As the world gets richer, pet ownership is booming. With people treating cats and dogs more like fellow humans, who is really in charge?
has brought his dog, Manolo, to the “canine area” of a public park in Condesa, a wealthy district of Mexico City. As he watches the happy, free-running animals, he reflects on how dogs’ lives have changed. Mr Salomón, who was born in the northern state of Sonora, recalls that his grandmother had two dogs—a black one called Negro and a white one called Güero, meaning pale. They were seldom allowed in the house.
People in the pet industry use the word “humanisation” to describe many of the changes they see. It does not imply that people think their pets are actually human . Rather, more pet owners have come to believe that their animals can do human-like things, such as understand them, calm them and love them. They have also come to believe that pets should be treated more like humans.
Some animals are easier to see as family members than others. As the expectation that pets should provide companionship and emotional support has grown, the range of favoured species has narrowed. In 1949 Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian biologist, recommended fish, hamsters, bullfinches and starlings as excellent pets. Five years later, Marlon Brando’s character in “On the Waterfront” kept pigeons. Today just two species dominate:. Sales of dog and cat food are rising in Britain.
Still, pets are undoubtedly treated better than they were. Mr Romano of Nestlé says that Latin American ones used to subsist largely on table scraps, but no longer. Across the continent, he says, dogs now get about 40% of their calories from pet food, whereas cats get a little more. And pet owners are buying posher nibbles. Euromonitor estimates that dog-food sales in Mexico have grown by 25% in real terms since 2013.
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