14 hours ago
Cats, dogs, meerkats, goats: Interpets trade fair draws furry hordes
In the bustling city of Osaka, you might not expect to find an event with hundreds of animals running around — and not just cats and dogs, mind you.
For the Interpets trade show, held this year from June 19 to 21, Kansai-area pet owners brought their rabbits, goats and even a meerkat or two to taste wares and try out new products from some of Japan's largest pet supply businesses.
Inside the Intex Osaka convention center, 300 exhibitors showed off mostly new preparations of pet foods to assembled attendees, but cutting-edge products and live events also drew attention. Owners tucked their pets into walk-in showers and dryers for individual animals, while professional groomers raced against a clock and each other to perfect new styles on volunteer (or volunteered) pets.
One such walk-in drier from South Korea-based Spacepet was particularly popular, with models in yellow, orange and white large enough to fit most cats and dogs around the size of toy poodles or Shiba inu (no such luck for Siberian husky owners like myself).
The Intex Osaka convention center hosted the Interpets trade fair from June 19 to 21. |
SHAWN B. SWINGER
However, food was the main draw of Interpets. Aside from free samples of raw meat and jerky readily snapped up by hungry pets, a smorgasbord of conventional pet food was on offer alongside a swath of exhibitors selling organic sustenance, some like Okayama Prefecture-based Inaka no Ippin Honpo included animal products (deer ears, rabbit feet and emu eggs, to name a few) — that they claimed were hunted and processed by themselves.
When all the excitement grew too much, there were 'manner corners' where animals could freely relieve themselves. Of the hundreds of dogs, cats and other animals witnessed, The Japan Times can report that no interspecies skirmishes occurred.
Kumiko and Toshiko Suji, residents of Kyoto, attended Interpets with their pet goat, Mucca Ducati. Mucca (Italian for 'cow') is terrified of dogs, Kumiko said, so she had to wait in the convention center's food court with Mucca while she and her partner took turns perusing the booths to bring back treats. Kumiko was particularly interested in what kind of rabbit food was on sale, since she said that is Mucca's favorite.
Mucca the goat's Kyoto-based owners brought her to Interpets so she would have a chance to try new food directly. |
SHAWN B. SWINGER
'Mucca is very special to us, and we just want to give her the best life,' Kumiko said.
The Sujis live in Kyoto but made the two-hour drive out to Osaka so that Mucca, who has her own Instagram page, can taste food and give her approval in real time.
An Osaka resident, Tanue (he declined to provide his last name) brought his four dogs to the trade show: a Shetland sheepdog, two pit bulls and a Siberian husky, all of them under two years old. Tanue said he wants his dogs to have the best quality meat sourced directly from hunters, and the standout of the event for him was the booth from the online merchant FooDog selling food products from hunted deer.
Tanue brought his four dogs to the Interpets convention, where he said he was on the hunt for 'the best' food products on offer. |
SHAWN B. SWINGER
The FooDog had brought three Doberman pinschers to munch on deer bones as a show of how much dogs would love their wares (indeed, these Dobermans were so calm that they barely gave any notice to the thousands of people and other dogs who walked inches away from them).
'My dogs deserve the best,' Tanue said of attending Interpets, 'so we came to give them the best.'
