HOWND

The Hertfordshire based company will be competing for ‘Pet Product Innovation of the Year’ and ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’ - following the launch of two breakthrough grooming products and the company’s national Bring Your Dog To Work Day campaign.

Certified by Cruelty Free International, HOWND Golden Oldies Conditioning Shampoo and Body Mist - along with HOWND Yup You Stink! Emergency Dog Wipes - are the products which have been shortlisted for ‘Pet Product Innovation of the Year’.

“The Golden Oldies formula provides a gentle and deep cleanse for older canines. It also relieves dry flakey skin and helps reduce shedding and scratching. Containing vitamin E and pro-vitamin B5, this conditioning shampoo helps lock in moisture while restoring volume and shine to dull ageing coats,” explains Jo Amit, co-founder of HOWND.

“Free from alcohol and parabens, HOWND Yup You Stink! Emergency Dog Wipes are available in packs of five. Each pack contains five jumbo size (30cm x 20cm) PH-balanced wipes. Designed to be gentle on a dog’s skin and coat, each wipe is infused with orange (insect-repelling), coriander (antioxidant) and bergamot (deodorising) essential oils, aloe vera juice, and gentle odour control agents.”

Bring Your Dog To Work Day is an annual initiative that has been shortlisted for ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’. Created by HOWND, this year’s event raised money for All Dogs Matter - a charity that rescues and rehomes more than 300 dogs a year in London, Norfolk and the surrounding areas.

Britain’s most memorable day at the office was a huge marketing success. ITV’s Loose Women brought their four-legged friends live on air. There’s also been national coverage from The Times, The Independent, Metro, London Evening Standard, Mirror, Mashable, BT, Yahoo, AOL, BBC, Capital FM and many more.

The #BringYourDogToWorkDay hashtag also trended on Twitter in the UK. Thanks in part to awareness driven from a number of celebrities such as Ricky Gervais. In addition, Leona Lewis was interviewed with the HOWND team on BBC Radio London’s ‘The Barking Hour,’ which is hosted by Jo Good and Anna Webb.

The PetQuip Awards are now in their third year and have proved to be a popular addition to the pet industry calendar. Winners will be announced on September 27 at the PetQuip Awards’ official dinner and party, which is taking place in the Telford International Centre in association with PATS Telford.

In a four-page response to the vet, PIF’s CEO Nigel Baker (left) said: “Animal welfare is at the forefront of our organisation. We aim to raise standards and professionalism in the industry we cover and increase education and understanding amongst our members.”

Marc Abraham (above) had made the claims in a blog on Huffington Post entitled "What Is The Pet Industry Federation (PIF) Hiding From Us - And Why?" You can read the blog by clicking here

Here is Nigel Baker's response Abraham's accusations...

Dear Mr Abraham, Ms Carr,

I feel it is time for the Pet Industry Federation (PIF) to engage with you in order to stop the unpleasant tactics you and your followers have employed against us and our members in recent months.

Our Twitter feed and Facebook page have been inundated with tweets and posts that are largely offensive and not conducive to producing anything like a positive and professional response. Much of what is said is simply nothing to do with PIF.

Let me explain why:

1. The Pet Industry Federation is a membership trade body with six separate trade associations under its wing, covering a range of businesses and professionals operating in and around the pet industry in the UK. We support our members and their businesses by providing a variety of services. We do not represent businesses that are not our members!
2. Animal welfare is at the forefront of our organisation. We aim to raise standards and professionalism in the industry we cover and increase education and understanding amongst our members
3. We do not specifically represent dog breeders through any of our associations. Dog breeding, and issues associated with it, tend to be handled by the Kennel Club, Dogs Trust and other worthy charities and organisations
4. We are, and always have been, against puppy farms and commercial breeding where welfare, as set out in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, is compromised
5. We work, and advise our members to work, within the current legal frameworks. We agree that some of these are antiquated and need updating, but whilst they are still current law, our policy is to advise our members to operate within the law.

Please bear these points in mind whilst I continue.

In September 2014, you and Pupaid were successful in raising 110,000 signatures for your e- petition which stated that it set out to: “ban the sale of young puppies and kittens without their mothers being present”. This is what your signatories signed up to and at the time we commended you for the energy you put into this project.

However, by the time it came to be debated in Parliament you had changed the statement to: “ban the sale of puppies in kittens in pet shops”, which is an entirely different motion and I believe you justified this change by saying that this is what you meant all along! PIF wrote to MPs ahead of that parliamentary debate on 5 September 2014 stating clearly that whilst we welcomed the petition bringing the serious issues of animal welfare in battery puppy farms to the attention of the public and parliament, we believed that the issue was far wider than simply what the debate had now become. We explained that in the event of a ban, the demand for puppies would still exist and unscrupulous breeders and sellers would still find ways to make fast money, resulting in an increase in puppies brought in to the UK from overseas and the very real possibility of rabies and other zoonotic diseases entering the UK. I don't know if your followers understand the ramifications for all pets and animals if rabies entered the UK; as a vet, I am certain that you do.

In addition, you have yet to define what a ‘puppy farm’ is. I know you have been asked this question before and seemingly you avoided answering it, certainly you have when I have asked it. Is it a commercial breeder with two breeding bitches; or three, four, ten or more? Is large scale commercial breeding justified in your campaign, if animal welfare standards can be assured, or do you wish to solely rely on the home breeder with one breeding bitch, which in itself is no guarantee of high animal welfare standards? Please define your boundaries to us and your followers.

It gets more complicated when you consider that the UK population of dogs is currently estimated at 9 million, which means on average there is a demand for 900,000 puppies a year to maintain the canine population (when I say ‘maintain’, it has been a fairly static population for some years). The Kennel Club reports they register 250,000 puppies a year which means 650,000 puppies are supplied by other dog breeders. How is this to be governed and regulated?

So back to pet shops. Let me talk a bit about ‘squelching’ (i.e. issues you are trying to resolve re-appearing in another way because you stop one activity). In the USA, both retailer and breeder have to be inspected before a sale can take place. Out of 13,500 retailers in the USA, only 325 sell puppies but because of the ‘squelching’ effect on retail puppy sales and the continued demand for puppies, 30% of puppies are now supplied to the public via re-homing /rescue centres. ‘Excellent’ I hear you say, ‘what a great job’ - except that as neither the breeder nor the re-homing centres need to be inspected, you now have no regulation at all. Is that really good for animal welfare? Incidentally the ‘sale’ is via “donation” to both the breeder and to the public! Still money being transacted and presumably profit is made, except the point of sale has now shifted to something that is totally unregulated.

Here’s another example. In Austria in 2004, the government banned the sale of puppies in pet shops by law. This sounds great, except a few years later it was re-allowed because the sale of puppies, instead of being regulated and visible, had been driven to the internet and the layby sales of puppies from the back of vans, with serious compromises in animal welfare.

The Pet Animals Act 1951 is outdated and far from perfect. With little government appetite to amend current regulation (as demonstrated in parliament with your e-petition), we are forced to operate within the framework of existing and complex laws, whilst endeavouring all the time to raise standards and professionalism of our members.

Currently it is legal for puppies to be sold in pet shops. Whilst the Model Licence Conditions for Pet Vending published by the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health in 2013 are an excellent basis for protecting animal welfare, PIF and its membership have gone a step further. We have developed the criteria for an audit which our puppy selling retailers will now have to pass in order to remain in membership. These criteria are defined and measureable; participating retailers will be visited on an annual basis by independent, experienced auditors and there will be spot checks. We are therefore satisfied that within the current licensing laws, our members operate above the standard required. I would urge people to join with PIF in promoting and improving quality standards, rather than simply berating it.

Today, we have two member pet shops that sell puppies (they also breed puppies) and they have agreed to go through our new quality scheme. The remaining shops who sell puppies are not our members. One other point you might wish to remind yourself about is that the Model Licence Conditions which Local Authorities use to licence retailers including those selling puppies was written and endorsed by Dogs Trust, BVA, and International Cat Care with consultation from the RSPCA.

PIF constantly strives to ensure that our members raise standards within the pet industry with an ever-present focus on animal welfare – whatever their line of business. We have been instrumental in introducing a quality standard for dog groomers (a currently unregulated profession); we liaise and work with all the main companion animal organisations and charities on a range of initiatives and policy work and we are currently working on improved licensing for pet retailers, kennels, catteries, home-boarders and dog crèches. This alongside our suite of qualifications, online training opportunities, events and courses helps raise the standards of UK pet businesses.

Facebook posts and tweets to PIF members’ sites along the lines of “supporting any part of the pet shop puppies chain is disgusting Pet Industry Federation and its members should be ashamed of themselves #wheresmum”, are not simply unhelpful; they are counter- productive, defamatory and very unprofessional. I would ask you to cease and desist in making such statements and/or urging others to make such statements.

The government believes there is enough animal legislation to deal with the issue. Some organisations and senior vets believe we should increase puppy breeding by audited large scale UK breeders in order to meet market demand and to overcome the issue of battery puppy farms and imports. Would you support this?

PIF is a membership organisation that is happy to, and does, collaborate with a broad range of animal charities and welfare organisations. We have a charter and standards which is why businesses become members and if these are broken the business would be expelled from membership. We can only represent the interests of our members and do not represent non- members.

I believe you consider, incorrectly, that we represent the whole industry and can therefore bring pressure to bear on errant retailers who are not our members. If you know that puppies are being sold under age or are coming from commercial breeders that breach the Animal Welfare Act, why don’t you and your followers inform the RSPCA or report the errant outlet to the local authority? This would be better use of your time, and could yield a positive result.

Your cause is just, your engagement and communication is misaligned. Please contact my office and let me know when you would like to meet and engage on a professional face to face basis.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Baker
CEO
Pet industry Federation

Taking place on the evening of Tuesday, November 10, at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London, the Awards ceremony promises to be a night to remember, showcasing the best of British business. Guy Blaskey, Pooch & Mutt founder, and Nathan Perry, Head of Sales, will be in attendance while representing the pet industry at the national level.

Guy Blaskey (pictured) states: “We are so pleased to be recognised by Lloyd’s Bank National Business Awards for our constant growth and future prospects while representing the UK pet industry. As a company who has experienced 100% year on year growth for past three years, we are very excited for the future of Pooch & Mutt."

Pooch & Mutt has welcomed new staff members to its growing team, across sales, marketing, production and stock departments. 

With a growing concern among British dog owners to feed premium foods, Pooch & Mutt aims to make its labelling as transparent as possible.

Ian Clarke, a behaviour and emotional support worker at Wood Green, The Animals Charity in Cambridgeshire, will be taking the leads with him in October when he will spend six months volunteering for three dog shelters – Care for Dogs in Chiang Mei, Thailand; Yangon Animal Shelter in Myanmar and Soi Dog Foundation in Phuket, Thailand.

Ian comments: “I have worked at Wood Green, The Animals Charity for four years and I’m still using the same Ancol slip lead I had on my first day. I’ve used it on well over 1,000 dogs and I’m pleased to say it’s still as good as new. When the shelters asked if I could bring some leads with me, I knew the slip leads would be perfect. I’m so grateful to Ancol for donating 100 to each shelter as it will make a huge difference to them.”

“The leads will be a perfect introduction for stray dogs that have never been on a lead and will help to transform them from semi-feral street dog into a domesticated companion.”

Sarah Lane, Sales Director of Ancol adds: “We were so impressed when we heard that Ian is taking six months out to volunteer at these dog charities. We’re also really pleased that Ian is so complimentary about our slip leads and were only too happy to donate 100 to each shelter. We wish Ian all the best with his trip and look forward to tracking his progress.”

During Ian’s time at the shelters, he will be looking after ‘soi’ (street) dogs, getting them used to human contact, helping them to overcome any fears and preparing them for being rehomed. In addition he will be supporting the shelters’ vaccination programmes, helping to educate communities about looking after dogs and supporting their campaigns against the dog meat trade.

You can check up on Ian’s progress at www.facebook.com/ancolpetproducts

ACANA Pork & Butternut Squash dog food is another biologically appropriate™ limited ingredient formula from the kitchens of Champion Petfoods. It features Alberta pork as a single animal protein perfectly suited for diet sensitive dogs of all breeds and life stages.

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ACANA Singles contain no fish ingredients.  Instead Marine Algae is included in the ingredients which provide a natural source of DHA and EPA.

ACANA Pork & Butternut Squash is available in 340g, 2kg, 6kg and 11.4kg bags with SRP £3.79, £14.49, £32.99 and £57.99 respectively.

Bern Pet Foods are the exclusive importers and distributors of ACANA dog and cat foods. For trade enquiries, telephone 01737 767679 or email sales@bernpetfoods.co.uk.

The Federation is still recruiting further overseas buyers for the business networking day, which is to be held on Wednesday 21 October 2015 at its offices in Brasted, Kent. 

The Federation holds a series of ‘Meet the Buyers’ events each year that have resulted in British garden, leisure and pet product firms securing significant initial and repeat international sales in a wide variety of overseas markets.  The one-to-one meetings formula of the events has been applauded by UK suppliers and overseas buyers as being a cost-effective and proven way of creating positive and lasting business relationships.

If you are interested in the ‘Meet the Buyers’ event on 21 October, UK suppliers are encouraged to contact the Federation as quickly as possible as meeting places fill up fast.  Full details of how to register for the individual buyer meetings will be available soon but you can register interest by emailing Emma Lewis on email:  emma@gardenex.com or emma@petquip.com. 

Gardenex and PetQuip are divisions of The Federation of Garden and Leisure Manufacturers Ltd, the trade association that works on behalf of British companies to help its members increase sales worldwide.

www.gardenex.com  www.petquip.com