It’s that time of year again.  Kids are picking out their costumes, deciding between teenage mutant ninja turtle or Justin Beiber.  Moms are setting out orange styrafoam pumpkins and one of those bowls with the hand inside that grabs you when you try to get candy.  College-aged girls are buying lingerie and headbands with kitty ears attached (come on, it’s totally a cat costume!).

And these days, people are buying costumes for their pets.

When did this trend start?  I was in Target the other day, looking for a giant bag of candy to pass out (although we never get trick or treaters, so not sure why I bothered) and I came across a whole section of pet costumes.  If you don’t believe me, check out the selection here.  My favorites are the sheriff, the bumblebee, the squirrel and Dorothy from Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

I looked into it a little further and found out that this year alone, Americans will spend about $7 billion on Halloween.  In 2005 it was just over $3 billion.  That’s quite a jump.  And this year consumers will spend an estimated $310 million on pet costumes.

I’m doing the math.  The Target pet costumes are around $10 each.  That’s 31,000,000 completely miserable pets around the country.

In light of the current state of the economy, you would think that people would reserve that money for, say, paying the mortgage.  Or that the 9.1% of the country that’s unemployed would skip out on the spending and just enjoy the harvest holiday.

However, we live in a consumer-driven world.  And I’m unable to walk away from totally adorable pet costumes.

Skipper, looking totally mortified.  This little hot dog is going to need years of puppy therapy.