Pet ownership in the former USSR.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Maybe kind of a strange question, but how widespread was pet ownership in the former Soviet Union, esp. in the pre-WW2 era? Was it rare to own cats, dogs, etc?

[Orange Juche]

If I can add on - if they were prevalent at all, were veterinarians common to any degree provided by the state?

[Brutus]

I know that there were strays, if that help...
(Laika)

[MrCool]

Both of my parents who lived in Estonia said that it was about as common as in today. This in 1970-80's, though.
My mother had 2 cats and a dog, my father only had a dog. It was more common to have pets in the countryside than in the city.

My mother has talked about Soviet veterinarians, but i have no idea how widespread they were.

[Rurkel]

Well, dog and cat ownership had been fairly widespread in Russian peasant communities (dogs are useful for hunting and guarding, cats kill mice), and pre-WWII USSR was still a country where rural population outnumbered the urban one, so I'd expect it to be quite large.

[Arlekino]

If in block of flats needed to ask neighbours permission to own cat or dog, most even don't bother to ask. I had little dog and we did not asked neighbours.

[Vostok17]

Lenin liked cats. Several pictures of him with a cat have been published.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Pet ownership is a bourgeois habit! We need to drag them out by their hair and convince them to abandon it through struggle sessions! If Soviets had pets it's proof that they're capitalist roaders!

/MLMaoist

[Anti-White]

Pet ownership is a bourgeois habit! We need to drag them out by their hair and convince them to abandon it through struggle sessions! If Soviets had pets it's proof that they're capitalist roaders!

/MLMaoist

Yeah! Don't own 'em EAT 'EM!