Our Responsibility

We're committed to making a positive impact on pets' lives by implementing sustainable practices every day.

Pillars

Our core values and commitments

for both now and the future.

Illustration of a brown dog and an orange cat sitting with hearts around them.

Pets

Illustration of planet Earth focusing on Australia and nearby islands with three orange heart icons above it.

Planet

Icon of three connected people silhouettes surrounding a heart symbol inside a location pin.

Community

Making an impact with every paw print

Illustration of a brown hand holding five golden stars arranged in an arc.

Fresh & carefully sourced ingredients

We work exclusively with certified human-grade suppliers who share our commitment to ethical practices and quality. These partners adhere to the highest animal welfare standards, ensuring that we use only the best ingredients.

Illustration of a farmer wearing a hat and plaid shirt with a crate of produce and icons of meat, egg, and broccoli.

Supporting local farmers

We proudly source our produce from Australia and for good reason! Supporting our local community and Aussie farmers is incredibly important to Big Dog. Partnering with local suppliers also helps us cut down on carbon emissions from transportation and logistics.

Pet Food Industry Association Australia (PFIAA) logo featuring a stylized dog and cat silhouette.

Members of PFIAA

We are a member of the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA) and as part of our membership, we are audited by the PFIAA to ensure we comply with the standards. In addition to this, because we manufacture pet food for sale in the retail space, our customers also require their auditors to thoroughly review our processes and manufacturing for compliance. Finally, we are audited by Safe Foods QLD yearly for compliance against their standards as well as our HAACP audits for our certification here. This ends up being 4-5 audits every year so very frequently. Not that we need these as we’re committed to complying on our own, but it is nice to have regular 3rd party and unbiased approval that we’re doing everything right by your pet!

Illustration of a raw steak with visible muscle and fat sections on a beige background.

Raw and unprocessed

We are committed to sustainability and to reducing waste, so we use off-cut ingredients, like veggies that are considered “too ugly” for supermarket shelves. Despite their appearance, we are dedicated to putting their goodness to use as they are still rich in nutrients for your pup. ‘Nose to Tail diets’ for our pets allows us to reduce our waste, you can learn more about this here.

Image showing chopped carrots, fish heads, and ground fish offcuts labeled as used ingredients.

Solar Panels:

Every day as our employees drive to work, they are greeted by a roof of solar panels. It gives us immense pride to see our company putting practices in place for environmental sustainability and to ensure that we are minimising non-green energy sources to keep your pet’s food fresh.

The Big Dog Pet Food factory with solar panels installed on the roof under a clear blue sky.
Illustration of a water tank with drops falling into it and a faucet on the side.

Recycling Water:

Our rainwater tanks on site help us reduce our reliance on municipal water supplies and minimise our ecological footprint. This initiative helps conserve precious water resources and supports a more sustainable future for our planet and pets.

Four images: a service dog puppy giving a high five on grass, a handler hugging a dog wearing a PTSD Dogs Australia vest, a smiling woman sitting with a small dog, and a dog jumping over an agility hurdle on grass, with a badge reading 'Good Food Doing Good Things'.

Giving Back

Since Big Dog started, our founder Chris Essex has made it his priority to give back and support our community. We’ve been donating to causes we love since our inception, and we’re proud to continue doing this to this day.

Giving back is important to us and pets are our passion. In addition to our mission of enhancing the lives of pets through our healthy raw food diets, we’re also passionate about supporting pets in our communities.

Learn about our contributions
Illustration of two different skin-toned hands high-fiving with motion lines above.

Culture

We are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive, fun and rewarding for our people. We want everyone who works with us at Big Dog, to not only love our vision, and love pets but also love what they do and where they work.

Whether it be the team ensuring our food is packed correctly through to our team on the road, everyone is important to the success and sustainability of our business, and we want them to feel valued and supported.

Our business recognizes that everyone is an individual and we accept people for who they are. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace free of discrimination. We are pleased to share that we have near 50% split workforce, when it comes to gender.
We know that it takes more than a monthly barbeque and free coffee (although very important) to be a great employer and a great place to work and this is why we have a robust framework around everything, people and culture. From recruitment through to daily tasks and performance goals, we want to make sure that every person who works with us always feel physically and mentally safe, every day. That is why we invest heavily in safety, compliance, training and people development.