Precious pets go under the knife

As the center of attention, Luby the red-haired pomeranian pranced around happily on the stainless steel table before being anesthetized and going under the knife for a nose job that would elongate her snout by 2cm. Cats, rodents, birds, horses and even fish have also undergone beauty treatments at the Pet Advance cosmetic surgery clinic based in Jingan, Taipei.

The owner of the five-year-old pedigree dog, interior designer Sharon Wen (溫彩霞), said the operation would give Luby an aquiline, Western-type nose and hence a more aristocratic bearing. She said the dog would, like her, be having Botox injections in a few years to deal with the onset of wrinkles.

Double eyelid surgery to make the almond-shaped eyes of cats seem bigger is a standard procedure costing from NT$20,000, including an overnight stay at the clinic. Micro implants like Metacril are used to raise the ears of pinschers and tighten the mamillae of female pets. It also works on penis extensions for male animals.

Though concerned for the welfare of her dog, Wen said she had no reservations about Pet Advance, which is leading the world in providing cosmetic surgery for pets and is so confident of its services that it provides insurance cover for operations and a money-back guarantee if the owner is not satisfied.

Luby and Wen are an example of the evolution of cosmetic surgery, but by no means the most extreme. Many owners of pets are going to extraordinary lengths to make their pets "sexier" or more human-like.

"The new generation is focused on its pets because many people nowadays choose a career ahead of children. But the paternal and maternal instinct is still strong and this is transferred onto their pets," said Academia Sinica (中央研究院) sociologist Professor Andrew Yang.

Advanced dentistry; liposuction and silicone implants to shape bodies; and depilation to remove fur permanently have created versions of toy dogs such as the chihuahua and bichon frise that look like miniature babies.

Pet owners from around the world are taking advantage of Taiwan's relatively lax quarantine laws to have extreme cosmetic surgery done. Animals are flown into Chiang Kai-shek International Airport and transported in a secure van to the Pet Advance clinic in Jingan for treatment.

As long as the animals do not stray from the quarantine areas they can be flown home directly after they have recovered from their operations.

"Our bread-and-butter business is liposuction, hair transplants for balding dogs and lip treatments on cats, fish and rodents for fuller lips. Basically small operations to make pets sexier," said Andrew Gilligan, from England, who is a partner in locally owned Pet Advance.

Laser surgery to colorize fish was lucrative, he said, as owners of koi carp in Japan sought to have their fish brightened up, given fluorescent colors or tattooed. Fish are frozen and then "painted" with lasers. They are then revived by fibrillators after thawing. A single colorization operation costs up to NT$100,000 but this was a small price to pay when a single fish could change hands for up to US$800,000, Gilligan said.

"There is not much domestic demand so far for expensive operations. More extreme forms of etology are priced at a premium and are mainly aimed at European, American and Japanese clients who fly in with their animals," said Gilligan.