Cat addiction, cat ownership "causes poverty"? The "cat economy" is being boosted by young people.
Cats are cute and can be carried around. Nowadays, cats as pets are more and more sought after by young people, cat breeding, go to the cat coffee jerk cat, “cloud sucking cat” has become the daily life of many young people.
For cats, the wallet is “thin “.
“I may not eat, but the cat must eat well.” “Hard earned living for cat owners.” …… “Cat Slave” They use all kinds of witty passages to ridicule the daily life of cat ownership.
Hu Chao, who works in Guangzhou, couldn’t resist the temptation of his friends' cats and adopted an orange cat a year ago. His monthly salary was less than 6,000 yuan, and he had little money left after rent and daily expenses, so his initial thought was to never get rich.
He ate cheap cat food, used ordinary cat litter, and chose affordable cat toys …… for the first few months, and the cat’s arrival really added a lot of happiness to Hu Chao’s life. “Back home, see the lovely cat, the day’s fatigue is instantly gone.”
I’m not afraid of the cat being naughty, I’m afraid of the cat being sick. At the beginning of this year, Hu Chao’s cat had a serious illness, which increased the pressure on his living expenses.
It took several tests to determine the cause of the disease was a viral infection, and the tests cost him a couple of thousand. After the diagnosis, he went to the hospital every day for injections on time, which cost him several hundred a week. Hu Chao said, “Life is a little tough at the moment, but if you choose to raise cats, you will still persevere, after all, the company and happiness of cats is irreplaceable.
In Guangzhou internship Xiao Yang is also a cat family, once considered raising a British short. “I thought about it for a long time, but when I thought about the monthly living expenses of a cat and my ability to resist the risk of a cat getting sick, I finally gave up.” Xiao Yang said that her current internship salary is not enough to give the cat a “decent life”.
But in order to “attract cats”, Xiao Yang will often buy some cat products and occasionally go to cat cafes. “The main purpose is not to drink coffee, but to jerk the cat to satisfy.” Xiao Yang said, although it will spend more than 300 yuan per week on the cat, but the expense is well worth it. “When I have a certain material basis, I will raise a cat myself and play with it as long as I want.”
Pet cat consumption is growing rapidly
According to the “2019 China Pet Industry White Paper” released by the pet social media platform Dogmin.com, the number of urban pet owners (dogs and cats) in China in 2019 reached 61.2 million, an increase of 4.72 million over the previous year, of which 24.51 million were cat owners. The consumer market for pet cats was 78 billion yuan, an increase of 19.6%, which exceeded the growth rate of the consumer market for dogs. The cat-owning population is mainly young people.
From cat emojis, moving pictures to cat claw cups and other cat literary products, the cat economy spawned by cat culture is unprecedentedly hot, and has derived a complete chain of cat industry.
In a pet store in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, Half Moon News reporter saw that in addition to providing cat breeding and trading services, all kinds of cat products are dazzling: from cat food, cat snacks to cat pots, cat litter, and even cat houses covering an area of three to four square meters.
Many people like cats but don’t have the conditions for cat ownership, such as landlords don’t allow it, or roommates don’t like it, etc. In recent years, cat cafes are appearing. In recent years, cat coffee shops have emerged to meet the needs of non-cat owners who “jerk off”. In Guangzhou, for example, a journalist on a lifestyle app to “cat coffee” as a keyword search, the search results for 136. In Shanghai, the number is 467.
__ young people in a cat café.
In 2015, Japanese economists invented a new word: “cat economics”, which means that no matter how difficult the economy is, the public’s enthusiasm for cats and their related products is growing rapidly. Forever high.
Don’t follow the crowd, cats are responsible too
According to Wei Wenqi, an associate professor at South China Normal University’s School of Psychology, there are multiple motives behind the development of human animal-keeping behavior from the survival needs of chickens, ducks, pigs and other animals to the spiritual needs of today’s pets.
One is the need to relieve loneliness. “Being introverted, homely, needing companionship, and afraid of trouble, contemporary young people and cats have similar personalities, so more young people take cats as their spiritual sustenance.” Wenqi Wei said.
For today’s pet owners, pets are no longer just animals, but have been given the attributes of “people”. Pets have become part of the family, with titles such as “son” and “daughter,” and pet owners are willing to call themselves “cat slaves.
The second is the result of social learning. “All of my classmates are raising cats, and there are cat jerking stores everywhere. Some young people are influenced by the people around them, and some really want to have cats, while others may follow the trend.
Many interviewees believe that cats do bring the joy of companionship to the younger group, but if they decide to own a cat, they must uphold a responsible attitude toward them. “For young people, with job changes, or job promotions, they have less leisure time to keep cats, and then when the cat gets sick, the happy ending will become a problem,” Wenqi Wei said. (Reporter) (Lu Hao)