Should Your Dog Be on Peptides?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

**Sarah Holder** (0:08)
Sam Chow lives in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan with his Norwich Terriers, four of them. There's the oldest in the group, Patriot.

**Sam Chow** (0:19)
Patriot is 12 years old.

**Sarah Holder** (0:21)
Then there's Petunia.

**Sam Chow** (0:23)
The original alpha in the family is Petunia. She's basically asking you to pet her.

**Sarah Holder** (0:28)
Paddington, the COVID baby.

**Sam Chow** (0:29)
Paddington, you want me to carry you? Come.

**Sarah Holder** (0:31)
And Patsy, the youngest.

**Sam Chow** (0:34)
Now we have Patsy challenging Petunia for the alpha role. So it's everyday comedy. You can see that already.

**Sarah Holder** (0:42)
Sam loves his dogs more than anything.

**Sam Chow** (0:45)
For me, it's my fur children, you know, and they gave me so much stability.

**Sarah Holder** (0:50)
And like many pet lovers, he says keeping his dogs healthy is a top priority.

**Sam Chow** (0:56)
I'm known as their butler. So I would stack their food with, they have blueberries, alternate day, they have salmon rolls, they have eggs, they have sweet tomato, turmeric, they have broccoli pretty much every single day.

**Sarah Holder** (1:11)
But Sam has taken pet care farther than most.

**Sam Chow** (1:14)
They go on to their red light therapy several times a day, you know, and the reason why again is inflammation, boosting circulation.

**Sarah Holder** (1:22)
Red light therapy beds, collagen, peptide supplements.

**Sam Chow** (1:26)
The ingredient BioPro Plus is a human peptide therapy based on an ingredient called wild deer antler. So I take a shot of that every morning. They have the same ingredient in their chew, in the dog format.

**Sarah Holder** (1:41)
And for his two oldest dogs, a longevity drug called rapamycin.

**Sam Chow** (1:46)
When I got rapamycin for Patriot, prior to that, I can tell you, he would be sleeping the whole day.
Doesn't have much energy level. He's lethargic. And it works. He is like a puppy now. You notice his energy level. And that's something I noticed, that it just changed the way he's well-being.

**Sarah Holder** (2:09)
Pet owners like Sam are taking a page from the human wellness industrial complex and applying it to their petunias and Paddingtons. Bloomberg reporter Annika Inampudi says it's part of a growing trend that's helped drive a predicted $165 billion in US pet spending this year.

**Annika Inampudi** (2:28)
With the rise of these wellness centers and peptides and all these sort of biohackers that are maybe turning to more unconventional treatments to extend their lifespans. And it's really interesting how it's almost trickled down to pets.

**Sarah Holder** (2:46)
And that's raised questions about the treatment's efficacy and their value to consumers who just want the best for their furry friends.

**Sam Chow** (2:54)
Petunia, what are you licking? Crap, haha, nice.

**Sarah Holder** (3:03)
I'm Sarah Holder and this is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, can your dog live forever? We looked at the trend of pet owners trying everything from peptide injections to pills to extend the life and wellness of their pets.
Sam Chow's apartment is the kind of place where you walk in and immediately go, wow, there's a fireplace, big windows, a staircase. But the real reason Sam moved there was because of his dogs.

**Sam Chow** (3:38)
It's quiet, the streets are clean, and I just wanted to ensure that I have more room for the dogs.

**Sarah Holder** (3:45)
Sam's dog's influence is everywhere. Above the mantle, there are four miniatures of his dogs, handmade out of felt by an artist from England.
And on the table near the door, there's a framed photo of Sam's first Norwich terrier, Thatcher, who lived to 16 years old, sitting with Sam's late husband.

**Sam Chow** (4:05)
I lost my husband through stage four lung cancer.
So for me, it was a little bit of a grounding for me to have the continuity of the same breed that we like. So we got Patriot. And Patriot was with us the whole entire time. And I noticed that maybe he's depressed. So we got Petunia. And then we have COVID. So we got a third one. And after the third one, we said, you know what? Might as well just get a fourth one.

**Sarah Holder** (4:31)
Outside his life as a dog owner, Sam is a beauty strategist, which means he's deeply tapped into the latest wellness trends.

**Sam Chow** (4:39)
So I'm sorry to say that we all take collagen, especially in the beauty world, everyone's taking collagen.

**Sarah Holder** (4:44)
So you and your dogs all take the same collagen?

**Sam Chow** (4:47)
Yes, but one for human version, mine is liquid version, and the other is a powder version as well.