fred first's List: Pets Obsession

• In the United States, 63 percent of households have a pet, and owners spent $34.4 billion on pets in 2004 according to the
  APPMA. This translates to $91 per pet and $498 per pet-owning household.
  
• According to an Oct. 23, 2004, article in the International Herald Tribune, 30 percent of households in Japan own a pet. In 2004, the Japanese pet industry saw $9.3 billion in revenue.
  
• In Brazil, the pet supplies industry and accessories market is expected to grow 7 percent in 2005, according to Market Research: 2004 Global Pet Industry Business Opportunities, compiled by Dillon Media.
  
• The same study shows that Italy's pet industry was worth $2.9 billion in 2002 and experienced 70 percent growth from 1994
  to 2004, more than double any other European Union country. The report also predicts 5 percent growth in the Italian pet industry
  from 2004 to 2005.
  
• Britain spent $740 million on pets in 2003, according to Mintel International, a London-based market research company. And
  the value of pet accessories and the pet-healthcare market in Britain increased by 20 percent from 1998 to 2003. Even though
  the APPMA records a 41 percent increase during the same period in the United States, British pet owners are more likely to
  buy pet insurance for their furry family members.
  

Pets are becoming big business in India, a country of more than a billion mostly poverty-stricken people, and industry figures said they see no slowdown in annual growth of 10-15 percent.

"This is still a very virgin market for pet products, but it's growing well, there's so much demand," said J. Prakash, owner of VS Associates, a leading pet products importer.

"We've seen no slowdown," he told AFP at a recent trade fair in New Delhi.

India's pet industry is valued at around 45 million dollars annually, according to research firm Euromonitor, still a minnow when compared to the annual 40 billion dollars of the US market.

Experts say that thanks to the economic boom of the past decade, pets have become status symbols in a society undergoing seismic changes that have undermined the traditional extended family.

"Nothing seems too expensive for our customers when it comes to doing things for their animals," he said, adding: "Some treat them like their children."

ScoobyScrub offers such services as "full body massage" and hair streaking -- "to give them a new look" -- which can cost up to 1,000 rupees, more than most maids earn in a week.

It's not so long ago, before the boom fuelled new prosperity, that Indians fed their dogs leftover rice and beans, and a bit of meat if they were lucky.

These days they fear that home cooking isn't nutritious enough and buy their dogs imported food that often costs more than the weekly budget of the 420 million Indians officially classified as poor.

India is home to nearly half of the world's hungry, according to the World Food Programme, with some 40 percent of the population living below the global poverty line of less than 1.25 dollars a day.

it seems pet care is virtually recession-proof.

According to a recent survey by the American Kennel Club published in newspapers before Christmas, seven in 10 pet owners would sooner scrimp on gifts for friends and extended family than for their dogs. Nearly one in 10 would scale back on presents for their spouses before letting their dog go without on Christmas morning.

Of the 1,088 pet owners polled on the American Kennel Club's website, 96 per cent would give up their daily lattes to save money for their animal, 65 per cent would regularly eat noodles to avoid scrimping on their pet's high-quality food and 67 per cent would cancel travel plans if they couldn't afford animal boarding.

According to Statistics Canada's annual report on household expenditures, released in December, Canadians spend more on their pets than they do on child care. Pet expenses rose nearly 10 per cent in 2007 to an average of $432 per household, exceeding the average of $330 in child-care expenses per household, which was up by just $1, or 0.3 per cent. That reflects the fact a greater proportion of households have pet expenses than have child-care expenses.

In Saskatoon, selling pet toys, food and other supplies is big business. Big-box retailers are located around the city, including a PetSmart store at Preston Crossing, a Petcetera store on Eighth Street, a Petland store at Confederation Mall and, most recently, another Petland location at the Stonegate development on Clarence Avenue. Grooming shops, veterinary clinics and smaller pet stores are also doing a booming business in Saskatoon.