Many New Zealanders use companion animal businesses to help them meet their companion animals’ physical, health and behaviour needs. However, the pet care sector is currently poorly regulated in New Zealand and there is no requirement for routine external inspections or audits. The current lack of regulation, in combination with rapid growth of this sector, has resulted in negative consequences for animal welfare, including animals becoming ill, injured, or dying while in the care of companion animal businesses.

Animal welfare assurance programmes (certification and accreditation programmes) are useful for industries that lack regulation. Certification is like a stamp of approval for products, services or people that shows they meet certain standards (e.g. SPCA Certified). In contrast, accreditation is the assessment of organisations or groups against specific criteria which evaluates their competence, credibility and adherence to specific set of standards or ethics (e.g. CANZ accredits organisations through their accreditation programme).

While SPCA advocates for animal welfare standards which are clear and enforceable, these voluntary welfare assurance programmes provide guidelines for those in the industry looking to improve animal welfare and provide assurances of the safety and quality of their services for companion animal owners.