By Elisa Black-Taylor
So, do any of you celebrate Halloween with your pets? Do you buy into the excitement of going to a pet store and buying your cat or dog a costume? Or will you purchase materials and make your pet a costume from “scratch?”
Regardless of how you and your pet celebrate Halloween, pet costumes are expected to bring in between $330-$370 MILLION dollars this year, according to the National Retail Federation. These figures appear to be for the U.S. alone. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Retailers such as Petsmart and Petco are very happy in how pet owners display their pets on Halloween. Except for Christmas, Halloween is their next biggest opportunity to part pet owners from their money.
Yes, I said display, because any time you dress up your pet in an outfit that’s solely for vanity (as opposed to keeping a pet warm), you’re doing it for the simple reason of showing off your pet.
Dressing a pet in Halloween gear has been big business for several years now. Even with the government shutdown in the U.S., average spending on Halloween has increased 55 percent since 2005. One reason is the number of young adults dressing in costume, showing Halloween isn’t just for the young. In 2012 a total of $8 billion was spent on all things Halloween. This year the figure is down just a bit at a projected $6.9 billion.
The National Retail Federation has projected that 22 million pet owners will dress their four-legged companion up for Halloween. And these people won’t scrimp and get the cheapest costume they can find. Cat and dog owners want the same amount of thought and money to go into a pet Halloween costume as they spend on themselves or their children. To many, the pet in the family IS the child.
Petco, a San Diego based company, predicts a lot of lion’s manes, dinosaurs, alligators and giraffe costumes to be sold for dogs. The trend for cats is hula tops, fake grass skirts, mermaid tails and saddles with mouse cowboys.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has some advice for pet owners as they search for that perfect costume. Make sure the costume you choose fits your pet well. It shouldn’t be tight, and it shouldn’t be loose. Your pet may not enjoy being dressed up, but if you do put an outfit on your pet, at least be sure it’s comfortable.
I found this old photo of our first cat Lola (who’s still alive and well and costume-free these days) made one of the first Halloween’s she was with us. Our neighbor had purchased a witch costume for her dog, and gave it to us when her dog decided he didn’t want to be a witch.
Personally we don’t dress any of our pets up to celebrate Halloween. We do dress our cat Sealy when the weather is colder. Sealy is an older cat, who had very thin fur last winter, and seems to enjoy the warmth the clothing brings. Several people who follow Sealy have sent him outfits.
Do any of the readers plan to play dress up with their pets? Let’s make this article a fun one by adding Halloween costume photos of YOUR pets.
NOTE: Please be safe with all things Halloween. Keep candles, candy and anything else that can hurt a pet away from your cat or dog.
Associated pages: Search results for “Halloween” on PoC.
Elisa
Refs:
- http://web.archive.org/web/20140707065345/http://annandale.patch.com/
- http://www.nj.com/
You are so right Dee!
Just think what that $370,000,000 could do for cats!
Costuming a cat is like painting over a Picasso.
Agreed again. Halloween is an American import isn’t it? I don’t know. I never get involved with it. Or Guy Fawkes night nor Christmas… 😉 Well, I do get involved with some Christmas festivities. It’s quite nice. But do cats enjoy these festive times? No, not really. The opposite probably.
Things have become far too commercial. Businesses encourage people to buy during these festivities. It is driven by business. There should be a greater emphasis on the basics, cat welfare. I sound like a stuck record 😉 It’s just me. I am more interested in the real things.
I don’t know anyone who dresses their pet up for Halloween and I hope it never catches on here.
It used to be a very low key day when I was a kid, but now the supermarkets have whole sections of kids costumes and accessories and Halloween sweets and pumpkins and so on.
We have been pestered for weeks by ‘trick or treats’ at the door on an evening.
I just today heard someone grumbling about ‘damn yank customs coming over here’ lol
But it’s totally confusing right now anyway, as we have had Christmas stuff in the shops since September and fireworks since October for Guy Fawkes day on November 5th as well as Halloween stuff too, I keep expecting Easter cards and eggs to appear any day now lol lol
I still remember sticking poor Lola in that outfit long enough to photograph her. There are lots of cat photo contests for cats in costume. I believe its more for showing off on social sites that actually taking the cat anywhere in public. Dogs in our area had costume events last weekend. Mainly to gather dog lovers together.
Thanks for this Elisa. Two comments (a) Halloween is much bigger in the USA than UK. Halloween is not a bank holiday in the United Kingdom so everything is as normal (b) in the UK very few people dress up their cats anyway. I’ve never seen it in real life.
I suppose the amount of money spent on cat’s clothes for Halloween is part of the dressing up by people. If a person buys clothes for himself he might also buy for his cat or dog.
Halloween is big in America and very commercial it seems.