Once banned as a ‘bourgeois decadence’, having a pet dog has become trendy and increasingly expensive as China moves up the hierarchy of needs – it has seen a 35% jump in pet ownership since 2000. Now there are 33 million households with cats or dogs. And the businesses come marching in… as Chinese are reported here to have become more likely to spend and treat their sick pets than putting them down. On keeping pets and Chinese characteristics, does anyone remember Shanghai declaring a one-dog policy last year?
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China Poodle ‘Babies’ Spur $1.2 Billion Pet-Care Market
by Daryl Loo and Naomi Kresege
Source – Bloomberg, published August 17, 2012

About 33 million households in China keep a cat or dog, according to Euromonitor. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Wang Xingru and her husband chose a fluffy brown alternative to parenthood named Jing Jing. Before welcoming the year-old toy poodle into their Beijing apartment last summer, the couple spent 5,000 yuan ($786) in veterinary fees, including shots and medication.
This month they paid 288 yuan for a fur-trim, perm and pedicure for the 8-inch-long (20-centimeter) pooch. The treatments add to a pet-care market in China that Euromonitor International Ltd. estimates will reach $1.2 billion this year, helped by a 35 percent jump in pet ownership since 2000.
“We don’t want kids because we feel it’s too expensive and tiring,” said Wang, 39, a legal officer for a state-owned company. “And I don’t want to become a full-time housewife.” Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Bloomberg, Culture, Domestic Growth, Lifestyle, One-Dog Policy, Pets, Social, The Chinese Identity, China's Rise, culture, Social
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