“American pet-owners are transforming the cultural definition of family,” Laurent-Simpson says.
The science of sociology devotes little research to the concept of multi-species families, she says.
Increasingly, American families consider their pets in decisions such as child-rearing, homebuying, job location, travel and budgets, she says.
As Hurricane Katrina approached in 2005, nearly half of New Orleans residents refused to evacuate without their pets, instead staying behind to face the hurricane, according to a survey by the Fritz Institute.
Laurent-Simpson also suggests that the growing emphasis on the multispecies family has affected the declining birth rate in the United States.
The rise in nontraditional family structures, such as single-parent families, childfree families, grandparent families and LGBTQ families, has paved the way for the rise of the multispecies family, she says.