About
Mission
Our mission is to champion pet choice and responsible pet professionals with expertise and integrity.
Vision
A future with expanded opportunities to enjoy the companionship of healthy and well-treated pets, in which responsible pet professionals are respected and seen as having the best interests of pets in mind.
What We Do
We advocate for pets and people by promoting animal welfare, sustainability, and consumer choice protections for pets. Through informed dialogue and collaboration, we strive to ensure that regulations are balanced, transparent, and conducive to the well-being of both animals and pet caregivers.
Core Values
Pets
We are a responsible community whose work begins and ends with the pet in mind. We are passionate about all pets.
Integrity
We lead with authenticity and transparency in our decisions, actions, and advocacy for the responsible pet care community. We do what’s right for pets.
Expertise
We seek out, leverage and share knowledge to improve the world for pets. We prioritize experience and science as the basis for our efforts.
Collaboration
We strive to create partnerships with people, companies, organizations, and other bodies to share knowledge, connections, and influence to make a greater positive impact for pets.
Leadership
We stand up for pets and those who provide and care for them, advocating for pet well-being, taking risks, and inspiring others to continuous improvement.
2022 – 2025 Strategic Plan
The Pet Advocacy Network board of directors met in June 2022 to update the organization’s strategic plan and determine future priorities. Elements informing their process included market trends and realities, evolving member demands, cultural developments, budgetary realities, and staff/volunteer capability. Below are the three key strategic priorities approved by the board that will guide our work over the next three years:
Expand Community Engagement to Increase Resources & Reach
Grow membership, increase community interactions and increase revenue.
Champion Policy Priorities & Improve our Standing with Lawmakers & Regulators
Strengthen our influence, evaluate & articulate key legislative priorities, advance/defeat legislation that matters, and integrate communications into government affairs strategy.
Accelerate Operational Excellence to Improve Outcomes
Prioritize what we do, ensure financial health, implement governance improvements, and maximize functionality.
Our History
The Pet Advocacy Network’s advocacy has evolved over the past 50 years to encompass a broad range of pet and pet care community issues. Our origins, however, began with aquatics in the late 1960’s when industry leaders including Marshall Meyers, who served as our CEO from 1971 to 2010, met to discuss government concerns over disease in imported fish. A subsequent challenge to domestic airlines’ excessive animal transport rates in 1970 made it evident that a formal organization to represent the pet industry was needed, and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, or PIJAC for short, was incorporated as a nonprofit trade association on December 7, 1971.
Since then, PIJAC has been involved in nearly every international, federal or state initiative addressing the importation, captive propagation, sale and possession of non-native aquatic ornamentals, birds, reptiles and small mammals, among many other issues. Some have been constant over the past 50 years, such as pet store sales bans, consumer warranties, animal cruelty, and restrictions on sales and possession. Others, including invasive species, zoonotic diseases and breed restrictions, have become more prominent over the years. But the foundation for PIJAC’s advocacy work then and now is our dedication to advancing our mission, and through that, enabling Americans to experience the incredible benefits of the human-animal bond.
In March 2022, after five decades of living our mission, PIJAC formally changed our name to the Pet Advocacy Network to better reflect our organization’s structure and more directly speak to our work as the leading advocate for the responsible pet care community.
It Takes a Community
Support pet care, join the Pet Advocacy Network.
We depend on the support of the responsible pet care community to ensure that pet lovers have opportunities to enjoy the companionship of healthy pets, and that the priorities of pet care businesses are protected now and in the future.
Essential News & Alerts
Keep on top of pet-related media coverage and Pet Advocacy Network news with our members-only daily and quarterly newsletters.
Shape Policy
Join our committees and make connections to lawmakers directing the future of pet care policy.
Pet Care’s Watchdog
Support our work tracking and taking action on issues that could directly impact your business.