A New Family Member or the Latest Sign of the Family Decline? A Research on the Family Life of Italians and Their Pets

Women and men always lived together with animals, but in recent years some important changes can be noticed in western societies: the number of pets in our houses is in- creasing, just like the expenses dedicated to them; more- over, many people began to bring their nonhuman com- panions outside the home, in supermarkets, restaurants, public transports and holidays. Vegans and groups for an- imal rights are becoming most popular. Some people think that this new kind of relationships with animals is an advancement of societies in social justice and morality; others consider these new habits as a symptom of the excessive individualism and hypocrite capitalism, linked to search for uncommitted relationships and to the declin- ing of birth rates. Our paper proposes the outcome of a research investi- gating humans and animals relationships in intimate live. Our goal is to come to light the new practices concerning pets that are spreading in everyday lives, and the mean- ings that women and men give to these relationships : How people consider animals with which they live? How much the choices concerning pets affect the family plans? Are there significant differences between women and men, or depending on social class and age? We have collected and analyzed more than 130 in-depth interviews to Italian women and men of different ages and background, and a similar number of pictures of their animals. The impressive consistency of the stories confirm that a deep change is happening in family cultures and intimate lives. Due to the lack of empirical research on this topic, we imagine that our evidence may offer suggestions to other analysis and inter- national literature.