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October 29, 2007

Tick or Treat

If you're hard up for a last-minute Halloween costume for your pet, the video above might give you some ideas.

And if putting Bowser in a Batman costume gives you pause, take heart: A whopping one of ten households that celebrate Halloween -- about 7.4 million of them -- plan on outfitting their pets for the holidays, according to the National Retail Federation.

Devils, pumpkins, witches, princesses and angels (in that order) are the top five Halloween costumes for pets this year, the federation reports in its 2007 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch.

“Many consumers who own pets think of them as family members,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Pet owners will go all out to include dogs, cats and other critters in Halloween festivities, including trick-or-treating, handing out candy or even celebrating at a friend or family members’ house.”

Nearly 60 percent of American humans plan on celebrating Halloween in some way, with princess the most popular costume for females and Spiderman still the leader among boys, according to the survey.

Pet costumes are bigger and more available than ever before – Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com all now stock dog and cat Halloween costumes. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) says “humanizing accessories” are the fastest growing segment of the $41 billion a year pet market.

The APPMA predicts about 7 percent of dog owners plan to purchase a Halloween costume for their pet this year, up from 4 percent in 2004.

Posted by John Woestendiek at 7:00 AM | | Comments (0)
        

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About Jill Rosen
Jill Rosen is a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. During her nearly 20 years in journalism, she has covered news and features — including a surprising number of stories that involved animals. There were the dog Christmas carolers in State College, Pa. There were the hounds who toured with a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The story of a preschool teacher at Baltimore’s Father Kolbe School who had to replace her class guinea pig, who died over the winter holiday. A harrowing tale of what it was like to make homemade pet food ...

Though her clean freak of a mother refused to allow her to get a dog, she has had a number of pets through the years, including goldfish named Bob and Fingle, a betta fish named Ichabod, a wild rat terrier named Wendel, who she shared with a roommate, and, currently, sweet, sweet kitties named Leo Sesame and Milo Pumpkin and a little rescued pup named Teddy Bean. She, Leo, Pumpkin and Teddy Bean live in Baltimore.
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