GUANGZHOU, China, March 17 (Reuters) - If you're a dog in China then you'd better hope to be of the cute and furry variety sold in pet shops rather than a homely-looking mutt sold at a live animal market as the main ingredient in dog meat stew.
"We still eat dog, but not this kind of dog," Liu Ming, a pet shop salesman said, pointing to a toffee-coloured puppy with floppy ears on sale for about 500 yuan or $70.
"We eat much bigger dogs".
Keeping pets is becoming all the rage among the affluent in China, even though some Chinese still consume dog and cat meat.
Combined spending on pet food and pet care in China will be worth an estimated $870 million in 2008, according to Euromonitor International. That's up roughly 15 percent from the $757 million spent in 2007.
"In China, more and more people are raising pets. It's not as difficult as before," Liu said, as curious onlookers crowded his stall in a dusty street of the southern boomtown of Guangzhou.
One thing is certain: the old belief that pets are a bourgeois indulgence held during the rule of Mao Zedong no longer has currency in the booming economy of the world's most populous country.
In the marquee cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, a growing nouveau-riche class even sees pets -- particularly dogs -- as fashion items, outfitting them in designer clothing, paying for spa treatments and dyeing their fur unnatural colours.
That trend, experts say, is a stark contrast to the tradition of eating everything from silkworms to pangolins.
"In Beijing, there's a huge market with pitiful dogs waiting in cages to be sold as meat, and literally a few yards away standard poodles dyed in all colours of the rainbow," said Jill Robinson, CEO of Animals Asia Foundation, a Hong-Kong based animal welfare charity.
China's thriving industry of fake designer goods is even taking on designer doggywear. In Guangzhou, hawkers sell fake Louis Vuitton dog carriers as a dog in a faux Louis Vuitton sweater naps nearby on the dusty sidewalk.
There were nearly 11 billion pets in China in 2007, according to Euromonitor International, up from 10.8 billion in 2006. The bulk of the animals were birds, fish and reptiles.
China estimates it has 150 million pet dogs. Statistics are scant on the burgeoning industry as many pets are unregistered. Euromonitor puts that figure at 26.8 million, and says China has 10.7 million pet cats.
Despite the emergence of Western-style pet rearing, dog meat remains a popular winter cuisine in parts of China.
Beijing has more than 120 restaurants serving dog meat, although recent media reports say that many are closing as the city tries to change its image before it hosts the Olympic Games in August.
Known as "fragrant meat", dog meat is purported to have medicinal benefits and improve blood circulation in winter.
