Vegan dog food company wins award

Benevo Vegan Pet Foods was presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade this week, acknowledging its outstanding growth in exports over recent years.

As an independent, 100% veggie owned family business, Benevo has been creating innovative nutritionally complete animal-free pet food for cats and dogs since 2005, in addition to complimentary foods & treats.

The Queen’s Award is a business award granted to companies by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Company Director, Darrell de Vries accepted the award from the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire who presented the Grant of Appointment signed by both Queen Elizabeth II and Theresa May along with a commemorative crystal bowl.

The Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire was also joined by the Mayor of Havant where Benevo is based, who both acknowledged the unique nature of the business and the impressive 50% increase in international sales, despite operating in a very niche market.

Darrell de Vries said, “The best thing about this award is that it’s won on performance, not opinion. It’s much more meaningful, as the performance is a reflection of the hard work put in by everyone here in our team”.

The ceremony held at Benevo’s headquarters followed on from a reception at Buckingham Palace earlier this month where Mr de Vries along with Benevo’s manager of exports Dominic Eadie met Prince Charles and the Duke of Kent.

Since the announcement, Benevo’s achievements have gained coverage all around the world and received new business interest from as far away as New Zealand.

Now accounting for the majority of their sales, Benevo’s award winning foods can now be found in over 30 countries worldwide, replacing millions of pets’ meals each year with more environmentally friendly and kinder options.

I’m not keen on all this talk of royalty and the Queen, but big congrats are due to this pioneering vegan company for bringing attention to pet food alternatives. Yay!

You can follow Benevo on Facebook and check out their website online here.

Vegan dog recipe book

My Instagram feed gets a lot of love and action, but I was surprised by the amount of comments that quickly piled up under a photo I posted of a vegan recipe book for dogs.

vegan dogs

The Simple Little Vegan Dog Book by Michelle A. Rivera was published in 2009 but it only came to my attention a few days ago when I stumbled across it in a vegan café in Mexico City.

I was fascinated by the idea that someone had written a vegan recipe book just for dogs, so I popped over to Amazon to find out a little bit more info about the book.

This is the product description:

Here is all the information needed so our friendly carnivorous canines can flourish as omnivores. Highlights include: expert opinions from animal nutritionist enthusiasts on plant-based diets; health survey on dogs fed a vegan diet versus commercial based; comprehensive lists of “people” foods that are beneficial to dogs and those that are harmful; and dozens of recipes for biscuits and treats as well as more substantial fare. Basic Dog Biscuit Recipe, Banana Nut Crunch Bars, Apple PupCakes, Rover’s Risotto, Canine Cashew Casserole and Snickerpoodles are a few of the numerous ways to supplement or completely transform mealtimes safely, soundly, and deliciously.

I’m fascinated by this idea of a vegan cook book for dogs. Have you seen any other cook books for dogs? Is this the only book of its kind in the world?

I’d also love to hear from anyone who has a copy of this book. What are the recipes like? Is it easy to use?

And of course I can’t wait to read all of the comments from scientific experts who will tell me that I am the worst type of vegan for even mentioning this book on my blog. I’ve still not recovered from the feedback on the vegan cat post from a few months ago.

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