Supporting, selling local key for 4 Paws Pure in defying odds amidst pandemic

“The kickstart for the business was two of our dogs,” said Gwen. “One we had adopted and she passed away 37 days after we had adopted her from eating a commercially processed chew. At that point, we felt like there was something wrong with the system when we fed her something that should have been considered safe and it wasn’t. The other dog that we had was very allergic. The vets had predicted that she may not live a long life. The beautiful part about it is she passed away last year at 17 when the vet predicted for her to live may to four or five. We felt like changing to this real food made a huge difference.”

The Arrowsmith’s feel like realizing issues with the pet food industry can be simply put.

“If parents were to take their child to the doctor and the doctor said feed a highly-processed diet of Fruit Loops, Cheerios and Oreos, we would probably fire that doctor. But for the pet food industry, it has kind of gone that way, unfortunately. The difference that it makes to feed real food is incredible.”

In 2020, 4 Paws Pure has also defied the odds amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as well, opening up their first-ever pop-up in Pine Centre Mall.

“What’s happened in here is we’ve kind of had two customers in the past. We’ve had our raw food customers who come and get their boxes of food and go, and we have our farmer’s market customers who know all about [our treats, chews, and other raw and organic pet products]. So what happens when people come into the store if they’re raw food feeders look at this stuff and say ‘oh, this is the stuff you have’ and they look through this, or our regulars from the farmer’s market say ‘can you show me what that looks like and tell me more about it’. It’s been a really good crossover.”

Plus, they’ve reached out to local artisans to expand their offerings to customers, emphasizing the importance of supporting local producers in order to have a prosperous business.

“The big thing that we noticed starting in about March, people are choosing local. I find that local pet stores don’t choose local first. That’s why I said if we can get it locally from somebody that is making it here, that’s where I want to go first.”

With nearly all of their products being produced here locally (within BC), they’re finding their business has actually increased because of the pandemic.

Gwen says they’ll be set up in the mall up until the end of the year, fully preparing themselves for that anticipated Christmas rush.

by Ethan Ready

Supporting, selling local key for 4 Paws Pure in defying odds amidst pandemic

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