[A City for All] Paws in the City: How Shanghai Is Redefining Pet-Friendly Urban Life

Shanghai did not become "pet-friendly" overnight. The label grew organically, shaped by urban renewal, changing lifestyles, and the quiet rise of grassroots animal rescue.

From one dog to a city's story

A typical day for Marx, a golden retriever, begins with a morning walk with his owners. On fine days, they play frisbee on the nearby grass.

At home, Marx enjoys breakfast and eagerly anticipates his pickup by "dog kindergarten," a pet daycare service. Soon, he is taken to the banks of the Huangpu River, where he runs, plays, and socializes with a familiar group of dogs before being driven home again in the afternoon.

It is difficult to imagine that a dog so carefully cared for nearly ended up in the hands of a dog meat trader three years ago. More than a story of successful adoption, Marx's life also reflects the evolution of Shanghai's pet-friendly urban environment.

Marx's owners, Jasmine Ren and Oliver Scher, are the founders of the animal rescue organization Cozy Paws in Shanghai. Since its founding three years ago, they have helped over 300 stray animals find permanent homes.

"There's a lot of synergy between what we do and what the local government is already doing in terms of expanding pet friendliness," Scher said.

New York native Scher studied Chinese at a US Confucius Institute. After meeting Ren in Shenzhen, southern China, they moved to Shanghai six years ago. Today, they run Cozy Paws and a pet startup.

Reflecting on his early days in Shanghai, Scher recalled that there was no concept of "pet-friendly" at the time.

Only recently has change begun. Brick-and-mortar businesses felt the pressure first as economic conditions changed. Restaurants, cafés, bars, and shopping malls sought ways to engage customers offline.

At the same time, a new generation of pet owners was emerging. With more disposable income, they wanted to bring pets into their daily lives rather than keep them at home. Bringing a pet to coffee or on a city walk became common.

Scher noted that cafés and bars were the first to catch on, inspiring other businesses. He believes Shanghai's pet-friendly scene has improved significantly and now rivals or exceeds international cities.

In New York, he noted, there might be a single dog swimming pool that only a few people know about. In Shanghai, by contrast, he can name at least seven or eight. Beyond that, services such as dog yoga, acupuncture, and massage have also started to appear.

Public spaces as the real test

Shanghai has an estimated 2.2 million pet cats and dogs, and China's urban pet market was worth over 300 billion yuan (US$43.7 billion) in 2024.

Public spaces, rather than commercial venues, measure a city's pet-friendliness.

Shanghai introduced a weekend two-way pet-friendly shuttle bus line between major commercial districts last year. New pet-friendly parks are opening, and more public green spaces offer free poop bags and responsible pet ownership signage.

Parks like Banma Suhe Park near Ren and Scher's house have pet-friendly amenities. Ren remembers the empty lot. After dog owners started meeting there informally, authorities turned it into a dog park.

This bottom-up, organic, pet-friendly ecosystem is changing the city.

The most notable is Xuhui Riverside. In 2024, approximately 30 million people visited Xuhui Riverside. Walking dogs or petting others has become a regular waterfront activity for Shanghai residents.

Xuhui Riverside opened during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. At the time, pets were not permitted, said Wu Jun, a deputy general manager at the company that manages the West Bund area. Yet because the waterfront is an open space, nearby residents continued to bring their pets along on walks.

Managers responded to grassroots demand rather than banning. Dog-walking areas were gradually opened under clear conditions, including leashes. A "pet playground" was established in 2020, allowing dogs to roam freely and advancing the pet-friendly atmosphere.

Drawing the line

This openness, however, is not without boundaries. Management centers on balance: providing convenience for pet owners while ensuring a sense of safety for those without pets. To that end, the area is divided into zones to reduce human-pet conflict, while on-site patrols ensure that all dogs are leashed and under supervision, according to a report in The Paper.

Pet friendliness in Shanghai, however, has not followed a straight line. As early as 2017, Raffles City Changning became one of the city's first malls to allow pets indoors, provided owners used strollers rented from the mall. The policy was later suspended following customer complaints, limiting pets to outdoor plazas.

In the years that followed, more shopping centers experimented with pet-friendly policies, some of which reversed course amid similar concerns.

In open commercial spaces, tensions also surfaced. Some dog owners failed to leash their pets, clean up after them, or muzzle larger breeds, prompting frustration among non-pet owners.

Scher stresses the importance of rules and regulations. In the past, he noted, many older pet owners paid little attention to leashing dogs or cleaning up after them.

But with more educated young people becoming pet owners, standards of behavior have improved noticeably.

The next phase

The new generation has brought not only changes in behavior but also a shift in attitudes toward pet care.

Scher believes Shanghai is leading the way in China when it comes to so-called "civilized" and "scientific" approaches to pet ownership. Compared with many other cities, the concept of adoption also enjoys a stronger foundation here.

"There are so many people in Shanghai coming back from abroad," he said. "There's already a base level of understanding of what adoption is," he said.

This awareness has, in turn, fostered more systematic, science-based approaches to animal rescue.

Evelyn Zhou, a young professional working for a foreign company in Shanghai, organized a months-long rescue operation for stray cats in Jing'an Park. The park had 80-100 stray cats. After the park closed for renovation last year, finding a safe home for the cats became urgent.

Zhou and a group of nearby office workers formed a volunteer team to carry out TNR (trap, neuter, return) programs. Friendly cats are placed for adoption, while some others are relocated under controlled conditions to residential compounds, with no more than one or two cats per compound to minimize impact on the local ecosystem and the community.

According to Zhou, the operation received written approval and support from park management and district greening authorities.

"Shanghai is a city that embraces both care and compassion," she added.

In Scher's view, however, Shanghai's pet-friendly transformation is far from complete. One obvious gap is access. In line with the city's "15-minute community life circle" planning concept, pet-friendly parks could expand so residents can walk their dogs within 15 minutes.

Transportation is still a bottleneck. Oliver believes that truly inclusive pet mobility requires more than private services, even though Didi, China's largest ride-hailing platform, offers pet-friendly cars. Public transportation systems that allow pets under clear rules and management must also catch up.

Policymakers are also considering institutional solutions beyond these practical gaps. Delegates proposed integrating dog registration and vaccination records using international "pet passport" systems during this year's legislative sessions. There are plans to test a "pet travel code" and QR-code park entry in designated areas.