According to PET South America, an international trade show for pet suppliers, Brazil is now the world's fifth-largest market for pet accessories, worth about 9 billion dollars in 2011.

CNN: Brazil love motel for pets opens doors

Even so, only about half of Brazil's 100 million pets have access to pre-packaged foods and pet stores, according PET South America, leaving plenty of room for future growth, which they predict will be in the double digits.

CNN: Brazil love motel for pets opens doors

Glitzy pet superstores, which account for more than a fifth of pet-product sales in America and Canada, barely exist south of the Rio Grande.

ECONOMIST: Profits from pooches are more than petty cash

Native to Central and South America, iguanas arrived in Puerto Rico in the 1970s as part of the pet trade, says Rafael Joglar, a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico who has studied the animals.

WSJ: To Battle Iguanas, Puerto Rico Has New Plan: Put Them on Menu