Florida Couple Growing Homegrown

kosher-friendly pet food business

ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press

 

Going kosher has been good for Lola, an easygoing 7-year-old Dalmatian. But it's paying off handsomely for her owners. 

Martine Lacombe and Marc Michels are not Jewish, but in three years they have become purveyors of kosher dog and cat food, which they sell on the Internet and in some South Florida pet food stores.

Business is going so well that a few months ago Michels quit his job to devote all his time to the family business.  Last fall, the couple patented the recipes for their freeze-dried all-meat patties and found a kosher-friendly manufacturer to churn out production quantities. 

And, just in time for Passover, Kosher Pets has gained the blessing of one of the largest orthodox rabbi groups in the country. 

"There's no real need for kosher pet food, but there's a real demand," Lacombe said.  "This Passover is kind of a test for us.

By most accounts, Kosher Pets is the only U.S. company currently producing a line of pet food specifically created to adhere to Jewish dietary laws, which prohibit eating any food where dairy and meat are mixed.  Generally only food for human consumption needs to be kosher, but the dietary laws can be interpreted to apply to pets, especially during Passover. 

 

Michels, 36, and Lacombe, 31, owe their business in part to a skin irritation that gripped Lola in early 1999. At the time, the couple lived in Aventura and had taken a liking to kosher products. 

 

Michels suggested changing Lola's diet might help, and the couple began to feed her a homemade stew of kosher chicken, garlic, rice and carrots. 

Within about a month and a half, Lola's sores subsided, and pet lovers at their neighborhood dog park took note, asking Lacombe for samples. 

The couple began making more stew, at first giving it away, then selling it. 

Many of the couple's customers left their winter condominiums, but still sought to buy the kosher stew for their pets. 

"This is when we really realized that this is a business, this is not just feeding the neighborhood dogs," Lacombe said. 

Lacombe estimates Kosher Pets had about $420,000 in sales between February 1999 and mid-2000, when the couple took a year hiatus. 

In the interim, they created a website equipped to take credit-card orders, consulted with food chemists to tweak their recipes for dog and cat food, so they would also meet U.S. food standards. 

In August, Lacombe said, they were awarded their patent and began production with a pet food manufacturer. 

Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, an administrator at the Chicago Rabbinical Council charged with determining whether consumables are kosher, endorsed the Kosher Pets products earlier this month. 

Lacombe said she does not have an estimate on revenue since the company kicked up production in advance of Passover. 

Steven Cohen, owner of The Dog Bar, a specialty pet food store in Miami Beach, has been carrying the brand for about two weeks and so far he's sold about a dozen of the 1-pound $29.95 packages. 

Ron Ploutz, who owns Animal House Pet Supplies in Fort Lauderdale, has sold one bag since stocking the brand a few weeks ago. 

"A lot of people look at it and .... they're almost in disbelief that there could be such a thing on the market," Ploutz said.