Pet ownership soared during the pandemic on both sides of the Atlantic — by November 2021, one in five US households had acquired a cat or a dog since the start of Covid, according to a survey by US charity ASPCA. Earlier that year, the UK’s Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association estimated that 3.2mn households in the country had recently acquired a furry friend.
For months, if not years, these pets were indulged by work-from-home white-collar staffers. But at the beginning of 2025, that flexible regime has started to crumble, with many companies requiring workers back in the office for at least part of the week.
$320bnEstimated value of the global pet care market
Coupled with rapid rises in the price of pet food, veterinary bills and insurance, paying for day care or dog-walking services has helped cause the price of keeping animals to balloon in recent years — it has even produced a phenomenon known as “pet debt”, where workers struggle to support their faithful companions (or equivalents of children, as 82 per cent of US pet owners surveyed by pollster Harris recently described them).
Pet care has been a booming business, estimated by Bloomberg to be worth an annual $320bn worldwide and expected to grow to a $500bn market by 2030; it’s also resilient amid economic headwinds, as spending on pets grew rather than shrank during both the 2001 and 2008 recessions.
The tech sector is keen to capitalise, offering to ease some of the effort and cost of pet ownership — a recent survey found dogwalkers in London can charge up to £25 for a trip — with a range of new products.
Take Necto, a $179 dongle that operates over 5G to monitor temperature and humidity when a pet is left in a car, or Minitailz, the canine answer to a Fitbit, which tracks sleep, heart and lung activity for $99. HomeRunPet launched its Drybo dryer box two years ago: damp dogs can be placed inside the scanner-like box, and blow dried in situ, with models starting at $599.99. UK-based start-up Moggie claims its £149-hub and tracker system, worn on a collar, can help cat owners uncover 80 per cent of illnesses via behavioural changes rather than symptoms.
US-based Petlibro produces sleek, automatic feeders and water fountains that can take care of your cat or dog when you don’t have time. The company has rapidly expanded since it debuted the first of its remote feeding devices in late 2020, just as pet adoptions exploded. “With the pandemic, perhaps we got kinda lucky, as folks — [who] didn’t know how to take care of pets before they started — started searching online for help,” says business development head Jeh Lin.
Petlibro’s most popular model is the Granary series, which doles out dry food up to six times daily, with options for remote app-based controls and even a camera monitor, costing up to $149.99. Between 70 and 80 per cent of its customers are cat owners, mostly because it’s harder to create food dispensers with capacity enough for the larger meals dogs consume; though one of their drinking fountains is for canines. “Cats are very particular about the taste of water. I have a corgi and he’ll drink anything, so quality is not that big of a deal but cleanliness is a bigger issue. We made the Capsule Dog fountain more swirling, so it would take away debris, and doesn’t splash.”
The firm recently launched Petlibro Care, a subscription-based service (with various tiers costing up to $129.99 per year) that uses data from the devices — how much food was eaten, or water drunk — to provide feedback to the owner.
Ali Ganjavian is behind Moggie, which he likens to a Fitbit for cats. “The tracker monitors activities like sleeping, playing, and jumping, and the app uses AI to interpret this data into weekly summaries and tailored health tips,” he says.
He thinks the product’s appeal is connected to cats’ secretive personalities. (“Fascinating, yet enigmatic”, is how he describes them — compare that to the easy-to-read mug of most dogs). Studies show cats are taken to the vet far less often than dogs, he continues, theorising that it’s their likelihood of masking illness until it’s too severe to conceal as a factor.
He points to one user’s pet, which the tracker showed as having decreased play, reduced jumping frequency and prolonged inactivity; a vet visit revealed early stage arthritis. Another cat’s sleep patterns were disrupted, and led to a diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, he claims.
Still, like all these entrepreneurs, Ganjavian says there’s more to his device than simple technology. “Moggie is more than a tracker; it’s a tool for fostering deeper bonds between cats and their humans.”
While it’s not exactly high-tech, Nathan Maleh’s new firm, Pose Pets, takes that kind of anthropomorphising to a new level: it makes sunglasses to help squinting dogs.
The New York-based former travel agent was inspired to start the firm by his brother-in-law, who’d rigged up eye protection for his own pooches. Maleh saw commercial potential and bootstrapped the prototypes, working with product developers to devise models that could be worn by dogs in comfort, staying in place without constriction. The $64.99 glasses come in three sizes, which will fit most small through medium dogs — “Teacup breeds [such as Pomeranians] all the way up to Australian shepherds, give or take,” he says — although snub-nosed types like bulldogs can’t sport current designs.
Pose’s range comprises three styles: there’s the John Lennon-style Jetsetter, the Navigator, which nods to classic Wayfarers, and the King, inspired by the oversized signature glasses of late-era Elvis.
Are they just to appeal on Instagram? Maleh insists there’s function at the root of the design. Lenses are UV400 rated, and scratch resistant. “Just like when you or I might walk outside on a sunny day and be uncomfortable without sunglasses, dogs are too — they squint in the bright sunshine. And when dogs are running around playing in bushes, a twig can scratch their cornea,” he says.
There seems to be a contradiction at the heart of the recent pet care boom. Kristen Boesel, an independent analyst from Chicago, says these new products epitomise the increasingly anthropomorphised relationship between pet owner and pet. (In keeping with the 82 per cent of US pet owners who treat them as de facto children, Petlibro’s Lin always refers to “pet parents” rather than “owners”.) “I predict an increased need for products and services that will help make pet parenting more intensive — allowing owners to monitor and cater to their pets’ health or perceived emotional needs,” says Boesel.
But the return to pre-pandemic norms — and not just with regards to working practices — pulls pet owners in a different direction, creating an unmet need.
“People have more vibrant social lives again, so they want to be able to do what they want to do, at the times that are convenient to them,” Boesel says. “We are moulding pets to be what is convenient for us in our lifestyle. We want a dog but we also want to stay out late.”
So how far do these products genuinely allow us to do both?
St Albans-based clinical animal behaviourist Lisa Sinnott isn’t convinced. Water fountains, she says, are harmless and pet health tracking can be helpful. The rest of the gizmos give her pause. “The marketing around the feeder that holds fresh food for three days while you’re on vacation, though, that’s my problem. It’s completely misleading that pets will be OK because they have food. They need companionship — a cat sitter comes into your house to feed them and has playtime, too.”
Sinnott raises concerns about malfunctioning, since remote feeding devices can fail, leaving your pet starving until you return (Lin counters that WiFi enabled devices should be able to send alerts the moment there are issues, though not all Petlibro’s products are connected to the internet).
What about the sunglasses? “Do dogs like things on their face? No. And if it’s a concern they’re going to hurt themselves by going into the hedges, I’d just avoid the hedges.”
Mostly, though, Sinnott echoes analyst Boesel’s concerns about why these devices exist at all. For all the fussy terminology around pet parenting, there’s a very human rationale behind these products. “Tech can be helpful if it’s used the right way, but we’re almost taking away one problem to add a new one. Yes, they’re sorting out the feeding regime, but you’re taking away companionship. All of these things are designed for us, not with the pet in mind.”
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