It's a typical hot and dry January afternoon and Thonglor Pet Hospital's two-building complex is teeming with two- and four-legged visitors. A Siberian Husky is panting next to its owner. In the tiny enclave next to the old building's entrance, at the corner of Pet Care's entrance, two pug siblings are sitting wide-eyed as an artist paints their watercolour portrait.

The event commemorates the pet hospital's 12th anniversary and the official opening of the new hospital building - the old one is now a Pet Care centre. Save for the clown, magician and balloons, this would have looked like a children's birthday party.

Boonchu T.poolporn darts about, attending to the swarm of well-wishers - regular customers, suppliers from Bayer and CP, and the press. The co-founder was often credited for successfully riding and steering the boom in the growing pet healthcare and pet shop business - now worth an estimated Bt6 billion. Last year, his four-branch operation raked in about Bt100 million.

A gregarious host, if somewhat quiet, Boonchu takes the procession of guests for a tour of the Thonglor branch's newly renovated five-storey veterinarian building. For its small size - two town houses - the hospital is packed with all the services one would normally associate with an international-standard hospital: an eye clinic, a cardiology clinic, nurseries and surgical operations big and small.

On the first floor, when the guests make their way through the rather narrow hallway, they stop and clamour in front of a glass window. Inside a terrier is being treated with acupuncture.

"Although this is an ancient method, Dr Krongthong was trained in the US, specifically for this," Boonchu says.

Anything to do with pets in Thailand is an under-exploited goldmine of sorts. The most recent figures show that Thais lavish some Bt4.5 billion on their beloved pets each year. And, according to Boonchu, that figure is set to rise by 10-20 per cent annually - given that the sociopolitical climate has cooled down and resumed its normal state, corresponding to the increase in people's spending power and knowledge of their pets' well-being.

"The number of pet owners who are willing to spend on their pets continues to rise. And the number and variety of products and services available to pets continue to expand - massages, vacation retreats, gourmet food, psychotherapy, photography sessions, and so on. The biggest expenses on pets, today and in the future, will be of course, healthcare," says Indivara Chulajata, editor-in-chief of Pet Mania Magazine.

Always checking the pulse of the market, Boonchu says Pet Thonglor will enhance its services to include new emphasis on prevention of disease and animal physiotherapy.

"The trend is to focus on the well-being of pets. As pet owners become more educated, they are likely to take their pets for more regular check-ups, and not just only when they are sick, when it becomes inevitable," he says. "These owners will also treat their pets less like commodities and will pay to see them grow old and die peacefully, treating them like a family member."

"Many of today's pet owners view themselves as parents, calling themselves 'mummy' and 'daddy'," adds Indivara.

Pet Thonglor has three hospitals, each attached with its own Pet Shop. This year, with two new hospitals in the pipeline, that also means two more pet shops.

The company is set to open even more pet shops this year in various shopping malls. With lower set-up costs, Boonchu believes that by the end of 2007, there will be more pet shops than hospitals. Although there are no official figures, according to Pet Thonglor's founder, the pet-shop market is worth about Bt3 billion a year.

As the number of outlets increases, so does the various kinds of pet products, from pet ice-cream - nutritionally geared for our four-legged friends, but also edible for us - to self-cleaning litter boxes. Indivara points out that the "humanisation of pets" has affected the whole industry.

Such trends have encouraged many youngsters to take up veterinary studies. According to Kitika C.patanakul, co-founder and administrative and marketing director of Thonglor Pet, about 75 per cent of graduates chose to practise as vets, whereas in Boonchu's and Kitika's days, the men would work in agribusiness and women in civil service, doing clinical work on the side. Nowadays a veterinarian can earn anything from Bt30,000 to Bt100,000 a month.

Yet business prospects have not always been that rosy. During the Asian financial crisis, Thonglor Pet Hospital saw its revenue drop by a whopping 20 per cent in the first half of 1997. With pet care being viewed as an extra burden, many owners shirked their payments when faced with large bills. Owners who went missing often saw their pets as another commodity.

Pets are - as the cliche goes - companions, stresses Boonchu. Their value is much more than their price tag. Boonchu believes that happiness from looking after these pets cannot be measured.

During the crisis, Boonchu and Kitika, his business partner and wife, refused to lay staff off or cut their pay. "Instead we continued to hand out bonuses," Kitika says. "The staff were very understanding and supportive. We managed to turn things around by increasing the quality of our service."

Boonchu's proudest achievement is when he saved a mongrel from death.

The Thai mongrel was brought to the hospital when a drunk repeatedly hacked it with a machete. "The man was walking past the dog's house and it started to bark at him. He was drunk and was so cross that he came back and tried to kill it," recounts the vet, then practising in the small clinic that would become Thonglor Pet.

Boonchu spent five hours - from one to six in the morning - sealing the dog's "hundreds of wounds". He saved the pooch from bleeding to death.

Although Boonchu always carries a certain air of calmness, which at times can come across as indifferent or cold - a characteristic not untypical of Asian men of his age - his relationship with the pets tells a different story.

"I have adopted quite a few animals. Some of the cats actually come to our house and just stay," says Boonchu, referring to his 12 cats. About 10 dogs, including Boonchu's favourite Bichon Frise, a French toy dog that resembles a poodle, make up the rest of the menagerie.

Boonchu admits that he can't take in any more pets - what a handful!

Ki Nan Tsui

The Nation