The first time I saw a dog in a stroller was in a shopping mall. It passed me like any child’s stroller: wheels, hood, a small package inside. I looked twice because it seemed too small for a baby, and it wasn’t. Inside there was a dog. I remember well that he was a french bulldog and her name was Chanel.
Over time, the scene stopped seeming exceptional to me. I started seeing dog strollers in downtown neighborhoods, parks or even on public transportation. An image that has become a symbol of something deeper: the feeling that, in aging societies, pets are occupying a place that children once had. But what if that reading was incomplete, or outright wrong? What if, far from replacing children, pets were playing another role in family life? A new academic study challenges a widely held belief.
To begin with, the numbers help to understand why suspicion has established itself in the public debate. In Spain, according to the Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals (REIAC)in 2023 there were more than ten million dogs registered compared to less than two million children between 0 and 4 years old. A difference so wide that it invites, almost automatically, to think about a change within homes.
The scenes that come from outside reinforce that impression. South Korea has crossed a symbolic threshold: More strollers are now sold for dogs than for babies. It is not an exaggeration, it is the statistical reflection of a country in demographic emergency. The trend has caught on so much that even faith has adapted. In Japanese temples such as Ichigaya Kamegaoka, the ancient ritual of Shichi-Go-San —previously exclusive for children— has filled with snouts and straps. In the absence of infants, sanctuaries bless pets to prevent their liturgies from being left without protagonists.
Against this backdrop, political and moral interpretations have proliferated. In 2022, Pope Francis described as “selfish” to those who prefer to have animals rather than children. In South Korea, then Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo He even stated that young people They “love their dogs” instead of starting families. A resounding diagnosis that, until now, had relied more on cultural symbols and perceptions than on contrasted data.
Disassembling the narratio
The idea that pets replace children has just received a serious corrective from academic research. The study Cats, Dogs, and Babiesled by researchers Kuan-Ming Chen and Ming-Jen Lin from National Taiwan University, has analyzed for more than a decade the behavior of millions of homes.
Research has concluded that people who adopt a dog are up to 33% more likely to have a child later than those who do not. Far from displacing paternity, the animal seems to act as a preliminary step. This is what the authors call the “child of practice effect.” As Chen and Lin explainmany couples use the experience of caring for a dog to evaluate their willingness to take on responsibilities: routines, expenses, and emotional bonds. If the experience is positive, it increases confidence to take the next step towards human parenthood.
However, there is no change in sight. Neither the Taiwanese study nor the experts who analyze the demographic winter maintain that the increase in pets will translate, by itself, into a rebound in birth rates. The academic work itself warns that this is a country-specific analysis and that patterns may vary depending on the cultural, economic and social context.
The cart as a metaphor
The study does not propose pets as response to demographic declinebut as a clue about how care decisions are postponed today in a context of economic and vital uncertainty. This reading fits with what sociologists and demographers point out in Spain. As reflected in the analysis of my colleague in Xatakathe drop in the birth rate responds to widely documented structural factors: job insecurity, rising housing costs, difficulties in conciliation, delay in emancipation and increasingly later motherhood. In this scenario, pets do not displace children; They occupy the space left by a postponed vital project.
For this reason, the image of the dog in a stroller summarizes this ambiguity well. As Dr. Jerry Klein explainschief veterinarian of the American Kennel Club, these strollers can have a practical function in certain cases: “They offer elderly dogs, dogs with arthritis or mobility problems a way to enjoy the outdoors without straining themselves.” Veterinary platforms such as Dialvet either ToeGrips They agree that they can help protect paws from hot asphalt or help small dogs who cannot keep up with long walks.
However, other experts urge caution. Carlos Carrasco, from DOS Training, warns in La Voz de Galicia that “a dog is not a child with hair” and that carrying a healthy animal in a stroller can be a “humiliation” that denaturalizes it. Along the same lines, ethologist Isabel Jiménez, director of La Manada de Iris, points out in IM Veterinaria that excessive humanization “nullifies the dog as a species and makes it emotionally ill.” a study published in Animals (MDPI) reinforces this idea, warning that anthropomorphism can generate anxiety and stress in the animal by not respecting its basic biological needs, such as smelling and walking.
Finally, the rise of pets does not alone explain the demographic winter, but it does reveal how forms of affection and responsibility are reconfigured in societies where having children has become more complex. The Taiwanese study does not offer miracle solutionsbut there is a clear warning: facing pets and children as if they were exclusive options oversimplifies a much more nuanced reality.
Perhaps, when we see a dog in a stroller, we are not looking at the symbol of renunciation, but rather at the reflection of a generation that postpones irreversible decisions while looking for possible forms of care. Before blaming the puppies, it might be worth looking at the system surrounding those who are hesitant to become parents.
Image | Unsplash
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