The traditional boundaries between humans and their pets are rapidly disappearing, revealing a massive shift in how modern households function. As pets take on the role of central family members, owners face a crowded wellness market that often lacks transparency. This leaves many consumers unsure of how to best support their animal’s daily health, longevity, and overall quality of life.
Lee Asher, Founder of Lillie&Lee recognized this gap firsthand through his extensive work in animal rescue. His brand bridges the divide between human and pet health, offering clean, third-party-tested supplements that support daily wellness. We sat down with Asher and D.J. Gugenheim, Partner and President of Lillie&Lee, to discuss the shifting definition of family, the importance of preventive care, and how radical transparency is reshaping the pet industry.
Q: The Lillie&Lee brand is named after your first rescued St. Bernard, Lillie. How does her personal story continue to drive the core mission of your company today?
Lee Asher: Everything still traces back to Lillie. She was my first St. Bernard, a rescue, and when she was struggling, CBD changed everything for her and gave us years I did not think we would have. That is when I understood how much the right, clean products could do for an animal, and it became the standard for everything we make. To this day the rule is simple. If it is not good enough for my own dogs, it does not carry her name.
Her story is really the whole mission. Caring for Lillie taught me that looking after an animal and looking after yourself are part of the same journey, a healthier pet and a healthier you. What moves me most is that our recent Pet Wellness Consumer Trends Report showed this is not just my experience. Across 4,095 pet parents, 65 percent gave their pet a supplement last year and 72 percent took one themselves. The care flows both ways, in home after home. Lillie started that idea for me, and now thousands of families are living it.
Q: Your recent survey data shows that a staggering 95 percent of respondents consider their pet a full member of the family. How is this changing definition of family shifting consumer expectations around product quality?
D.J. Gugenheim: When 95 percent of people call their pet a full member of the family, they stop shopping for “pet products” and start expecting what they would want for any family member. That is the biggest shift we see. Good enough is no longer good enough. And the same survey showed how far it goes: pet owners often put their pet’s care ahead of their own. 74 percent got their pet a checkup in the past year, compared to 66 percent for themselves, and nearly half called their pet’s diet healthy versus under a quarter for their own plate. That tells you how high the bar has moved.
For a brand, that raises the standard on everything. People read ingredient labels now, they ask what is really inside, and they want proof rather than promises. It is exactly why we build the way we do, with independent third-party testing and publicly available Certificates of Analysis, clean formulations, and manufacturing in cGMP, FDA-registered, or SQF-certified facilities. When someone treats their dog like family, they deserve to see precisely what they are giving them. Transparency is not a nice-to-have anymore. It is the expectation. At least, it’s the expectation for us!
Lee and I want the very best and the healthiest options for ourselves and our family. And so we want that for our pets. And so we believe we must do that for our customers.
There was a time Lee was given a major endorsement opportunity, but when he saw the ingredients in the product he passed on it because he wouldn’t give them to his own dogs and so he wouldn’t help sell it for other peoples dogs.
Q: Industry data indicates that about one-third of average pet owners buy supplements, yet over 65 percent of your survey participants do so. What does this gap tell us about the emerging class of proactive pet parents?
Lee Asher: I want to be transparent about what that gap really means. Our community is not the average pet owner. So when about a third of pet owners overall buy supplements, but more than 65 percent of the people who took our survey do, that is not saying the whole country doubled overnight. It is telling us exactly who our community is. They are the leading edge.
The people who are Lillie&Lee customers or who follow my life with The Asher House socials are what I would call proactive pet parents or highly engaged pet lovers. They do not wait for something to go wrong. They build a daily routine, they read the labels, they think about prevention, and they treat their pet’s wellness a lot like their own.
Our data backs that up. In the same survey, 72 percent of these owners took a supplement themselves, and the households caring for a rescue did even more of everything. To me, that is a preview of where the whole category is heading. The average pet owner is starting to look more and more like the proactive one we already know, and I think before long, what feels ahead of the curve today will simply be normal. At least I certainly hope that will be the case!
These animals that live with us are so special and we are so lucky to have them in our lives and the least we can do is give them the love they give us and that means the very best of care and supplements.
Q: Nearly half of those surveyed scheduled a preventive veterinary visit in the past six months. What role do daily wellness routines play in supporting routine veterinary care before health issues arise?
D.J. Gugenheim: The two go hand in hand, and that is really the mindset of a proactive pet parent. A daily wellness routine and regular vet visits are both about the same thing, staying ahead of problems instead of reacting to them. In our survey, nearly half of pets had a preventive vet visit in just the past six months, about three quarters within the year, and those same households were the ones building daily routines at home. The behaviors reinforce each other.
A daily routine does two things between checkups. It supports a pet’s foundational health, the everyday needs like joints, digestion, skin and coat, and calm, and just as importantly, it keeps you paying attention. When you are handing your dog a supplement every morning, you notice the small changes early, the new stiffness, the itch, the shift in energy, and those are exactly the things worth raising with your vet. We are always clear that none of this replaces veterinary care.
In fact our survey found the vet is the single most trusted voice when people choose a supplement, so we design to support that relationship, including third-party lab results an owner can bring right into the exam room. Daily care and the vet are partners in the same goal, catching things early and keeping a pet well.
Q: With so many unverified supplements on the market, Lillie&Lee emphasizes American-made hemp and third-party tested Certificates of Analysis. Why is independent testing non-negotiable for building trust?
D.J. Gugenheim: Because in this category, a brand’s word is not necessarily enough. There are a lot of cheaper and lower quality options online especially that are not selling what they say they are selling. We’ve seen that problem even with human supplements. Study after study has found supplements and CBD products that do not contain what their label claims, whether that is potency that is off or contaminants that should never be there. When you are giving something to a family member every single day, pet or person, “trust me” is not good enough. I want to know. We want proof. You should see proof. The proactive pet parents we surveyed are exactly the people reading labels and asking what is really inside, and they deserve a real answer.
Independent, third-party testing is that proof, and the key word is independent. It means a lab with no stake in the outcome verifies what is actually in the product, that the potency matches the label and that it is clean of heavy metals, pesticides, and microbials. A company grading its own homework is not the same thing. That is why we use American-grown hemp, publish a Certificate of Analysis anyone can read, and make our products in cGMP, FDA-registered, or SQF-certified facilities.
Lee Asher: For me it is simple. I will not give my own rescue dogs, or ask your family to take anything I cannot prove is clean and honest. Showing the lab results is just the respectful thing to do. We want you to see the proof.
Q: You have nearly a million followers watching your daily rescue care updates across social platforms. How does that level of public transparency shape your product development and your relationship with pet owners?
Lee Asher: It is humbling. It is a rare thing to build a following for who you are, and then build a brand with its own real community around it too. I look at brands I admire, like David Beckham’s IM8 or Grüns, doing really impressive work. But here is what I am genuinely proud of. A lot of the biggest names in wellness built their reach by buying it, through massive influencer rosters and ad budgets. Grüns just sold to Unilever for over a billion dollars, and even so, our brand’s own social community is several times the size of theirs. We did not buy ours. We built it organically over years. That kind of engaged, owned community is rare.
That visibility changes how we operate, and it should. A big audience means more scrutiny. We have to be careful and honest about how we talk about our products, we have to keep the quality high, and we have to keep earning people’s attention with content and products worth coming back for. Our whole community can watch how we show up every day, and that keeps us accountable in the best way. It is a big reason we test everything and publish the results. When this many people are watching, you cannot fake it.
And yes, the human line grows straight out of that relationship. Our community told us, in their own words and in our survey, that they want this for themselves too. Seventy-two percent of the pet parents we surveyed take a supplement, and many of them found wellness for themselves through their pets first. So we followed them there. Our ambition is simple- we want to be the best in pet and human wellness. By being the one company this focused on both ends of the leash, a healthier pet and a healthier you, with real solutions for each. I do not know anyone else building exactly that, and we are grateful we get to try.
The conversation with Asher and Gugenheim highlights how deeply intertwined human and pet wellness have become. As owners increasingly view their pets as equal family members, the demand for transparent, high-quality care continues to grow. This proactive mindset transforms pet ownership from simple companionship into a shared daily routine of health and longevity.
The push toward preventive wellness marks a permanent evolution in the pet industry. Brands that prioritize accountability and clean ingredients will lead the market as consumers become more educated. Lillie&Lee continues to set the standard for functional supplements that support a healthier life for both pets and their people.
To learn more, visit https://lillieandlee.com
