50pc Kiwis can risk their life to save pets

Melbourne, Feb 26 (ANI): A new study has found that over 50 per cent of pet owners can risk their life to save their pets.

The New Zealand-based poll, conducted by Steve Glassey, a distance education student at Charles Sturt University in NSW, showed that 58 per cent of people would return to a danger zone to save their four-legged friends.

According to Glassey, 99 per cent people think of their pet as a family member.

"They've got quite a strong bond so that means in a disaster they're quite less likely to abandon them if they're told to do so," the Daily Telegraph quoted Glassey, a former officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as saying.

Glassey carried out the online survey after finding that a lack of provisions for pets in emergency shelters was a reason people were unwilling to leave their homes when Hurricane Katrina struck he US five years ago. (ANI)