at least one pet into their homes. These humans are fueling $31 billion in pet products, more than people spend annually on human toys or candy. Add to products the popular pet services – massages, chiropractic, acupuncture, liposuction, gourmet dinners, and hotel accommodations – and you get an industry that is vitally interested in what will make you buy that designer dog dish or French day bed. (“New Survey Shows America’s Love Affair with Their Pets Stronger than Ever” by Tierra Griffiths and Julie Rowe)

So Oregon’s College of Business Administration graduate students, under the leadership of Lynn Kahle, head of the marketing department, tried to figure out what your choice of a pet tells about you. With that essential information, marketers can appeal to your sensibilities and convince you that Precious really does need a plastic bowl with a lid that doubles as a Frisbee.

Here’s what they found with their questionnaire:

--Dog owners tend to be more honest and forthright than most other people. They are loyal and religious;

--If you consider yourself to be a cat person, you probably are a bit of a loner yet have fairly high job satisfaction. You tend not to toe the line when it comes to the rules and rituals of an organized religion;

--People who are primarily attracted to fish as pets are more optimistic than most and not as materialistic or concerned about social status.

Kahle concludes, “A more thorough understanding of the motivations, values, and lifestyles of pet owners can help marketers design more effective advertising approaches, both for pet products and in advertisements for nonpet products.” (“We Lavish Love, Money on Our Pets Study Reveals Psyches of Animal Owners” by Ranny Green, Seattle Times, 1993)

So the gathering of this kind of data is how pet commercials are targeted directly at what excites and interests you – not your animal companion.

Well, we have a slightly different take on the subject. We think that not only do animals often reflect a person’s psyche, they also mirror their souls, or the amount of love in their hearts. It’s our opinion that a person who says, “I don’t like animals,” is experiencing a disconnect between the heart and the mind. Ask any animal lover and they will tell you: Animals are our hearts.

In our book, God’s Messengers: What Animals Teach Us about the Divine, we write, “Sometimes before we speak at a book event, we say to the bookstore manager, ‘Watch the people who come in the door. Animal lovers are the most compassionate and generous people on the planet.’ We speak about you with confidence because we know that when you relate to animals in a loving and respectful way, you have the opportunity to learn from some of life’s wisest teachers and to be restored by its most skillful healers.”