The Time Is Right To Consider Raising Pet Birds Page 2 By James McDonald

By 1976, my wife was doing well enough with the project that we decided to expand the business. We built several more small buildings, the birds continued to do well, and she was soon able to quit her job and take care of the birds on a full-time basis. In 1977, our first child was born and she was now the stay at home mom that she had always wanted to be.             By 1978, the business was booming and she was making much more money than I was. We now began to fully realize the potential of the bird business.           Seeing the opportunity for even more expansion, I quit my job and we both went full time with the birds. We expanded into other varieties of pet birds and the business was simply so good that we could not keep up with the demand.          At that point, I began to recruit others to raise birds for us and we soon became a nationwide wholesale distributor of pet birds by 1980. Ours was still a mom and pop operation with the mom now also raising our two boys.          During the next 10 years, not wanting the headache that often comes with a lot of employees, we decided to remain a family run mom and pop operation, finally hiring a single employee in 1990.          I hasten to add that the year we started our business, 1975, the U.S. economy went into a recession. The economy also experienced another recession in 1980, 82, and another in 1991 as well as the Gulf War in 1991. Throughout it all, the pet business boomed.          We continued to experience explosive growth and in 2000, after 25 years in the business, at the age of 50 we sold our business and retired to the Texas hill country. The pet bird business truly allowed us to live "The American Dream" of owning our own successful business. I consider it nothing short of a special blessing to have been able to live our dream in rural America.

Although it is a little known fact, the commercial production of pet birds is a well-established business that is well over 100 years old. It has always intrigued me how the pet business can experience growth in a slow economy while at the same time, other, seemingly more important industries may lag.          The bird business thrived right through the Great Depression of 1929, as well as the numerous recessions we have experienced since then. Some of our strongest growth years were actually during years that our economy was experiencing recession.          History has shown that during economic slowdowns consumers will cut back spending on many large ticket items, but they will continue to spend on small dollar items that are either entertaining or amusing.          These things often provided an escape from life and the plague of problems that accompanied it in the tough times. A prime example of this is the movie industry and home video rentals, which are now experiencing some of their strongest years ever.          History is once again proving that we are a nation of animal lovers as the pet industry continues to experience strong growth even in our current economy. The figures speak for themselves. The pet industry is a $31 billion a year business (includes all types of pet livestock such as dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, etc., their feed and supplies) and is growing.          The Pet Industry's Spring Trade shows recorded record-breaking attendance earlier this year. In a recent survey conducted by The American Pet Products Association, pet ownership has increased by 10 million households in the past decade, indicating exceptionally strong growth in pet ownership.