The Pet Care Trust is a national charity that promotes the benefits of responsible pet ownership and pet care education and training. The Trust has around 1,400 members, overwhelmingly small and medium enterprises including pet shops, groomers, kennels, catteries, manufacturers, wholesalers and colleges. Committed to animal welfare, the Pet Care Trust has developed over many years charters representing best practice for the different sectors of the pet trade. These include the Pet Care Charter, a code of conduct which is the foundation for the Government's Model Licence Conditions.

Progressive and pro-active, the Pet Care Trust works continuously to improve the standards of pet keeping by promoting responsible pet ownership, at the same time raising awareness of the benefits of keeping pets, through an ongoing and extensive information programme. The Pet Care Trust’s precursor, the Pet Trade Association, was formed in the late 1940s. It was the early days of government regulation, the Pet Animal Act was under debate, and Sam Jacobs saw the need for an association to represent the pet trade. When the Pet Animal Act was passed in 1951, all pet shops selling livestock had to be licensed by their local authority. In 1977 the Association changed its name to the Pet Industry Association. Freddie Waffron – still on the board of today’s Pet Care Trust – was its first chairman.