It seems that a change is occurring in the world of pets. In terms of the number of pets, the trend has always been that of dogs. That has been replaced by cats. More and more people are keeping cats because they are less maintenance-intensive than dogs. In 2014, the number of cats kept in Japan exceeded that of dogs (8.2 million) for the first time, at 8.42 million. In 2021, the number of cats increased by 300,000 from 8.62 million the previous year to 8.94 million. In 2023, the difference between the highest number of 9.06 million in the past 10 years and the number of dogs (6.84 million) is 2.22 million. The number of cats kept has exceeded 9 million for the first time, and their average lifespan has also reached an all-time high. The average lifespan of cats was 15.79 years in 2023. The average life expectancy in 2010 was 14.36 years, so this is the longest life expectancy ever, up 1.43 years. As humans also become an aging society, the topic of improving medical care and maintaining and improving health becomes a hot topic. In the case of cats, medical services for elderly cats are also an issue. And it is also creating a situation that this is also a business opportunity.
As cats get older, their health problems increase, but due to their free-spirited nature, it is difficult for them to know when they are in pain. Cats have a habit of hiding pain. This means that it is difficult for owners to sense when their cats are in pain. Carelogy (Tokyo) is a company that develops an app that detects pain from cat facial expressions. From approximately 6,000 images of cats in pain before and after surgery, AI learned the facial expressions when they are in pain. Carelogy has started offering a web app service that checks whether cats are in pain. More than 170,000 people have used this service in total, and the current monthly active users are 20,000 to 30,000. The scalpel of science has begun to be used on cat health and pain.
Bacterial and viral infections are beginning to transcend the distinction between humans and animals. Diseases transmitted from wild animals to livestock are also beginning to infect humans. It is expected that animal-to-human infections such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 will continue to occur. In this case, not only human medicine but also veterinary knowledge of animals is becoming necessary. In response to this demand, a new veterinary school was established in Japan for the first time in 50 years. Considering the health of 16 million cats and dogs, the establishment of a new veterinary school seems to have been a happy thing for animal lovers and animals.
