Vile, Awful Facts: Pet Food Is Why Pets Are Obese, Sick And Miserable
U.S. and imported pet food is sold as "the healthiest" but it's made from non-human, non-food ingredients
My daughter’s cat Oliver ended up weighing in at a cool 24 to 25 pounds. When I sent a picture of him to Bruce while we were dating, Bruce responded with, “What is that — an ocelot?”
I loved Ollie very much. Much like a human addicted to processed foods, he would only eat his dry cat kibble. Every once in a while I could tempt him with a tiny sliver of chicken breast or the “tuna can.”
Ollie is no longer with us, but Gambit very much is. He is now 16 years old and still weighs 11 pounds.
Almost a year ago, Gambit was diagnosed with kidney disease at his regular checkup. It turns out that this disease’s root cause is …
Dry pet food, aka “kibble.”
Just as the #1 cause of obesity in cats is commercially-made pet food.
The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention reports that in 2022, 59% of dogs and 61% of cats are classified as overweight or obese. Animals that are more than 30% over their ideal weight are officially called “obese.” The prevalence of obesity among dogs and cats is rapidly approaching the levels it is found among U.S. children and adults.
Pets also have rapidly-increasing levels of allergies, immune system-related diseases, and metabolic diseases. Yes, there is such a thing as canine and feline diabetes, and these diseases are on the increase.
Our commercial, profit-making industrial food system is the source of the problem.
The same mindset, processes, and systems that feed us our toxic, unhealthy, obesogenic highly-processed foods also create and market specialized pet food that is …
Well, I love Gambit very much. Gambit eats the same food that Bruce and I eat (within reason — he still isn’t a fruit-eating dog). As a result, he is 16 years old, of normal weight, and still active and happy.
So, what is in those bags of lovely hard, dried kibble or cans of “meat” that we feed to our pets? It’s not “human-grade” food (unless specifically sold as such — a tiny percentage of the market).
Read on to see what big manufacturers are shoveling up in those big old Purina bags and also the higher-priced “scientifically formulated” foods, including delicious “Grain Free” alternatives.
Where Did Special Pet Food Come From?
Throughout history, dogs evolved to eat human table scraps and discards. Cats lived by catching small mammals which were pests destroying grain or farm stores.
Dried, specially-made pet food got its start in the 1860s when an American businessman saw British dogs eating “hard tack” from ships. The dog biscuit emerged at that time. Canned dog food made from animal scraps followed in the 1920s.
In the 1950s, food technology was on the rise.
According to the Pet Food Institute, established in 1958, “The desire for prepared dog food resulted from a combination of dogs being viewed as luxury items with a need to protect the owners’ investments, the increasing availability of such food (dog biscuits, dog bread, canned food, etc.) and marketing.”
The Pet Food Institute specifically markets and defends the current industrial and obesogenic prepared pet food industry. That’s not why kibble was initially made and continues to be made.
This is why and how:
Shelf Stability and Extrusion
According to Christina Baldesarre writing for Entrepreneur Magazine, pet food profit margins are 50% or greater, and as high as 70% for chew toys and treats.
In the 1950s, food makers were looking for any way to take basic, low-cost ingredients and turn them into brandable, shippable, shelf-stable, saleable nationwide or international moneymakers.
At this time, the Ralston Purina Company began experimenting with the machines used for Chex breakfast cereal to create a shelf-stable, easily transported, high-profit margin type of dog food.
By 1956, kibble entered the market as Ralston Purina and others used machines to extrude cooked dough through a die cut machine, making the small, hard shapes of dog (and cat) food that we know today. This same process is also used to put food-like substances made from ultra-cheap and low-quality basic ingredients into children’s cereal and adult snack packages.
Because most people still fed their pets on table scraps, in 1958, the Pet Food Institute, an association of pet food manufacturing lobbyists, began to campaign to convince the public that pets deserved the “best” food: dried, extruded kibble.
This campaign was so successful that today, the majority of pet owners believe that prepared pet foods are healthier for their pets than table scraps or any variety of food that humans could also eat.
Rendering, Your Pet, and You
One of the main sources of prepared pet food, whether wet or dry, is rendered animal by-products.
I have a new client who has set up a successful logistics business transporting rendered material from a major port to rendering plants in other states. This is a gross and disgusting business that few people would be willing to undertake, but the client has worked hard and made it a success.
What, exactly, do my clients put into their trucks and take to other states? They transport “rendering parts”. Rendering parts are everything left over from human meat, poultry, and fish production that can’t be packaged or sold to people. The parts include hooves, bones, organs we don’t usually eat, blood, connective tissue, and feet or beaks.
Rendering materials also include grease from restaurants, out-of-date packaged meat and poultry, and whole 4D animals.
What does 4D mean? Dead, dying, diseased, or disabled.
All of these things are ground up, put into huge vats, and cooked for several hours at high heat.
The rendering process kills bacteria, viruses, parasites, and any other potentially dangerous organisms. Fat is separated and then re-included in pet food. Everything else is gathered up and dried, becoming “meal” or “meat by-product meal.”
Rendered products, whether dry or wet, are all officially considered “unfit for human consumption.”
But these are the main ingredients in all officially manufactured and sold pet food in the U.S. To fill out recipes and create the batter or slurry that’s cooked and extruded as kibble, pet food manufacturers include grains.
Grain-based kibble is the reason Ollie grew to weigh 24 or 25 pounds. When switched to grain-free food, Ollie cried and cried for his former favorite, likely the kitty-cat equivalent to Chee-tos or Doritos.
By the time we realized that Oliver was addicted to his cat food and eating it in huge amounts, growing by the day, he was a mature cat and it was very difficult to help him to change.
Pet owners are facing the same problems with helping their pets to combat obesity that those of us in the human population face. The top three pet weight loss methods that owners tried will be as unsuccessful for overweight cats or dogs as they are for overweight humans.
The successful solution is to change our diets and eat as little highly-processed food as possible. Instead, we should eat whole fruits, vegetables, grains, and simple, simply-prepared protein. We can eat healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, and raw nuts.
Our toxic food system evolved to create and sell foods that delivered the greatest amount of profit to the individual owners of major food corporations.
It didn’t evolve to provide the majority of people with healthy, nutritious food.
And the same is true of our beloved pets. Specially prepared and made pet food was never good for any cat or dog.
Cats and dogs are better-off eating plain, nutritious, simple food appropriate to their breed and activity level.
We, and our pets, have been growing unhealthier and gaining weight ever since industrial food processes replaced traditional food growing and preparation. It’s time to turn the tables. Our pets will love it and thank us!
Sources
Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. “2022 Pet Obesity Report,” url: https://www.petobesityprevention.org/2022
The Farmer’s Dog. “The History of Commercial Pet Food: A Great American Marketing Story,” The Farmer’s Dog Digest, 1 March 2017, url: https://www.thefarmersdog.com/digest/the-history-of-commercial-pet-food-a-great-american-marketing-story/
Baldasarre, Christina. “6 Reasons You Can’t Go Wrong With The Pet Industry,” Entrepreneur, 18 December 2015, url: https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/6-reasons-you-cant-go-wrong-with-the-pet-industry/253333
Pet Food Institute. “History of Pet Food,” 2023, url: https://www.petfoodinstitute.org/about-pet-food/nutrition/history-of-pet-food/
Spector, DVM, Donna. “Pet Food (What You Need to Know) For Your Pet’s Sake,” PetMD, 17 November 2009, url: https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_pet_food_for_your_pets_sake
Thixton, Susan. “(Almost) Everything About Rendered Pet Food Ingredients,” Truth About Pet Food, 17 May 2022, url: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/almost-everything-about-rendered-pet-food-ingredients/