People admitting to stealing meds from pets

Apparently stealing prescription pills from pets isn't all that uncommon.

It's fairly well documented that the U.S. has a problem with prescription medicine, but we're now learning that it may be worse than we thought.

RELATED: Images of emotional support animals

A study recently published in antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy surveyed 400 demographically diverse adults about their use of antibiotics without a doctor's supervision.

The results were concerning:

• 5% reported using antibiotics without a prescription in the past year.

• 14.2% reported storing medication at home, just in case.

• 25.4% reported that they intended to use antibiotics unprescribed in the future.

One of the most concerning aspects though was the 4% who reported taking antibiotics from their pets.

This route for obtaining unprescribed pills surprised researchers and is something we need to watch out for in the future.