Young Chinese spend about 29 million dollars a year to take care of their pets, but they are not keen on getting married and having children.

The dog Leia celebrated her three-year-old birthday with a sumptuous party at an elevated restaurant in Beijing, on a sunny afternoon in mid-October.

At the birthday party, Leia, a German-speaking deer dog, is served three dishes including appetizer chicken, main dish with beef and salmon, a dessert yogurt cake. Leia is one of the millions of pet pampered and raised in luxury conditions in China.

Compared to marriage and childbirth, many young Chinese choose to live alone and adopt dogs and cats. Pet spending in China this year is estimated at 202 billion yuan (about $ 28.6 million), up 19% from 2018, according to research by Goumin.com, a social networking site for people pet keeper.

While the birth rate in China is declining, the number of pet owners in this Asian country is increasing. According to Euromonitor International, a market research group based in the UK, China now surpasses the United States, leading the world in the number of dogs and cats with 188 million.

By 2024, China will have an estimated 248 million dogs and cats, compared with 172 million in the US. This trend opens up great growth opportunities for pet food companies around the world such as Mars Petcare US and Nestle Purina Petcare.

The love for Chinese pets is contrary to the previous image of "eating dog meat". This trend also indicates a change in cultural norms in China. In the 1980s, raising pets in Beijing was illegal because it was considered a bourgeois influence.

According to Goumin.com, nearly half of all pet owners in China are young born in the 1990s, and 88% of them are women. Survey results in major cities in China show that about half of pet owners are single, and 9 out of 10 consider pets as children or family members.

Meanwhile, China's birth rate dropped to 15 million children last year, the lowest level in six decades.

Some experts warn that an explosion in pet trends could have many consequences. Many reports indicate that many pet dog owners do not have a registration permit and are not under the supervision of the regulator, causing many pet health problems to arise.

In addition, pet food companies are using more meat for their advertised products. According to Professor Gregory Okin at the University of California at Los Angeles, this will contribute to the current climate change situation. Okin said that pet meat consumption in the US accounts for 30% of the impact of the livestock industry on the environment, according to a 2017 report.

"With the current number of pet owners in China, the impact on the environment could be enormous," Okin said. He recommends raising small pets and feeding them primarily with cereal series.