Welcome to Tail Mail
A newsletter for pet parents who want to be in the know.
I turned 29 this month, so what better way to honor the end of my 20s than by starting something new?
I’m Clara, a journalist who most recently covered the entertainment business for the Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks to the precariousness of the media industry and a brutal job market, I’ve been preoccupied by something entirely different these days: dogs.
I like to joke that my full-time job is being a mom to my rescue pups Gemma, Pippa, and Gordo, but I’m also a dog walker, pet sitter, and volunteer at my local shelter and rescue. (And before you ask, yes, I also love cats! I grew up with a silver tabby, Mozart, for 17 years of my childhood.) As I’ve grown more disillusioned and frustrated by traditional media and its treatment of young journalists, my work with animals has given me a renewed sense of purpose—a clarity in how I can be of service to my community.
Tail Mail is a newsletter for dog and cat parents who want to be in the know. It is a combination of my love for animals, my reporting background, my curiosity about the culture of pet ownership today, and my desire to create something useful for others.
Though it may not get treated as such, the pet industry is a behemoth. Pet owners are projected to have spent $150.6 billion on their pets in 2024, with the majority of that spending going toward food and treats, according to the American Pet Products Association. For context, that’s roughly 17.2 times more than the amount of money generated by movie theaters in 2024 and nearly 1.7 times more than Disney’s fiscal ’24 revenue. (Yes, I used to cover all this.)
The culture around owning a dog and cat has also rapidly changed. Of the roughly 82 million households in the U.S. that have pets, Millennials represent nearly a third of all pet owners. Pets are considered to be family; there’s an emotional desire from owners—or “parents,” as I’ve intentionally called them in this piece—to figure out the best way to care for their dogs and cats, which typically leads to more money being spent. There’s a reason why DINKWAD (double income, no kids, with a dog) is a thing.
At the same time, major cities like Los Angeles, where I live, are experiencing a shelter crisis as animals continue to get bred and abandoned, leaving volunteers and rescue organizations working around the clock to get pets seen and saved. Scroll through Instagram or TikTok and you’ll see heart-wrenching stories of cruelty, yes, but also those of love and compassion.
So here’s my plan: Tail Mail subscribers will get original reporting on the pressing issues impacting dogs and cats, inside scoops on the people and businesses powering the pet industry, interviews with your favorite creators and trainers, product recommendations, and curated links to some of the most interesting news in the pet space. And if there’s something you want to discuss with other pet parents, we’ll use Substack’s chat function to get a dialogue going over there.
Tail Mail is truly a passion project. I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure; bring your friends!
See you soon,
Clara
Have something you think I should cover? Email me at clara@readtailmail.com or DM @readtailmail on Instagram.
