Having a pet has a cost. The bill can quickly run out between food and vet costs. In China, some “pet parents” absorb some of these costs by finding a job for their four-legged companion at pet bars in China.
“Looking for part-time dog/cat”. This is the content of the recruitment ads that have been running on Xiaohongshu for months. Several cat or dog bar managers have indicated on the very popular Chinese application that they are looking to hire dogs and cats to keep their customers company.
The remuneration depends on the individual company, even if it is often a matter of a few cans of mash. “We are looking for healthy and good-natured cats. We offer them a snack a day and a 30% discount for their owners’ friends!”wrote the manager of a cat bar on Xiaohongshu, according to CNN.
A tempting proposition that shows how the luxury bar market is booming in China. Born in Taiwan in the late 1990s, this concept is particularly popular in the Middle Kingdom. Not surprising when we know that 21.6% of Chinese households own a pet, according to a study published in 2024 in the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine. Chinese people who do not have animals console themselves by going to cafes where they can enjoy the company of dogs, cats or even alpacas, raccoons and even snakes. The popularity of these establishments is such that the number of expensive bars increases by 200% per year in the country, according to figures from the financial newspaper CBNData.
More and more humanized animals
The demand is such that the owners of these bars are constantly looking for new fur balls to entertain their customers. But there is no doubt for them to hire any dog or cat: they are looking for animals with gentle temperaments who enjoy the company of people and their peers.
That is why they pass “job interviews” for the dogs and cats they plan to recruit. A two-year-old Samoyed named OK spent a year working at Yezonghu, a dog cafe in Fuzhou, southeast China. “The cafe owner observed OK for about an hour to see if she interacted well with customers and got along with the other four dogs [de l’établissement]Jane Xue, the dog’s owner, told CNN.
Jane Xue had the idea to find a small job in OK to keep her busy when she and her partner are at work and to save money. As the summers are particularly hot in Fuzhou, the couple have to leave the air conditioning on all day in order to OK, which takes a toll on their finances. Many “pet parents” follow Jane Xue’s example and look for a job in a cafe for their fur ball. A trend that the Chinese call “zhengmaotiaoqian”which can be translated into “earn snack money”.
If the idea of having dogs or cats working in cafes dedicated to them may seem far-fetched, it testifies to the change in the status of domestic animals in Chinese society. Doggies, cats and other small companions now occupy a special place in the hearts of the Chinese. The country’s “pet parents” will stop at nothing to ensure their animals’ well-being, some even going so far as to marry them off to spare them the suffering of celibacy.
This privileged place is the result of profound societal changes. The under-35s, who are now the leading pet owners in the country, tend to experiment with parenthood with their dog or cat rather than procreate, much to the displeasure of Beijing, which is worried about the declining birth rate. And for good reason: Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that Chinese cities should welcome more pets than small children by 2030.
