Why Sia Invested In A Pet Food Brand

There comes a time in every successful celebrity's life when they find themselves with enough capital to invest in businesses that their consultants believe might make them even more money. But cash-flow isn't everything — just like any public investment, the brand that benefits from the celeb's funding often aligns with said celeb's ideals and interests. Insider cites some noteworthy examples: Ashton Kutcher was one of the first to give to now-booming brands like Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify; Beyoncé allocated $15,000 toward the tech startup Sidestep (an app that "had more than $2 million in sales" in 2017); and — perhaps most famously — Gwyneth Paltrow raised $20 million in venture capital funding for her lifestyle brand Goop. Now, the Australian singer-songwriter Sia is joining the party. 

While plenty of celebrities have advocated for animal rights by publicly flexing their meat-free lifestyles — Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson recently teamed up to back the vegan brand Abbot's Butcher — Sia told Fortune that she's leveling up her moral imperative by getting involved with Bond Pet Foods, which trades in common dog food ingredients like organ meat for ones that are natural and free from animal products. This isn't a surprising move for the singer, who was a co-narrator of the documentary "Dominion" (which "shed light on the ills of animal agriculture") and "unapologetically" donates her time to organizations like the ASPCA and Best Friends. But above all, it was Sia's own pets who inspired her to invest in the brand. 

"I became a vegetarian because of my dogs," Sia tells Fortune, adding that while she loves all animals, she considers canines to be her "light in the storm." She continues, "As a young artist struggling to survive, I vowed that if I ever found success, I would make it my mission to spend the rest of my life trying to help these beautiful creatures when they're in need — to protect them."

For Sia, that protection is twofold. On one hand, it means feeding her dogs wholesome, nourishing food, and on the other, it means quelling the inhumane production and slaughter of livestock. She notes that "more than 25 million farm animals are slaughtered every day in the U.S. [...] to make the meat and meat by-products we routinely eat."

Sia ends her essay with a message to those who don't want to stop eating meat altogether. "These solutions aren't designed for vegans or vegetarians, or to convert meat eaters to vegetarians," she says. "They're designed to cater to our loved ones whose diets might never change regardless of how plentiful the plant-based alternatives become." Bond Pet Foods echos this sentiment in its mission statement, which reads "While we're pro-animal, we're not anti-meat. So we thought, as we look ahead, what if there was a way to feed pets without harming other animals?" If you ask Sia, the company is doing a pretty good job so far.