In a poll survey released today from AP-Petside.com, it was revealed that most people acquire a pet via taking the animal in as a stray. The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted October 13 through October 17, 2011, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. Utilizing landline and cell phone interviews with 1,118 pet owners, results ascertained reflect a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Four in 10 pet owners revealed at least one of the current pets they share their lives with came to them via family or friends with a third of those people stating a pet showed up on their doorstep.  Thirty percent of surveyed participants stated they adopted a pet from a shelter with 31 percent stating they got the pet from a breeder and 14 percent from a pet store.

One of the pet owners cited in the AP-Petside.com article poll results, Ojala Reino, from Fairmount, Georgia, revealed he worries about the physical and mental health of a shelter dog. His Boxer-Bulldog, Bruster, came into his life from a friend.

In the poll results, fifty-two percent of the pet owners revealed obtaining their pet from a shelter or rescue with only 23 percent having taken an animal to a shelter. For those who turned in an animal, 59 percent state the animal belonged to someone else. Participants revealed that if shelters charged a $25 fee to accept unwanted or stray animals, a third of the pollsters would not be dissuaded from leaving animals, with another 52 percent stating it would not make a difference.

Regionally, stray adoption is most common in the West, with 39 percent getting a pet via adoption versus 34 percent in the South, 30 percent in the Northeast, and 39 percent in the Midwest.

Read the entire poll and survey results by visiting www.petside.com/article/ap-petside-poll-are-rescue-animals-america-s-favorite-pet.