The UK Pet Supplies Market

It may be a Clich but the old saying about the UK being a nation of animal lovers would appear to be accurate at least it applies to more than 52% of households in this country, for that is the proportion of homes that own a pet.

What types of pets do we own? Recent market data shows that there are 6.1million Cat owning households, 5.2 million Dog owning households, 4.1 million Bird owning Households , 1.9 million rodent owning Households and 1.39 million Bird owning Households. In addition a little fewer than half a million households choose to share a home with reptiles or snakes.

Of the major domestic Pets Cats and dogs there are 9.58 Million cats and just under 6.8 million dogs, these on there own account for nearly 70% of the spend in the pet supplies marketNo wonder the Pet Supplies Market is expanding with new pet products coming on stream all the time.

A recent survey of Pet owners who took their animals to a vet, found that nearly one-third said they spend more time with their pets than with their friends. Animals are playing a larger role in our lives and working people are choosing to provide them with a good life

As a nation we seem to enjoy the benefits of sharing our lives with our pets. Seemingly we thrive on the affection, companionship and security we receive in return for food, comfort safety and exercise. Whatever our lifestyle, whether we are busy families, professionals or singletons, it seems there is a pet to suit. The Nations 12.5 million pet owners spent an estimated 4 billion on pet Supplies in 2006 according to the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council.

When we think of pet Supplies we tend to think of Pet Food, With over half of UK households owning a pet, and approximately 90% of pet owners feeding prepared pet food at least once a week, the market for prepared pet foods is significant. The current market is valued at just over 1.5 billion.

Increasingly we are moving towards feeding our pets Premium dry complete products, these continue to show growth as the associated health benefits of a premium dry diet become increasingly appreciated.

We tend to buy our pet supplies from a variety of sources but the Pet supplies market is something of a rarity in this day and age, proving to be one of the few remaining fragment distribution channel market places. In plain English these means that we tend not to buy all our pet supplies from the major supermarkets. This can be put down to the increasing moves towards specialty or breed specific foods and the huge range of equipment, homes, tools, accessories and toys used by pet owners. In practice even the largest Supermarkets dont have the space to offer anything approaching the range of the average pet shop.

We also tend to want to seek advice when purchasing on behalf of our pets and subsequently many people still seek the advice of the local pet Shop. The increasing trend towards online shopping in most market places was a little slower to take off in the Pet Supplies industry because of this. However large numbers of pet owners are now choosing to but their pet supplies online, with websites that are set up to facilitate customer interaction and question answering doing best.

Terry King runs Parcel Pets, a leading UK pet supplies web site and has had pets all his life. He lives with his wife Louise, dog Sam, Cat Sabrina and 5 fish!

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Good Science Fair Projects - Plants Reaching For Light (Part Two)

In our previous science fair project we had a look at chlorophyll and how plants use this chlorophyll, sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to produce glucose (a form of sugar.) What else, that is very important, is produced through photosynthesis? (In the process carbon dioxide is taken from the air, what is released back into the air?) Now we are going to do a good science fair project to demonstrate how plants actually reach for sunlight. We know by now that they cannot survive without light, which we proved in our previous science fair project. Now we are going to do a really fun science fair project. If you want to do a really good science fair project, it might be a good idea to combine these two science fair projects as it gives you a very clear and visual picture of plants growing and needing sunlight.

Today's science fair project is a good science fair project for someone that is a little handy. We are going to make a maze in a shoe box to demonstrate how the plant searches and reaches for light.

What you will need for this science fair project:

* First you need a shoe box

* You will need a pair of scissors

* Stiff card

* Some sticky tape

* Black paint

* A paint brush

* A pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands

* A runner bean

* A plant pot

* Some good compost

* Water

Now for the fun part: making your maze in your shoe box!

1. To start cut a hole in the one end of the shoe box.

2. Making a maze in your shoe box is very easy, start by cutting eight flaps out of the stiff cards. The flaps must fit securely into your shoe box in the width.

3. Now paint your shoe box and the eight flaps all over with black paint. Do you know why we are doing that? Think about the light reflecting...yes, the black paint is to stop the light entering through the hole from reflecting inside the shoe box!

4. Now you can make a maze by sticking the eight flaps of card inside the shoe box with sticky tape. Cut slots into your flaps at a different place in each flap to form a maze (if you are not sure how to do this, ask for the help of an adult who knows what a maze looks like.)

5. Plant a runner bean in a small plant pot with compost.

6. Water the soil each day to keep it moist but, do not make it too wet. Keep it in a warm place until the bean has a shoot. Remember to keep the soil moist, depending on the temperature; it may not be necessary to water the bean everyday.

7. When your plant has a shoot place it at the bottom of your maze.

8. Close the lid and place the maze in a sunny spot.

9. Remove the lid once a day to see if your plant needs water.

10. Now you can observe what is happening.

11. If you did it right, the plant will grow and find its way through your maze to steadily move towards the light.

12. Eventually your plant will poke through the hole at the top of your shoe box.

13. For display purposes it is a good idea to take a photo of your plant growing zig-zag through your maze and out the hole at the top.

This is a good science fair project for someone interested in gardening. It is also a good science fair project for someone that loves crafts as this can double as a craft because of the maze you have to make. Good science fair projects can never be done too fast, so give yourself enough time.

Magriet is a work at home "Gran" with websites on a number of family related subjects such as science fairs, kids crafts and homeschooling. Her webs are: http://www.learnerscience.com and http://www.homeschooling.topknacks.com and http://www.kidscrafts.topknacks.com Get all the excellent information on these subjects in an instant.

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DNA Testing Improves Identification Of Survivors

We human beings are born to be unique. Although twins of similar features and sexes are hard to be differentiated, there is still one big difference if you look enough underneath all the layers of organs. The answer lies in the genetic markers in our DNA.

In this case, we can even reconstruct genetic profile of someone distant in your family tree or missing family member as gene inheritance happens in family like from grandparents to parents and so forth.

This identification method that is now being used for situations that, due to decomposition and the loss of medical records, have exhausted all other available identification methods.

For example, the World Trade Center 2001 destruction, Hurricane Katrina 2005 and South East Asia tsunami chaos 2004 which resulted in thousands of death which may need few days or weeks to retrieve the bodies and to be brought back to the morgue as weather, lack of humanitarian volunteers, badly affected location and also lack of technology could improve situation.

Forensic and postmortem protocols could check on features like dental, fingerprint, sex, hair color and others. In addition, with further implementation like DNA matching, it is necessary for identification of children who were lacking little antemortem dental or fingerprint data.

With standardized procedures, it would be likely for months to correctly match the corpse using genetic markers. In addition, roughly only 50 to 60% of the 3025 persons who died in 9-11 chaos were managed to be identify in 18 months.

Certain DNA markers that are shared among a deceased individuals DNA profile and several survivors reference sample profiles indicate that a relative has been found and can now be identified. Of course the high cost of DNA testing and lack of morgue with the expertise in those destructive places may lead to slow identification.

In 2006, the DNA Shoah Project was set to achieve its goal to give the departed Holocausts victims the last respect they deserved and to create a DNA database that can serve as both a genetic family tree and a memorial to those who perished.

The hope was to match these remains with DNA samples gathered from Holocaust survivors and from descendants of the departed.

The projects second aim: to unite those orphaned by the Holocaust with a close relative who survived. With a large database of living survivors, internal matches among them could also turn up.

DNA typing has often been portrayed in the media and the courtroom as a controversial technology but in a way, it certainly acts as a helping tool in identification tool in survivors or dead bodies. People say dead bodies dont talk, but if you study deep to their bones, they tell stories untold.

Nevertheless, the basic premise of the argument is valid and has been incorporated into recommendations about how forensic DNA testing be conducted and interpreted.

J.J. Yong, a DNA blogger with wide interest in DNA testing, genealogy, phylogenetics - as long they are related to DNA. He truly believes that amazement of DNA is like bringing us closer to humanity or humility of mankind.

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