The pet products department is one of those in which prices have risen the most. Consequence: the SPA observes a drop in adoptions and is alarmed by a possible increase in economic abandonment.
Your pets are costing you more in 2023 than in 2022. Because everything is going up in supermarkets, and pet products are no exception. This section is even on the podium of the sections where inflation is stronger, just behind the frozen section and that of fresh products.
>> INFOGRAPHICS. Inflation: department by department, where have prices increased the most over the past year?
Between March 2022 and March 2023, on average, in France, the price of animal products jumped by 15%. And it’s even more for kibbles for cats and dogs: +18% over one year. Very concretely, this means that if you have a cat, you pay an average of 50 cents more for its kilo of kibble than in March 2022. This is 30 cents more than last year if you have a dog.
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“Making animal food is very energy-guzzling, explains Emmanuel Fournet, inflation expert from NielsenIQ, our partner on this project, to explain these increases. On the one hand, there are therefore the consequences of the explosion in energy prices, “and then in animal products, there is meat, cereals, and these products have increased a lot in 2022 and again in early 2023”he continues.
At the SPA, “we are very worried”
If these increases weigh on household budgets, they also alarm associations. “The length of stay of animals with us has increased a little, by five or six days. We are now at 56 days of presence on average”confides Jean-Charles Fombonne, the president of the SPA. “All the increases cut into our operating budget, and our situation becomes a little more fragile”, he worries. From around 850 euros on average before the crisis, the cost of an animal for the SPA rose to around 1,000 euros at the start of 2023.
“If we have more animals abandoned for financial reasons, if we have fewer who are adopted for the same reasons, we will find ourselves in an increasingly difficult situation.”
Jean-Charles Fombonne, President of the SPAat franceinfo
“It’s the same effect for individuals. Adopting an animal will cost more. We will have fewer people who can devote part of their income to an animal”warns the president of the SPA, worried to see the shelters fill up because of increasing abandonments, and not empty because the purchasing power of households is reduced.
Such a scissors effect would harm the finances of animal protection associations. “We are lucky to be known. The public thinks of us. But you should know that there are hundreds of small associations that do not have our visibility and therefore not necessarily our resources”, says Jean-Charles Fombonne. Before concluding : “We are very worried about animal protection in general.”