InfoStream Staff Writer
Pet nutrition blogger and social media savvy Rodney Habib earned the attention of Urban Animal subscribers last year when he was awarded the 2013 Retailer of the Year Summit. His efforts to create healthy communities for pets and people led him into Urban Animal programs as a 2014 Innovation Showcase at the Atlantic Urban Animal Regional Conference where he was nominated by his peers for a 2014 Rolf C. Hagen Emerging Leader Scholarship.
In September, InfoStream announced the scholarship would be presented to Habib and he began his journey toward Urban Animal Alumni status. InfoStream staff writer Anna McNeil-Allcock caught up with Rodney in his Halifax-based pet retail shop - Planet Paws Pet Essentials - to find out a bit more about this future thought leader.
Anna McNeil-Allcock (AMA): How did you come to be involved in the pet industry?
Rodney Habib (RH): I grew up in Nova Scotia, in a Mediterranean family that did not believe in owning pets. When I was 18, I moved out of the house to attend Dalhousie University and immediately got a kitten. I named him Scribbles because he ran around the house with a pencil in his mouth, leaving scribbles all over the walls.
I wanted the very best for him and only purchased food from the Veterinarian. In 2007 Scribbles was affected by the melamine contamination of pet food. Pets in our community started dying. My neighbour had a husky, whose heart exploded, with no real explanation. Scribbles began bleeding from his ears and never recovered from kidney failure and spent the rest of his life requiring support.
AMA: That must have been very difficult. How did it affect the course of your career?
RH: I had a B.Sc. and an advanced degree in Animal Nutrition in order to do my job, which included importing and selling veterinary products in Europe. So I began researching the pet food industry. I was surprised at the lack of rules, standards and regulations. In fact, I became very angry….at everyone…. and decided to start writing about it. I am a terrible writer, but I thought I could get the message out using Facebook.
Within 8 months Facebook sent me a message informing me that I had one of the fastest growing pages compared with a million other pages.
A real turning point in my life was when my high school english teacher said to me, “Sometimes we must let go of the life we planned so as to accept the one that is waiting for us". So I left pharmaceuticals and started blogging full time.
In 2012 my followers persuaded me to open up a brick and mortar store of trusted sources of pet foods and supplies. Since then Planet Paws Essentials, in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, has won a number of awards, but my passion still lies in getting the message out to the world. My goal is to personally inspire every pet owner on the planet. I want to change the world, and I will.
AMA: What was your experience at the Summit and how might it help you in your mission?
RH: The summit was amazing, especially for it’s ability to bring people together. I was able to sit down casually with leaders in the Veterinary sector to discuss pet nutrition, which is a very rare opportunity.
AMA: What was the highlight of the Summit for you?
RH: Watching all of the innovations happening in the pet world was also a great experience. It was a good exercise for me to spend three days listening rather than talking.
I really see the value in the Petlynx database for identifying problems in the pet food industry immediately. It will allow us to catch patterns early and prevent another incident like the one that ruined the last years of Scribble’s life.
AMA: What is your current "Pet Experience?"
Today I share my life with my three healthy dogs and they are helping me to change the world.
For more information on Rodney Habib and Planet Paws Pet Essentials, visit http://planetpaws.ca/ and https://www.facebook.com/planetpaws.ca
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