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Featured Case Study

Keeping Pet Care Running Through the COVID-19 Pandemic

Protecting Pet Businesses

In the chaotic early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, government officials were making swift decisions to try to control the disease’s spread and safeguard the population. But the Pet Advocacy Network, along with a few other pet care community leaders, recognized that well-intentioned closure directives might not take into account the care needs of the 85 million companion animals kept by Americans—95% of whom consider their pets to be part of the family.

Moving quickly, our team spearheaded a coalition effort to deliver an open letter to government officials and media such as Today.com on March 13 that demonstrated why pet care businesses needed to be deemed essential and remain open. As widespread closure mandates were subsequently enacted across the country, nearly every one exempted pet care businesses, evidence of our proactive outreach’s success.

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Fighting Misinformation

In the following weeks, as pandemic-related news and rumors ran wild, the Pet Advocacy Network again led the charge disputing pet-related misinformation and reassuring the public. Staying on top of the news, we issued statements when chloroquine phosphate, a fish parasite medication ingredient, was touted as a preventative, and when the first pets tested positive, as carried in People magazine.

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Creating Helpful Resources

We took an instrumental role in supporting pet caretakers and retailers, by creating a repository of online resources on protecting human and pet health and to support business continuity, helping host pet care community town hall webinars to address business survival best practices, and collaborating with other trade groups to issue an infographic to reassure the public that patronizing pet retailers was safe.

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Ensuring Pet Health & Well-Being

Finally, forecasting the potential negative impact when the country began to return to normal on the thousands of new pets brought home during the pandemic, we organized a public campaign “Keeping Your Pandemic Pet” offering alternatives to pet surrender.

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Supporting the Human-Animal Bond

As the population coped with incredible stress and loneliness throughout the pandemic, pet ownership soared as people turned to the scientifically-proven emotional and physical health benefits of pet companionship. We led the way to make sure those pets, the people who provide products and services to care for them, and the families who enjoy them as companions, were all supported.