Nowadays, when you walk on the streets in China, you can see all kinds of pets. It is a fact that more and more Chinese choose to keep a pet. According to China’s Pet Industry White Paper 2017, put out by Insight&Info Consulting Ltd, more than 59,120,000 Chinese families have at least one pet, and the number is still rising. It is quite different compared to China 20 years ago. What caused and drove it?
First, pets can bring many good things to the cockles of their owners’ hearts. Living with pets, people can get away from lonely easily. In such a fast-paced era, we are more likely to have psychological problems, more likely to experience stress and depression. However, things will be different when we have a pet. They are cute, they rely on us，they bring joy and fun to us. With them, we can forget all annoying things and get rid of the negative emotions. And China has another unique reason—Family Planning. Due to this policy, many Chinese teenager are the only child of their family, their parents would like to keep a pet in order to keep them from feeling lonely. The dogs or cats substitute the place of brother and sister on their heart. Of course, pets can help the aged get rid of anxiety and loneliness.
The improvement of pet industry is also a significant factor. It is much easier to find a pet hospital and pet hotel (people spend not a lot of money, and someone will take food care of their pets.) in China now. We can consider less about the terrible things which may happens to our pets. They have better medical conditions when they fall ill, they can be taken care of more considerate when their owner go on a journey or have some urgencies. These supporting services of pets decrease the factors which need the owners to consider. When things get easier and easier, more and more people will accept and do it.
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The last but not the least, we cannot ignore the influence of the development of China’s economic. Human will consider about their means of subsistence above all. When we no longer have to worried about our food and clothes, we will spend time, effort and money on other things to improve our life quality. According to a research made by China Industrial Economy Information Network, when the GDP per capita of a country increase to $3000-5000, its household penetration rates for pet-ownership and pet economy will develop rapidly like mushroom growth. In 2017, the GDP per capita of China is $9481.1881, so there is no strange that the pet-ownership increase rapidly in China in the past few years. Another fact which can prove the connection between economy and the pet-ownership is that the pet economy and household penetration rates for pet-ownership in the United States stop increasing in 2008 and return to growth in 2010. Obviously, the economic crisis caused this.
Pets’ benefits to human, the improvement of pet industry in China and the economic development all lead to the increase of pet-ownership in China. And there is still a lot of room to grow.
Reference list
- China Industrial Economy Information Network, (2017). Current situation of pet industry in China. [online] Available at: http://www.chyxx.com/industry/201606/421796.html [Accessed 10 June. 2018]
- Insight&Info Consulting Ltd, (2017). Survey on pet-ownership in China. [online] Available at: http://market.chinabaogao.com/nonglinmuyu/0H62YWR017.html [Accessed 11 June.2018]
- Goumin.com, (2017). China’s pet industry white paper. [online] Available at: http://news.goumin.com/a/2017-11-27/0011511805428.html [Accessed 11 June.2018]
- Dunbar, I.2013. Before and After Getting Your Poppy. Connection between human and pets, 24-31.
