Most pet owners plan carefully for their children and their finances if something happens to them. Far fewer have any legal plan in place for their pets — largely because most don’t realise there’s a gap to fill in the first place. A new UK platform is betting that gap represents a real business opportunity, and Innovate UK is backing that bet with serious funding.
PetPact, a digital platform that helps pet owners plan for their animal’s future care, has been awarded £75,000 through Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Award. The service allows owners to name an animal guardian and set out clear instructions for their pet’s ongoing care, designed to sit alongside a person’s Will in the event of death, serious illness, or separation from a partner.
Built by a Family Lawyer Who Saw the Gap Firsthand
PetPact was founded by Rachel Roche of Yorkshire-based Roche Legal. Roche was selected for the funding from a record 1,590 applicants across the UK, a competitive field that underscores just how significant this year’s award round was.
The platform’s core premise addresses something most pet owners have simply never considered: in England and Wales, pets are legally classified as property, the same category as furniture or a car. That classification creates real uncertainty when an owner dies, becomes incapacitated, or separates from a partner, with no clear legal mechanism for deciding who takes over an animal’s care.
The Numbers Behind the Problem
The scale of this blind spot is considerable. According to UK Pet Food’s annual survey, 62 percent of UK households own at least one of the country’s 36.5 million pets. Yet research from the Association of Lifetime Lawyers found that 60 percent of UK adults over 30 have no idea what their pet’s actual legal status is.
That disconnect between how deeply people care for their animals and how little legal protection those animals actually have is precisely the gap PetPact is designed to close.
A Legal System Still Playing Catch-Up
PetPact’s launch comes as broader momentum builds around reforming how UK law treats pets, particularly during relationship breakdowns. In 2025, a working group was formed specifically to examine how legislation could be updated to better handle the rising number of disputes between separating partners over pet custody.
Discussions from that group, aired on the Today’s Family Lawyer Podcast, pointed to countries like Australia and Spain as useful models for reforming the legal status of pets away from simple property classification. Separately, a series of parliamentary petitions on the issue have crossed the threshold required for parliamentary debate, with the most recent one closing just last month — a sign that public appetite for legal reform is building steadily.
Why Roche Built PetPact
Speaking about the award, Roche didn’t hold back on the emotional stakes behind the platform’s mission. “Like me, every pet owner hopes they will always be there to care for their furry, feathered or scaled friend but life is unpredictable,” she said.
“Currently, your dog has the same legal status as your sofa but nobody grieves for the loss of a sofa,” Roche added. “We plan carefully for our children and finances and the law should let us do the same for the animals who are part of our families.”
She also outlined how the funding fits into PetPact’s growth strategy. “PetPact gives owners that protection today and this Innovate UK award will help us demonstrate how we can reach pet owners at scale through the vets and insurers they already trust.”
Backing From Inside the Veterinary Profession
The initiative has also drawn support from within the veterinary community. Danny Chambers MP, a practising veterinary surgeon and MP for Winchester, weighed in on why platforms like PetPact matter. “As a vet, I have seen how deeply people love their animals but our law still treats pets as property,” he said. “Initiatives like PetPact help owners plan properly for their pets’ care and show why it’s time the law caught up with the way families really feel about their animals.”
Part of a Bigger Cohort of Women-Led Innovation
PetPact was one of 61 winners in this year’s Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards, a programme that pairs grant funding with a year-long package of business support, training, and networking designed to help winners scale their ventures.
For an industry where legal frameworks have historically lagged behind how families actually feel about their pets, PetPact’s funding win signals growing recognition — both from investors and lawmakers — that animal care planning deserves the same seriousness as planning for the rest of a family’s future.
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