The Pet Economy

This week's edition of Business Week has a great story on the Pet Economy - -the roughly $41 BILLION a year people in the US spend on their pets.

There are a lot of interesting statistics in the publication - -42% of dogs now sleep in the same bed as their owners (up from 34% in 1998) and the rise in the use of organic and vegan diets for dogs.

There has also been a huge increase in services for pets -- doggy daycares, mobile grooming services, pedicure services, dog walkers and massage therapy. The #1 series on the National Geographic Channel is the Dog Whisperer (Ceasar Milan). There is also now the ability of people to buy animal health care coverage -- an industry that is growing at around 100% per year.

Much of the growth of the number of pets (63% of US Households have at least one pet), and the amount of money people spend on them, comes from their popularity with empty-nesters, single professionals, and couples who delay having children -- all groups that have a tendency to have time and resources to spare on their pets.

All of this leads to a lot of questions:

1) With the growth of the Pet Economy, why are so many cities slow to see the trends and provide more amenities to people with dogs (especially in a place like KCMO that needs to rely on people without kids because their school system is in such disarray)?

2) Why, in spite of 42% of dogs living a charmed life and sleeping in their owner's bed, are we still seeing cruelty and neglect cases on the rise. It seems as if there are two extremes in dog ownership now.

3) If people love their pets so much, why are so many of them finding their way back into our shelters in hopes of finding new homes?