The Pet-Media Binary
by Michael Schaffer

One thing I learned from the various Google alerts I’d set up while reporting my book was that there are basically only two versions of the pet story in the press. Story one is the sad one: the abused, the abandoned, the homeless, looking up at the camera with hangdog eyes. From puppy mills to Michael Vick, there have been plenty of those stories lately. Story two is the opposite: the pampered pet tale, all about doggie yoga and kitty accupuncture and pet food that’s pricier than human food. There are obviously plenty of those stories around, too. One thing that struck me is how this binary–think of it as the pet version of the old Madonna/Whore dichotomy–has continued since the financial catastrophe. One minute, there are stories about massive suges in pet adoption. The next, tales of how pet owners are braving said recession in order to continue paying for blueberry facials for Fluffy. This nice post, from the recession-watching Boom2Bust website, captures both dynamics.

The thing is, of course: They’re both true. Some pet owners, often forced from homes and facing landlords who leave them no choice, are giving up pets. Others, who still have the choice, are continuing at least some of the spending they’d come to think of as normal. The same goes for spending on everything from bicycles to to vacations. But it somehow seems more dramatic when it’s a defenseless animal’s fate, or at least his afternoon at the groomer, that hangs in the balance.

Socks, RIP
by Michael Schaffer

Here’s my send-off to Socks, the Clinton family cat and White House ground-breaker, from Obit magazine. Excerpts:

The idea of a respected public figure nuzzling with a pet cat may seem unobjectionable now, but it would have seemed odd until not long before Clinton’s election. Well into America’s postwar pet boom, cats lagged behind: The first vet school classes on cats were only introduced in the late 1960s; the first professional journal about feline medicine started some years later. Though they’re a less expensive pet, their population didn’t catch up with dogs until late in the 20th century. Even then, the species contended with a number of cultural associations — cats were menacing, they were mysterious, and they were feminine — that weren’t exactly appealing to typical pols. Bill Clinton, with his feminist wife and his willingness to tear up, proved a groundbreaker…

But as with so many other idealistic souls who followed the Arkansan to Washington, Socks did not escape the partisan attacks — or the personal betrayals — that characterized his era. At one point, Dan Burton, the right-wing congressman and scourge of the Clinton administration, turned his investigatory energy on the cat, questioning the use of White House personnel to answer letters mailed to Socks. But even greater pain would come from another direction. In 1997, the president adopted a chocolate lab named Buddy, who quickly lept past the cat in his master’s affections. The traditional pet order had been re-established. Socks had been triangulated.

And while Bill and Hillary managed to repair their relationship after his affair with Monica Lewinsky, Buddy’s arrival signaled a permanent rupture for Socks. One 1998 photograph shows the cat, fur standing up, arching his back in anger as the president ambled over in the company of his beloved dog. Clinton joked that he had an easier time bringing Israelis and Palenstinians together than getting his pets to interact. At any rate, the president made his choice: On leaving office in 2001, Buddy moved to New York with the family. Socks moved to southern Maryland with Betty Currie, Clinton’s old secretary, whose desk outside the Oval Office Socks had once frequented…

Check out the whole thing here.

And the Award Goes to…
by Michael Schaffer

I’m not the Carpetbagger and it’s not the Oscars, but here are a couple of sets of awards for best new pet products appearing at last week’s Global Pet Expo. The American Pet Products Association and the Pet Industry Distributors Association, who put on the expo, organized their awards by both animal (ie dogs, cats, aquatic) and retail (ie gift, point-of-purchase) categories. Their winners included the R2 Fish School “complete fish training system” and the Polly Wanna Pinata bird toy n’ treat. Multi-media veterinarian Marty Becker and his team from Pet Connection picked out a quirkier set of winners, including the Frolicat Bolt Laser Light (”keeps your cat and dog active indoors”) and something called “Avian Habitat Enrichment Pods.”

Speaking at the expo, Marty also reiterated–well, iterated, probably, since he was surely on it before I ever was–a theme I hit in my book, which is amazement at the number of products that promise to enrich your pet’s brain. When I wrote my chapter about the rapid growth of the pet-toy sector, where all sorts of technological and learning-theory energy have been aimed at the problem that is America’s millions of latch-key dogs, I thought of the interactive toymakers I profiled as selling something that was more or less an insurance policy for your sofa. Better for the dog to exhaust himself playing with the Starmark Everlasting Treat Ball, a physically and mentally complicated puzzle that eventually disgorges lunch, than to wolf down food left in a bowl and then destroy the couch because he’s so bored all afternoon. I still think that remains a large part of it–it’s no surprise that pet toys became such a must-have just as two-career couples became the norm, leash laws made it tougher to let the pooch wander the streets all day, and people stopped frowning on you for leaving the dog alone. But I’ve also become a dad since finishing that chapter, and I suspect that the promises of ensuring that you have the brightest parakeet or goldfish on the block are also a reward in and of themselves. Baby Einstein isn’t just for babies anymore.

On the Menu
by Michael Schaffer

I’m not sure whether there’s a larger economic implication here, but this story from All About Feed reports that Menu Foods–the pet-food firm whose products, manufactured for a variety of more famous corporate brand names, were ground zero for the 2007 pet-food recall–lost only a few million dollars in the last quarter of 2008. A year earlier, Menu had lost over $20 million. Credit goes to a few price hikes, fading memories, and, maybe, the fact that Menu’s private-label stuff is cheaper than boutique brands and we’re in an economic free-fall. Who knows.

Kick the Habit, Not the Dog
by Michael Schaffer

The New York Times’ “Well” blog has a post about a new argument for quitting smoking: Secondhand smoke may harm smokers’ pets. According to the story, few owners realize that pets can be harmed by indoor smoke, though science seems to show that’s the case. (It’s something of a byproduct of better pet nutrition and medicine, as they’re now living long enough to get smoke-related cancers). From the post:

Nearly one in three smokers said the health of a pet would motivate them to try to kick the habit, the researchers reported in the medical journal Tobacco Control. Among non-smoking pet owners, 16 percent said pet health would spur them to ask a smoking family member to quit, while 24 percent said they would at least ask the smoker to take it outside.

The findings, said the researchers, suggest that public health campaigns focused on pets and smoking may be an effective way to convince some smokers to quit, or at least to help make the home smoke-free for non-smoking family members and pets.    

Most of the discussion here seems to be about using this apparently legitimate pet-health issue to motivate humans to improve their own health behavior. In fact, concern for pets has motivated public-health efforts even where the animals’ own physical welfare is not a question. In my book, I report that a few years ago, San Francisco launched dogsaretalking.com a new website aimed at getting gay men to have themselves tested for syphillis. What do dogs have to do with STDs? Nothing. But, the logic goes, incapacitated owners can’t care for their beloved pets. Playing up that fear, it seems, might motivate people to hustle to the doctor’s office:

The Dogs Are Talking Campaign is meant as a loving reminder that it’s equally important for humans to take care of their own well-being. Dogs need their people to go in for regular checkups too—and if those people should happen to be gay men with multiple sexual partners, their checkups should include getting tested for syphilis every 3 to 6 months.

No one knows a guy’s daily habits better than man’s best friend. If your dog could talk, what would he say about your healthcare routine? 

Love yourself as much as you love your dog.

Funeral for a Dog
by Michael Schaffer

The Boston Herald had a story Friday about a local funeral home that was holding a wake for a dog–apparently a first in Massachusetts. The paper also ran a copy of the home’s obit for the dog, nine-year-old Kross Monsta Giles. 

In fact, mourning rituals represent another place where the vast changes in the way we treat pets can be seen. Kross’ may be the first funeral-home wake in the Bay State, but when I was reporting my book I visited a Scottsdale, Arizona funeral home that was specifically for deceased pets. There are several like it around the country, part of a transformation that includes pet hospice-services, at-home euthanasia, and pet cemeteries that have evolved from freaky Stephen King roadside attractions to middle-class respectability. Of course, the new understanding of how sad people are when their fur babies die only goes so far: I also spent a bunch of time with a pet-loss bereavement group in Philadelphia, and a constant theme was how alienated the mourners felt from friends and family who thought getting over it was as simple as getting a new pet. Even that group, though, aided by a full-time vet social worker, is evidence of some pretty big changes.  

The bloggers over at ohmidog! have their own suggestion: Newspapers should start running pet obits alongside the human death notices. “Opening obituaries and funeral services up to dogs could give both industries — newspapers and funeral homes, which kind of share the same ambience right now – a much needed boost,” the site notes. Indeed. As it is, a slew of online memorial sites overflow with tributes to deceased animals that people want the world to hear. Pet-love helps sell vet insurance and parrot shawls and laser cat toys. It might as well help sell newspapers, too…

Fido’s Recession
by Michael Schaffer

Here’s my take from The Daily Beast.

Non-Tony Orlando
by Michael Schaffer

Orlando today is not a town that gives you great hope about our future. The motels around the Convention Center on International Drive all seemed to be advertising improbably low specials. The restaurants–and, right there on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, that would mean Don Pablo’s and Sizzler and Tony Roma and Chi-Chis and Bahama Breeze and  Boston Lobster and Red Lobster and the Olive Garden–all seemed improbably empty. Two years ago, the last time I visited a Global Pet Expo in Orlando, they were all full of the cacophany of other people’s misbehaved, Disney-besotted kids. Not this year.

But the mood on the floor of the pet industry trade show was much, much better. I caught up with a bunch of the different folks I had interviewed for my book–the raw-food manufacturer, the cutting-edge pet-toy developer, some of the pet-media mavens–who said their businesses were doing fine, in some cases even thriving. The show floor also featured the same population of cock-eyed petrepreneurs, betting on some new product, like parrot shawls or dog massagers or pet-friendly cars. The American Pet Products Association, which organizes the show, said attendance was running ahead of last year. It seemed thinner to me, but that may have been because Orlando’s convention hall is laid out differently from San Diego’s. And in the annual release of industry sales numbers on day two of the show, the association’s president announed the sector had met its 2008 projection–$43 billion–and would hit $45 billion in 2009.

Of course, those are self-reported numbers by a group with every interest in making pet spending look massive. But I didn’t sense a lot of pushback from folks I interviewed on the floor. The recession’s impact is more behind-the-scenes: There’s less spending on luxury, grooming services, or advanced vet interventions, for instance (which means more people are opting to euthanize rather than pay for space-age surgeries). But premium food remains solid, as I’d expected–once an animal is promoted to family status, with all the nutritional attention that comes with it, its hard to demote. And as tough times force more spouses back to work, the association says, that means more dog-walking. And then there’s always the problem that, no matter how willing customers may be, hard-pressed bankers have stopped lending to all sorts of businesses.

Long term, the bigger worry among industry chiefs seems to be that, even though people remain true to the animal they already have, foreclosed homeowners are finding that its still tough to rent with pets, and other people might not be so eager to get a new one. APPA is pushing new initiatives to play up petkeeping’s virtues among young people, minorities, and other under-petted populations.

Also, I can report that, while most people professed to be unworried by the financial panic, they remain very worried by the spectre of corporate espionage. One oaf from a second-rate thrown-toy firm stopped me and tried to wrestle a camcorder from my hand as I shot atmospheric pictures I’d hoped to post for this blog. I’d been assured it was OK for media to take pictures, but the guy apparently hadn’t gotten the message. Few others agreed to let me shoot their booths. I decided to shelve the project.

Greetings from Pet Expo
by Michael Schaffer

I’m in Orlando, Florida–the best place on Earth when it comes to watching other people spank their children inside middlebrow chain restaurants. And, this week only, the best place in the world to gawk at new pet products. The annual trade show of the American Pet Products Association features the latest in self-cleaning litter boxes, advanced polymer chew toys, free-range buffalo-meat dog food, and other necessities of life for the modern pet. The show is as big as ever–800 or so exhibitors, 2,400 or so booths, buyers scutinizing cut-rate Chinese imports and the dreamy pet inventions cooked up American garages. Literally: I had a long chat with a guy who’s marketing a new line of smoothies for dogs. Drinking beers around the pool in the 70-degree Florida evening, an array of pet industry people told me they haven’t taken much of a hit from the economy. Pets, they say, are like Netflix: The thing you stay home with when you can’t afford to go out. At a press conference tomorrow they’ll roll out some latest sales numbers for me and a variety of newshounds from Pet Products News, Pet Business, and other industry journals.

Sign of a Pet-Economic Meltdown?
by Michael Schaffer

One of the most surreal pieces of reporting I did for my book–which I also wrote up in this article for The New Republic–was a visit to New York’s annual Pet Fashion Week, held each summer a couple of weeks before the human version. The show has been so successful, even amidst last year’s economic jitters, that its organizers expanded, staging a spring one, too. Until now: The show was recently cancelled. Its organizer, though still told  New York that “the luxury pet market, home to ‘the $1,000 coats or $2,000 fragrances’ is ‘recessionproof.’” We’ll see. One other thing that may have challenged Pet Fashion Week is that the mainstream Global Pet Expo, which starts tomorrow, last year added a boutique category aimed at exactly that market. It’s a much bigger show.

Meanwhile, there’s an interesting piece in Salon about pets and the recession. The story is a bit of a grab-bag, conflating two pieces of the pet economy that I found to be quite distinct: Acquiring a pet, and then providing for it. The former involves treating an animal like a family member, and is an area where discussing their excellence as salable goods–despite the efforts of some high-end breeders–seemed weird to a lot of people, who made adopting a stray increasingly common even in boom times. The latter, meanwhile, is where the pet sector’s boom of the ’90s and ’00s really took place. “So maybe we aren’t facing a pet crisis so much as a healthy recalibration of our values, in which we go back to giving our pets only what they actually need,” the piece notes.

The author concludes that most pet owners might axe the luxuries but will never scrimp on the basics. True. But the bigger question is whether a lot of things that came to seem like basics in the past two decades–a once-unimaginable degree of vet care, a petfood sector where claims of nutritional excellence are now standard, a service-sector that allows people with modern 2-career households and modern long workdays to even have a dog in the first place–will still seem like basics.

ed.