1 in 5 Americans prefer a pet to a human on Valentine’s Day

I firmly believe that Valentine’s Day is just a farce of a holiday that reveals nothing about a relationship other than sharing a common bond over not wanting friends and family to think you’re a lonely person incapable of love. But that said, it carries some symbolic weight. So what does it say about people when one-fifth of people polled say they’d rather be with a pet than a partner on Valentine’s Day. Get the Skippy!

Rather than spending Valentine’s Day with their partner, one-fifth of adults would prefer to be with their pet, although the French still came top for romance, according to a joint global poll by Reuters/Ipsos.

The survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries found 21 percent of adults would rather spend February 14 with their pet than their spouse, although the French were least likely to choose a furry friend over a human with only 10 percent taking that option.

But the survey found that age and income were more of a determining factor than nationality when it came to romance, with younger, less affluent people more likely to choose their pet as their Valentine’s Day companion.

John Wright, senior vice president of Ipsos, said 25 percent of people aged under 35 opted for their pet over their partner compared to 18 percent of those aged 35-54 and 14 percent of people aged 55 plus.

Men and women were evenly split over the question.

Then again, maybe it does make some sense, especially if you’re a man. What do guys get out of Valentine’s Day, really? I feel like you end up spending it with some girl you don’t really have any romantic feelings with just because you’re “supposed to” or you end up falling way short of what your delusional girlfriend expects of Valentine’s Day thanks to stupid movies and TV. But with a dog, you just scratch him behind the ear, play a video game, perhaps pleasure yourself while he stares at you with his head tilted to the side…typically only 33% of these options occur with a girlfriend.

Fifth of adults choose pet over partner on V’Day [Yahoo]

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