Howl-Oween

Issue #30

October 31st, 2023

Quick Hits:

❤️ Dogs make us appreciate our time on earth

🎃 Best Halloween costumes go to…

👻 More costumes

🇫🇷 A networking event for pet care entrepreneurs

🍣 Kim Kardashian dresses her dogs up

America loves Halloween! 

All you need to do is drive around any suburb and check out the insanely well-lit front lawns, the skeletons, the ghosts, and all the other things that make lawns look like horror movie sets to understand that America loves Halloween! If you live outside the US, you might not get how big Halloween is, but Americans spend and invest a lot of money each year on Halloween décor.

But how did Halloween start? What are its origins? Who decided it would be a good idea to turn your front lawn into a cemetery once a year? Well… We don’t know! This is a business newsletter, not a history one.

So let’s talk numbers, shall we?

In 2022, The National Retail Federation reported that Americans spent $10.6 billion on all things ghoulish.

About $700M of that was spent on costumes for pets, up from $500m in 2020.

The market for pet costumes has become wildly popular. In 2020, about 18% of Americans planned to dress their pets up for Halloween. This is a big increase from previous years. There are many different costumes available for dogs and cats, from traditional ones like pumpkins and witches to more unique options such as ghosts, serial killers, dinosaurs, and even the UPS delivery guy. Cats are not immune to this phenomenon either. Some popular cat costumes are Purrlock Holmes, a lion’s mane, a taco cat, and of course bat wings.

The most popular pet costume is (shocking, not shocking) a pumpkin. 🎃 

Dogs, especially have unwillingly become Halloween superstars, made to dress up for our entertainment in costumes that would make their wolf ancestors tilt their heads in disbelief.

Now dressing up dogs in particular is not necessarily new, there are pictures of dogs in costumes dating back 100 years. However, it was an anomaly back then whereas today it’s increasingly more common.

Social media has undoubtedly played a role in driving the Halloween pet costume craze. #dogcostume has almost 500k posts on Instagram. Sifting through IG you will find some of the cutest, funniest, and most creative pet costume ideas.

Pet parents still get most of their costume inspiration online:

• 37% find costume inspiration online

• 28% of pet parents find their inspiration in the retail store

• 20% find their costume inspiration via friends and/or family

The humanization trend has only accelerated in recent years. Pets, specifically dogs are no longer an afterthought when planning activities. They are with us when we attend social gatherings, go on vacations, hikes, or to the grocery store. Halloween activities are no different, from picking up pumpkins to going trick-or-treating and getting dressed up in ridiculous yet fun costumes pets are along for the ride.

Big city pets are more likely to wear matching accessories or clothes with their owners. Just check out the latest celebrity & dog matching outfits. Quite surprisingly, 70% of urban pet owners have done this with their fashionable furry counterparts. This is less common in suburban and rural areas.

More than 3 in 4 (76%) pet parents like to dress up their fur babies for Halloween and other fall occasions with nearly a third (30 percent) planning to dress their pets up more than once this Halloween. Millennials lead the pack in dressing up their pets (86%) compared to other cohorts – Gen Z (81%), Gen X (74%) and Boomers (59%). A majority (66%) of pet parents say they change their pets' accessories or apparel seasonally.

As the bond between pet owners and their animals continues to strengthen, pet owners are increasingly investing in other Halloween-themed items for their pets. Including accessories such as Halloween-themed collars, toys, bandanas, and even special treats for the season. The increasing array of pet-centric Halloween products reflects the expanding market for festive pet-related items.

The $700M question: should you be dressing your poodle as a pineapple?

Well, as with most things, it’s not as black & white as yes you should, no you shouldn’t. Some clothing for some dogs can feel very restrictive, while for other dogs it may be fine or they may even like it. Make sure you buy costumes that don’t restrict their breathing, going 1 or 2, see or hear properly, or even just make them uncomfortable for your benefit.

You should know your dog and know when he or she is comfortable or not. that is really what it comes down to, not every dog is going to be okay with every costume, just because of the cute Corgi on Instagram. Just like we are individually different, so is each dog. They have different fur thickness, size, temperament, body temperature, breathing capacity, etc..

Just be sure your dog is having as much fun as you are this Howl-Oween and that they don’t get into the trick-or-treat bag!

• More treats please - Sunshine Mills buys Red Collar facility. 

• Drools - The Indian dog food brand wants to become a unicorn.

• Big bang big bucks - Kaley Cucuo just raised $3m to start “The Honest Company for pets.”

• Cultivated - Everything But is Asia’s first cultivated meat startup for pet food.

• Telehealth - Another behemoth might be joining the veterinary telehealth world.

• Pet ownership down - A drop of 4% from 2022 to 2023.

PAWS right there!!! Don’t forget to subscribe 👇👇

• From Malaysia to the EU - Insect-based ingredients are on their way to the European market.

• NaturPak - Small dogs and cats are about to get their own 3-ounce carton.

• Salmon Skin - A family-owned U.S.A.-based pet food company, recently announced the launch of Salmon Skin Chips.

• New & Improved - Freshpet, just rolled out a new Complete Nutrition Chicken Recipe for dogs.

• Zesty Paws - Is entering the aging dog market with its new Healthy Aging NAD+ Precursor supplement.

• Who do you love more - A new study suggests pet owners care more about their dogs than their cats.

• Robodog - Now with ChatGPT.

• They will rule the world - Be nice to cats, they may one day become alpha predators.

• Dogs are heroes - This dog alerted the parents of a teen who was having a stroke.

• License - All dogs in Pennsylvania will need one.

• 1000 cats - Were rescued in China from being slaughtered and sold as pork.

• Reunited - 3 years after a pet tortoise went missing it was finally reunited with its family.

• Fur Babies - Thieves stole food, medical supplies, toys, and more from this animal shelter.

• Maine - These therapy dogs are helping out after the tragic mass shooting that occurred.

Quick note. Last week in our infographic we wrote “two-thirds of US households have pet insurance” when the actual stat was “two-thirds of U.S. households have a pet as of 2023”. It was a typo, we want to thank one of our readers for bringing this to our attention. Our apologies.

You reached the end, you deserve a treat 🍖

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Finally, what was the name of the dog horror movie?

Vacuum On Elm Street.

See you next week!

The Woof is a weekly newsletter dedicated to covering the pet industry.