It. Robotic cats and dogs for the elderly hear about it at urban legends and stranger truths elderly people in the United Kingdom will be given robot pets to treat loneliness in a government backed trial. About 20% of british people are over the age of 65, and about 900,000 people are living with dementia. Both figures are expected to grow rapidly, but the country lacks the social care workers that it needs, and it hopes that the animatronic cats and dogs could provide low cost complements to human staffing