Rising pet food prices are hitting seniors and people living alone hardest, turning what was once a lifestyle choice into a basic household necessity

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Pet food inflation isn’t a lifestyle story, at least not anymore.

For years, pet ownership in Canada has been framed as a lifestyle choice. A dog is a companion. A cat is a comfort. In public discourse, pets are often treated as discretionary luxuries, nice to have but optional. That framing is now badly outdated.

Today, roughly six in 10 Canadian households live with at least one cat or dog. There are more than 16 million cats and dogs in the country. And a growing share of those animals are not owned by young families with rising incomes, but by seniors, people living alone, and households that explicitly view pets as family members and primary sources of companionship. This shift is unfolding alongside another profound demographic reality. Canadians are having fewer children. Fertility rates are at historic lows, household sizes are shrinking, and single-person households are becoming more common. In that context, pets are increasingly filling roles once occupied by children, emotionally, socially, and economically.

For millions of Canadians, feeding a pet has........

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