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HOPE Pet Food

HOPE Pet Food Logo

Founder: Dr. Sofia Bonilla 

Website: www.hopepetfood.ca (external link) 

We are guided by nature, science and kindness to make radically better, meat-free, sustainable pet food.

HOPE provides excellent nutrition to cats and dogs while drastically reducing their environmental footprint and society’s reliance on factory farming by providing sustainable meat-free pet food products. Pet parents currently do not have a readily available, commercial option for feeding their pets that promotes sustainability and livestock welfare.

This is a meaningful issue as pet ownership is on the rise. As a local example, in Canada, there are 9 million cats and 9 million dogs living in Canadian households. The pet population in the US is ten times larger than Canada’s with more than 89 million dogs and 94 million cats in 2017 and the worldwide total is close to 1 billion dogs and cats. In North America, pet food contains 25% of all the meat produced. If pets in the US established their own nation, it would rank fifth in global meat consumption.

The climate crisis is in large part a result of our broken feed and food systems with agriculture contributing more than 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions and livestock being the major contributor in the agriculture sector. In the context of pet food, studies show that approximately 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions inherent in kibble production comes from the meat ingredients alone. In addition to the environmental impacts of pet food, there are other issues associated with animal-based ingredients in pet food. For example, it might be assumed that pet food mainly utilizes animal by-products. However, the trend toward premium pet food without by-products and only human-grade ingredients indicate that pets are eating products that could also be eaten by humans and that there is direct competition with the human food system. It is estimated that by reducing meat consumption in pet food in the US by only 25%, we could feed over 26 million people.

At HOPE Pet Food we are re-imagining the way pet food is made. We use novel ingredients including alternative proteins and novel natural sources of fats, minerals and vitamins to provide superb nutrition for our pets without breaking the planet.