{"id":2585,"date":"2025-05-20T12:23:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T12:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2025-08-01T15:15:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:15:26","slug":"filth-is-freedom-mud-reclaims-the-animal-in-pet-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/20\/filth-is-freedom-mud-reclaims-the-animal-in-pet-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Filth Is Freedom: Mud Reclaims the Animal in Pet Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somewhere between the Anthropocene dog spa and the Instagram-friendly kibble bowl, something got lost. Dogs, living, breathing, dogs, have been slowly gentrified. Dogs have been humanized, perfumed, dressed up, diet-tracked, and reduced to little lifestyle mascots for their owners\u2019 personal brands. Into this space walks mud\u2122<\/a>, unapologetically dirty-footed, tracking paw prints across the sterile floors of the modern pet care industry.<\/p>\n

Founded by Karina Zhukovskaya<\/a> and Angelina Pischikova<\/a>, \u201cMud exists to honour the wild in every dog. Because real care isn\u2019t about making them fit into our world, it\u2019s about helping them thrive in theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mud isn\u2019t asking to be liked. It\u2019s not interested in being \u201ccute.\u201d The brand\u2019s central provocation \u2014 \u201cFor dirty dogs\u201d \u2014 says more than it seems at first glance. It\u2019s a rejection of the bourgeoisification of dog ownership, a challenge to the way we\u2019ve commodified both pets and their care. Their manifesto reads less like a brand platform and more like an art school thesis: \u201cFilth is freedom\u201d serves not just as a glorious tagline but a declaration of the brand\u2019s ethos. Mud is built on a simple but radical idea: caring for dogs means respecting their animal nature and is designed for humans who understand that respecting a dog means respecting their biology, not masking it. With no artificial scents, no human pH formulas in disguise, and no nonsense, these products honor a dog\u2019s instincts instead of overriding them.<\/p>\n

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In an age of over-branded everything, Mud is offering a welcome void.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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From a design standpoint, Mud is a quiet protest. The identity is stripped-down and spare, more Berghain than BarkBox. The visual language flirts with the antiseptic, but in doing so, makes space for its own contrast: this isn\u2019t clean design for the sake of cleanliness; it\u2019s restraint in service of the message. There\u2019s something elegant about the refusal to indulge in dog-centric whimsy. No bones. No paw prints. No saccharine serif fonts or golden retrievers smiling in soft light. Just black, white, muddy browns, and a firm understanding that function \u2014 real, biologically appropriate function \u2014 can be its own form of aesthetic honesty.<\/p>\n

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That same restraint extends to the packaging, which could be mistaken for a line of high-end skincare if not for the bold, blunt copy. There\u2019s a deliberate choice here to avoid scent, fluff, and over-designed touchpoints, and the typography feels like it\u2019s been instructed not to try too hard. And that, in itself, is refreshing. In an age of over-branded everything, Mud is offering a welcome void.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not perfect. The brand, in its deliberate minimalism and niche tone, runs the risk of sounding like it was made for a very specific audience: design-forward dog owners already fluent in wellness culture and allergic to excess. There\u2019s a bit of a creative echo chamber happening here; beautiful and subversive, yes, but perhaps missing a layer of warmth or emotional accessibility that could broaden its reach without diluting its message. There\u2019s also a lingering question of scale: how does a brand this rooted in rebellion grow without becoming the very thing it\u2019s resisting?<\/p>\n

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The visual language flirts with the antiseptic, but in doing so, makes space for its own contrast: this isn\u2019t clean design for the sake of cleanliness; it\u2019s restraint in service of the message. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still, there\u2019s something invigorating about a pet care company that seems more interested in starting a conversation than launching a product line. I for one adore the science, strategy, and sustainability behind the brand and how Mud invites us to reconsider not just how we care for dogs, but why we feel the need to civilize them in the first place. It suggests that real love for animals means accepting their mess, their instincts, their animalness, and not covering it up with lavender-scented shampoo.<\/p>\n

In the end, Mud isn\u2019t only selling dog wash. It\u2019s selling a kind of worldview: one where to be clean is not the point, and to be wild is not a flaw. Whether that\u2019s your kind of dogma or not, there\u2019s no denying it makes a statement. And that, in today\u2019s bland sea of brand sameness, is worth getting a little dirty for.<\/p>\n

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Imagery courtesy of mud\u2122<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Filth Is Freedom: Mud Reclaims the Animal in Pet Care<\/a> appeared first on PRINT Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhere between the Anthropocene dog spa and the Instagram-friendly kibble bowl, something got lost. Dogs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2597,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/2597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}