Multi-billion dollar bone: Pet obsession

What’s the latest craze among Americans? It is their passion for pets. And they are quite indiscriminate about the class and creed of pets, whether they bark, meow, squeak, chirp or hiss, according to a recent survey.

Two-thirds of American households (about 71.1 million) have at least one pet, according to a survey of pet owners conducted last year by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. The survey also reveals that 45 per cent of pet owners have more than one pet.

Four-legged reminder

It’s a four-legged reminder of how much the nuclear family is exploding. It also explains why the largest growth area has been witnessed in specialist treatment in veterinary care and not in what have traditionally been considered human diseases such as cancer and arthritis.

* Which would be your favourite pet? Vote in our poll.

America’s economy may be struggling but the country’s dog and cat obsession has thrown the pet care industry a multi-billion dollar bone.

The pets, especially the barking and the meowing ones are in fact considered an intrinsic part of the family, with US pet owners spending more time and money nearly $41 billion, Dh150 billion, in 2007 on the health and happiness of their pets in recent years, according to the website LiveScience.com.

Things that would once have seemed extravagant – doggy daycares, pet cemeteries and an expanding array of pet surgeries and treatments – are now as common as the family dog.

Pet ownership in the US really began to take off after World War II, as families not only earned more income, but began to move to the suburbs, where they had more room to keep pets.

While owning a pet is almost the norm today, in eras past, it was a luxury, say sources in the Purdue University’s Centre for the Human-Animal Bond.

Among the more unusual pets kept by American families are hissing cockroaches, turtles, lizards and non-poisonous snakes of various species.

All in the family

Forty per cent of people who keep pictures of their spouse and children in their wallet also keep pictures of their pets, "because it is a member of the family".

Pet owners are now allowed to keep their pet’s ashes in an urn or purchase a headstone or marker in a pet cemetery, and friends and co-workers can send a condolence card from Hallmark.

A trip to the vet these days could be about heart surgery, joint replacement, chemotherapy or a host of other cutting-edge procedures.