In the August 6th edition of BusinessWeek, they ran a story on the amount of money American spend on PETS! 41 BILLION! Is that not insane? Our national debt is 9 trillion and yet we can spend 41 billion on pet expenses? And I’m not talking Kibbles and Bits expenses here. Designer doggie houses where owners pawn and preen over the in-laid teak wood construction of Benji’s domicile. And surgical procedures to, get this, improve Old Yeller’s self esteem. I wish I were making the following excerpt up.
If there’s still any doubt whether the pampering of pets is getting out of hand, the debate should be settled once and for all by Neuticles, a patented testicular implant that sells for up to $919 a pair. The idea, says inventor Gregg A. Miller, is to “let people restore their pets to anatomical preciseness” after neutering, thereby allowing them to retain their natural look and self-esteem. “People thought I was crazy when I started 13 years ago,” says the Oak Grove, Mo. entrepreneur. But he has since sold more than 240,000 pairs (a few of which went on prairie dogs, water buffalo, and monkeys). “Neutering is creepy. But with Neuticles, it’s like nothing has changed.” Nothing, except there’s a fake body part where a real one used to be. (p.45)
Ridiculous.
Holy cow. I knew pet food could be rather expensive, and I knew some people went to extremes with their pets… but wow. I had no idea.
I remember the first time that I heard about Neuticals I thought that it was a joke. It really is unbelievable that people will spend so much money on a pet. Amy and I saw a show the other night where they interviewed a couple who spent $10,000 on a home for their two dogs! I cannot even image spending that type of money on an animal. $11 bucks for a large bag of dog food is enough for me.