CBD and Pets, what’s the deal?

Ah yeah, CBD and pets, good question!

Well, you have come to the right place, as you know we do a successful range of pet supplies with CBD, but, if you try to buy them and you’re in a certain location, you can’t. Frustrating, but as with everything there’s a story behind the headlines.

The simple take out is this: in the US where we sell our CBD for humans & pet products it’s, mostly, legal to sell CBD for pets. However in the UK where we also sell human CBD, it is not legal to sell CBD for pets.

Now for the more complicated part: why, oh why?

As with everything CBD and Hemp based, the US is leading the way and has been quicker to get approval from Pet Industry bodies and the government for pet CBD. They did their work and are in the roll out process of making CBD usage legal and widely available, though outlets like CHEWY.COM are still dragging their heels on CBD products, but they allow sales of Hemp products. Semantics but it’s a start.

To the UK. The UK is regulated by the VMD (Veterinary Medicines Directorate) and as such they consider Pet CBD to be: “any substance or combination of substances that may be used in, or administered to, animals with a view either to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.” and as such: “CBD products for use in animals therefore now require a marketing authorisation before they can be sold or supplied in the UK. There are currently no CBD based products that have been granted a UK veterinary marketing authorisation.”

Lastly: and this is the clincher: As there are currently no CBD products authorised in the UK for veterinary use, a veterinary surgeon may prescribe a legally obtained human CBD product under the provisions of the prescribing cascade. Administration of an unauthorised product containing CBD without a veterinary prescription is an offence under Regulation 8 of the VMR. Companies supplying CBD products for human use in line with the requirements of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency must not indicate or recommend their products for use on animals.

Here is the VMD article in full.

So where does this leave US and UK customers? Overall the US is getting much better at this, you CAN, mostly buy CBD from a few suppliers (like us!) for your pets, but refer to local laws and as always do a bit of research as to dosage, side effects etc, but in the UK we’re playing catch up.


We have seen some pet shops advertising CBD, which is illegal and don’t get us wrong here, we wish it were otherwise but it is illegal and with that comes responsibility and difficulties with the law if broken.

At Naked Leaf, we’re advocating for a change in the law from behind the scenes. We think cats, dogs, horses, and many other pets deserve to have CBD as much as humans do, but it’ll take time to change and we’re having as many talk with ministers and government figures as we can to advocate for change. We’ll keep going and keep you posted on our results as they come in.

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