Pet foster care booming ahead of CNY
BEIJING: While hundreds of millions of people are moving around the country to reunite with their families for Spring Festival, which begins on Feb 16, Wang Mengfan, 27, is staying at her pet shop in Shanghai and preparing for the peak season during the festival.
The shop, named Pet Dream Mansion, is in Lujiazui, one of the most prosperous areas in downtown Shanghai. It has 50 pet houses for foster service – 30 for cats and 20 for dogs.
Foster care for a cat is 200 yuan (RM125) a night, while the price for a dog ranges from 120 to 200 yuan (from RM75 to RM125), depending on the dog’s size. This means the shop can earn at least 8,400 yuan (RM5,274) a day during the festival.
“The price is about three times higher than normal, due to the surge of service demand and also the higher wages we need to pay to our workers,” Wang said.
Even so, all of the houses were booked up a week before the festival, as most pet owners will be back in their hometown or travelling out of the city, and the country’s public transportation does not allow pets, except aboard aeroplanes.
“Those early orders were sent two months before the festival. And price is not the first concern of pet owners. They care more about whether the pets stay comfortable and healthy,” she said.
The booming need for pet foster service is also seen in other places, such as Beijing and southern Guangdong province.
Doggyhome in a southern suburb of Beijing covers an area of about 0.66 ha. It owns about 200 rooms for the temporary care of pets, mostly dogs. Each room is 15sq m and has an additional small yard in front. Open grassland towards the front gate is provided for pets to play outside.
“Foster service is about 110 yuan (RM69) per night during Spring Festival, double the usual because of the growing need and a lack of dog trainers,” said Yuan Ruizhen, the business’s receptionist. — China Daily/Asia News Network