A woman observes the solar eclipse with her poodle in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, China. Photograph: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images
From the article:
About 33 million households in China keep a cat or dog, according to Euromonitor. Expenditure on pet care will reach 7.84 billion yuan this year, a 46 percent increase since 2007, the London-based consumer researcher said. It predicts the market will increase a further 64 percent by 2017, with 12.9 billion yuan splurged on pet food, health care and dietary supplements.
"People are going to spend more money, and veterinarians are getting equipped to support their clients," Ali Naqui, Idexx's vice president of international commercial operations, said in a telephone interview from Maine.
Growing affluence is resulting in pet owners buying more expensive products and services, said Vera Wang, a research analyst with Euromonitor in Shanghai. Sales of pet-care products will expand 9 percent this year, compared with 6 percent in the U.K., 4 percent in the U.S. and 3 percent in France, she said.
It reminded me of a story I did in March 2009 when a delegation of visiting Chinese veterinarians took a tour of Lawndale's Advanced Veterinary Care Center, a high-tech animal hospital that offers sophisticated treatments for pets.
China's image when it comes to caring for animals has been far from stellar.
In 2006, news broke about 50,000 dogs that were rounded up and killed -- many of them clubbed to death in public -- as Chinese officials tried to cope with a rabies outbreak. At that time, only 3 percent of the country's dogs were believed to have been vaccinated against the disease, which is contagious to people.
And more recently, we've all become familiar with the problems in dog chews and other pet food products that come from China.
From the Bloomberg piece, it sounds like vaccinations and other basics are becoming more the norm in the country.
But I'd still avoid buying food or treats made from ingredients from China.