Full disclosure: your author has a dog. Both he and his family are deeply attached to her, as the pictures here attest. However, there are some things he will draw a line at. One of them is the increasing humanisation of animals. Not everyone would agree. The longevity trend we discussed last year (and initially in 2019) is now coming for your cat, dog and budgie.
The pet industry has been on a journey of both premiumisation and digitalisation for some time. Americans will likely spend a record-breaking $165bn on their pets this year, a 4.4% increase relative to 2025. Notably, Gen-Z pet-owners spend an average of $6,100 annually on their animals, versus the roughly $5,200 allocated by Millennials, or the much stingier $3,900 disbursed by members of Gen-X (your author falls into this latter category).
Where does all the money go? Food price inflation has hit the pet industry, but increasing sums are being spent on predictive and preventive healthcare solutions. Some of this is clearly because people want to enjoy more quality time with their pets. Equally important may be economics. One survey suggests that at least 50% of pet owners are actively researching ways to avoid emergency veterinary bills – which have a horrible tendency of being very expensive – through earlier intervention and prevention.
Do not be surprised, then, to see animals wearing biometrics monitors. DNA testing, gut microbiome and food sensitivity analytics, and multiple supplements all might form part of the pet longevity tool kit too. Another recent report suggests that some owners are using peptides in the hope of extending pet lifespans. Others are favouring rapamycin (an immunosuppressant thought to have anti-ageing properties) and even infra-red light therapy.
The prospect of longer life has always been a tantalising one, but it may be both naïve and hubristic to assume that we can defeat death. Something will kill you – and your animal – eventually. Natural selection has no interest in longevity per se. Further, we still don’t fully understand how or why the body ages. Neither we nor our pets may be getting any younger, but where we allocate our income still matters.
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Originally Posted 8/24/26 – How much do you love your pet?
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