Blog

May 27, 2023

Newly Opened Summit Pets Is Building A Community Around Its Love Of Animals

Alex Graham Featured, New Brunswick, New Brunswick, News,

Alex Graham Featured, New Brunswick, New Brunswick, News, Saint John, Saint John 0

Owner Curtis Baird started his entrepreneurial pet journey with Maritime Aquatics, a fish and fish tank maintenance company with commercial clients around the city. But when the building he was operating out of was sold, Baird saw the move as an opportunity to rebrand.

"Half of the store is going to be distinctly fish. Specialty fish, exotics, hard-to-come-by fish, and plants and corals too," he explains, adding that Summit Pets is hoping to start offering some of its own product lines in fish supplies in the months and years to come.

"We’re getting into reptiles and small animals as well," he says. "We just got a bit of our small animal supply – guinea pig food, rabbit food, and then some birdseed as well. Then we have two or three different lines of dog food and are slowly growing that."

The store doesn't have any dogs up for adoption but does offer supplies for both dogs and cats, including high-quality pet foods that are hard to find at other stores, as well as the staples like littler and toys.

"We have two cats here that are just store pets, but depending on future renovations we may be incorporating a couple of cat pens to foster them through into the SPCA or Red Head Strays."

Red Head Strays is where Baird adopted his store cats, and it's an organization he hopes to continue to build a relationship with. Powered by local volunteers, the charitable organization provides rescue and temporary shelter for abandoned, abused or surrendered feral cats. They also operate a trap, neuter and release program; and provide veterinary services.

Organization administrator Dianne Fox says Baird has not only adopted cats but has offered discounts to Red Head Strays supporters to buy supplies like food to help out the cats in need.

The organization is in its 7th year, each year helping approximately 400 cats get off the streets and into homes. Fox describes 2022 as the "craziest year ever" with 397 cats supported by early October alone.

Baird sees the relationship as a win-win. Once the cat enclosures are ready, he hopes to be able to help some of the fosters find their forever homes by working in partnership with Red Head Strays allowing them to make the matches that will work the best for their cats.

"We basically are just a foster home to put them on display so that people can see which cats are available," he says of his future plans.

"The benefit from a business perspective is foot traffic in the store; hopefully the customer keeps them on our food and comes back. The other benefit would be obviously more cats are able to find homes."

The cat community is not the only one Baird has been closely involved with through his work at Summit Pet Foods and Maritime Aquatics. He's also an active member of the Saint John Aquarium Club which has an active, 2,600-member Facebook page.

Like the stray cat advocates, members support each other with their aquarium questions, everything from salt and fresh-water fish specifications, to plumbing and electrical questions.

The community has been forced to be mostly online during Covid but is planning a meet-up in person soon.

"There's a gentleman that just recently moved from Ontario that set up his fish room in his garage. It's basically a mini pet store," he says, noting that the man has offered his space as a meetup location.

"I don't know if it will be appetizers of full-on potluck," he jokes, "but people can bring their used equipment, sort of like a mini yard sale, while they’re there, and they’ll be door prizes."

Creating community both on and offline is something that's important to the pet store business, and is a culture that Baird is trying to cultivate.

"A lot of the regulars, and even the new people that come in, always seem to mention that they prefer the smaller local shop – for the knowledge of staff to help them with any issues; but also the quality of the livestock, so they don't introduce any pathogens or diseases into their tank that could wipe out their entire population," Baird says.

Right now, Baird sees an opportunity to create that community in his new space.

"It has the same square footage as the old spot," he says of his new location on Ashburn Lake road. "The layout of the old place was pretty limited, with lots of walls in odd places. This is a lot more efficient."

The big investment he's making in gondola shelving will allow him to carry more products and more stock.

"We’re slowly upgrading. The shelves sort of just pop out and you can move them up and down and don't have a lot of wasted space. So that's pretty much what we’re doing now."

He's come a long way from his first pet, a fish, he received as a birthday present.

"My mom had a little beta kit from the pet store in Lancaster Mall. That quickly grew into two or three beta fish," he reminisces, laughing. "My first aquarium was 25 gallons, and then it just got worse and worse from there. Here we are now!"

Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter based in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].