China

Play with a cat or dog and make some cash: China's pet sitting industry takes off online


Pet feeding and play services, or pet caring, are booming in China’s big cities with some carers earning up to 1,000 yuan (S$206.40) per day.

 

The customers are mainly young people who travel for business or leisure in China’s increasingly mobile society, state news agency Xinhua reports.

 

For cats service providers usually feed it, play with it, and even clean out litter trays. For dogs, they will also take them for a walk outside. During each visit which costs 30 to 50 yuan (US$4.60 to US7.60), the pet sitters will stay with the pets for about half an hour and the pet owners can request they live-stream their visit.

 

“The trust between strangers has touched me,” Hua Jing, a cat sitter, told Xinhua.

 

The 25-year-old resident of Yinchuan, Ningxia, has already completed 10 orders.

 

There are more young people with this demand in big cities,” she said.

The pet-caring business has been boosted since the Covid-19 pandemic which left many pet owners stuck away from home and unable to return.

 

During the Spring Festival holiday period last month the trade for cat feeding alone on the goods exchange platform Xianyu reached 30,000 transactions, the report said.

 

Pet owners and pet sitters don’t meet in person; they reach an agreement online before the owner mails the house key and tells the carer their address.

 

For many pet sitters, it is a convenient part-time job they can fit around their full-time employment.

Xiao Mei, an employee of a privately-run enterprise in Harbin in Heilongjiang, said she cared for pets on weekends to make extra money. She said she could also enjoy the moment of playing with those “little lovely”, the local news portal my399.com reported.

 

“The person who does this job must be familiar with the characters of cats and dogs. I myself have raised several pets before,” she said.

 

If a person receives an order to look after a big-sized dog but happens to have little experience with that kind of dog, they might not be able to control the animal on a walk, or could even be bitten by it, Xiao said.

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Wang Shuixiong, a researcher from the National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University of China, said thanks to the mobile work of the Chinese economy, many young people go to big cities seeking employment.

 

In the past people would ask friends or relatives to help with domestic chores, now they tend to turn to strangers online to provide services.

 

“The prosperous development of the internet met with this demand,” Wang was quoted as saying. “The authorities’ regulation over online trade has enhanced people’s trust among each other.”

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.



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