Facts About Us

We pet lovers are large in numbers and show how important our pets are with our wallets.

I thought you'd enjoy learning more about how we're viewed as a market segment. All data is on US stats, but that's not to say there aren't equally strong contingents throughout the world. But let's do one continent at a time...

To set context:

Of the 63% of American homes that have pets (a total of 69.1 million homes), a whopping 92% of us consider our pets to be part of our family.

Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) and Generation Y members (born between 1977-1994) are the two demographics that spend the most on their pets and see this spending on par with the basic support of our households. In other words, we'll cut other things from our budgets before we cut the care and support for our pets and children.

Now the money we spend:

If we have a dog, we spend about $1500 per year on food (the biggest expenditure), vet care (including surgery), vitamins, boarding, grooming, treats, and toys.

If we have a cat, it's about $900 for the same categories.

It adds up: last year we spent a total of $38B dollars, and this year, it's projected to rise to $40B.

One theory on why pet spending in all categories continues to grow: we now gravitate toward owning smaller dogs and it's easier to treat them like children (or so says Pet Age in their March 2007 issue). We'll also see a shift to purchasing more organic food as recalls of traditional foods and treats continue.

The curious thing for me is that I know I'd spend a lot more if I was aware of more products and services available for my pets. My guess is that you would, too. That's something I'm working on now, stay tuned for more details in upcoming entries...