PremieRpet put R$150,000 into a 12-month maned wolf study through OnçafariSparkle Grooming Opens Johns Creek Salon as Wellness Franchise Enters Atlanta MarketSkiptown is franchising Georgia territory after signing five-unit deals in Colorado and TexasPetLabCo launches NeuraBlend calming chew with 10 active ingredients across four pathwaysFera Pets launched a weight-management soft chew for dogs and is selling it DTC and on AmazonHuxley & Kent Ships Valentine's and St. Patrick's Product in DecemberSmalls Earned Clean Label Project Recognition Across Nine Fresh Cat Food RecipesJoyride Dogs crossed $300,000 in rescue donations with a customer base over one millionPremieRpet put R$150,000 into a 12-month maned wolf study through OnçafariSparkle Grooming Opens Johns Creek Salon as Wellness Franchise Enters Atlanta MarketSkiptown is franchising Georgia territory after signing five-unit deals in Colorado and TexasPetLabCo launches NeuraBlend calming chew with 10 active ingredients across four pathwaysFera Pets launched a weight-management soft chew for dogs and is selling it DTC and on AmazonHuxley & Kent Ships Valentine's and St. Patrick's Product in DecemberSmalls Earned Clean Label Project Recognition Across Nine Fresh Cat Food RecipesJoyride Dogs crossed $300,000 in rescue donations with a customer base over one million
On the ShelfBy The PetRetailNews Desk2 min readOctober 14, 2026
PremieRpet put R$150,000 into a 12-month maned wolf study through Onçafari
The Brazilian super-premium manufacturer behind Natoo is funding a year of research on the species' movement patterns and habitat use.
PremieRpet, the Brazilian super-premium pet food manufacturer behind Natoo Pet Foods in the U.S. committed R$150,000 to a 12-month partnership with Onçafari to fund scientific research on maned wolves in Brazil's Cerrado region. The investment supports analysis of years of monitoring data from Fazenda Trijunção, focusing on the species' movement patterns, habitat use, and conservation needs.
The conservation angle premium brands are running
The maned wolf is classified as Vulnerable on Brazil's Ministry of the Environment endangered species list and Near Threatened internationally by the IUCN. Onçafari has monitored the species at Fazenda Trijunção since December 2018. The 12-month project PremieRpet is funding will analyze that data to map home ranges by season, sex, and life stage, investigate Giardia presence in biological samples, and establish a fecal sample bank for future research. Findings go to national and international conferences and scientific publications.
"The maned wolf is an important part of Brazil's biodiversity, and we are proud to support research that can help advance its conservation," Fernando Maluf, PremieRpet's Vice President of International Sales, said in the announcement.
The partnership follows Natoo's support of Jaguar Parade Miami 2026 and Onçafari's jaguar conservation work. PremieRpet also runs a LEED Gold-certified, 100% solar-powered facility and holds ClimatePartner certification.
What the wildlife tie-in costs and buys
R$150,000 for a year of research is a modest spend for a brand building a U.S. presence, and it delivers a story a brand rep can tell on a sales call. For a Brazilian manufacturer entering the U.S. specialty channel, the conservation credential is a differentiation lever when formulation claims all start to sound alike. The maned wolf is one of Brazil's most iconic species, which gives the story a species tie-in a dog food brand can use.
The risk is that conservation partnerships only move product when the retailer or the end buyer already cares about the cause, and a buyer stocking premium dog food is deciding on velocity and margin first. The partnership works as a tiebreaker between two brands with similar price points and similar sell-through, not as the reason to stock the brand in the first place.
We're seeing more premium pet food brands attach to wildlife conservation as a brand story, and the ones that work are specific about the species, the geography, and the measurable output. PremieRpet named the research institution, the location, the dollar amount, the timeline, and the deliverable (published research, not just "awareness"). That specificity makes the partnership credible in a category where a lot of mission claims stay vague.
The thing we'd watch is whether PremieRpet and Natoo actually use the research in retail conversations and on-pack messaging, or whether it stays a press release that never makes it to the shelf talker. A conservation partnership that doesn't show up in the aisle is a donation, which is fine, but it isn't a retail strategy.
For a buyer, what matters is whether your premium dog food customers ask about the brand's environmental or conservation work before they buy. If they do, this is a real answer. If they don't, it's not the reason to give the brand an endcap.
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