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People tell pets their troubles

About one in 10 pet owners in the US would confide in a pet, finds an Associated Press-Petside.com poll.

The survey of 1 112 pet owners nationwide also found that one-third of pet-owning married women and 18% of pet-owning married men said their pets are better listeners than their spouses.

Respondents were more likely to unburden on dogs than cats. While 25% of dog owners said Fido listened better than a spouse, only 14% of cat owners said the same thing, the AP reported.

The poll also found that only 5% of pet owners said they had taken a pet to a veterinarian or animal psychologist because the pet seemed depressed. However, 18 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to take a pet to a vet or animal psychologist if it seemed unhappy.

"Pets are great because they provide us with unconditional support. They never talk back, never give us the wrong opinion and they are always there for us," Karen Sueda, a Los Angeles veterinarian and pet psychologist, told the AP.

"As much as we love our spouses or significant others, sometimes they are not there, sometimes they have their own thoughts about how we should deal with situations. And sometimes, especially when it's a husband or male significant other, they want to solve the problem rather than just listening to the problem," she said. - (HealthDay News, April 2010)

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