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CommentsPet Tales
(page 2 of 21)
Pet Ownership: It's an Industry
By Gregory Holman
John and Karen McQueary’s home is set in Springfield’s University Heights neighborhood, with a shining new custom kitchen and a backyard grotto complete with fountains and a koi pond. They’re in their late 20s. After starting an Internet company, John went into his family’s pharmacy-supply business. The McQuearys do well enough that Karen doesn’t work a 9-to-5 job, by her choice. They do not have kids, but they do have a Siberian husky, Luna. She is a beautiful dog, characteristic of the breed: friendly, gentle and alert.With plenty of disposable income and time for pets, they are the pet marketers’ target for all manner of indulgences. Southwest Missouri lags behind other parts of the country in this phenomenon, also aimed at families and empty-nesters. “There was a Three Dog Bakery in St. Louis years before we got our Three Dog Bakery,” says Dianne Strickland, a member of the Springfield Dog Training Club since 1985. Yet local business is earning its share of the $41 billion spent yearly by pet-loving Americans—a sum which is up sharply.
In 1988, 51 million households had pets. By 2006, that number shot up to 69 million. Surprise: We own more cats than dogs, but we spend more money and attention on dogs. “My dog gets everything,” says Barbara Weathers, a lifestyle-marketing expert at Drury University who has studied these issues. “The cats kinda don’t.” Weathers’ dog is named Webster; one of her cats is called Stu, short for “stupid.”
Local stores are capitalizing on pets. All Pet Supplies started in West Plains but now also does a zipping business in Springfield (1611 W. Republic Road; 417-877-4711 and 2845 W. Kearney St., 417-865-6800). It sells a $119.99 three-wheeled doggie-jogger or $18.99 doormats that inform visitors that the family dog isn’t a biter, “he’s a humper.” Add on doggie car seats, pig snouts rather than common rawhide, eco-friendly flea and tick treatments, and, of course, doggie and kitty couture of all kinds . Demand for rabbit hutches at All Pet Supplies is up: Young families like rabbits because they don’t bark and like to play if socialized from young bunny-hood.
In Houston, Missouri, a former New Yorker mixes Paris Hilton-ish indulgence with country charm: Canvas Critters
(canvascritters.com) sells hand-painted portraits of your pet on purses and other items. Springfield’s Gerri Mack (a 417 Magazine freelancer) sells a line of Stevie & Stella collars and leashes that took her to the Super Zoo trade show in Las Vegas recently.
The local pets market is booming enough that Dr. Tedd Hamaker, one of the premier local veterinarians, is doubling the size of his practice. Springfield Veterinary Hospital becomes Galloway Village Veterinary this spring. It is to open at 4126 S. Lone Pine Ave., in south Springfield’s most hyper-quaint neighborhood. Dr. Hamaker plans to hire multiple vets for the custom-designed facility and take advantage of the nearby Ozark Greenways trail and Sequiota Park to create a kind of “doggie fitness camp” using the Greenway trail for dogs and their owners. “We can use the love of a pet to help in our fitness as well,” he says.
Emotion for pets drives demand for better and more pet products and services. “It’s the humanization of pets,” says Bruce Keeler of All Pet Supplies. Dr. Hamaker points out that it’s now common for family photos to include pets; it once wasn’t. In southwest Missouri, this emotion distinguishes itself: Weathers says she believes we’re more prone to outrage over mistreated animals. She cites a network of local pet-lovers who are protesting the sale of “puppy mill” dogs at two chain stores present in Springfield.
Where that emotion comes from is a complex question. Southwest Missouri pet-lovers generally say that in an iWorld filled with text-messaging and beeping noises, people need more genuine experience of caring for living things. “We have less and less touchy-feelies with people—I mean, we don’t even talk on the phone any more,” Strickland says.
People inside the pet industry expect this to continue. Jan Guin, general manager of All Pet Supplies, does not see the economic slowdown playing a part in the pet industry. Yet even she looks askance at some animal extravagances. “It’s not that I think it’s over the top, I just can’t believe it,” is how she characterized her reaction to some pet-stravaganzas. The next thing? “There will be spas, with massages,” she says.
