Pet Industry News
The deals, launches, and strategic moves behind the brands and operators shaping the industry.
Escalade Buys ASL Solutions, Betting on Pet Hard Goods
Escalade, the public sporting goods company behind Goalrilla and STIGA, has acquired ASL Solutions, a founder-owned manufacturer of insulated dog and cat houses. The deal, terms undisclosed, hands Escalade a rotational molding capability it didn't have before and marks its first move into pet hard goods.
DOJ Sues Darwin's Pet Food Over a Decade of Ignored Contamination Warnings
The Department of Justice is suing Darwin's Natural Pet Products, seeking a permanent injunction over contamination findings dating back to 2017 and a child's E. coli-linked hospitalization. It's a harsher, rarer enforcement path than the recalls that usually settle pet food safety cases, and it raises the bar for every raw feeding brand with open FDA warnings of its own.
Wolters Kluwer's New Database Signals a Retail Push Into Vet Meds
Wolters Kluwer introduced Medi-Span Vet Meds, a veterinary drug database built to let retail pharmacies safely dispense pet prescriptions. The launch targets a $13 billion market where dispensing errors and a shortage of certified veterinary pharmacology expertise have kept most retail chains out. No launch retail partner has been named yet.
Salmonella Recall Hits a Raw Dog Food Brand That Hadn't Had One Since 2015
Oma's Pride is recalling 639 bags of frozen raw chicken dog food across 11 states after testing found Salmonella in a single lot, the family-owned brand's first FDA recall since 2015. The event adds to a rough 2026 for raw and frozen pet food safety, where two of the year's three tracked pathogen recalls already involved the category.
A Smart Bed Takes On the Pet-Wearable Crowd, No Collar Required
WoafMeow closed a pre-seed round under $1 million, backed by a Hong Kong family office, to build a passive smart bed for aging and sick pets instead of a wearable collar. The platform ambition it's chasing, AI guidance, a vet marketplace, local services, and end-of-life support, is bigger than the check funding it.
Boehringer Ingelheim Buys a Second Vaccine Startup Without Disclosing Terms
Boehringer Ingelheim acquired Evax AG, a Swiss biotech developing a therapeutic vaccine for horse allergic skin disease, without disclosing deal terms. It's the company's second unpriced vaccine-platform acquisition since 2024, a pattern that makes it harder for founders and rivals to benchmark what these deals are actually worth.
Polkadog Names Jay Pusey CEO, Ten Weeks Into TAW Ventures Ownership
TAW Ventures named Jay Pusey chief executive of Polkadog on August 10th, ten weeks after acquiring the Boston treat brand from co-founders Rob Van Sickle and Deb Suchman. The announcement doesn't mention either founder, which leaves open a question we raised in our May acquisition coverage: whether they'd stay on as operators, and what an outside hire like Pusey's might mean for the answer.