Question:
Did you know that most pet "food" is made under conditions that are illegal for the production of human food? To me, this means that those "foods" are only fed by individuals who are (a.) ignorant of the facts or (b.) don't care about their animals.
I find there to be an "rule of inverse advertising" when it comes to pet food: the *more* advertising there is for a food on tv & in magazines,
the *lower* the quality of the "food".
Consider that all that money being spent on promotions is *not* being invested in nutritional research or sourcing of high quality ingredients.


Answer:
The majority of people don't give pets as much importance as people so by that logic, I assume that the mentality is that pet food does not need to be as strictly regulated as human food.
That's a broad sweeping statement, and as always, I believe that there are exceptions.
However, human food isn't as strictly controlled as the government wants us to believe. Wasn't there a controversy in Canada in the past year about labelling genetically modified food? I think the government did not want food labels to indicate genetically modified food because they thought it would scare people away?
Also, how would a regular person be able to tell whether the chicken legs in the packaging have been injected with antibiotics or other chemicals? All the consumer would probably see is how big and plump the meat is and think that they are getting great chicken meat. I'm saying this because that's how I thought when I first came to North America, 'Wow, look at the size of their chickens!'


Answer:
But you also have to consider that vets aren't seeing nutritional defiencies that used to be common 60, 40, 20 years ago. Dog and cat (and other) nutrition is being advanced every day. While the standards may not be the same as for humans, it's come a long way!
And you also have to consider that dogs drink from mud puddles!


Answer:
But vets are seeing things such as cancer, obesity, diabetes & other nutrition-related illnesses in pets that were not seen in past generations, that closely mirror similar "overfed but undernourshed" diseases in humans. Sure, pets fed crap may be getting their *official* RDA of vitamins/minerals, but as anoyone with a serious interest in health knows, RDAs aren't enough. Some commercial pet food is no more than offal & grain waste products blended with a vitamin/mineral premix.
Yes dogs drink from mud puddles & cats eat bugs & mice, but as owners shouldn't we be trying our best to make the major part of our pets' diets holistic & healthful?


Answer:
Mud puddles, lol! And somehow they get into the trash and eat god-knows-what and they are fine, but when they are switched to a new brand of petfood too quickly they get diahrrea(for the life of me, I can't spell this word)
I think another side of the situation is that pet foods are really for the owner's convenience. Most pet owners do not have time to raise their pets on a completely natural, human-quality diet such as BARF because more time needs to be invested into preparing the food to ensure variety and avoid nutritional deficiencies. I tend to think that the only way to know for sure the quality of the ingredients your pet is consuming is to prepare it yourself.


Answer:
Clearjade you make a good point about BARF diets, but I think that prepared alternatives must be explored in most cases. For instance, I used to cook vegetarian meals for my 5 cats but they just weren't into it, & I have tried feeding Hank pieces of meat (turkey & chicken) but all she'll eat is tuna fish, which is very harmful in large amounts.
I think of it this way: I prefer to eat a homecooked veggie organic meal every night, but usually I eat something wholesome & organic that is a prepared food, such as Amy's canned veggie chili. Sure it would be better if I prepared homemade chili myself, but it's not realistic to think that I can do that every day. Same with Hank: she gets the best prepared cat food I can find & afford, & does very well on it, without all the stress of trying to feed her meat. IF I really worked on it, I might be able to work out some BARF solution for her, but I have researched pet foods pretty thoroughly & decided that there are good foods out there that are palatable & beneficial to her health. And Hank is a big, strong, playful girl, so I must be doing something right.


Answer:
neuro, you are right, there are definately prepared foods out there that are quite healthy and pet owners should have the available choice to choose the best food for their pet.
Maybe I am too cynical, but with all the money involved, I doubt the big pet food companies would actually care enough to actually make high quality food rather than making 'okay' quality food and market it as all-natural and healthy because one of the factors in making a profit is the marketing, convince the consumer that they are getting the best and get them to feel good about themselves by showing commercials that show 'real meat and veggies' going into the kibble is good for their image.
Lately, I've been seeing commercials for Pedigree Healthy Nuggets where a person dressed up as a vet says that she wants the dog to be healthy which is why Healthy Nuggets is the best choice. I didn't see the ingredient list on the website, but I will check it out at the store when I get the chance.


Answer:
Just checked it out: lots of talk about how healthy it is but no evidence, ie. ingredients. I looked @ some of their other products & I see meat by-products very high on the listings, indicating that this "food" is actually garbage.
Personally, I don't see an endorsement by a vet or vet association meaning much when it comes to pet foods. They don't study nutrition in any depth & are pretty much all pushing Science Diet & Medi-Cal, which are poor quality foods. My exotics vet sells Kaytee for birds, Science Diet, Medi-Cal & Waltham for cats/dogs, & Kaytee for small animals. This is someone who really should know better. But if those companies are the ones who bribe you, well I guess why not sell it to people who trust you? You'll have lots of repeat customers for your vetrinary services......


Answer:
I hate to say this but 'The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil'.
If someone can make a profit, chances are, they will do it. Of course not all people are like that, but as long as we need money to survive in this society, there will be people who take the money and sell the crap.