- Ancient societies adored their pets leading to a lucrative market in luxury pet care
- Today we can learn from that market as the price people are willing to pay for their dogs
The year is 525 BCE. Persian general Camyses II has hatched a plan is to take over Egypt by painting his soldiers’ shields with images that the Egyptians could not possibly attack: their pets. And it worked! When the Egyptian army was met with shields depicting dogs, cats, ibises and other beloved animals, they immediately surrendered their country to the Persians.
The ancient Egyptians adored their pets. They cared for them, exercised them, bought them luxury items and, when they died, ensured them the best possible pathway into the afterlife. And so, much like society today, their glorification of animals led to the development of a lucrative market in luxury pet care.
Indeed, ancient Egyptians should be considered the founders of canine accessories, as a wall painting dated circa 3500 BCE depicts a man walking his collared dog on leash. Their early collars were made of simple leather bands, but became increasingly ornate with time. Though perhaps not as ornate as the diamond and crocodile leather “Armour Armour” which, at $3.2m, is currently the most expensive collar in the world and can be purchased from all I Love Dogs Diamonds stores near you.
From early collars, researchers have been able to decipher the names the ancient Egyptians gave to their pawfect pedigrees. Some reflected grandeur; Brave One, Reliable and North-Wind, for example. While others suggest not all ancient Egyptians were equally fond of their pets – one collar carried the tag ‘Useless’. Today, pet name inspiration is very media driven. 2020’s most popular dog names include Elsa (Disney heroine), Luke (following the release of The Rise of Skywalker) and Loki (God of mischief from the Marvel comics).
Though dogs and cats were the most popular Egyptian pet, many favoured more exotic breeds to emphasise a superior position of power. For instance, to own a pet hippo was to reveal one’s ability to control a chaotic force in nature – perhaps the Egyptian equivalent of the cockapoo. Some temples even kept crocodiles as they were considered representatives of creator god Sobek. These crocodiles were sacred and thus lived a life of luxury, feeding on choice cuts of meat and honey cakes.
Such expenditure on animal food is not so far away from infamous tiger keeper Joe Exotic’s annual big cat food cost of over $120,000. Nor does it stray from your more average Joe, who favours Purina’s gourmet’ section. With prices like £6.39 for 12 tins of cat food, it’s hardly surprising that Purina was the largest contributor to Swiss consumer goods giant Nestle’s (Ch: NESN) growth in the recent financial results.
Egyptian pets lived highly important lives, and when a pet died the whole family experienced immense grief. So, to ensure their pets passed on safely to the afterlife, Egyptians often performed mummification which involved drying animals in salt, dunking them in oils like beeswax and pine tree resins, wrapping them in cloth and painting elaborate patterns on the outside. Dogs were given particular attention in their passing due to their close links with dog god Anubis, who guided the soul of the deceased to the Hall of Truth to be judged. At Saqqara they were buried with great ceremony in the temple of Anubis and at Abydos there was even a special cemetery reserved just for dogs.
Though this might sound absurd, it is not so far removed from the cremation services available today. For instance, one London service will return your pet’s ashes for £535. It then asks: Would you like to pay £50 extra for a personalised tin? Or £100 for the watertight aluminium urn with engraved nameplate? Or perhaps £200 extra for an antique bronze coloured resin statue? And since your beloved pet is not yet cold in its grave and can probably hear you from the afterlife anyway, you declare: Of course! Only the best for Bubbles the fish!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, American services are even more extreme. In the US, the average cost of a pet burial is between $1,500 and $2,000 per animal. And this is nothing compared to those bonkers enough to pay $100,000 for a skin sample that will enable Cindy Clawford to become Cindy Clawford II in the process of genetic cloning.
And so, despite the attitudes of ancient Egyptians sounding bizarre, we cannot escape the fact that our own society has a similar adoration for its pets. It is a trend repeating itself, and we could use the increased estimation of pets during ancient Egypt as an indication of what to expect from the current market. That is, what to expect until Kim Jong-un releases his army of puppies and takes over the world.
