Jennifer Kirby’s dogs named her business.
When the idea of upcycling human food waste into pet treats was just an idea, her sister’s tiny rescue rat terrier/Chihuahua mix, Darwin, leapt off the couch in their Philadelphia apartment and landed not-so-squarely on Kirby’s affable chocolate lab Candy’s back.
Piggyback Treats Co. was born.
A feast of feet are featured in a Piggyback Treats display.
“We were young millennial dog moms, and we had not much else to put our time into than our dogs … and obviously our jobs,” said Kirby, who was then working as a private chef.
“Our dogs were always very easy to train,” she said. “One day Darwin was jumping from the couch and he kind of haphazardly landed on Candy’s back, and it looked like he was sitting on her back. He slid off, and my sister and I just locked eyes with each other and we’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, we’ve got to teach them to do that on command.’”
Kirby was developing the concept for a sustainable pet snacks business and hadn’t come up with a good name.
Salmon treats ready for munching.
“I remember having this conversation with so many people,” she said. “What can I call this business? I don’t want to use the word ‘earth’ or ‘eco’ or ‘green.’ I want to be different. And in about that moment I said this one day, I looked at the two dogs and I said ‘piggyback,‘ and Darwin jumped up, threw his leg over her back and sat there, and alarm bells went off.”
That was it in a nutshell, she said, as the whole concept was to piggyback with other businesses such as restaurants and small family farms. She also had the perfect logo.
Piggyback Treats owner Jennifer Kirby endeavors to use every possible part of the animal in her products.
“It sounds unbelievable, really, but I couldn’t have thought it up,” Kirby said. “It was just something that was meant to be.”
Sadly, Darwin went on to that big dog park in the sky in the summer of 2021. Candy, pretty spry for a 13-½-year-old lab “pup,” still joins Kirby at trade shows.
And Piggyback Treats has grown by leaps and bounds.
A Walk in the Park
Jared and Katie Whalen, who might also be considered millennial dog parents, live in a Philadelphia neighborhood adjacent to Kirby’s and first encountered Piggyback treats at a local farmers market about 10 years ago when the business was just launching.
The couple, who have volunteered teaching responsible pet ownership to people who visit local public parks, were immediately intrigued.
“One, it was local to the area, but also their entire initiative of using sustainably sourced products and having very little waste and all of that was very interesting to us as people who try to be conservation minded,” Jared Whalen said.
They’ve enjoyed watching the business flourish.
“We first encountered them as a very local neighborhood business,” Whalen said. “And then over the years, we would start seeing them in pet stores near us, and we saw them at the Philadelphia Flower Show. It was just very cool to see them obviously grow their footprint.”
Salmon sport fishing in New York near the farm where Jennifer Kirby grew up spawned the idea for Piggyback Treats.
Now living in the Chester Hills neighborhood of Philadelphia, Jennifer Kirby grew up on a farm in rural upstate New York. Piggyback Treats, she said, is also a way of honoring the animals she appreciated as a child.
“I didn’t just grow up on the farm,” Kirby said. “I was working in the farm.”
While taking care of cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and horses may have kept her from after-school activities, it taught her lessons she carried into adulthood and into business.
Air-dried salmon treats were one of the first products developed by Piggyback Treats.
“I learned from a very early age how hard it is to take care of these animals that nourish our bodies,” Kirby said. “It became really important to me when I was a chef for humans that I bring honor to the animals that I prepare and then serve to people. And when I started developing a line of treats for pets and creating this concept for Piggyback Treats Company, that right there stuck out glaringly for me.”
Kirby works with small-scale family farmers, the sports fishing industry that thrives in the area where she grew up and local restaurants to turn what would have been food waste into dog treats.
“And though that farmer might not have a customer right now for something like chicken necks, chicken feet, chicken backs or beef, kidney or beef spleen or tendons or back straps, it doesn’t mean that those things should go to waste or be sent to a rendering facility,” she said. “Not to say that the animal would be dishonored, but that quality, that grass-fed, pasture-raised quality should really be honored in the sense that it’s more nutritionally valuable.”
Piggyback Treats Co. air dries small batches of human-grade ingredients — typically one per product — at low temperatures and utilizes compostable and marine degradable packaging derived from wood pulp.
Products including beef, poultry, pork, salmon, veggie, vegan and even wild game can be ordered online at piggybacktreats.com, at events listed on the company’s web page and at select pet stores in the Philadelphia area.
Kirby is also considering developing a pet food line, but for now the treats are just for snack time.
And possibly as a reward for learning an amazing trick.