Weavers Way’s pet fair likely to become an annual event

This weekend’s Pet-A-Palooza in Mt. Airy went so well, that Weavers Way is likely to make it an annual event.

Jon McGoran, the Communications director for Weavers Way, was pleased with a strong turn out of dogs and their owners.

“I think we want to try to make this an annual event. It was a lot of fun,” he said.

NewsWorks counted more than 50 dogs when we got there on Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the day came when nearly 20 dogs paraded a few hundred feet on Carpenter Lane to applause and clicking cameras.

Before that Weavers Way had a dog trainer on hand who was teaching humans how to alter their behavior to get their dogs to behave better. It wasn’t a noisy event but NewsWorks saw one woman walk down Carpenter Lane with her hands cupped over her ears as she rushed to get away.

 

Why a pet fair?

Pet-A-Palooza was put on by the Co-op in an effort to bring attention to their pet supply store located across the street from its main Co-op grocery store in Mt. Airy.

McGoran says a lot of people didn’t know that it even exists. But he says the March 2007 recall of thousands of cans of Melamine contaminated dog and cat food showed the Co-op that there was a demand for natural pet food.

“People really started looking at what they are feeding their pets and looking at the more wholesome natural pet foods. Coming from companies that you really knew what was going into it. ” McGoran said.

Anton Goldschneider, the pet store purchaser, says Weavers Way offers foods that are inherently closer to nature. 

“All of our food is geared toward all natural diets for pets; No animal by-products and mostly no preservatives,” he said.

 

Behind the scenes

McGoran says the team that put together the 2011 Pet-A-Palooza included: Anne Workman, Outreach Coordinator; Rick Spalek, Mt. Airy store manager; Christine Ferraro, staffer; Kirsten Bernal, Member Coordinator; Anton Goldschneider, Pet Store Purchaser.

NewsWorks will have a video with highlights of Pet-A-Palooza later this week.