Pet Industry Figures
Via American Pet Products comes these figures on yearly expenditures for product and care of our pets, in the range of over $53 billion a year lately. It doesn’t look like that includes dog walking.
Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics
U.S. Pet Industry Spending Figures & Future Outlook
The following spending statistics are gathered by APPA from various market reseach sources and are not included in the organization’s bi-annual National Pet Owners Survey.
Total U.S. Pet Industry Expenditures
Year Billion
2013 $55.53 Estimate
2012 $53.33 Actual
2011 $50.96
2010 $48.35
2009 $45.5
2008 $43.2
2007 $41.2
2006 $38.5
2005 $36.3
2004 $34.4
2003 $32.4
2002 $29.5
2001 $28.5
1998 $23
1996 $21
1994 $17
Estimated 2013 Sales within the U.S. Market
For 2013, it estimated that $55.53 billion will be spent on our pets in the U.S.
Estimated Breakdown:
Food $21.26 billion
Supplies/OTC Medicine $13.21 billion
Vet Care $14.21 billion
Live animal purchases $2.31 billion
Pet Services: grooming & boarding $4.54 billion
Actual Sales within the U.S. Market in 2012
In 2012, $53.33 billion was spent on our pets in the U.S.
Breakdown:
Food $20.64 billion
Supplies/OTC Medicine $12.65 billion
Vet Care $13.67 billion
Live animal purchases $2.21 billion
Pet Services: grooming & boarding $4.16 billion
The talk among dog people is of a financial crunch, not soaring income. A few examples :
— groomers are finding it difficult to raise their rates to keep up with inflation, as many people are either skipping the grooming, or are reducing the times per year (resulting in far more difficult and tiring grooms when they do come in,) plus, in the recession many people took up grooming as a fallback way of earning a little cash, resulting in lower wages all around (and worse quality grooms too)
— breeders of purebred dogs look like they are raking in the cash, with some selling pups for $1000 to $1500 each. But generally these prices are below cost, when you add in vet bills, registration fees, guarantees for health and genetic quality, stud fees, shipping (more costly and difficult by the year) advertising and so on. Again, crowds of amateurs have entered the market, selling unregistered, low quality pups or selling crossbreds as “designer dogs” for prices at a significant large fraction of purebred breeders’ prices, but without any regulation or guarantees.
— vet fees have gone through the roof. I can guess at least two reasons – the soaring cost of the schooling, and the entry a decade or two ago of insurance companies into pet health insurance. I suppose the cost of equipment, the office, utilities and so on have also pushed up the costs. But I think the rise has, like so many other things, been disproportionate to people’s incomes. When I first had purebred dogs, I could afford the vet bills. These days, going to the vet feels more like going into a US hospital, knowing that the fees for even minor injuries could be $800, $1200 or on into the stratosphere. Dread of the fees, not fear for the animal’s life, has become the norm.
— finally, paradoxically, people have become willing to pay those crazy fees. I believe this is largely because family sizes have shrunk, many people don’t intent to raise children, and so pets have filled that emotional gap. It is possible that the hollowing out of the middle class is echoed in a hollowing out of pet health care — either no care for pets of the poorest, or lavish (or at least lavishly expensive) care from the people who can afford it.
So, someone may be making piles of money off the pet industry, but as usual, it isn’t the frontline breeders and likely not the vets either.
Noni
Recovering purebred dog person
(Unless I get a puppy this spring, in which case, back into the fray!)
and worth every penny.
except to the breeders.
and to the vets who charge like doctors because they can get away with it.
and the dog food people who charge like Whole Foods… because they can get away with it.
my dogs still come to me because someone else wouldn’t take care of them. they turn out, always, to be treasures.
but we are running out of safe places to take them for walks.
if youre not grooming them yourself youre missing the point.