Editing Pet (section)

==== Economy ====
As the popularity of pet-keeping in the modern sense rose during the [[Victorian era]], animals became a fixture within urban culture as commodities and decorative objects.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beastly Possessions: Animals in Victorian Consumer Culture|last=Amato|first=Sarah|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2015|page=6}}</ref> Pet keeping generated a commercial opportunity for entrepreneurs. By the mid-19th century, nearly twenty thousand street vendors in London dealt with live animals.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age|last=Ritvo|first=Harriet|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1987|location=Cambridge|page=86}}</ref> The popularity of animals also developed a demand for animal goods such as accessories and guides for pet keeping. Pet care developed into a big business by the end of the nineteenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beastly Possession: Animals in Victorian Consumer Culture|last=Amato|first=Sarah|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2015|location=Toronto|page=48}}</ref>

Profiteers also sought out pet stealing as a means for economic gain. Utilizing the affection that owners had for their pets, professional dog stealers would capture animals and hold them for ransom.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Animal Space, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations|last=Philo|first=Chris|publisher=Routledge|year=1989|pages=38–389}}</ref> The development of dog stealing reflects the increased value of pets. Pets gradually became defined as the property of their owners. Laws were created that punished offenders for their burglary.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Animal Space, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations|last=Philo|first=Chris|publisher=Routledge|year=1989|page=41}}</ref>