Pets at home - Forster Square Retail Park - geograph

A pet shop or pet store is a retail business which sells

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

and

pet A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...

care resources to the public. A variety of animal supplies and pet accessories are also sold in pet shops. The products sold include: food, treats, toys, collars, leashes, cat litter, cages and aquariums. Some pet stores provide engraving services for pet tags, which have the owner's contact information in case the pet gets lost. In the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, pet shops often offer both hygienic care (such as pet cleaning) and aesthetic services (such as

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

and

dog grooming Dog grooming refers to both the hygienic care and cleaning of a dog, as well as a process by which a dog's physical appearance is enhanced for showing or other types of competition. A dog groomer (or simply "groomer") is a person who earns t ...

). Some pet stores also provide tips on training and behaviour, as well as advice on pet nutrition. Pet stores are extremely popular in modern society. In 2004, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, in the pet industry, live animal sales reached approximately $1.6 billion. Moreover, in a 2003 survey in the US, merely 38% of U.S. pet shops claimed that they did not sell any live animals.

Online pet stores

Many pet stores also offer retail products online. Citing convenience as the key motivational factor for purchasing from online pet stores, the number of United States households that shopped online for pet care products in 2018 was 13 million."Topic: Online Pet Care Market". www.statista.com. Retrieved 2019-11-29. Other stated advantages for online shopping include competitive pricing and good value due to free shipping offers. As of 2017, North America has the largest online pet care market of any other region. In the United States, more than 1/3 of all purchases from online pet stores were made at

PetSmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

with the most popular item purchased being dry dog food. In 2017, the online sales of pet care products grew by about 3.4 billion dollars, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores reported only about 317 million dollars in sales growth. As of 2018, Millennials are the biggest pet-owning generation. Seventy-seven percent report that they prefer to purchase pet products like toys, accessories, and food online, but favor in-store shopping for treats, bedding and clothing. In the United States pet sales make up only 6% of the market, with most sales comprising accessories and merchandise.

Countries

Germany

The largest pet store in the world is located in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

, Germany. Named ''Zoo Zajac'', it is located in a 130,000 square-foot warehouse and houses more than 250,000 animals from 3,000 different species. The store has become a tourist attraction, with visitors interacting with it like a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

United States

A major concern with pet stores and the reason why puppies and kittens may not be sold in certain stores anymore is largely due to puppy mills.

Puppy mill A puppy mill, also known as a puppy farm, is a commercial dog breeding facility characterized by quick breeding and poor conditions. Although no standardized legal definition for "puppy mill" exists, a definition was established in ''Avenson v. ...

s are commercial dog breeding businesses that breed dogs primarily for profit, often with little regard for animal welfare. According to the Puppy Mill Project "more than 2.5 million puppies are born in puppy mills each year" in the United States. Kitten mills are not as widely known as puppy mills, but they still do exist. The animals in these mills are kept in tiny, unsanitary cages, receive little to no nourishment, and often receive no veterinary care. Some cities in Canada, such as Toronto, have altogether banned the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores in order to put an end to this animal abuse. In Canada and the U.S., another area of concern regarding pet stores are the laws that guide pet stores. In the U.S., there are no federal laws in place that protect animals in retail pet stores. There are state laws to protect animals; however they vary widely and may be insufficient. In twenty states and Washington, D.C., a license is required before being able to manage a pet store. The welfare of animals in pet shops relies heavily on the veterinary care available to them. In the United States, there are only 16 states that enforce veterinary care laws in pet stores. In Ontario, Canada the Provincial Animal Welfare Act states that the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has the authorization to examine places where animals are kept for sale, including pet shops. In some states and cities in the United States - such as

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

- the sale of common pets such as dogs, cats, and rabbits, is prohibited except for those from

animal shelters An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would ...

, in an attempt to curb poor standards of

animal breeding Animal breeding is a branch of animal science that addresses the evaluation (using best linear unbiased prediction and other methods) of the genetic value (estimated breeding value, EBV) of livestock. Selecting for breeding animals with superior E ...

United Kingdom

In 1987 the British pet store trade had an estimated worth of £150 million. The largest pet store chain is

Pets at Home Pets at Home is a British pet supplies retailer selling pet products including food, toys, bedding, medication, accessories and pets. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The first stor ...

. In the United Kingdom, pet stores will be prohibited from selling

puppies A puppy is a juvenile dog. Some puppies can weigh , while larger ones can weigh up to . All healthy puppies grow quickly after birth. A puppy's coat color may change as the puppy grows older, as is commonly seen in breeds such as the York ...

and

kittens A kitten is a juvenile cat. After being born, kittens display primary altriciality and are totally dependent on their mothers for survival. They normally do not open their eyes for seven to ten days. After about two weeks, kittens develop q ...

less than six months old. The ban was announced in 2018 following public pressure to improve animal breeding standards.

References