Petaluma is happy to share that our company and products are now discoverable on vKind, an online directory and mobile app featuring businesses demonstrating cruelty-free principles throughout their enterprise.
Most pet food companies test their diets using corporate- or laboratory-owned dogs living in shelter-like environments. As a cruelty-free business, one of our core values is showing compassion to more than just our own pets; we extend that compassion to animals raised as livestock and animals raised as laboratory subjects. We are committed to testing protocols that treat dogs like family members rather than lab equipment.
We are always refining and improving our own rigorous testing protocols, but here is a summary of our current standards for testing:
- Our expert-designed formulas are first validated with software to ensure the estimated nutritional profile meets the nutritional standards of the life stage the diet is intended for.
- We produce a small batch of the food at the manufacturer and perform complete laboratory analysis to measure the levels of every essential nutrient.
- After determining the diet meets our nutritional standards, we send food to volunteer beta testers who feed the diet to their companion dogs for at least 30 days and report back about how their dog liked the taste and how it is impacting their poops.
- For digestibility testing, we partnered with a university laboratory that developed and validated a cutting-edge in vitro technique that accurately models the digestive system of a dog.
- We do not perform any animal testing or contract other companies to test our products on animals
- We preferentially source ingredients from suppliers that do not test their products on animals
- While many company-owned kennels provide high standards of care, we believe dogs belong in homes and are happy to invest additional time and money to conduct more compassionate testing.
Learn more about Petaluma's nutritional validation process.
