Should it Stay or Should it Go?

by Erin Bauer | Apr 30, 2007

One of the top three reasons people give up their pets is allergies.

When you consider that almost 15 percent of the population suffers from a pet-related allergy of some sort, the need to correctly identify the sources of allergies and to implement strategies for minimizing their adverse effects become important factors in the effort to keep pets in their homes.

Unless their allergies are life-threatening, most pet owners who experience allergic reactions to their animals do attempt to live with the symptoms. In one group of 341 allergy-suffering pet owners who were advised by their physicians to relinquish their pets, it was found that only one in five did so. Similarly, almost two million Americans allergic to cats have at least one feline companion in their home.

Although certain breeds of animals are thought to be less-allergenic than others, there are no dogs or cats considered non-allergenic. The degree to which an animal is allergenic is not necessarily based on the breed or the length of hair, but rather on the animal itself and the type of reaction an individual has to that particular animal. Dogs and cats have glands in their skin that secrete allergens