Make the Most of a Dog's World

While the nation bitterly debates Iraq troop levels, medical care for the indigent and the need for college football playoffs, there is one thing everyone agrees on: We love our dogs and cats beyond all reason and will pamper them in sickness and in health.

No longer do most dogs get old hambones or bags of kibble in their bowls in the backyard. Today they have come under the scrutiny of big-time marketers who see them as monetizable targets akin to cute little kids. On television and Web sites and in splashy direct-mail campaigns, households are encouraged to lavish pets with organic meat, resort vacations, designer clothes and cosmetics, psychotherapy and specially formulated water. It's goodbye Fido, hello Fidollarbill.

The apotheosis of pets for financial purposes has been going on for some time, of course, but only recently has it launched into the stratosphere as an accelerating multibillion-dollar business. Americans spent $36 billion on food, shelter, health care and luxuries for their pets last year, which is about twice the GDP of Costa Rica.

The pet industry is one of the fastest-growing subsectors in the entire U.S. economy, growing by as much as 6% a year.

'The Isolation of Humans'

Got dog? Something like 63% of U.S. households report owning a pet, which means around 74 million scamps camped on our couches, begging at our tables and barking at anyone with the temerity to walk past our front doors. To put that in perspective, the U.K. has only 60 million people, no match for our army of Labs, shepherds and calicos.