Whether you find the phrase “fur baby” repulsive or endearing, the pet industry’s grasp on Americans’ wallets isn’t letting up. Americans spent $186 billion on their pets in 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, with most of that money going toward food and care for America’s most popular pet by a long shot: the dog.

How we got here: Blame pandemic-induced isolation, when it seemed like every problem could be solved with a four-footed critter. Pet spending leapt during Covid, jumping 11% from 2019 to 2023, and has continued even after other pandemic-era fads have gone cold, creating a windfall for those invested in the industry:

• Last year, Mars—the candy conglomerate—made 67% of its revenue from pet care thanks to its ownership of thousands of veterinary clinics across the US.
• Nestle and Colgate, known for candy and toothpaste, raked in ~20% of their revenue from their pet businesses.

Trending up(dog)

New companies have cropped up in light of the booming pet economy, capitalizing on the fact that millennials and Gen Zers are prioritizing their doodles over buying houses or having kids.

• Make room in the fridge…a bag of Purina isn’t gonna cut it for Ruffles. Consumers have increasingly turned to fresh dog food providers like Freshpet and The Farmer’s Dog, and Bloomberg Intelligence estimates the global pet food market could reach $135 billion by 2030.
• And in your budget. New private jet charters allow you to fly with your dog at your side, while in cities like LA and New York, luxury dog daycares are cropping up (for as much as $1,400 a month).

Looking ahead…corporations with an interest in the pet industry are likely wagging their tails as they predict people will continue to spend. Morgan Stanley forecasts that annual spending in the US on pets will hit $260 billion by the end of the decade.—CC

Pets pushing your buttons used to be a bad thing, but now, some who do it exceptionally well may get membership in Mensa.

Since 2020, millions of “talking buttons” for cats and dogs have been sold, giving pet lovers a new way to bond with their pets. They’ve also made at least a couple of influencers wealthy.

• Stella, a blue heeler mix owned by (human) speech pathologist Christina Hunger, knows how to use over 50 word buttons, can make “phrases” of up to five words, and has 735k followers on Instagram.
• Bunny the sheepadoodle is owned by artist and influencer Alexis Devine, who says the dog knows about 100 words. She has 1.5 million Insta followers.

There’s always money in the dog buttons. Both dogs’ owners sell talking button lines and have landed major book deals. FluentPet, Devine’s company, has sold over 2 million buttons, according to the New York Times Magazine’s deep dive on dog buttons. The basic “Tester Kit” of two buttons costs $30, sets of 12 cost $130, and the 32 kit costs $240.

But are they really talking? Research is ongoing, but scientists’ opinions range from “let’s wait and see” to “this is absolutely not communication.” Detractors, including Alex Horowitz, who leads a Barnard College dog-cognition lab, say pets are so canny because they are reinforced with snacks, praise, and trips outside for the right multibutton combinations.

For regular people not building an empire, the activity may be worth it simply because it requires dog owners to put down their phones and interact with their pets, creating a positive bonding experience.—HVL

Perhaps the surest sign that pets now have person status is the fact that they have a for-profit health insurance industry to support their well-being. The global pet insurance industry was worth $11.6 billion as of 2023, and that’s expected to rise to $33.6 billion by 2030.

How we got here: TV sensation Lassie received the first US pet insurance policy in 1982, and Americans buying insurance for pets that didn’t have SAG-AFTRA cards became mainstream after that. There were 5.4 million active US pet insurance policies in 2022, a figure bolstered by the many pandemic pets picked up during lockdown.

• Pet owners can buy insurance that covers only accidents, accidents and illness, or both of those plus preventive care.
• Starting insurance for a puppy or a kitten is generally a better bet because pet insurers do not cover preexisting conditions. But animals up to the age of 14 can get new insurance policies.

Premiums on the rise: While pet insurance can significantly defray medical expenses, some policyholders reported their premiums unexpectedly increasing between 20% and 50%. Insurance companies attribute this to rising veterinary care costs and the growing complexity (and expense) of what vets can do for pets. The CEO of Trupanion, a major pet insurer, said the company can’t project how much premiums will rise each year because the company itself doesn’t know.

All pets welcome: “Exotic” pet insurance covers reptiles, birds, small mammals, mini goats, and more.—HVL

If you feel like Fido’s care suddenly costs a fortune, you’re not alone, and you’re not wrong, either: Amid a buying spree of veterinary practices by private equity firms and corporations, the price of pet care has risen twice as much as overall inflation, according to federal data.

It’s all happened over the past decade or so:

• The average vet bill is ~60% more expensive than it was in 2014, running a lap around general inflation’s ~30% increase over the same period, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• Corporations and private equity control nearly half of the 35,000 to 40,000 vets offices in the US, per KPMG—up from 8% control in 2011.
• Acquisitions of vet clinics peaked in 2021 at 200+ private equity deals, per Pitchbook.

Major player: M&M-maker Mars. The company whose products you never want your dog to ingest is the largest single provider of veterinary care in the US. Mars was “bleeding money” 30 years ago before it started snapping up clinics, according to Fortune. Revenue has spiked 284% since then, and half of the company’s 150,000 employees work for Mars Veterinary Health.

• Mars controls nearly half of the ~6,600 corporate-owned pet clinics in the US, including VCA Animal Hospitals, one of the largest vet chains in the world, and Banfield Pet Hospital, which operates mostly inside PetSmart stores.
• Mars is also the world’s largest manufacturer of pet food.

Fresh capital → fresh treatments. Some veterinarians and clinic owners say pet care got pricier thanks to all the new drugs and surgeries for anything from doggy liver cancer to kitty alopecia. Others say the innovation is overkill—an 86-year-old veterinarian told the New York Times he retired in 2014 after a colleague ordered X-rays, blood tests, and an overnight stay for a vomiting dog that he thought just needed water.

Zoom out: Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have been trying to challenge corporate ownership in the vet space, and UK regulators launched an antitrust investigation last year.—ML

Pet detectives in the UK and Europe are in the news for being very busy tracking down cat burglars and dog nappers, and Jim Carrey put the profession on the radar stateside years ago, but there are actual professional pet finders across the US who help bring lost animals home.

It’s not just purloined pets that need professional help. Animals can escape from the vet’s office, boarding, airports, and even their homes. In those instances, a 911 call will likely yield little help, as emergency services need to use their resources on people.

Who ya gonna call? Many American pet trackers get their start at the Missing Animal Response Network, which was founded by a former police officer and trains would-be pet rescue techs in the art and science of tracking down animals on the loose. The group maintains a national directory of graduates who have become volunteer or for-profit search-and-rescue technicians. These professionals offer phone consultations, physical searches, exploratory drones, and humane trapping. Some have specially trained sniffer dogs to follow a pet’s trail. They have all been called Ace Ventura a hundred times.

In 2010, the ASPCA conducted what remains the only comprehensive study of lost pets. It found that 14% of dogs and 15% of cats went missing once in a five-year period.—HVL