Less than 25 percent of Americans walk for more than ten minutes continuously in a typical week
Less than 25 percent of Americans walk for more than ten minutes continuously in a typical week
made the rounds on twitter today and I have to say, christ alive
In completely unrelated figures, 45% of American households have a dog.
oh god
Not even a little surprised by this. Most american dog owners keep their pet as a status symbol / emotional support object. Americans love the idea of owning a dog, not the reality of it.
Kids even more so
shit pisses me off. it feels like most houses around me have dogs but i only see the same few people actually walking their dogs. the rest just seem to keep them in their back yard all the time and they think that’s how dogs should be treated. if you were to say anything to them they would act like you’re some crazed hippie and hit you with some “its an animal, its happy being outside” bs
And I've gotta say, all my dog walking neighbors I run into are much more friendly than the ones with dogs that never leave their yard. One in particular had issue with me not using a leash on my property with a 12 year old lab (before i put on the leash and left the property), they have two dogs and literally just let them out the door holding the leash inside. Nasty people
Could roughly work out to the 25% of Americans that walk for more than ten minutes being the dog walkers of those households.
That's not how statistics works. Even if the 10m walkers are maximally represented among dog-keeping households (instead of more evenly distributed), with no more than one walker per dog household (also extremely unlikely to not be clustered), at most 50% of dogs get walks from their owners.
Also, I have 0 dogs and I walk/run/bike 30-150 minutes a day.
Even if the 10m walkers are maximally represented among dog-keeping households (instead of more evenly distributed), with no more than one walker per dog household (also extremely unlikely to not be clustered), at most 50% of dogs get walks from their owners.
Luckily, this study does not seem to be saying that at all.
Using cross-sectional data from the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Furie and his colleague, Mayur M Desai, Ph.D., associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health were surprised to find that less than one quarter of U.S. adults in a nationally representative sample reported walking or bicycling for transportation for more than 10 minutes continuously in a typical week.
"For transportation" is important here. I walk my dog twice a day but I wouldn't describe that as "transportation."
This is yet another science headline that wildly misrepresents the study it's allegedly reporting on.
Ah so the data was pre-Uber, pre-GrubDash, pre-Instacart, 10 years pre-Covid.
Was more of a hopeful estimate than anything. From what I've seen of American dog owners they seem to just have dogs run around in their backyards and call it at that.
A member of my family is one of these. After her last one died (which she also never walked), she got a puppy. It's going on 6 months now, a puppy who hasn't been on a single walk yet.
Animal abuse nation.
Those dog must be so badly socialised. Jesus Christ, those poor animals. No wonder they run away and get lost all the time. I would run away as well.
There are lots of streets where if you walk down the sidewalk, someone's dog will start barking at you, and then the other dogs along the block will hear it and all start barking at each other, this can go on for a surprisingly long time.