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PETS IN THE 1990S

Ownership

Pets of all kinds became increasingly prominent in U.S. households during the 1990s. According to a 1996 survey undertaken by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 59 percent of American households owned at least one pet. Yet, the same survey also indicated that as the population aged, the percentage of pet-owning households declined. In 1996, 27 percent of American households owned a cat, down from 31 percent in 1987. Those who did own pets, however, were likely to own more of them in the 1990s than a decade earlier. The average number of dogs in households was 1.69 in 1996, up from 1.51 in 1987. The average number of cats was 2.19 in 1996, up from 1.95 in 1987. The total number of dogs owned increased from 52.4 million in 1987 to 52.9 million in 1996; cats increased from 54.6 million to 59.1 million during that same period. In addition to these animals, Americans during the 1990s owned 13 million birds, 4 million horses, 6 million rabbits, 6 million ferrets, 5 million rodents, 3.5 million reptiles, and 56 million fish. Sixty-eight percent of owners consider their pets members of the family. Thirty-seven percent carried pictures of their pets in their wallets; 31 percent took days off from work when their pets were ill; 28 percent talked to their pets on the telephone; 27 percent celebrated their pets' birthdays with a party; 79 percent allowed their pets to sleep with them.

Economic Impact

Pets may make life more pleasant, but owning them also makes it more expensive. In the 1990s only 48 percent of American households with incomes of less than $12,000 owned a pet compared with 61 percent with an income of between $25,000 and $39,999 and 65 percent with an income of $40,000 or more. During the decade the retail market in pet products increased at the rate of between 10 percent and 15 percent a year, according to Ken Banks, senior vice president of marketing, branding, and advertising for PetsMart. Other retailers were not slow to respond to the trend. Wal-Mart, Ames, and grocery-store chains such as Wegmans and Shop Rite all developed special pet shops to sell food, accessories, and high-margin items. There was a simple explanation for all the effort in the opinion of pet expert Warren Eckstein, author, with Denise Madden, of Memoirs of a Pet Therapist (1998). Americans so cherish their pets that they become more and more willing to change their lives for them. "People will give up their own needs for their pets," Eckstein said, "so where they shop for pets can determine where they'll buy other items." Indeed, a fundamental change took place in the economic relations between Americans and their pets during the 1990s. Retail was only one part of the overall picture. By 1999 the pet business was a $23 billion industry comprised of pet superstores, Internet companies, medical organizations, and media ventures. Veterinarians also witnessed the transformation of their profession, as a growing number of Americans spent sums on pet health care that would have been unthinkable even a decade before. Pet care alone generated $11 billion in annual revenue during the second half of the decade. Inevitably, the rising costs of this medical care led to the creation of pet HMOs. In 1999, for example, Jack Stephens's company. Veterinary Pet Insurance, issued 850,000 policies in forty-six states.

Pets and the Law

The two chief animal-related problems requiring legislative attention during the 1990s were overpopulation and the prevention of pet shops from stocking dogs acquired from puppy mills. According to statistics compiled by the Humane Society of the United States, more than fifty thousand puppies and kittens were born each day throughout the decade, largely because of the uncontrolled breeding of pets. Between four and six million dogs and cats were destroyed each year because they were unwanted. Abandoned and stray animals also posed a health risk to humans and other animals. During the decade thirty-two states and the District of Columbia enacted legislation addressing the issue of animal overpopulation. Fifteen others, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, passed "lemon laws" for pets, compelling retailers to provide complete health information about the animals they sell and enabling consumers to return pets for a certain number of days after purchasing them. On the federal level, the Pet Safety and Protection Act of 1999 eliminated the purchase of dogs and cats from random sources, the alleged route whereby stolen pets end up in research facilities.