Next we’ll be sending our dogs to college. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.

Americans—especially young Americans—treat their pets more and more like children.

Writing at The Economist, Alexandra Suich notes that human names instead of cutesy pet names are becoming more common for dogs and cats. Pet food looks more and more like people food—some of it is actually marketed as fit for human consumption.

Last year Americans dumped $400 million on pet Halloween costumes. This year they spent almost $600 million on Valentine’s Day gifts for their animals. Pet baby monitors, strollers, memory foam mattresses and even pedicures are booming new industries. And according to surveys, a majority of Americans see their pets as family members.

All of this, as Suich admits, accompanies a historic delay in marriage and childbearing, and of course, abortion and the rise of assisted suicide.

G. K. Chesterton once wrote that wherever there is animal worship, there’s human sacrifice. America today seems to be trying awfully hard to live up to his observation.