I hate news articles that use statistics that don't stand up to a simple reality check test. I came across this beauty from Reuters this morning.
"There were nearly 11 billion pets in China in 2007"
Wow. 8.5 pets for every man woman and child in China. They must really love fish or something.

The article cites Euromonitor International as the source of the 11 billion pet stat. But Euromonitor International's website puts that number at 291,315,000 in 2004. A far cry from 11 billion.

Even better, the same article reads:
"Spending on pet food and pet care is projected to reach $995 million by 2009"
That's only 8.6¢ per pet per year!

Wow.

I suppose that's still better than the article that claims "1 in 5 college students has HIV"!