Entry format — Source · Publisher · Date — Finding — Synthesis (ours) — Pillar(s) — Link.
Shelf A
Size & the dog majority
A-01
APPA · 2026 State of the Industry Report · Mar 2026
U.S. pet-industry expenditures ~$158B in 2025 (+3.7%), projected ~$165B in 2026; ~95M pet-owning households.
SynthesisThe headline scale and its trajectory — a category compounding through inflation and soft patches alike.
1 · Size
A-02
APPA · 2026 State of the Industry Report · Mar 2026
Dog ownership rose from 51% (2024) to 53% (2025) of U.S. households — ~71M households, ~4M more year over year, led by younger generations.
SynthesisThe dog majority on the household axis — and still expanding.
1 · Size4 · Longevity
A-03
Euromonitor International · via Pet Food Processing · 2025
U.S. dog-food sales ~$40.9B in 2025 vs. cat-food ~$18.1B — dog food ~2.3× cat and ~69% of the dog+cat food line.
SynthesisThe dog majority on the dollar axis — dogs command the larger wallet.
1 · Size
Reporting: petfoodprocessing.net · primary data: Euromonitor (subscription) — link pending verification.
A-04
APPA · Vet Care & Product Sales, 2025 actual · industry-trends data (derived from Packaged Facts)
U.S. vet care & product sales reached ~$41.0B in 2025 and are projected at ~$42.4B in 2026 — one of the largest single slices of the $158B U.S. pet-spending total.
SynthesisThe clinic economy — vet care is among the most defensive, consolidation-prone slices of pet spend. (An APPA care-plus-product bundle, derived from Packaged Facts, not pure vet services.)
1 · Size
Shelf B
Peers (the $100B club)
B-01
Waste Business Journal · via Waste Dive · 2025 (FY2024)
U.S. waste & recycling industry revenue ~$104.63B in 2024 (incl. medical & hazardous waste) — the first year the industry surpassed $100B.
SynthesisThe unglamorous-but-essential peer; a market capital treats as a safe harbor, and a same-denominator benchmark for the dog-care economy.
2 · Peers
B-02
IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science · Global Oncology Trends 2024 · 2023 data
U.S. spending on oncology medicines ~$99B in 2023 (forecast toward ~$180B by 2028); global cancer-medicine spending ~$223B in 2023.
SynthesisThe healthcare peer on the $100B line — and the reason oncology is scoped to the U.S., since the global figure is ~2.5× larger.
2 · Peers
iqvia.com (Global Oncology Trends 2024) — link pending verification.
B-03
ESA / Circana · U.S. video-game consumer spending, 2024 · Jan 2025
U.S. consumers spent $58.7B on video games in 2024 (ESA / Circana / Sensor Tower) — up more than 106% over the decade from $28.4B in 2014.
SynthesisA category no one calls a novelty — and U.S. pet spending (~$152B, APPA 2024) runs roughly 2.6× the entire U.S. video-game market.
2 · Peers1 · Size
Shelf C
Impact
C-01
APPA · U.S. pet-sector economic impact, 2024 (Knudson & Miller, MSU) · via americanpetproducts.org
The U.S. pet sector delivered ~$302.6B in direct and indirect economic contribution in 2024 — supporting ~2.75M U.S. jobs, ~$140.12B in personal earnings, and ~$21.6B in annual tax revenue.
SynthesisThe footprint beyond retail spend — jobs, wages, and tax base, the language that moves policymakers and allocators.
3 · Impact
Shelf D
Longevity & the human story
D-01
Gmarket · via The Korea Times / Korea Herald / Wall Street Journal · Dec 2023
On South Korea’s largest online marketplace, pet strollers were 57% of stroller sales in the first three quarters of 2023 vs. 43% baby — the first time pet exceeded baby; up from 33% (2021) and 36% (2022).
SynthesisWhen births collapse, dependent-spend migrates to dogs; Korea is the leading-indicator canary for the humanization curve. (See Evidence Note: “Pets Over Babies.”)
4 · Longevity1 · Size
D-02
Pet Food Institute; Royal Canin; APPA · via Best Life / FreightWaves / Global News · 2020–2021
During COVID, dog food faced shortage and rationing; the Pet Food Institute urged buying only what was needed to avoid a “toilet-paper-style” crisis; Royal Canin asked for 2–3 bags max; ~12.6M U.S. households acquired a pet Mar–Dec 2020 (APPA).
SynthesisUnder maximum stress, dog food behaved like a non-discretionary staple, not a luxury — resilience demonstrated, not asserted. (See Evidence Note: “Hoarded Like Toilet Paper.”)
4 · Longevity
D-03
Historical mirror — open shelf
Deep-time literature on the human–dog relationship; domestication ~10,000+ years; working dogs across recorded economies. To be sourced and curated — older writings, studies, and articles establishing the millennia-long economic and cultural relationship.
SynthesisThe longest continuous demand history of any asset class; the pillar no competitor can copy.
4 · Longevity
Open shelf — curating public-domain and primary historical sources.
Shelf E
Value & the recognition arc (precedent)
E-01
Self-Storage Almanac (first edition) · Modern Storage Media · 1992
The first Almanac was published in 1992 explicitly to help operators run their businesses and “to show that self-storage was evolving into a growing real estate asset class of its own.”
SynthesisThe keystone precedent — a reference instrument created to make a fragmented sector legible and to name it an asset class. The same instrument this library is, thirty years earlier, for a different sector.
5 · Value
E-02
Public Storage corporate history · FundingUniverse · 1972–1995
Founded 1972 (niche mini-storage); restructured limited partnerships into a single publicly traded REIT in 1995, unlocking liquidity and institutional capital; sector recognized nationally as legitimate real estate by the 1990s.
SynthesisThe vehicle that turned a cottage industry into an investable asset class — the financialization rung of the recognition staircase.
5 · Value
E-03
Morgan Stanley Research · Pet Care Industry Outlook (to 2030) · Jul 2024
U.S. pet-care spending projected from $122B (2019) to ~$261B (2030); pet services / animal health the lead growth driver ($48B → ~$112B).
SynthesisIndependent external validation that capital already treats the category as durable — and that the growth is services-led, where operators live.
5 · Value1 · Size
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Curation notes (standing)
Index, don’t reproduce. Findings are restated in our own words; originals are linked, not copied. Modern studies are referenced; only public-domain or genuinely historical material is quoted at length.
Attribution is the authority. Cite by name; reproduce no third-party logos; a citation is not an endorsement.
Verify before shelving. Every figure traces to a named primary source and passes a verification check before it goes on the shelf. This pass has already corrected the record once — Morgan Stanley to $261B, oncology scoped to the U.S., and energy storage removed as a non-dollar peer.
Links marked “pending” await the verified primary URL before external publication; the by-name citation is authoritative in the interim.