Business Monday: From cattle to sustainable pet food, Kamuela ranchers innovate with leftover animal parts

Miki and her husband Nick Vericella, a third-generation cattle rancher, are passionate about trying not to waste any part of the grass-fed livestock on their family farm in Kamuela on the Big Island.

When harvesting a cow, only about 60% of it is beef. So they had to figure out what to do with the remaining 40% of usually disposable byproducts that include skin, fat, bones, tendons and organs.

“As ranchers, we are feeding our family with animals we raised ourselves, and that includes the byproduct and parts of the animal we don’t normally eat,” Miki Vericella said. “I didn’t have tastebuds for it at the time, but I wanted to make myself eat the byproduct because it is nutritious.”

And, she added, it is “how we can honor these animals who are feeding us.”

At the beginning of 2019, they decided to also utilize discarded byproduct to create raw pet food, treats and chews for their bull terrier, Freya. It quickly turned into another family business: Pawniolo Pets.

Miki Vericella said their four-legged family member was eating high-quality kibble but thought there may be a better alternative diet.

“I realized that dogs come from wolves and a raw diet works for their nutrition. I was in a rabbit hole of research for a while,” Miki Vericella said. “We started creating these meals and realized that this could be a way to reduce the amount of waste that ranchers across the island have to toss.”

To create the raw beef pet food, they use a mix of 70% muscle meat, 15% organ blend that includes liver, spleen, kidney and lung, and 15% beef bone meal, which is ground beef bones.  

They also offer raw venison, as well as raw rabbit and raw sheep for dogs with more sensitive stomachs. Each product comes with feeding and storage instructions. The raw beef costs $12, venison is $18, sheep is $20 and rabbit is $24.

She also began using other byproducts, including muscle meat, stomach lining, hearts, lungs and trachea rings, from cattle, venison, goat and sheep, and made dog treats by thinly slicing and dehydrating them.

The Vericellas do not add anything to their treats and the full dehydration process takes about two days. The treats range in price from $10 to $14.

After sending friends and family treats, she began to share more about these raw food treats on social media, and it began to spread to dog owners in search of a new diet for their beloved canines.

“There was a need for it in the community,” she said. “We did a couple of pop-ups and then put a few of our treats on Facebook Marketplace and sold out quickly. Then we applied and were accepted as a vendor for the farmers market in Kamuela until it closed during COVID-19.”

During the tumultuous time of the global pandemic, Miki Vericella was furloughed from her job at the Kona International Airport and took the time to create an online store, and expand the line of products and raw food. They went from just using their own byproducts to partnering with hunters, fishermen and farmers across Hawaiʻi and purchasing their byproducts.

“We are food producers and know how many obstacles small Hawaiʻi ranchers face every day,” she said. “People need more outlets to sell what they have. These producers are able to have another stream of income from something they would normally toss away. It goes from waste to a value-added product.”

Pawniolo Pets does not have a storefront. But its online store is easy to use, and the packaging and shipping is done sustainably with no plastic. They produce compostable treat bags and have found compostable cooler boxes for shipping frozen and cold products.

No matter where the business goes, the Vericellas say they are firm in their values and have no desire to stray from keeping Hawaiʻi Island’s abundance here at home and turning what once was “extra” into something valuable and super nutritious for pets.

“We always strive to be better, whether it’s finding new farm producers, thinking of new recipes and products, or producing our own compostable treat bags,” Miki Vericella said. “There is always something going on or a new project.

“We want Pawniolo Pets to keep being one more place our local producers can count on. One more spot where island-grown stays island-grown and nothing good gets tossed aside.”

For Cyber Monday this week, Pawniolo Pets is offering a weeklong sale that began over the weekend and ends on Friday, Dec. 5. Select products are $5 with free shipping available for all purchases.

Along with its online store, Pawniolo Pets also makes appearances at markets across the island and can regularly be found at the Kamuela Farmers Market every Wednesday and Saturday.

Their products are also available at Rockstar Pet Supplies and Gifts and Doggy Detail in Kailua-Kona, Kohala Grown Market in Hāwī, Foodland Waimea and Aloha Pawz in Hilo.

Check the Pawniolo Pets website for products and more information, and follow their Instagram for future pop-ups and sales.