As further proof that pet ownership continues to increase and fuel the growth of petfood markets globally, a new website for dog lovers in India has launched. DogZone.in bills itself as India's first online community of dog lovers.

A new report from Cascadia Capital, an independent investment bank that includes petfood and other pet product companies among its investments and transactions, shows the pet industry is "gaining momentum" coming out of the recession, not only in sales but also in merger & acquisition transactions and new companies emerging.

In its most literal sense, the term "humanization" means to take a non-human creature or object and try to make it human. "To portray or endow with human characteristics or attributes" is the first definition on TheFreeDictionary.com.

Nestlé, parent company of Nestlé Purina PetCare, ranks among the top 11 companies worldwide for corporate sustainability practices. So says Two Tomorrows, which bills itself as an international corporate sustainability agency, in its recently released Tomorrow's Value Rating.

A recent study by Kevin Haninger and James Hammitt of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis shows US consumers would be willing to spend US$4,500-6,000 to prevent each case of short-term illness caused by contaminated food. Reported in the October edition of FSMeDigest from Food Safety Magazine, the study started with the seemingly simple goal of examining the "monetary value that consumers place on a safer food supply," the authors wrote.

The US Food and Drug Administration is working hard -- and partnering with both the human food and petfood industries -- to meet deadlines and develop regulations and policies in adherence to the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law in January 2011. The new regulations and rules will include ones encompassing petfood, some for the first time, and the law's deadlines mean many will go into effect within the next year or so.

"Die erste TV spot fur Sie und Ihren Hund." That's German for "The first TV spot for you and your dog" and the opening for a new German language only TV commercial for Beneful from Nestle Purina. According to the

While the American Pet Products Association and other organizations in the US pet industry are working to prove how pet ownership helps human health and well-being, the European Pet Food Industry Federation, or FEDIAF, is releasing data to show pets' contributions to the economy and society.

Observing the buzz at SuperZoo last week and hearing about its growth over last year's show, I kept thinking (and even remarked to a few people), "Thank goodness for pet humanization!" This engine that has been driving the continued growth of our industry is still humming along.

I just returned from Las Vegas to attend SuperZoo, one of the annual US pet trade shows. While not quite as large as other US shows such as Global Pet Expo, SuperZoo had a lot of buzz, activity and show floor traffic even on the very last afternoon.