Product Sourcing to Animal Welfare, What to Know at the SUPERZOO Trade Show in Las Vegas

The largest pet industry trade show in North America, SUPERZOO has long been described as a multi-sensory experience where attendees can expect to find the latest innovations on the trade show floor. While this year’s New Product Showcase expects to once again exceed 1,000 items, the trade show floor is where the action happens.

Taking place in Las Vegas in August, SUPERZOO is the proving ground where the year’s pet care trends are established, spotlighting such trends as CBD supplements, AI-powered pet wearables and functional treats. However, it’s transparency that is the leading movement in the pet product market. Ensuring health and safety, transparency allows consumers to make informed choices for companion animals with allergies or specific needs, while holding manufacturers accountable for ethical sourcing and preventing contamination.

Sourcing is a major part of how consumers identify and support brands that align with their values. In recent years, responsible sourcing has become a growing focus among pet parents, as it means that a company ensures its products and materials/ingredients are produced ethically, safely and with minimal environmental harm. In addition, responsible sourcing starts with a commitment to value, quality and safety, regardless of location.

3TBrands, a fourth-generation family-owned company with more than 90 years of manufacturing experience, believes that the standards for quality, safety and value should not determined by a country of production. Instead, those values are the result of clearly defined standards, disciplined processes, trusted partnerships, and continuous oversight. In other words, responsible sourcing is a commitment to quality, value, and the people and processes that make it possible — wherever a factory may be located.

For 3TBrands, which is the parent company of Tall Tails and Territory, commitment begins with the product itself. Before materials are selected or production begins, the company asks a simple question: How will this product be used, and what standards are required for it to perform safely and effectively throughout its life? That approach is rooted in the company’s heritage of designing products for infants and families, where safety, consistency, and accountability were non-negotiable. Today, those same principles guide the development of its Tall Tails and Territory products.

3TBrands looks for manufacturing partners whose leadership fosters cultures of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement. Employees are valued, workplace safety is prioritized, expectations are clear, and processes are disciplined. Their operations are supported by documented controls, independent verification, and ongoing attention to internationally recognized standards and certifications.

Many of the company’s manufacturing partners are approved suppliers to leading global retailers and consumer brands. Through a one-team approach, consistent on-site engagement, and a shared commitment to improvement, 3TBrands builds relationships based on trust, mutual respect, and a common goal: delivering products that provide value, perform as intended, and meet the highest reasonable standards for quality and safety.

“Responsible sourcing is built on relationships and transparency,” explained Lu Nan, who leads the 3TBrands China-based sourcing team. “Our role is to bridge development, manufacturing, testing, and quality expectations so every partner understands not only what standards are required, but why they matter.”

The goal for 3TBrands is to deliver the same quality every time a pet parent purchases one of our products. Testing is integrated throughout the product journey. Materials and finished products are evaluated internally and by independent laboratories, including Intertek and Bureau Veritas, from development through production and replenishment. Before production begins, products are also Backyard Tested with a network of dogs and their families.

As a founding and active participant in ASTM International, a leading independent organization that develops guidance for product safety and performance standards, we work alongside industry leaders to help establish technical guidelines that contribute to safer, better pet products for everyone.

“Responsible sourcing begins with respect for the pet parents who trust our products and the people involved in making them,” said Joel Kaplan, CEO of 3TBrands. “It is a continuous pursuit of identifying how our factory partners and we can provide quality products that best serve pets, their families, and the special bond they share?”

When it comes to pet food ingredient sourcing, Earth Animal starts with the question of whether the animals behind those ingredients had a good life. That’s because, for Earth Animal, ethics and nutrition are the same thing. The quality of life an animal experiences directly affects the quality of what ends up in the product. Stress, confinement, and poor conditions all impact ingredient quality. How an animal is raised is inseparable from what it delivers as food.

That conviction sits at the heart of the company’s Animal Welfare Framework, first published in 2021 and modeled on the internationally recognized Five Domains Model. The framework underpins the sourcing standards for Wisdom, Earth Animal’s air-dried dog food, and jerky line and soon to launch cat line.

“We believe that all animals deserve to live a good life, and therefore we have a fundamental responsibility to protect and advocate for the animals in our families and those that are born, raised, and slaughtered for our pet foods,” said Earth Animal Co-Founder Susan Goldstein.

The Five Domains go further than conventional welfare standards by adding a fifth consideration to the familiar pillars of nutrition, environment, health, and behavior: mental state. Earth Animal looks for care that supports more positive than negative experiences throughout an animal’s life, from birth to death for farmed species, and from capture until death for wild-caught ingredients.

There is a direct correlation between welfare and nutrition. Pasture-raised animals produce meat with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and cleaner, more bioavailable protein. Animals raised without growth hormones and antibiotics deliver ingredients free from the residues of intensive farming. How an animal lives impacts the final product, which is why we make the choices we do.

“The quality of our ingredients is the foundation, but how we process them is just as important. Gentle air-drying preserves the natural nutrients, enzymes, and bioavailability of our proteins in a way that high-heat processing cannot. The result is food that is easier to digest, better absorbed, and gentler on the gut. For dogs and cats, that means stronger immunity, healthier skin and coat, better energy, and a digestive system that is not working against the food it is being given. That is the whole point of doing this the hard way,” explained Earth Animal Co-Founder Dr Bob Goldstein.

Critically, that nutritional integrity runs through every format of Wisdom. Dr Bob Goldstein’s Signature Protein blends are exactly the same across Wisdom dog food, jerky, and the cat range. The sourcing and nutrition standards at the heart of every recipe do not change depending on the product.

In practice, those standards translate into specific commitments. The company sources G.A.P. (Global Animal Partnership) certified poultry, with standards requiring no cages, enriched environments, and species-specific enrichments. All eggs are cage-free, moving to free-range by 2027. Growth-promoting hormones, subtherapeutic antibiotics, and ionophores are excluded from the entire supply chain. Wild-caught fish must carry Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or Ocean Wise certification. Grazing animals such as beef, bison, and venison come from pasture-raised systems, with feedlot sourcing ruled out entirely.

Underpinning everything is full traceability: every ingredient traceable to its origin, verified through independent third-party auditing, and tracked through the HowGood platform for environmental and social impact. These standards exceed what most human food supply chains require. The industry term is “human grade.” Earth Animal’s position is that, for a family’s companion animals, that bar is not high enough.

Product packaging is often overlooked in terms of what’s important to consumers. However, at Compana Pet Brands, it’s how pet brands communicate who they are.

“Packaging is the moment a brand has to prove itself without explanation,” said Amanda Terbrock, Senior Director of Marketing at Compana Pet Brands. “Before a pet parent reads a claim, checks the ingredients, or compares calories, the package has already shaped their perception. For Fruitables, the goal was to make that first impression feel unmistakably joyful, trustworthy, and better-for-pet.”

In the dog treat category, that argument has a specific emotional weight. Pet parents want to show their animals love. They also want to feel good about how they do it.

Founded in 2008 by veterinarian and pet nutrition expert Dr. John Bauer, Fruitables was created to help pet parents show love through better-for-you treats made with natural superfoods and science-backed nutrition. The brand’s pumpkin-based baked and soft & chewy treats deliver premium taste while supporting healthy digestion, balanced indulgence, and everyday moments of joy between pets and their families. What the brand needed was packaging that showed those values.

According to the brand, its previous packaging communicated health, but not joy. Fruit photography on split-color bags read as functional and ingredient-forward, more at home in the supplement aisle than competing in a treats section dominated by bold, high-energy competitors. The design was doing one job and missing the other.

“Fruitables had strong credentials and a genuinely differentiated product,” said Adrienne Muken, founder and creative director of East 12 Studio, the branding agency behind the redesign. “What it needed was a visual identity with REAL personality. One that said ‘this is the treat you actually want to, and feel good about giving’ before anyone stopped to read a calorie count.”

The redesign makes a decisive move. A rich, ownable purple becomes the brand’s signature, immediately distinctive against the reds, yellows, and muted naturals that dominate the competitive set. A new character mark, a playful illustrated dog, brings warmth and recognizability across every sub-line, from Biggies to Skinny Minis. Ingredient photography stays, anchoring taste appeal and better-for-you credentials, but the packaging imagery now supports the personality rather than leading it.

The result is a brand that earns the treat moment and everything around it: the training session, the morning walk, the small daily rituals that make the relationship. The playful voice extends all the way to the bottom of each bag, where a surprise line reads: “Trade your snooze button for sunrise walks, you’ll both be up and wagging.”

In pet treats, as with other categories, packaging is the touchpoint where consumers form their first and most lasting impression. Before anyone reads a claim, checks a calorie count, or looks up a review, the design has already done the talking.

Remember this while you’re walking to the Compana Pet Brands booth as well as visiting other exhibitors on the SUPERZOO trade show floor.

(Photo courtesy World Pet Association)