Israel: When it comes to pet products, it's raining cats and dogs

Israel: When it comes to pet products, it's raining cats and dogs
By Rina Rozenberg

"What gorgeous shoes. I just have to buy a pair for my little one." One might be excused for assuming that the gushing footwear fiend had a child. Indeed she may, but the woman in question was in a pet store and "the little one" she was referring to was her 4-year old mutt.

Economic crisis be darned: Demand among Israelis for pet accessories, especially unique ones, has soared in recent years. Importers and retailers are happy to meet the challenge and offer a range of specialty products.

Shampoo for blondes at the drug store is so 1990s: how about special shampoo for black-furred dogs? (Or cats, if you dare.)

Maybe some perfume for your pooch? Then there are of course vitamins and minerals, special beds and enough toys (for enough species) to give Toys R' Us a run for its money.

Not only are the accessories proliferating: so are the sales points. This year the list was augmented by Pet Point, a 450-square meter Tel Aviv supermarket for petware and nothing but.

Experts in pet pampering a la Holy Land think it's just the beginning of the trend. Meanwhile, Pet Point features more than 10,000 products for pets.

"Just like the Tambour shops turned into Home Center, and all the mom & pop groceries turned into outlets of giant chain stores, the small stores in the pets sector too - which charge higher prices and offer a smaller range - are going to get swallowed up over time," predicts Oded Shilon, owner of Pet Point.

Shahar Dominitz, owner and CEO of rival retail chain Jungle, seconds that. "We've opened a roughly 250-square meter store in Yokne'am. In my opinion, the niche [of giant pet-product retailers] is going to develop at the expense of the 20-meter stores. The range available in Israel of chemical preparations, accessories and food for pets is so big that today customers look for stores with the biggest possible range, not a store like the neighborhood grocery."

Shilon of Pet Point says the market for pets is worth over NIS 100 million annually in the greater Tel Aviv area alone, which constitutes more than half the nationwide market.

One has to wonder whether the sheer abundance of goods and goodies leads pet owners to spend more than they need to.

"Naturally, 300 years ago, nobody dreamed of such plenty and they got along just fine," says Shilon. "But you could ask the same question about people. Look how many products there are at the drugstore chains, or food chains. It's actually a question about consumption culture. A person could also live on nothing but rice and chicken, but it's a question of quality of life. The quality of life, the health care and the recreation of pets has risen."

You can't argue with the fact that the higher the quality of life to which one aspires for Kittie or Spike, the more it will cost. But there are plenty of products out there that do nothing whatsoever to improve your pet's quality of life, from rubber chickens to designer cat litters to plastic pirates in your fish tank.

"The industry of toys for dogs and cats derives from personification, thinking of cats and dogs as human," says Dr. Danny Freudenthal, head of the Animal Care department at CTS Group, which imports and markets products for the healthcare, agricultural and veterinary sectors. "There are dozens of toys at the stores that look like objects humans use - a rolled-up newspaper made of plastic, a rubber steak, a silicon chicken. The thing is that it doesn't matter to the cat or dog whether the toy is a squeaking plastic steak or a simple tennis ball. He doesn't realize it represents a steak. You don't need these toys for pets."

Eau de Fido

People may want their beloved furry friends to have something to do while they're alone at home. But these purchased toys generally bore them after a short period of time, Freudenthal says.

That doesn't mean there aren't pet toys that really are useful, he qualifies: like toys that clean the teeth.

"The chew toys given to dogs to prevent plaque do some good, but they only postpone the problem. They don't solve it. You can't avoid plaque with dogs, like you can't with humans," says Freudenthal.

Put otherwise, buying Buster chew-sticks for NIS 5 a day may be pointless.

Treating pets as humans doesn't end with toys. Today you can find a range of perfumes for dogs that can cost as much as NIS 60 a bottle. Freudenthal says the scent evaporates after 10 minutes.

And then there's the bath. Where once you might have aimed the hose at the dog, today you can find high-end shampoos for animals based on natural components, or on protein, that cost as much as NIS 70 for a small 100-milliliter bottle.

And would you spring for a fur styling? That may cost as much as NIS 150 - and it's completely unnecessary.

"Why do people cut their dogs' fur? It's superfluous," says Freudenthal. "It contributes nothing. Shedding continues. It doesn't cool down the dog [in summer], quite the contrary - fur insulates against heat and cold. Generally speaking, if we brush the dog once or twice a day, most of the shedding fur will stay on the brush rather than scatter around the house. The only reason to cut a dog's fur is for the look."

And that's an indulgence for the owner, not the pet.

There are of course things pet owners can't do without. The heaviest outlay is food. The range of regular dry foods for dogs is NIS 150 to NIS 250 for a 15 to 18 kilogram bag, which will last a medium-sized dog a month or two.

A bag of regular dry cat food lasting a month or two may cost anywhere from NIS 80 to NIS 140. (There are specialty foods, for instance for cats with a propensity for kidney trouble, that may cost much more.)

Regarding dogs, the pros recommend premium food, even though it costs more than regular food. That's because the dog digests more and excretes less of it: 85% versus 50%.

The main ingredient in premium food is poultry powder, while the inferior foods have more corn and other carbohydrates.

The highest degree of digestibility is super-premium food, where the digestion level climbs to 92%.

But the difference between premium and super-premium is less significant than the difference between regular food and premium.

Don't forget the vet and his bills. They're as important as food. Pet owners may spend thousands of shekels a year on veterinary care. Some of that is essential: inoculations, flea shots.

But most people are somewhat in awe of their vet and don't question his convictions. In case of doubt, counsels Freudenthal, call another vet for a second opinion, and when the moment of totting up the bill arrives, do try to negotiate. You might get a discount.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137617.html