BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. One Health
Veterinary Clients Value Animal Welfare and Environmental Sustainability in Pet Food Choices
Provisionally accepted
Madison Clark1
Danielle Scott1
Caroline Kern-Allely1
Aurora Kohen1
Kapahi Kawai Puaa1Jeremy Delcambre2
Colleen Duncan1*- 1Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
- 2Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, United States
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Pet food, due to its general abundance and use of animal protein, makes a substantial contribution to the environmental 'pawprint' of dog and cat ownership. As pet owners are increasingly interested in sustainability issues, which include both the physical environment and animal welfare, our objective was to identify how veterinary teams can support pet owners to make sustainable feeding choices. We surveyed 1066 people on perceptions of these topics and the role their veterinary team could fill. While people value both factors when choosing pet food, animal welfare was significantly more important in driving pet owners' choices relative to the environment. We found that pet owners consider the veterinary team, particularly veterinarians, to be a trusted source of information for animal welfare and environmental sustainability. Finally, third-party certifications are well received by both familiar and introduced individuals and could be a powerful tool in these conversations. This study highlights opportunities for veterinary clinics to advance sustainability efforts in the animal health sector.
Keywords: Animal Welfare, Environmental sustainability, Pet food, Veterinary, veterinary team
Received: 29 Oct 2025; Accepted: 14 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Clark, Scott, Kern-Allely, Kohen, Puaa, Delcambre and Duncan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Colleen Duncan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.