The Pet Care Trade Association

The Pet Care Trade Association (PCTA) is the only membership body dedicated to the entire pet specialist sector and, thanks to its predecessor bodies, has been the leading force in the pet industry for the past 50 years. We are the voice of the pet specialist sector with governments and opinion formers.

Businesses displaying the PCTA members’ logo offer the pet-owning public a hallmark of quality: all our members agree to abide by a sector specific charters to demonstrate good practice and adhere to high standards of professionalism, customer service and animal welfare.

We have around 1,500 members. These are overwhelmingly small and medium-sized enterprises including pet shops, groomers, kennels, catteries, manufacturers, and wholesalers, but also most of the largest players in the industry. Lastly, our professional services category – colleges, publishers, dog walkers and pet sitters – is ever expanding, reflecting the increasing diversity of the sector.

We support our members through a great range of services, including offering a range of industry-led pet care qualifications and training opportunities, preferential rates on credit card transactions and access to Commercial Legal Protection and a legal helpline. 

The Pet Care Trust is the charitable arm of the PCTA, and it exists to educate the public about responsible pet ownership. It does this both directly through the website and our free-to-download pet care leaflets and indirectly, by supporting our members to keep their professional knowledge up-to-date.

The Trust operates a range of schemes to set and promote good standards for the pet trade: Our Quality Assurance pet retail standard, a standard which allows pet retailers to prove that the standards of animal welfare and retailing in their premises meet agreed levels of good practice, and gives an assurance to the consumer of the quality of operations, through independent audit; Our Accredited Pet Care Professional Register, which enables pet professionals to demonstrate they are keeping knowledge and skills up to date; and Puppyindex, which puts would-be puppy owners in touch with accredited breeders.

The British Dog Groomers’ Association (BDGA) and British Kennel & Cattery Association are both parts of the PCTA, representing and supporting members specific to those sectors. The centrepiece of the BDGA calendar is the British Dog Grooming Championship, at which groomers compete for the prestigious title of ‘Groomer of the Year’.

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