J.W. CAMPBELL PHOTO It may not be cute and cuddly, but snakes, like this Emerald Tree Boa, are among millions of reptiles kept as pets in the United States.

All creatures great and small

By J.W. Campbell

The phrase "we consider our pets to be members of the family" has been uttered so often by so many people that it might be dismissed as a cliche. But for thousands of entrepreneurs in the United States, it's the philosophy and the sentiment on which their business is based.

"People are realizing that our pets go a lot deeper than just an animal," said David Lashley, a Belleville-area veterinarian with more than 40 years of experience. "We see their intelligence and we see their perceptiveness. We're discovering that there really is no such critter as a dumb animal.

"The change came when we started living in closer contact with them. When they were outside on the farm, people had very little contact with them, so how would we know what they're capable of; but having seen their attributes, people are much more attached to their animals and much more willing to go to greater lengths to take care of them."

According to the National Institutes of Health, there are more pets than children in American households. So it's no wonder that pet-related businesses are expected to generate more than $43 billion in revenue this year. That figure comes from the American Pet Product Manufacturers' Association, which breaks spending down into five categories, food ($16.9 billion), vet care ($10.9 billion), supplies and medicine ($10.3 billion), live animal purchases ($2.1 billion) and pet services ($3 billion), things like grooming and boarding.

While most of the categories seem self explanatory, two, pet supplies and pet services, are such catch-all terms that APPMA tries to track new trends in a yearly reports.

In the 2008 Pet Products Trend Report, the APPMA identified a plethora of items and services that expand the bounds of supplies and services. For instance, the organization noted that many companies traditionally known for their human products are now offering lines for pets. Some of the companies mentioned by the report were Paul Mitchell, Origins (health and beauty care) and Old Navy.

The report also noted that many hotels across the country are making their establishments more pet friendly by offering gift packages that include things like oversized pet pillows, doggie robes, pet toys, treats and even a licensed dog masseuse. Medical firms are also offering DNA testing which will help owners determine the pedigrees of their mixed breeds. Such a test sells for as little as $90.

Gadgets included in the report include self-flushing cat boxes and pet restraints for automobiles.

Big spending

According to a survey of pet owners conducted by the APPMA, the average dog owner will spend $1,425 a year on their pet. That total factors in surgeries and other veterinarian treatments ($453), food ($217), kennel and boarding costs ($225), routine veterinarian services ($219), grooming and grooming aids ($127), vitamins ($77), treats ($66) and toys ($41).

For cats the total is slightly less at $990 a year. The total for cats breaks down in the following way: surgical and other veterinarian treatments ($363), food ($188), kennel boarding ($149), routine veterinarian services ($175), grooming and grooming aids ($18), vitamins ($31), treats ($40) and toys ($26).

Obviously, there are more ways to indulge a pampered pooch or cat than most people can imagine. Whether it be a personalized collar, monogrammed sweaters, jewel studded leases and collar, Halloween costume, a day at the pet spa or a gourmet meal for your four-legged friend, there are countless ways to spoil the family pet; with additional ways being thought up on an almost daily basis.

Of course, dogs and cats aren't the only type of pets included in the APPMA survey. While 45 percent of all American households have a dog and 38 percent have a cat, other popular pets include birds (6.4 percent), freshwater fish (14.2 percent), reptiles (4.8 percent) and small animals (6 percent).

These species have not been forgotten by their owners, the people charged with their care or U.S. legislators.

In 2004, Congress passed the Minor Use and Minor Species Animal Health Act, legislation designed to encourage the development of drugs for less common pets such as birds, guinea pigs, reptiles and rabbits.

According to a statement released by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the MUMS act "will allow companies the opportunity to develop and market FDA authorized drugs that are vital to a large number of animal species. The act will alleviate unnecessary animal suffering and dying. The MUMS Act incorporates significant proposals made by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine to increase the availability of drugs to treat minor species and other species with uncommon conditions."

"There's a lot more that can be done for the exotics," said Lashley. "For instance, in Webster Groves, there's a group within their practice that does nothing but exotics. They only do birds, snakes, iguanas, tarantulas, sugar gliders and other little animals that are sometimes called pocket pets. Not many people would think of a rabbit as an exotic, but it is in the fact that it's totally outside the mainstream treatment. If you treated it like you would a cat or a dog much of the time, you'd be doing the wrong thing."

Career opportunities

Many people who take joy in interacting with their pets look to make a career out of their affinity for animals. There are a variety of ways of doing so. Some careers in the industry require extensive training. Others do not.

The most trained pet professionals are veterinarians, but becoming a vet is not an easy chore. There are only 28 veterinary schools in the nation and anyone applying for a slot in one of them faces fierce competition.

At the University of Illinois, approximately 900 applicants compete for 120 spots available in its program each year.

"I assume the competition is the same throughout the United States," said Karen Eichelberger of the University of Illinois Veterinarian Sciences program. "A lot of states don't even have a vet school, and the only one that has two is California.

"Certainly our application rate has gone up since VMCAS (Veterinary Medical College Application Service) was established. That allows prospective vet students to fill out one application and apply to several schools at once."

Eichelberger said that the in-state cost for the University of Illinois's veterinarian school in 2007-2008 was $17,240. Out-of-state tuition and fees were $34,704.

"I think that cost is pretty typical across the country," said Eichelberger.

Lashley, who has mentored dozens of new veterinarians over his four decades in practice, said the biggest change he's seen in the field is the percentage of women becoming vets.

"When I went to school, the proportion was greatly in favor of males and less of females; now it's just the opposite," he said.

For those who don't want to invest the time or the money required to become a licensed veterinarian but still want a job working with animals, a career in the veterinary technician field is appealing. According to the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA), the AVMA accredits about 100 veterinary technician schools in the United States.

NAVTA describes a vet tech's primary function as providing professional and technical support to "veterinarians, biomedical researchers, and other scientists."

NAVTA traces the professional development of vet techs to the 1960s, when professional schools began to emerge. Prior to that, veterinarians usually trained their own assistants to meet the need of their own practice. As technology improved, however, the job got more sophisticated, requiring formal training.

Little or no formal training is required for other jobs in the industry, such as groomers, pet sitters and kennel operators, but they still allow people to be involved with animals on a professional basis.

For Pam Lashley, the wife of veterinarian David Lashley and the owner of the Country Estate Kennel in O'Fallon, the decision to open her own kennel 20 years ago was based on the perception that a safe and friendly kennel was needed in the Metro East area.

"David had more and more clients coming to him and saying 'Doctor, I know your priority is medicine, but when your kenneling facilities are filled, the others facilities that are available to us are deplorable.' The idea of establishing our kennel was to provide a facility that was a step above what was available at that time. Before we built, we researched for about two years. All of the latest in safety measures and amenities were included. We did not originally have private suites for our babies (animals), but we do now and have had them for many years. We were the first kennel in the area to offer them to our clientele.

"We're also here to supply play time and walks. While mom and dad are on their vacation, the puppy should be enjoying one of his own."

In addition to boarding, the Country Estate Kennel offers day care services for dogs.

For Janice McDonald, of the Kritter Korner, a pet grooming service in Edwardsville, her business was a natural off-shoot of her family's environment.

'We lived out in the country and we just always had animals; horses, goats, chickens - you name it, we had it," said McDonald. "That's how my kids grew up. My daughter Kathy, who is now a research veterinarian at Washington University, got me started in the grooming business back in 1988."

Corporations dominate

Despite the plethora of individualized career opportunities available in the pet care field, there can be no denying the fact that segments of the pet care industry are dominated by corporate interests. For example, independent kennels like the Country Estate Kennel now faces competition from dozens of others, including some franchised kennels like Camp Bow Wow in Swansea.

But when it comes to pet industry giants, nothing can trump the pet food companies that are international concerns with billions of dollars in earnings each year.

In 2006, the St. Louis-based Nestle Purina Petcare Co., accounted for $10.48 billion dollars worth of sales world wide. That places it second behind the Mars Petcare Company of McLean, Va., which sold $10.71 billion in pet food globally in 2006, according to statistics found on petfoodindustry.com.

Of the top 10 pet food companies in the world, the U.S. is home to six of them, including Mars Petcare, Nestle Purina Petcare, Proctor and Gamble Petcare, Hills Pet Nutrition, Delmonte Petcare and Nutro Products, Inc.

The largest speciality retailer of pet items is PetSmart, which operates 1,043 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, Between March of 2007 and February of 2008 PetSmart exceeded $258 million dollars in sales.

Besides selling a wide variety of items for pets, the stores also provide a number of services, such as animal training, grooming and even veterinarian care. PetSmart employs more than 1,000 veterinarians in its North American stores.

PetSmart, like many of the big pet retail centers, sell fish, reptiles and small rodents, but choose not to traffic in dogs and cats. Instead, they cooperate with local animal shelters, providing adoption for stray and abandoned animals.

People looking for a pure bred pet are encouraged to located a reputable breeder through the American Kennel Association or the Cat Fancier's Association.

Whether one is dealing with a mixed breed or a pure breed, recent advances in the veterinary sciences have expanded the life expectancy of today's pets. Unfortunately, the technology that has produced advances in veterinary care comes with an increased price. Because of the spiraling cost of pet care, many companies are now selling pet insurance.

The largest and oldest company to offer animal insurance is Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), which covers dogs, cats, birds, reptiles and a variety of small animals.

VPI started offering insurance on pets in 1982. Currently, about 450,000 animals are insured through the company. More recently, Purina just entered the pet insurance business.

According to quotes acquired on the company's web site, the yearly premium for a two-year-old, medium-sized mixed breed dog is $280. For a 3-year-old, American short-haired cat, the yearly premium is around $250. Of course, the amount varies according to age and breed of the dog or cat. Premiums can also be paid on a monthly basis and multiple pet discounts are available.

"While we have insurance companies for quite awhile, you couldn't always depend on them being there when you needed them," said David Lashley. "You could pay your premiums for the first three or four years, but by the fifth year they're bankrupt. Gone. Disappeared. But VPI is probably staying around; and I would believe that Purina would have major staying power. Ultimately, I would think that insurance would become a factor because the economics of pet care could become a problem since we're coming up with cancer treatments and other things that weren't available years ago."

While Lashley expects the pet insurance business to continue to thrive, he offered a word of caution.

"It all depends on how the economy goes," he said.

The same could probably be said of the pet industry in general.