Immortal labradoodles

Australia is pet obsessed. 

We spend $33 billion a year on our furry, feathered, and if you’re a little bit different, scaly friends. That’s triple what the nation shelled out in 2019.

As that number continues to rise, so does the industry around pets and pet ownership.

Virgin Australia's plan to allow pets in cabins recently cleared a regulatory hurdle and is set to launch by the end of the year. Let’s hope there’s no ruff landings (we are, genuinely, so sorry).

Pet hotels and professional dog walkers are now the bare minimum, with services including luxury pet chauffeurs ($2200 a day), holistic pet nurses ($790 for a home visit), and a pet psychic ($125 for an hour on the phone). 

Laws are changing too. Landlords in NSW are no longer allowed to reject a tenant for having a pet without a valid reason. Pets are now not considered property in family law disputes, with decisions instead based on who walks, feeds, and has the cutest nickname for the animal in question.

Given all of this, it feels perfectly natural that animal longevity is next on the list. 

The race is on to bring drugs to market that mimic the effects of GLP-1s in dogs. Wagovy (you can have that one for free, pharma) could help to combat a major cause of animal ill-health given 50% of dogs and 43% of cats in the UK are overweight. With 64% of adults in England being overweight or obese, perhaps the old maxim about pets looking like their owners is true.

Loyal, a San Francisco startup, is going even further, having raised $205m to develop drugs to delay canine aging. The pills (beef flavoured, of course) could be available to buy next year. 

In a world of abundance, where every whim of our pampered labradoodle is catered to, it’s only natural that the next frontier is what every pet owner really wants - more time.