Coping with Pet Food Insecurity in Low-Income Communities

Abstract

ABSTRACT To what extent, if at all, do low-income owners of dogs and/or cats worry about running out of pet food before being able to buy more? If this insecurity exists among these pet owners, what contributes to it besides the inability to afford pet food? And whatever the sources of pet food insecurity, how do owners cope with it? A non-random, snowball sample of clients (n = 40) at three pet food pantries operated in Charlotte, North Carolina, Washington, DC, and Hyannis, Massachusetts were interviewed to understand their perspective toward and experience with feeding their pets. Results indicate that respondents commonly experienced emotional distress because they worried about being able to feed their pets and resorted to a variety of coping strategies to lessen this insecurity. They used pet food pantries, stretched their available supply of pet food, saved to buy pet food, shared human food with pets, asked for or borrowed pet food or money, and/or made sacrifices to buy pet food. Using these strategies enabled respondents to not surrender or abandon their pets and to see themselves as responsible owners, even if what they did fell short of how they typically fed their pets or what they considered being best for them. The extent to which these strategies are effective and parallel to those used by people in or near poverty to cope with human food insecurity are discussed.