Inequality isn’t just bad for people. It also affects our companion animals. In the modern American economy, some workers have become money-rich and time-poor. Others, who lost jobs or were downsized during the recent recession, became time richer but money poor. And many Americans, forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet are poor in both time and money. In each case, pets are affected.
In the first case, the result isn’t necessarily a bad one: the money-rich and time-poor can afford to see that their animals are well-treated. When they don’t have time to walk the dog or feed the cat, an often-well-paid surrogate does it for them.
In Forbes magazine, Carol Tice reports that, “Annual pet-related expenditures soared from $43.2 billion in 2008 to nearly $53 billion this year,” while American median incomes were falling. Pet care is big business, with more than 35 major chains providing services.
An interesting twist: as Americans work more and take fewer vacations, traditional hotel chains are feeling the pinch from less business, while pet hotel chains are booming. According to Tice,
Dog-spa chain Dogtopia [!—my exclamation]
has more than 25 locations…while the luxury-
focused D Pet Hotels has three hotels in
Hollywood, Scottsdale and Manhattan.
Newcomer K-9 Resorts has hotels under
construction that should give it seven locations
by the end of the year…Outsourcing of
picking up after our pets is also popular,
judging by the proliferation of pooper-scooper
chains [!—me again] including Pet Butler and
the frankly named Wholly Crap…
Other chains deliver gourmet food for pets (while hunger among children is on the rise).
Clearly, taking care of the pets of the big winners in our financially-lopsided economy is good business and a growth industry for ambitious entrepreneurs. On the other hand, thousands of Americans who lost jobs and income have been forced to abandon their pets, allowing them to become feral animals or to be picked up and euthanized. And finally, many Americans, working long hours and earning little, have been driven by necessity either to give up their animals or leave them in a state of neglect for long periods.
What is harder to estimate is the impact on pets of super stressed-out workers who put in long hours at work
POLARIZED PETS…AND STRESSED-OUT KIDS
John de Graaf