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Following a major research project, Glee and the Pet Care Trade Association (PCTA) have announced the end of Petindex at Glee by mutual agreement. Pet exhibitors will instead be able to reach garden retail buyers by participating in the main Glee show.

The Petindex exhibition licence between the PCTA and Glee’s organisers, Emap Connect, finishes with immediate effect, giving both parties fresh opportunities to move forward in a changing market.

From September onwards, Glee will feature pet exhibitors within its main garden retail areas; including emerging companies showcasing new ideas within Glee’s popular Innovation Zone. The arrangement gives pet suppliers a unique opportunity to sell to the valuable garden retail market; as well as enabling garden centre buyers to source innovative new ranges for their petcare sections each year. As part of Glee’s new agreement with the PCTA, Pet Care Trade Association members will continue to receive a 12.5% discount on exhibition space at Glee in 2012 and beyond.

The PCTA, which regains ownership of the Petindex brand, is considering options for its continuation and development.

The decision to incorporate pet exhibitors into Glee’s main floorplan was reached following an extensive research project undertaken with Glee exhibitors and visitors during and after the 2011 show. The results showed that Glee should focus on the core garden retail market and give pet suppliers, who want to work with garden retailers, the appropriate platform to engage and build relationships with garden retailers. To ultimately optimise their petcare sales opportunities it was therefore decided to offer pet manufacturers more flexibility within Glee itself.

Nick Davison, Glee Event Director, confirmed: “Petcare represents a valuable and growing sales opportunity for the thousands of garden centres, on-line retailers, DIY retailers, supermarkets and High Street names that Glee attracts. We therefore decided to integrate pet product suppliers into our main Glee exhibition, rather than in a separate Petindex show aimed at pet retailers. The new arrangement will provide greater convenience for garden retailers seeking exciting new ranges for their petcare sections, as well as giving pet suppliers a unique chance to sell to often hard-to-reach garden buyers. For the first time, pet exhibitors coming to Glee will be able to choose a location within our key gardening areas that really maximises their visibility to this valuable market.”

“Petindex saw phenomenal growth under EMAP’s stewardship dating from 2001, which led to the show being the biggest annual pet trade show in Europe,’ said Janet Nunn, chief executive of the Pet Care Trade Association. ‘More recently, the global economic crash prompted big changes, also in the UK pet trade scene. The pet-garden synergy endures and the new format GLEE show aims to cater for that at the NEC, which is good news for both sectors.”

The sponsorship of Crufts (8th-11th March 2012) signals an important step in the relationship between the Kennel Club, and P&G Pet Nutrition. Crufts is a fantastic platform for Eukanuba to drive greater awareness of its product and nutritional benefits and ultimately raise its profile amongst its core audience of dog lovers and breeders across the UK to drive sales within the pet specialty market.

Annaliese Reekie, Eukanuba Sales and Marketing Director said: “I am thrilled that Eukanuba is the principal sponsor of Crufts 2012. We have built deep relationships with top breeders across the world who rely on Eukanuba to keep their dogs in the best of health. We believe Crufts an important event to celebrate the diverse role that dogs play in society and it will help us to engage with all dog lovers about the health and well-being of their pet.”

Vanessa McAlpine, Kennel Club Events and Education Executive also said: “We are delighted to have Eukanuba as our new principal sponsor for Crufts and Discover Dogs, and also to help support the Young Kennel Club and the Kennel Club Breed Rescue. Through this partnership we can continue to use our events as an educational platform to promote healthy, happy dogs. Utilising the synergy created by our shared interest in dog health we are confident the next three years will have a lot of great things in store for our nation’s dogs.”

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The Pet Education Trust (PET) hopes that last night’s hard hitting Death Row Dogs documentary on BBC1 has had the desired effect on many people by making them aware of one common denominator when it comes to problems with status or dangerous dogs – bad ownership. The programme will also have stirred a whole wealth of emotions in animal lovers, particularly as they watched a healthy, friendly dog be seized from a previously convicted dog owner, banned from keeping animals – which then had to be destroyed simply because a law (The Dangerous Dog Act 1991) is flawed.

PET believes that the programme clearly highlighted the desperate need for education amongst owners. It would appear that not one of the owners portrayed in the programme knew anything about how to correctly raise or socialise a dog. It was also clear to see that the animals were often found terrified and cowering in filthy, unsuitable living conditions.

Naidre Werner, Director of The Pet Education Trust commented on last night’s programme: “Well done to the BBC for portraying the situation around dangerous dogs in a fair way. There are unsuitable, uneducated, irresponsible dog owners out there who should not be keeping any pet, let alone a strong breed of dog. Yet they are and they keep doing it, so surely now it is time for change? A change in the laws is needed so that the ownership of a ‘status’ dog, that could be used as a ‘weapon’ by some people, is punished severely and the punishments actually implemented.”
“Similarly, a change in the Dangerous Dog Act (DDA) is urgently needed. To put to death an animal that obviously hasn’t been trained to fight and that is a friendly, family pet, which because of its unsuitable owner and living conditions can’t be rehomed because of the DDA law is criminal in itself.”

The BBC documentary has highlighted areas of the law that many organisations (including the Pet Education Trust,) who work within the animal care and behaviour industry have been arguing against for a number of years.

Animal behaviourist Debbie Connolly, who sits on the Advisory Panel for the Pet Education Trust added: “The phrase Deed not Breed is true for a reason. Any dog can attack and cause a nasty bite. Any dog that is badly bred by back yard breeders or puppy farms, not correctly cared for, socialised and trained has the capacity to inflict an injury. Whilst it is the power breeds like staffies, pit bull types and rotties that hit the headlines in tragic circumstances, in my many years of behaviourial training, I’ve seen the same injuries caused by much smaller, ‘family’ pets. In every case, it is bad breeding and irresponsible owners. ”

Debbie continued: “Death Row Dogs highlighted the very difficult job the Police do in implementing a law that punishes good dogs. The sad sight of a lovely tempered Pit Bull being put to sleep wagging its tail will haunt all dog lovers for ever. Seeing dogs in filthy, disgusting conditions does beg the question whether our other laws about animal welfare and the five freedoms are being enforced at all whilst innocent dogs are dying for how they look.’

The Pet Education Trust would like to see far more being done to educate what is already known to be the problem areas within society who seek to own status dogs and simply treat them as another form of weapon. PET would also like to see members of the public educated away from what is a knee-jerk ‘ban all dangerous dogs’ reaction so that they too can see the truth behind the problem…..the owners themselves. As much as last night’s documentary made uncomfortable and even disturbing viewing, it also did much to point the finger of blame exactly where it needs to be pointed.

Tel/Fax: 00-44-191-4777727
Mobile: 07836329472
Email: robert@phillipspetsupplies.co.uk
Web: www.phillipspetsupplies.co.uk

UK sole distributor for Darwins Pet Products

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