07/20/2020

Collaborative Advocacy Push Gives Pets a Much-needed Lifeline

America’s pets need access to food and supplies during the pandemic

As the COVID-19 outbreak unfolded in early March, the pet care community knew a proactive effort would be necessary to keep pet businesses exempt from mandatory closure directives so that the 85 million pets in American households could still be cared for. The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council quickly brought together a coalition of pet-related businesses and trade organizations to draft “An Open Letter to Federal, State and Local Government Officials Regarding Pets and COVID-19 Precautions.”

The letter was signed by the American Pet Products Association, the World Pet Association, the Pet Industry Distributor’s Association, the Pet Food Institute, IndiePet, the Human Animal Bond Institute and the American Kennel Club—along with more than 1,000 businesses ranging from small shops to nearly all of the top 25 national chain retailers. Their message: that businesses and services that provide for the food, housing and medical needs of pets had to be deemed “essential.”

“The speed with which we were able to assemble our coalition is a testament to the relationship that we at PIJAC have with other associations and companies in the pet care community,” said Mike Bober, president and CEO of PIJAC.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.