Pet industry hopes 'Secret Life' and 'Dory' unleash sales

NEW YORK -- Pet retailers are wagging their tails over the success of two animated blockbuster movies this summer, hoping that Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets will unleash higher sales.

“Whenever these movies come out, there is definitely a bit of a jump in the business,” said Eddie Rum, president of Spoiled Brats, a pet supply store in New York with cat adoption services.

Pet supply giant PetSmart stands to benefit from its tie-in to the Secret Life of Pets, which enters this weekend as tops at the box office after the past two weeks.

PetSmart is selling an array of toy, apparel and pet bed products based off of characters from the comedy. It also has shelf signage in stores in which characters from the movie pitch items to customers.

“If you visit a store, you’ll see the characters' take over of PetSmart,” said Ted Passig, executive vice president of buying and sourcing at PetSmart. Among the top sellers are a Bungee toy, plushes and ruffle dress tied to characters in the movie, like Buddy, Max and Gidget.

For many pet-related retailers, the movies come along at the right time -- during the dog days of summer.

“It’s the slowest season,” said Rum, president of Spoiled Brats. “It’s like everybody's going away on vacations.”

Animal-related movies can not only generate interest in pet products - they often raise interest in pet ownership as well.

Historically, animal-themed movies "really created an enthusiasm” for people to get pets, said Mike Bober, president of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council and counsel to the Pet Leadership Council. But being a responsible pet owner is often not easy.

“It’s important that people really know what they are getting into,” said Bober.

Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar, is now the all-time highest grossing animated domestic release, standing tall at $445.5 million a month after its release going into this weekend.  And blue tang, a species of surgeonfish, is the prototype of the character Dory.

“We’ve had a handful of people come to us for blue tangs, but we don’t sell them,” said Megan Sweeny, manager at Fauna, a small-animal pet shop in New York that specializes in fish, birds and reptiles. The fish have appeal right now, “especially parents with small kids,” said Sweeny.

Caring for a blue tangs is not for beginners. “It is a more difficult fish to keep in captivity, requires a large tank and great water quality,” said Andrew Rhyne, a marine biologist at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.

On the other hand, a clown fish, the species portrayed in the movie by Nemo, is not as hard to tend. They are “very hardy and do very well in small tanks. They are the ideal pet fish,” said Rhyne.

Pet store owner Rum recalled how Chihuahuas were made popular by the 2008 movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. “When trend comes along, you jump in it," he says. "There was absolutely a surge in clients,” Rum says.

In the late 1990’s, animal shelters around the country were flooded with Dalmatians when the breed became unwanted as the excitement around the 101 Dalmatians movie faded.

"Just before Finding Dory was released there was another popular movie, Zootopia, which featured a fennec fox," said Renee Saldana, entertainment relations coordinator at The Humane Society of the United States. "That movie reportedly spurred people in Asia, in particular, to seek out fennec foxes as pets."