The Pet Care Gold Rush Is in Europe—If Founders Can Handle the Complexity

When Spain passed its landmark 2021 Law 17, recognizing animals as sentient beings rather than mere property, it signaled a major cultural and legal shift. The law granted animals stronger protections in cases of divorce, debt, or abuse, required courts to prioritize their welfare, and made abandonment punishable — laying the groundwork for a new legal and social framework.

Once the regulation was approved, sellers, breeders, and shelters were given four years to meet the new welfare standards. And now, when such a transition period comes to a close, conversations and disputes are resurfacing, while communities struggle to understand how they should navigate this new paradigm.

The law was arguably ahead of its time. But society, institutions, and technology are only beginning to catch up, and it’s only a matter of time for other countries within the EU to follow along. 

As systems begin to modernize and adapt to stricter regulations, new opportunities are emerging for entrepreneurs to lay the groundwork for practical solutions within a highly fragmented—and increasingly outdated— European pet care system.

Spain’s sentience law changes pet care practice

For years, pets in Spain existed in a legal gray zone: emotionally central to families, but legally comparable to property. The sentience law flipped that logic, and now we are seeing its consequences; ones which will become more prominent once other EU countries begin to follow along. 

These expanded regulations and stricter guidelines have reshaped multiple aspects of daily life and the markets surrounding pet ownership, from housing and family dynamics to the regulation of medical procedures.

The most pressing considerations, however, are for pets themselves. Treatment regulations and medical procedures will be regulated, from microchipping and registration under EU national databases, to regulated breeding and vaccination guidelines. 

As a result, pet owners are increasingly challenged by the complexity of ensuring proper care while staying compliant with evolving legal requirements in such a fragmented landscape. Different regions require different treatments, and all information seems scattered over outdated, analog platforms. 

For entrepreneurs, however, a generalized solution must be presented in order to provide an appropriate system that will accommodate to different cultural landscapes within the region; 

• In Southern Europe, pets are deeply integrated into family life, but formal systems are often weaker.
•  In Northern Europe, systems are stronger, but expectations around precision, documentation, and responsibility are higher.

When developing my company Dosty, our main strategy has been to include onboarding language, education depth, feature emphasis, and building trust signals for users, all in a singular app. 

For example, in some markets, community and emotional reassurance matter more. In others, structure, data, and preventive care matter more.

The key decision was not to localize everything, but to build a flexible infrastructure layer that can express itself differently depending on cultural context.

For founders, I’d recommend not to over-localize your pet product. Instead, localize the experience, not the system.

Fundraising and investor expectations in Europe

European investors tend to be more conservative than their US counterparts — but also more patient if trust is established.

They tend to prioritize regulatory awareness, realistic growth assumptions, strong unit economics, and clear evidence that founders understand the broader ecosystem beyond the mere immediate market opportunity. 

In PetTech, for example, skepticism remains high due to past startups that launched feature-heavy apps with weak retention, built “nice-to-have” products without long-term stickiness, or underestimated the regulatory and operational complexity of the sector. 

On the contrary, positioning our company as infrastructure rather than a simple consumer app helped differentiate Dosty by signaling long-term relevance, data continuity, ecosystem-wide value, and defensibility over time. 

For founders entering the European market, the lesson is clear: credibility compounds faster than hype, and demonstrating a profound understanding of the system you are building within, can be as important as the product itself.

The system is outdated. This is where modern pet care fails.

While the law poses deep social change, it also exposes Europe’s weaknesses. In recognizing animals as sentient, the country must now contend with systems that lack support for the emotional, medical, behavioral, and practical reality of pet care. 

Medical records for companion animals remain fragmented across clinics; preventative care is inconsistent; and training, nutrition, and behavioral data are siloed in disconnected ecosystems. 

Yet, this fragmentation is no longer a technical inevitability. In the modern era, tools are available to make information centralized, coordinate services, and reduce the burden placed on individual pet owners. 

In parts of Asia and other emerging markets, for instance, integrated digital platforms already allow consumers to manage healthcare, payments, housing logistics, and community services through a single interface. 

By contrast, pet owners in Europe and the United States are still forced to navigate outdated, analog systems, which force them to assemble medical histories manually, rely on incomplete guidance during emergencies, and make housing or travel decisions without unified standards or data support. 

The result is a system that places emotional responsibility on families, while denying them the infrastructure needed to comply with legislation.

Pet welfare as public infrastructure

Regulation increasingly rewards founders who think in systems rather than features. 

As pets gain legal recognition as sentient beings, PetTech stops being a content-driven category and starts becoming infrastructure. 

This shift opens space for platforms that ensure continuity of care, tools that reduce conflict rather than chase engagement, systems that help users comply with regulation effortlessly, data models that follow the animal instead of the provider, and products that integrate behavior, health, and environment into a single framework. 

In essence, the strongest European PetTech companies will be those that lower the cost of responsibility—a value proposition that grows more powerful and defensible over time.

In the bigger picture, the most significant change in PetTech isn’t legal—it’s conceptual. Founders must move beyond asking, “What features do pet owners want?” and start asking, “What responsibilities does society now expect pet owners to carry—and how can technology support them?” This is the difference between building tools and building infrastructure. 

Infrastructure does not compete for attention; it reduces friction, persists across use cases, and is resilient to regulatory change.

From a national perspective, animal welfare is also tied to stronger economic growth. In developed economies such as the United States and China, animal welfare is heavily protected, contributing to better infrastructure, increased tourism, and improved access to veterinary and medical care.

Final thoughts: Infrastructure must follow

Spain took a historic step in 2021 by enshrining animal sentience into law, confirming what many have long known: animals experience the world emotionally. But, legislation alone does not transform reality. Courts, housing systems, regional policies, and culture must align to give such a principle tangible meaning. Sentience is only the starting point; infrastructure is the destination.

That challenge now extends beyond Spain. The new legislation must still be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the EU-27 before being enforced across the bloc – home to more than 72 million dogs and 83 million cats, and an annual pet market valued at €1.3 billion. 

The market is less optimized for fast exits than for durable, regulation-ready companies that are designed to last. 

In pet care, founders who succeed will be those who are willing to embrace complexity, earn trust, and build for long-term responsibility from day one—scaling within Europe’s constraints rather than trying to bypass them. 

As society increasingly recognizes animals as sentient beings deserving of protection, PetTech can no longer remain playful; it must mature into infrastructure. Founders who understand this will build companies that endure. Those who don’t risk building features for a world that no longer exists. In Europe, resilience is not just a virtue—it is a growth strategy.

Spain has opened the doors. Now it, and Europe, must build what comes next.