PET AGE SourceBook Goes Online
PET AGE recently launched an Internet-based version of its popular SourceBook, giving pet retailers and pet-services professionals easy access to fresh information about manufacturers, distributors, companion animal suppliers, manufacturers’ representatives, service providers, grooming schools and trade associations that serve the pet industry....

Retail Sales Growth Slows
Although consumers have propped up the economy for the past year, the party may be coming to an end. The National Retail Federation (Washington) recently revised its 2005 sales forecast based on new merchandise categories and a slowing economy, and now says retail industry sales will increase a modest 4.8 percent this year...

Pet Foods Get High Marks
Pet owners are confident in the safety and quality of the foods they feed their dogs and cats, according to new research by the Pet Food Institute (Washington)...

Unweaned Birds in Minnesota
Minnesota retailers will not be allowed to possess or sell any bird that is not weaned if companion bills introduced this spring are enacted in their present form...

Pet Store Regulation in Vermont
A new committee charged with regulating the “sale, exchange and donation of animals” by Vermont pet stores would represent a variety of interests—but no pet stores, according to the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (Washington)...

Pet Warranty Bill in Ohio
Sellers of dogs younger than 15 months would have to make an exchange, give a refund, or reimburse veterinary expenses up to the purchase price for dogs that exhibit congenital defects or common hereditary disorders, according to legislation pending in Ohio’s House Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee...

Credit Card Fees on the Rise
Nobody likes it when banks boost credit card fees—not retailers who must pass rising costs onto their customers, and not consumers who end up paying more for merchandise whether they use their credit cards or not...

Pets as Part of the Family
Pets have a tremendous impact on our lives, from who we date to how we eat, from where we go on vacations to what we watch on TV. Three out of four pet owners (75 percent) consider their pet part of the family. Almost half (45 percent) would consider taking their pet on family vacations. And nearly one in three dog owners (31 percent) would take their pet to work if they could, according to the Human-Animal Bond Survey by The Hartz Mountain Corp. (Secaucus, N.J.)...

Consumer Group Slams PETA
A 60-foot-by-60-foot billboard erected in May in New York’s famed Times Square alleges that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals euthanizes thousands of animals even as it complains about the unethical treatment of animals by pet food makers, pet retailers and countless other Americans...

WWPIA Cancels SuperZoo East
Responding to the needs of its members as well as other representatives of the pet industry, the World Wide Pet Industry Association (Arcadia, Calif.) in May postponed plans for SuperZoo East. The show had been scheduled to take place in August at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta...