A huge rise in cat ownership is mostly down to men

You all know a crazy cat lady – she might be your mum, she might live a few doors down from you, or she might be you. Either way, you know of one. But all that might be about to change, as the rise of the crazy cat man has begun.

The Pet Food Manufacturers' Association (their staff parties are off the hook) have said that the number of pet cats in the UK has gone up by about 500,000 this year, to a grand total of around eight million. Eight million little boopy, furry little stinkers – what a joy.

But the reason behind this huge jump is because it’s men who are now swiping up those loveable kitties in droves. In 2016, 13% of men owned a cat, but that’s gone up to 17% this year.

Why though? Why are men so interested in watching a cat’s bum rudely saunter away from them? Well, supposedly it’s down to social media and male celebrities. 

Cats Protection's Social Media Manager, Gemma Croker says: “Cats have always been on social media but we have definitely noticed more men openly expressing their love for their feline friends. We now see more male celebrities talking about their cats such as our supporter The Vamps' James McVey (cat: Mickey), Ed Sheeran (Graham) and Russell Brand (Morrissey). It is possible that this trend may have triggered an increase in popularity for cats among the general male population, which is great news for rehoming cats.”

So not only is Ed Sheeran completely taking over the charts, he’s also taking over our houses, and subliminally making impressionable young men go out and unwillingly buy cats – he’s the Derren Brown of music/cats.

Overall, this increase in cat ownership is adding to the 12 million households that own a pet – that’s a total of 54 million critters invading our homes.

The most popular pet is the most boring one: fish, with roughly 33 million both inside and outside the house.

Next up is dogs, with 8.5 million, and then a close runner up is cats, with 8 million. The rest rounds out a little like this:

• 900,000 rabbits
• 700,000 pet birds
• 700,000 reptiles
• 600,000 domestic fowl
• 500,000 guinea Pigs
• 300,000 hamsters

Weird that domestic fowl are more popular than hamsters though? Maybe there’s some bloke somewhere with 500,000 individually-named chickens in his loft. Who knows, people are weird.

Anyway, BECOME THE CAT MAN!