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Last week I made my annual trip to Global Pet Expo in Orlando. This trade show is the largest pet product trade show in the US. To give you an idea of just how massive this show is: it’s the size of six football fields, with 7.5 miles of display space featuring 1,087 exhibitors in 3,218 booths. I tried to see as much as I could in three days, and I know I walked a lot more than 7.5 miles each day, or at least, I felt like I did! In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be bringing you a lot more information about some of the fantastic new products I saw there. Today, I’d like to share just a few highlights with you.
The pet industry is alive and well, and the expo is growing every year. The strongest growth appeared to be in the natural foods area. While it’s exciting to see so many companies step into that market, because it’s obviously what pet parents want, I worry about the quality of some of the products, since the term “natural” has no true definition, which makes it easy for companies to cut corners. I’ll share some of the quality products I discovered in that area with you soon.
My favorite product of the entire show comes from Pet Acoustics. Founded by Janet Marlow, who is known for her contribution to the understanding of pet hearing sensitivities and how sound and music affect the behavior of dogs, cats, horses and birds, Pet Acoustics focuses on species-specific products to reduce pet stress. Their Safe and Sound Cat Tunnel (center above) is made from the same noise-cancelling material that is used in the military’s humvees. I was blown away by just how much noise it cancels out when I stuck my head inside the tunnel. Almost all the ambient noise of the massive show hall completely disappeared. Right now the tunnel only comes in a pretty ugly black vinyl exterior, but hopefully, they will add prettier versions down the road, but in this case, I can forgive the lack of design because the functionality is so fantastic. They also make a bed and a carrier liner pad from the same material, which, in addition to canceling out noise, is also designed to reduce vibration. The bed comes with a little pocket to insert the Pet Tunes speaker. You’ll be hearing more from me about these products.
The Jackson Galaxy Collection by Petmate offered a lot of new products, ranging from the fabulous Butterfly in a Ball to a number of new carriers to a large high-sided litter box, and my favorite, the Comfy Dumpling.
I was excited to see the full line of Kate Benjamin’s Hauspanther collection as well as several new offerings at the Primetime Petz booth. Kate is bringing back both the Palm Springs Lounge and the Pet Lounge – look for more information about both of these products soon.
These adorable Backpack Cat Carriers from Catysmile won Best in Show in the cat products category, and are available for pre-order from Hauspanther.
Hagen’s Vesper cat furniture line keeps growing every year and comes in some new configurations and finishes. Look for more information about the new products soon. But even better: Hagen set up the entire Catit circuit at their booth, and brought in adoptable kittens from The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando. The kittens had a blast testing everything out!
Our friends at Lucy Pet Foundation had their mobile spay and neuter clinic in the show hall. They offer free spay/neuter surgeries for low income families in the Greater Los Angeles area. Their goal is to have a mobile spay/neuter and adoption clinic in every city in the country. Mascot Ricky greeted visitors and posed for pictures.
Stay tuned for more information about some of these and other new products in the weeks and months to come!
*FTC Disclosure: The Conscious Cat is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on Amazon. This means that if you decide to purchase through any of our links, we get a small commission. We only spread the word about products and services we’ve either used or would use ourselves.
The post Global Pet Expo 2017: Highlights from The World’s Biggest Pet Product Show appeared first on The Conscious Cat.
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