--- title: Consumer Spending Goes to the Dogs (and Cats) description: In this year of the great belt tightening pet owners continue to give themselves a long leash to keep shelling out for Fido and Fluffy.… authors: - name: timestaff url: https://money.com/author/timestaff/ articles: 459 covers: - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z' modified: '2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z' section: Pets word_count: 341 canonical: https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Consumer Spending Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)](https://money.com/img/logo-social.png) In this year of the great belt tightening pet owners continue to give themselves a long leash to keep shelling out for Fido and Fluffy. The American Pet Products Association[ estimates ](http://americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp "Pet spending")we’ll spend $45.5 billion on pets this year, a 5% increase since 2008 and a near 60% jump from our 2001 pet outlays. This comes at a time when June retail sales were about 10% lower than a year earlier and a Gallup survey of weekly consumer expenditures in mid-August was nearly 30% lower from a year ago. ![](http://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/att_dog-032.jpg) Pet expenditures aren’t merely a kibble and kitty litter story. The APPA reports that 19% of pet owners admit to buying a “designer” item. Exhibit A: The $935 price tag for the large version of[ this cat condo ](http://www.mycatsheaven.com/store/1957480/product/PFP-ARCH "Kitty condo")would cover a few months of mortgage payments for plenty of[ human condos ](http://www.jennifermackay.com/condosunder100.php "Florida condos")on the market. But it’s not just about the pet bling. Basic food and care is driving some very big bottom lines. Nestle[ recently reported ](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125011529077527173.html)a 9% year-over-year pickup in its pet care division; PetSmart recently doubled its dividend payout, and drug maker Sanofi-Aventis SA is paying Merck $4 billion to buy its 50% share of animal health-care manufacturer Merial. Sanofi’s CEO told The Wall Street Journal that Merial sales are up 50% the past five years and the firm’s operating margin is near 30%. I know all about that trend; the epileptic dog sleeping at my feet as I write this requires twice-daily medication, and will see her vet more this year than I have seen my primary care physician in the past decade. But I just had to sigh in disbelief at a House Resolution introduced last month that would allow an annual tax deduction of up to $3,500 a year for “qualified pet expenses." No, I am[ not making this up ](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3501: "Get Happy"). As Howard Gleckman so pithily wrote at the[ Tax Vox ](http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/blog/_archives/2009/8/7/4281284.html "Brookings")blog, this non-essential tax break seems a bit out of touch for the times given the massive federal deficit. What’s your take on this pet project? ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Pets", "item": "https://money.com/pets/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Consumer Spending Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/", "name": "Consumer Spending Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Consumer Spending Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)", "articleSection": "Pets", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://money.com/img/logo-social.png", "width": 300, "height": 300 }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/att_dog-032.jpg", "width": 220, "height": 172 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "timestaff", "url": "https://money.com/author/timestaff/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/timestaff/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z", "description": "In this year of the great belt tightening pet owners continue to give themselves a long leash to keep shelling out for Fido and Fluffy.…", "abstract": "In this year of the great belt tightening pet owners continue to give themselves a long leash to keep shelling out for Fido and Fluffy.…", "@id": "https://money.com/consumer-spending-goes-to-the-dogs-and-cats/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2009-08-21T22:27:14.000Z", "wordCount": 341, "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Pet", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet" ] } ] } ] } ```