The next time you lament working “like a dog,” or leading a “dog’s life,” find another analogy. If Aug. 6 Business Week’s cover story on the pet economy is on the mark, you should have it so easy.
It’s not so much the $41 billion a year Americans spend on pets (“more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries”) or that only the consumer electronics category outpaces pets in annual growth. Or that we spend more on pets than on movies, video games and listening to recorded music combined.
No, it’s the specifics of our largess. That includes $919 testicular implants to restore a four-legged chum to “anatomical preciseness” after neutering; $430 indoor potties; $225 raincoats; drugs for depression, anxiety and obesity; psychotherapy; slippers and bikinis; calling firms with names such as Pooper Trooper and DoodyCalls to pick up the waste in one’s yard; a host of new surgeries such as rhinoplasty and eye lifts; and the rise of pet insurance.
(As fate would have it, the eclectic summer-fall issue of Echo, a commendable student publication of Chicago’s Columbia College, includes a tale on spoiling your pet, detailing high-end grooming and food treats available here, including at-home visits from massage therapists for $50.)
Beyond the dollars are deeper cultural realities as more empty nesters and childless couples get pets, which not long ago were mostly acquired by parents for their children. One sees the anthropomorphization of animals as owners treat them no differently than humans.
Finally, there’s the apparently sharply growing problem of pet obesity among our 88 million cats and 75 million dogs. And guess what’s to blame? It’s “the indulgent habits of their owners,” many of whom overeat and underexercise, drawing their pets into the same behaviors. No wonder, as the magazine indicates, pet liposuction is becoming a more routine procedure.
Quickly: Following a psychologist-social worker’s winning of $8.25 million at the World Series of Poker, Salon.com has player Robert Burton railing against the alteration in what was once a social game by factors including the booming world of big-money tournaments; the solitary world of online poker; and the tendency of new players to hone their skills via computer simulations. … Then there’s super-duper snowboarder Jeremy Jones, 31, lamenting how money is compromising younger boarders in September Future Snowboarding. … July 27 National Journal has Carl Cannon’s “Fowl Territory,” a look at the somewhat too-facile tendency of pundits and others to confer “lame duck” status on a second-term president, even such an obviously weakened one as President Bush. … July-August Archaeology includes “Writing on the Wall,” a look at the online Graffiti Archaeology Project ( www.grafarc.org) and wonders if a 15-year-old study of modern graffiti is, well, archeology. … August Progressive has a revealing interview with Elizabeth Edwards in which one gleans her positive mental outlook amid the difficulties of maintaining a rigorous campaign schedule. … July 30 Sports Illustrated joins the hand-wringing over ethical troubles in pro football, baseball and basketball, but is better on the core brutality of the NFL in a photo-filled feature on bone- and brain-jarring hits. … Sen. Hillary Clinton scored political points at last week’s Democratic debate in suggesting Sen. Barack Obama was naive to declare that he’d talk directly to leaders of Iran, North Korea and other unseemly governments if elected president. It’s why one might check the summer issue of highbrow Political Science Quarterly, where Colin Duech of George Mason University and Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations lucidly argue that serious and direct bargaining between the U.S. and Iran is essential in attempting to contain the latter’s quest for nuclear arms.
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jcwarren@tribune.com
