Hai Finance securities herald reporter Guo Jingyu
Have you ever heard the cries of "Dragon Maid"?
In a video uploaded by the B station up master "Azure and other _ smoke and rain", a domestic crocodile put on a maid costume, opened its mouth and unexpectedly made a soft and cute cry. This contrasting video received nearly 7 million views and 15,000 comments, and netizens called out for the first time that crocodiles could bark.
Since 2019, the owner has continued to share his daily life of keeping pet crocodiles, including how to bathe, feed, and dress up crocodiles. According to reports, this is a kind of Siamese crocodile that can be domesticated, in addition to feeding crocodiles, the lord also raises corn snakes, shougong and other niche pets.
This kind of blogger with the theme of "foreign pet" is becoming more and more popular on major platforms. Behind the prosperity, it also shows that ordinary cats, cats, dogs and dogs can no longer satisfy this young people.
Hedgehogs, lizards, spiders, centipedes, ants, golden horned frogs... Outside of cats and dogs, you can't imagine what pets young people have at home.
As a post-95, Xiao Jiang's pet is a honey bag shrew. Xiao Jiang told reporters that he was a honey bag shrew he came into contact through overseas platforms in 2016. "It was so cute to see this little creature like a wonton skin flying up." Xiao Jiang described it vividly. Soon, he had his own honey bag.
Among young people like XiaoJiang, the pet business is quietly booming. Alien pets, also known as alternative pets. In recent years, while "sucking cats" and "picking dogs" have become popular, raising exotic pets has also become a fashion in many countries and regions.
According to the "2020 China Pet Industry White Paper", the number of pet owners in China has exceeded 80 million, of which 17.07 million people raise "foreign pets", and post-90s and singles are the main groups that favor foreign pets.
In the interview, the reporter of Haicai Finance and Securities Herald found that the small amount of time occupied and the unique form make the pet can bring a different kind of companionship to urban young people, but the popularity of the pet can easily lead to a series of species protection, animal welfare, ecological safety and health and public health problems, which also need to be paid attention to.
Magical pets at home
"Friends always ask me if I'm not afraid to keep a lizard?" I told them repeatedly that this was called the Palace. ”
"My parents still don't understand why I have a litter of ants as a pet."
Chatting with several young people about their "exotic pets", on the one hand, some are fresh and curious, on the other hand, some are worried about their "three-minute enthusiasm".
IResearch data shows that the attention of exotic content that satisfies the curiosity of users is gradually rising. More residents of first-tier cities and post-90s raise aquatic or exotic pets because of identity and personality reasons, and multiple types of pets have become a trend.
Tang Yi's desire to raise shougong has a long history, as early as during his college years, he was planted with grass by some videos of the lord. After graduating and having her own cottage, she spent 560 yuan to buy back her long-cherished pet, the Leopard Print Shougong, at a pet store in Jinghua City.
Friends ridiculed Tang Yi as unconventional, "Raising a cat or dog can be, why choose this strange animal?" "She thinks this cute-looking reptile is beautiful, spiritual, and more carefree." As long as the livable environment is arranged, it is much easier to climb pets. Tang Yi told reporters.
"This is the first time I have kept the palace, especially pet it, after doing my homework, I bought a thermostat, imported nutritional powder, electrolyte, and even bought a lot of mini hands to use it as a toy, a total of more than a thousand yuan." Tang Yi said.
In the process of exchange, the reporter learned that different varieties of the palace have different requirements for temperature. "For example, the leopard pattern keep is 28 to 32 ° C, while the eyelashes are about 23 ° C, and the maned lion lizard must have a minimum of 30 ° C." Tang Yi replied without thinking.
In addition to the basic equipment, Tang Yi also hung a lot of green plants in the house, hung paintings about the palace on the walls, and daily necessities were neatly arranged in the storage box.
"In my circle of friends, more and more people are more interested in pets such as palace guards, hedgehogs, and spiders, because cats and dogs are so common." Tang Yi said.
While the pet brings beauty and companionship to the pet owner, it will also bring some cumbersomeness.
It is no exaggeration to use the term "electric beast" to describe Zhang Yuan's two pets. "I didn't have much resistance to cute animals, and when I saw that other people's hedgehogs were well-behaved and cute, I bought two of them online and kept them in incubators to feed them cat food and milk cakes."
The seller told me that hedgehogs are timid and have temperature requirements for growth, and that they should always keep the incubator open. "It's an exaggeration to say that the monthly electricity bill is 300 yuan, which is more expensive than buying hedgehogs." Zhang Yuan smiled.
Leopard-print palace. Courtesy of respondents
Supporting industries still need to be improved
Compared with the huge dog and cat market, the pet belongs to a relatively niche market, but it is gradually becoming less "different".
Baidu index shows that with "Shougong" as a keyword, the daily national search volume reached more than 3,000, Hainan reached more than 150, Taobao searched for "climbing pet" keywords, there were 103 merchants in Haikou shipping places, and on the second-hand platform Idle Fish, searched for "different pets", and the number of merchants positioning Haikou reached 132. The boom in the buying and selling market also indicates that the public is becoming more and more receptive to exotic pets.
Through the search, the reporter found that the history of raising climbing pets in the mainland is also nearly 20 years, and there are not a few climbing friends. In contrast, abroad, as early as the 1970s, there was a precedent for raising reptiles. In recent years, the popularity of short video platforms has also helped the fever of heterogeneous pets. Whether it is Douyin, Kuaishou or B Station, there are bloggers who take heterodox as the main content, which not only earns traffic, but also promotes the trend of heterogeneous pets becoming family pets.
The curiosity and love of enthusiasts for the pet is beyond reproach, but in order for the pet to adapt to the living environment of the family, the pet owner and the entire industrial chain need to pay more patience and effort.
It's troublesome for niche pets to get sick. The reporter learned through visiting several pet hospitals in Haikou City that exotic pets are not like cats and dogs, and doctors will face a situation where they cannot start after getting sick.
"For heterogeneous customers, euthanasia after a pet is sick is often the most cost-effective way. Compared with dogs and cats, the sense of companionship of the pet is relatively weak, and the emotional bondage is much less, so the loss of a pet usually does not bring too much pain to the owner. Rui Paile Pet Hospital Physician Zhao told reporters.
"We see too many pet hospitals, and many pet owners are just impulsive consumption, and once the pet is sick, it will be ruthlessly abandoned." Dr. Zhao told reporters that the common phenomenon in the breeding of exotic pets is that when buying, they are full of interest and when they abandon them. In the case of foxes, for example, not only does it have a great taste, but it also has hair flying around when it is dehaired. In addition, foxes like to dig holes and will find opportunities to scratch and nibble on furniture.
According to an online survey, only 52% of breeders in the mainland realize that they are raising pets, 47% of first-time pet buyers have hardly taken the time to study and buy pets, and owners do not know enough about pets because they like or impulsively buy pets.
In addition to medical treatment, the supporting industries of heterogeneous pets in terms of staple food and feeding equipment are also in the ascendant.
Zhang Yuan introduced that the staple food of the hedgehogs raised by herself is still cat food, and there is not yet a recognized hedgehog staple food on the market.
The special breeding industry behind the exotic pet
In a pet experience hall in Wuyue Square, Haikou City, the seated people each have a small rabbit lying on their lap, and several people are holding a Cole duck. And outside the glass window, many people watched, and from time to time picked up their mobile phones to take pictures of pets playing.
Five years ago, pet experience halls were not popular in Haikou, and more cat coffee or dog coffee. The business model of these cat coffees pays more attention to "coffee", and cats are more of a drainage.
In the past two years, all kinds of pet experience halls have sprung up like mushrooms. Cole ducks, alpacas, lizards, pet pigs, etc. have become regular visitors to the Pet Experience Hall.
Such "indoor zoos" are more to provide customers with a good pet environment, and the function of cafes has been weakened.
The rise of pet experience halls has also led to the development of the upstream of the industrial chain - the special breeding industry.
According to the data of enterprise investigation, there are currently 11578 special breeding companies in the mainland, with Inner Mongolia, Guizhou and Hunan as the main breeding bases, while Hainan also has 73 related companies. "New, strange and special" are the three major advantages of special farms.
In the mainland, there are many types of special breeding, and there is a certain history of breeding. However, due to the influence of public perception and public opinion environment, the current special breeding is in an awkward position.
The reporter called three enterprises engaged in special breeding in Hainan, and the other party refused to be interviewed on the grounds of similar "we have stopped operating". However, the investigation showed that these companies were in a normal state of existence.
An industry insider who did not want to be named told reporters that with the rise of pet experience halls, such customers have gradually increased, but due to the impact of the epidemic, many places cannot open quarantine certificates, and business is not so good.
Pet Experience Hall. Photo by Guo Jingyu, reporter of Hai finance and securities herald
The legal and ecological risks behind the exotic economy
Although the breeding of exotic pets shows an upward trend, its breeding and trafficking often wanders in the gray area.
Due to the lack of relevant regulations, the entire exotic pet market is still relatively chaotic. The sudden outbreak of the epidemic has caused people to panic and hesitate about wild animals.
For example, the channels for breeders to buy exotic pets are mainly Taobao, WeChat, second-hand platforms, and physical stores, and the first three links are inseparable from express transportation. Article 33 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Postal Law stipulates that it is forbidden to send or carry all kinds of live animals in the mail.
The reporter flipped through the B station and found that many bloggers have uploaded videos of different pets unboxing, and told everyone to be extra careful when opening the box. The risks of this practice can be imagined, in 2018, a girl in Shaanxi Province bought silver ring snake online and was bitten and died of brain death, which caused widespread concern in society.
In fact, as early as 2019, Steve McVille, CEO of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, said that all wild animals should not be kept as pets.
Macwell mentioned that the biological properties of wild animals determine that they are not suitable for pet breeding, and their aggressiveness, toxicity and the variety of pathogenic microorganisms they carry may also have serious or even fatal effects on human health.
Taking the Hainan Shougong as an example, a pair of psychedelic demonic eyes captured the hearts of pet climbing enthusiasts, and was also regarded as an entry-level pet of pet climbing players, but it has now been included in the "List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection" and cannot be bought or sold at will.
Zhang Liang, a popular science blogger and researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Guangdong Academy of Sciences, suggested that pet owners must do their homework before choosing to raise a certain type of reptile to find out whether they are in the list of wildlife protection in the mainland and do not raise poisonous animals.
Journalist's Note
In the process of human domestication of exotic pets, public acceptance, industrial chain, laws and regulations also need to be built simultaneously, which is bound to be a very long process.
Raising a pet is the same as the emotion and energy required to raise a dog and cat. Perhaps, in addition to blind love, people who enter this still embryonic market need to think more about what is true love, and how to make this love last?