Animal bedding firm turns into bull riding fan

You might not be able to spot it on TV, but a local company's product is making a big debut this week at the biggest Professional Bull Riding event of the year.

Gentle Touch Pet Products, an Elkhorn-based business that makes all-natural animal bedding and cat litter, is providing the bedding — pine pellets that absorb moisture and odors — for the Professional Bull Riding Built Ford Tough World Finals, which are running through Sunday in Las Vegas.

Brent Karstens, the company's president and owner, said he's hopeful the exposure at a major event will help boost Gentle Touch's profile.

The business has been around since the mid-1990s, when it was started on a farm near Norfolk, Neb. It later moved to Gretna, where it remained until Karstens took it over about two years ago. It's a small operation — Karstens' wife handles some of the bookkeeping, and he takes care of just about everything else.

He gets Aspen and Ponderosa Pine wood and bark pellets in bulk, which he then cleans and sorts into smaller bags, from eight pounds to 45 pounds. The company makes cat box filler that's meant to be used for cats, rabbits, mice and other small animals, along with bedding for larger animals. Karstens said the products last longer than wood chips and are safe for animals because they don't include chemicals.

Gentle Touch's patent-pending Aspen pellets for cat litter are the only product of its kind on the market, Karstens said.

"I think we're going to see a pretty huge demand going forward next year. ... There are a lot of all-natural things going on in the pet industry," he said.

The company's products are distributed across the country and in Japan. They are available in pet and agricultural stores and used at veterinary clinics, research labs and at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, among other locations.

Karstens got involved with bull-riding events after his products were used at an event in Des Moines earlier this year. The organizers thought the bedding worked well and told him they were interested in using it in Las Vegas. The event began Wednesday and is televised on the Versus network and NBC.

"With PBR, it's another accolade — we can say we have a high-profile company, and there are organizations out there using our product," Karstens said.