The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) has named the winners of its 2026 Human Animal Bond Innovation Awards, spotlighting seven organisations whose work is quietly reshaping how people and animals live, heal, and thrive together.
The honourees were announced on August 13 at an awards ceremony held during SuperZoo in Las Vegas, one of the pet industry’s biggest annual gatherings. This year’s winners span public service, media, workplace culture, infrastructure, and international advocacy, offering a genuinely global snapshot of what innovation in the human-animal bond space looks like right now.
Keeping Pets and People Together, Even in Crisis
The Public Service category, sponsored by Zoetis, went to two organisations doing very different but equally vital work.
Dogs on Deployment, a nonprofit built around a simple but powerful idea, that military members should never have to give up their pets to serve their country, runs a free national boarding network alongside financial assistance for families navigating deployments, relocations, and training. The numbers behind its impact are striking: the group has kept more than 3,000 animals out of shelters, connected families with upward of 44,000 volunteer boarders, and distributed close to $1 million in aid.
Sharing the honour, the Arizona Pet Project was recognised for its partnership with UMOM New Day Centers, where it helped build one of the earliest examples of a family shelter that welcomes pets alongside their owners and offers on-site veterinary care. In its first year alone, the project supported 111 pet-owning families who might otherwise have faced an impossible choice between shelter and their animals.
A Documentary That Puts the Bond on Screen
In the Media category, sponsored by DOGTV, the documentary Unspoken Bond took top honours. Created by Jackie Ducci and produced by KTF Films, the film follows people whose relationships with animals played a real role in their healing and recovery, aiming to spark broader conversation around how these bonds support mental health and community wellbeing.
Building Pets Into the Workplace, Literally
Two winners this year focused on infrastructure and culture rather than programming alone.
The City of Albuquerque’s Animal Welfare Department won the Pet-Inclusive Culture award, sponsored by Nestlé Purina PetCare, for its Employee Pet Care Membership programme. The voluntary benefit gives city staff low-cost access to essentials like spay and neuter procedures, vaccinations, and wellness exams, while membership dues are funnelled into a city fund that extends pet care access to lower-income residents as well.
Meanwhile, Roehl Transport picked up the Pet-Inclusive Infrastructure award for its Pet Passport Program, which pairs pet-friendly travel policies with practical touches like dedicated pet run areas and waste stations, making life on the road genuinely workable for long-haul drivers travelling with their animals.
Global Impact, From Kenya to the UK
The International category produced two standout winners this year. Lovedogs 360 Foundation was recognised for expanding access to companion animal care in Kenya through training, storytelling, and technology, including an app that uses nose-print biometrics to give dogs lasting, reliable identification and connect owners to support services.
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home was honoured for its advocacy behind the UK’s newly enacted Renters’ Rights Act, which now allows tenants to formally request permission to keep a pet, a change expected to make pet ownership significantly easier for roughly 1 million renters across England.
Why These Awards Matter
“PetSmart Charities is proud to support the Human Animal Bond Innovation Awards and celebrate the organizations that are expanding what’s possible for people and pets,” said Aimee Gilbreath, president of PetSmart Charities and chair of the HABRI Board of Trustees, adding that this year’s honourees prove innovative ideas can genuinely strengthen the human-animal bond.
HABRI President Steven Feldman echoed that sentiment, thanking presenting sponsor PetSmart Charities, category sponsors DOGTV, Purina, and Zoetis, along with supporting sponsors World Pet Association and Tito’s Handmade Vodka, for helping bring the awards to life each year.
For India’s own fast-growing pet care ecosystem, where responsible ownership, welfare-driven programming, and pet-inclusive workplaces are increasingly part of the national conversation, awards like these offer a useful blueprint. They’re a reminder that meaningful innovation in animal welfare doesn’t always require massive scale, sometimes it simply requires solving one real problem for one community of pets and people at a time.
More information on the full list of winners is available at habri.org.
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