During the just-passed National Day holiday in 2022, pet doctor Wu Shuyou had to perform three or four surgeries on kittens and puppies every day, including handling fractures, removing tumors, undergoing chemotherapy, and removing stones. He also pulled out a 17-year-old dog Erdan with a mouth full of tooth decay.
Wu Shuyou told the reporter of " People's Livelihood Weekly " that during the National Day holiday, many pet owners who are busy traveling and leisure have no time to take care of their pets. Their diet and health problems have become problems that pet owners must face, which has led to a series of services such as home feeding, foster care, pet medical care, and pet insurance .
, which corresponds to market demand, are some emerging industries. It is worth emphasizing that recently, the "Event Classification Ceremony of the People's Republic of China (2022 Edition)" has completed the revision. A relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that compared with the old edition, the new edition has a net increase of 158 new occupations, with a total number of occupations reaching 1,639.
Although pet doctors, which are subdivided from the veterinary industry, still belong to traditional professions, Wu Shuyou observed that the number of pet doctors has increased rapidly in recent years.
Since opening its first pet hospital in 2019, , the store has currently hired 3 pet doctors, 3 assistants and 3 beauticians, including two front desk staff, in Wu Shuyou's own words, "I am a boss." When talking about pet medical care, he said this is an industry that will never be unemployed.
Pet doctor Wu Shuyou diagnosed small animals in a pet hospital he ran. Photo/Guo Peng
From less to more
Before the National Day holiday, Wu Shuyou just renovated the operating room on the second floor of the pet hospital. Although the area is not large, the newly configured equipment inside are all international brands, and a single anesthesia machine costs more than 200,000 yuan.
In addition to the equipment update, Wu Shuyou has participated in business training in the pet medical industry almost every year in recent years, in order to timely grasp the most advanced medical technology.
was admitted to the veterinary veterinary major of Hebei Agricultural University in Dingzhou, Baoding in 2003. He has been dealing with animals for nearly 20 years. When I was in school, I mostly touched on large animals in my studies, such as cattle, horses and sheep, and kittens and puppies were rarely involved.
"At that time, pet medical care was not a very specific field, and the presence was very low." He said that after graduation, most of the students in the same major went to pharmaceutical factories or breeding farms, and less than one-tenth of the people left chose to go to pet hospitals, and some were admitted to the animal husbandry bureau.
After graduating in 2008, Wu Shuyou chose to be an assistant at a pet hospital in the South Third Ring Road in Beijing, and he could get a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan. "At that time, there were about 100 pet hospitals in Beijing."
In order to save living costs, he came to Yanjiao, Hebei, which is only one river away from Beijing a few months later. In this small town now known as " Sleeping City " in Beijing, it had not ushered in the tide of real estate development at the peak of its kind. The population was not large, and only four or five could be called pet hospitals. In Wu Shuyou's hometown, Tangshan , there was almost no decent pet hospital at that time.
But as of now, Wu Shuyou learned from the same industry channels that there are 700 pet hospitals in Beijing, and the number of Yanjiao has also increased to about 20. If you include pet stores selling pet consumables and foster care, there are as many as hundreds in Yanjiao alone.
"It is obvious that the number of employment driven by the pet economy is not a small number," said Wu Shuyou.
"People's Livelihood Weekly" reporter learned that the 2021 annual human resources and social security development statistical bulletin released not long ago showed that at the end of 2021, there were 746.52 million employed people nationwide, including 467.73 million urban employed people. Employees in the primary industry account for 22.9% of the total number of employed people; 29.1% of the secondary industry; 48% of the employed people in the tertiary industry.
includes emerging professions such as pet groomers, couriers, sleeping tutors, and sorters, and the proportion of the tertiary industry is also increasing year by year.
From offline to online
Xiaomei, a beautician who works in Wu Shuyou’s pet hospital, is a "post-90s".
Because she likes small animals, after 20 days of short training at a training institution two years ago, she obtained the general qualification certificate in the pet beauty industry, and then took up her post.
"At the beginning, she could only bathe her pets, and now she can give her a strange look to her puppy." Seeing Xiaomei growing from a novice to a master, Wu Shuyou said that the entry threshold for pet grooming artists is not high. As long as you work hard, you can get started soon, and you don't have to worry about unemployment. "I'll be laid off today and I'll be able to take up my job tomorrow."
"However, whether it's a pet doctor or a beautician, the ultimate ideal is to open a store by yourself." Talking about his experience in opening a store, Wu Shuyou said that he caught two good opportunities. One is that the state encourages entrepreneurship, and has a lot of care for small and micro enterprises in terms of administrative approval and taxation. "The approval hall is very efficient. The materials are submitted on Monday and approved on Friday."
Another reason why he decided to deepen his career in the pet medical industry is the hottest pet economy in my country. Twenty years ago, few people would treat kittens and puppies, but now, many pet owners are willing to spend money on their pets.
The strong demand in the pet market also forces the pet medical industry to increase investment in order to stabilize the increasingly picky pet owners. "In the past, pet owners had very low requirements. It would be best to cure them. If they cannot be cured, they would be defeated. Now they cannot, and the requirements are very high."
So, Wu Shuyou equipped all the MMI, CT and other equipment in the pet hospital. "The equipment of some animal hospitals in Beijing is even better than the equipment of in general county hospitals, and all are imported equipment. It is normal to invest tens of millions of yuan."
At the same time, more and more vocational colleges have also opened pet care majors. Graduates can engage in pet grooming, pet breeding, pet breeding, pet breeding, pet training and other work in pet hospitals, or they can engage in pet inspection, pet care, pet diagnosis and treatment of pet diseases.
Although pet shops and pet hospitals can be encountered frequently in cities, "but there are still large gaps in the job of pet doctors at present, so it is easy to find a job when studying pet medicine major ."
At present, Wu Shuyou is spreading some information about pet surgery on short video platforms such as Douyin . In addition to attracting fans to himself, more importantly, he believes that traditional industries must keep up with the Internet in order to have better development.
"The pet economy will continue to be popular. If we can actively embrace new technologies, then this will be a huge development opportunity. At that time, pet medical care can ride the express train of technological development and quickly stand out from the fiercely competitive industry." Wu Shuyou said.
(□ Reporter Guo Peng of "People's Livelihood Weekly")
