heartI spent a morning at Lucy’s Zero Waste Shop yesterday promoting plant-based feeding and sustainable pet care in the market down of Melton Mowbray. Lovely Lucy used to be a nurse and 4 months ago, she opened a zero waste shop nextdoor to the only vegan restaurant in Melton Mowbray called Luck and Boo.

I had absolutely no interest from anybody the entire morning even though as a market town, there are 4 veterinary practices as there are so many dogs in such a small area! Melton Mowbray is not only home to pork pies and stilton cheese, but it is where the Mars factory is situated that makes most of the big brands of pet food, so most of the people who live in this market town work there and the meat-based pet food industry pays their mortgage.

Lucy’s Zero Waste shop is a small haven of peace and even though I had no one showing any interest (except lovely Lucy herself who has just taken on a rescue puppy Rolo shown in the image – gorgeous little boy who adored the food I had brought:); I did not feel despondent in the least.

It gave me time to think away from my computer and just listen to the visitors coming into Lucy’s shop and what they were prioritising which was all the right things – buying plastic free grains and cooking products; asking about the most sustainable cleaning products and the healthiest animal free healthy foods – all sourced locally. It felt like when I went to the Vegan Campout last year – to me it feels like a small bit of paradise where everyone thinks the way we should and acts the way we should and it is SO comforting.

Lucy from Melton Mowbray Zero Waste Shop
Arielle Griffiths Vegan Vet at Zero Waste Shop Melton Mowbray with a puppy

heart I bought my delicious vegan lunch from Luck and Boo nextdoor with a take away for my daughter who was doing her usual Saturday morning volunteering at a horse sanctuary after a very late night out with friends.

I had to leave this calm sanctuary to go into town to return some hair dye I had bought for my mother-in-law as my husband had also bought her some. It meant returning to a discount shop full of bright lights and plastic and buy one get one half price offers and…….so much plastic and so many products tested on animals – the contrast from Lucy’s shop could not have been greater and I felt myself desperate to return to her shop where she gives us such enormous hope for the future with everything that she is doing!

just be kind vegan dogs