A question of money
In China, pets are increasingly replacing children
September 28, 2024, 9:21 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
More and more Chinese people are keeping dogs or cats. And the four-legged friends shouldn’t lack for anything, which leads to some strange trends. There is also a worrying development behind the pet boom.
Baobao probably already knows what’s coming. This isn’t the first time the little Pekingese has been to Dr. Hu Yusheng in the north of China’s capital Beijing.
Very carefully, Dr. Place a few acupuncture needles on the 13-year-old four-legged friend’s back. The little one has to endure about half an hour with his lampshade-like neck brace and the needles that his owner wants to use to treat Baobao’s protracted cough.
An important part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is looking at the body as a whole. “I’m not specifically treating the disease, but rather Baobao’s Qi and bloodstream,” explains Dr. Hu. He mainly uses acupuncture and moxa therapy, i.e. heating certain parts of the body, on animals. His main customers are cats, followed by dogs, as he says – and they come more and more often. According to Dr. The Chinese have been using TCM on animals for a long time – although in the past it was more likely on farm animals that had to be treated because otherwise there would have been a lack of labor.
But instead of labor, pets in China now seem to be becoming something of a substitute for children. It is estimated that there are approximately 116 million cats and dogs living in China’s cities. And they should be fine.
Two opposing trends have been evident in China for years: In the more expensive cities, despite rising living standards, fewer and fewer couples can afford more than one child. The birth rate has so far fallen noticeably, even though the Communist Party abolished the decades-old one-child policy in 2015. The current rate is approximately one child per woman.
High costs of raising children
China’s Yuwa Institute for Population Research found this year that the cost of raising a child in China is one of the highest in the world. The experts looked at the year 2022 and based their results on the expenditure on a child compared to the annual gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. On average, it costs 538,000 yuan (currently around 68,400 euros) to raise a child until the age of 18. This is 6.3 times China’s GDP per capita. It was only more expensive in South Korea, which ranks at the bottom of the world in terms of births per woman.
In contrast, more and more people in China have pets. Dr. Hu also suspects the high work pressure is behind this. “People need emotional comfort, which is why many choose to keep a pet whether they have children or not,” he says. In a country with around 1.4 billion inhabitants, such a trend holds enormous business potential.
Danger from pet boom
However, there is also criticism of the pet trend. The animal rights organization Peta Asia praises the concern for dogs in China. However, they criticize the conditions in which some dog breeders produce inbred litters and keep the animals in cages that are too small while street dogs fight for their survival. Peta promotes taking animals from homes instead of buying from breeders or pet shops.
The pet food business is likely to remain promising in the future: In July, an analysis by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs concluded that the market for pet food in China would be worth the equivalent of 63 billion yuan (currently around 8 billion euros) by the end of the decade ) could be big.
Much more explosive: From the data, the analysts calculated that by 2030 there could be more pets living in China’s cities than children under the age of four – and that almost by a ratio of two to one. It was said that the younger generation in particular would keep pets.
Dog wedding cake
In Beijing’s chic center, where young people like to stroll between the expensive fashion stores, Li Te sells custom-made cakes for four-legged friends. Occasions include animal birthdays or dog weddings, which are becoming increasingly popular in China, according to reports.
Customers can send a photo of their protégé to Li’s shop via cell phone and the animal will then be modeled on the cake. With fresh ingredients such as fish and meat, there is little chance that your four-legged friends will have to give a piece to their owners.
“Above all, customers are keeping more and more cats,” notes Li. According to her, many orders are also received for International Children’s Day on June 1st.
