Luxury Pet Business Booms in Mexico with Strong Growth of Middle Class, Smaller Families Isaac Garrido - The Associated Press
go to original April 15, 2014

French bulldog Dago, gets a workout on a treadmill with trainer Israel Martinez, at the Pet Central spa in Mexico City. (Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY - Over the last decade, the growth of Mexico's middle class has created a new market for fancy goods and services for dogs including clothing and accessory boutiques, spas and restaurants with doggie snacks cooked by a pastry chef.

It's a startling cultural shift in a country where a dog's life has long meant days chained to the roof of the house. The 2000 film "Amores Perros" used the brutal treatment of dogs as a metaphor for the inhumanity of contemporary Mexican society.

Mexico has an estimated 20 million dogs or more, many of them roaming the streets hunting for food in the trash or spending their days shut up in apartments by owners who see them simply as living burglar alarms.

Last year, the problem gained international attention when authorities said five people had been killed by a pack of feral dogs in the Cerro de Estrella park in Iztapalapa, a poor eastern neighborhood of Mexico City. Authorities captured some 50 dogs near where the attacks took place and brought them to a pound, prompting demonstrations by animal rights activists that pushed officials to put the dogs up for adoption.

At the same time, a small and growing number of Mexicans are spending once unimaginable amounts on their canines.

Many of the estimated 40 million Mexicans considered to be middle class are having fewer children than their parents did and, therefore, also have more disposable income.

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