Pet food baker creates new business from start in Minhang

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Ti Gong / SHINE
During a pet running event last month at Pujiang Country Park, a cake measuring 1.2 meters by 80 centimeters that fed 208 pet dogs came from a business whose founder started her entrepreneurship in Minhang, co-founding a martial arts club in Longbai Neighborhood.
Yang Tao's second business venture as a pet food baker was probably ingrained during her teens. During that time, she would become so enthralled with her cooking that she would leave the kitchen as messy as if a typhoon had blown through, but her mother never scolded her.
"I liked small animals," said Yang, who has become an expert in making pet treats, cookies, desserts and cakes since her start-up bakery launched in 2022.
Yang's affinity with cats and dogs strengthened when she was a sophomore student.
"It was a cold rainy day in November in Shanghai," she said. "My roommates agreed on a homemade hotpot feast. I was the one sent out shopping for some vegetables at a wet market and a stray kitten dashed onto my e-bike pedal."
She first took in and raised two cats and one dog, in her studio apartment near Longbai Neighborhood. After she and business partners founded the martial arts club around 2019, the rescue operation expanded.
"We started to encounter and rescue a scattering of kittens, two or three in a litter at the beginning. Kittens who needed nursing and feeding milk appeared near our club or somewhere under private cars," Yang said.
She has rescued and cared for 35 cats and 15 dogs so far. As her studio proved too small for the animals, she relocated to neighboring Songjiang District.
"For about half a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was in a state of worry, for we had to close our martial arts club," Yang said. "To save some expenditure, I cooked food for my cats and dogs. Then it dawned on me that if I could cook food for my own cats and dogs, why not try it as another business for other people's pets?"
Some of her previous business partners came with her to the new business, where they were later joined by some professionals – bakers and designers.
"We are all very frank, which sometimes led to quarrels," Yang said. "After a solution is finally reached, we quickly resume being friends.
"Some colleagues were previously stars of the martial arts club – popular coaches winning applause and respect on the front stage, whereas I used to be an assistant managing trivial things behind the curtains. Now the roles have shifted. I have stepped to the front because I am good at cooking and planning, and some of them have retreated behind the scenes.
"We all have our readjustments to make but I believe all will be reconciled with the passing of time."
She named her bakery Tong Shou Tong Jiao ("同手同脚"), literally meaning two creatures walking closely hand in hand, to symbolize the future she envisions with her pets. The body of the bakery's pet food products are usually composed of chicken or duck. Cream on cakes is made especially with a reduced fat volume. The treats, cookies, cakes and desserts have the taste of the original ingredients, without additional seasoning.
"Some puppies have fragile digestions, so we replace the meat and cream with potatoes or sweet potatoes," she said.
Yang and her business partners make their products for events fresh the same day in the early morning or before day breaks.
On April 27, they supplied the large cake made from raw meat for the pet running anniversary event at Pujiang Country Park.
"We've promised the next year we will make a huge pet cake and apply for the Guinness World Record," Yang said.
The team joined an online bakery competition tasked with making camp food for pets recently, and won the "most nutritious" pet cake award.
"We officially launched our brand about two years ago," Yang said. "For the May Day holiday last year, there were few orders for pet bakery foods. But for this year's holiday, we received multiple orders and the majority of them were not birthday cakes. Pet owners took their pets on an outing. Or they just felt relaxed on a holiday and wanted to reward their pets with a cake."
Yang and her team now train students on pet food bakery and design courses.
"Right now there is a general term 'pet food baker' to describe our job. But I believe in the near future we'll have more categorized terms such as 'pet cakemaker,' 'pet bread maker,' 'pet dessert maker,' among others," said Yang, who is optimistic about the future of the sector.
