Pet owners join U.S. product boycott by going all-Canadian

Pet owners are joining the boycott of U.S. goods by switching to Canadian-made treats and toys.

Canadians are not showing any slowdown in their boycott of U.S.-made products and continue to scale back on travels. And pet lovers are also joining in the protest.

At the canine multi-sport complex in St-Lazare, dog owners from Quebec and Ontario come for training sessions, obedience classes, and outdoor competitions.

They want the best for their pets, and for co-owner Martin Hogues, this means going all-out Canadian.

He’s among millions of Canadians who are lifting their elbows in their fight against American protectionism.

“So our first thing was the easiest. We changed all the treats to Canadian products,” says Hogues. “Maybe half of them were changed at first. Now we only have Canadian products.”

The few American pet treats still on the shelves are now being liquidated at a discount.

“It was surprisingly not hard (…) and we’re really happy we did our research, and we’re really happy with the companies we found.”

Toys are also store essentials.

Again, Hogues was surprised by the quantity of Canadian-made pet items.

“We were able to find Canadian products and companies that are ready to leave us with a decent margin. So no, we were happy to see that we could—we’ve done more than we thought we could.”

At the Little Bear store in Westmount, owner Chuck Altman made the same move but had to warn customers that pets aren’t political—they just want their favorite.

“People were coming in right away saying they only wanted Canadian products. But when it came down to it, you know, like I said, we don’t want to really affect the dogs’ or the cats’ daily diets. So, we kind of stuck with the best products available, not the best Canadian products,” Altman told CTV News.

But Altman also discovered that his customers didn’t mind paying a premium whenever possible to get local pet food and accessories.

“In general, Canadian products are a little bit more expensive than American products just because of our economies of scale. But most of the best products that we get are Canadian anyways.”

As for Hogues, he now wonders why he didn’t think of going full Canadian earlier.

“And there won’t be any turning back for sure. We’re happy to buy the Canadian and Quebec stuff.”