About Us

Our Mission

The Holistic Pet Nutrition Center is a pet food store that will help you optimize your pet's health, happiness, and longevity through natural, species-appropriate nutrition, education, and proactive wellness care. Our goals are to support pet parents with accurate nutritional education about pet food and wellness, to treat every animal with compassion, to make research-based decisions about the products our pet store offers, and to conduct all of our relationships with integrity.

About Our Founder

Meet Ann Straub Simon

Founder, The Holistic Pet Nutrition Center | Pet Nutrition Educator | Gut Microbiome PhD Student

Thanks for stopping by! If you're here, you're likely searching for honest answers about your pet’s health—and that’s precisely what I hope to offer. My mission is to provide you with the same foundational knowledge I share in nearly every nutritional consultation, so you can feel empowered to take action—even without booking a session. And if you do need more guidance after reading, I’ll be here for you.

So, who am I—and what are my credentials?

With the initial goal of attending medical school, I began my academic journey at Penn State, where I earned my Bachelor of Science degree, double-majoring in Psychology and Health Sciences. Upon graduating in 1994, I changed plans and instead of medical school, I pursued a graduate degree in Education and Biology at the University of Notre Dame of Maryland, while also starting my teaching career in high school Biology and AP Biology in both Maryland and in California. While teaching in California, I also enjoyed learning in a lab, working in a protein synthesis laboratory at Scripps Research Institute during the summers.

Curiosity led me from the classroom to the field. Fascinated by carnivore ecology and the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, I moved to Montana to study Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana under Dr. Dan Pletscher. There, I learned firsthand about the natural diets of wolves, bears, and mountain lions, while receiving my Post Baccalaureate in Wildlife Biology. During the summers, I interned with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service studying mountain lion habitat corridors.

Finding the difficulty of a weak job market in this field in Montana, I fully entered the world of scientific research—first at GlaxoSmithKline in vaccine development, and then at the University of Pittsburgh, where I worked on studies involving HIV and dengue viruses.

So how did I end up in pet nutrition?

It started when I moved from my 20-acre ranch in Montana to an urban neighborhood in Pittsburgh. My dogs—who had thrived on ranch life—suddenly developed chronic health and anxiety issues. Despite multiple vet visits and prescription diets, nothing helped. That’s when I realized the difference: on the ranch, they were living a low-stress lifestyle free to roam our property, and their diet consisted of not only their kibble, but supplementing with fresh meat from the land—gut piles from hunters, wild prey, even groundhogs.

I began researching commercial pet food ingredients and was horrified. As a lifelong animal lover and a scientist, I couldn’t ignore what I discovered. I changed my dogs’ diets, saw dramatic improvements, and knew I had to help others do the same.

That’s why I opened The Holistic Pet Nutrition Center in Zelienople, PA, my early-childhood hometown. Today, we occupy a larger space in Harmony, PA as well as a store in Missoula, MT, where we combine scientific research with real-world experience to help pet parents make better, biologically appropriate choices for their animals.

What now?

Currently, I oversee the amazing team running our stores in both Harmony, PA and Missoula, MT, while I’m pursuing my PhD focused on the gut microbiome at the University of Florida, home to a leading veterinary school. While I’m not a veterinarian and cannot offer veterinary advice, I am dedicated to uncovering what’s happening inside our pets’ digestive systems—and how quality, species appropriate food can be the foundation of long, healthy, and joyful lives.

This is my life’s work; I research and I teach, only now my students are you, pet parents on a similar journey to improve the lives of your pets.

So, let’s start with some basic nutrition fundamentals here.