Dog Food

Richard (of RBB) has been telling us all about his new friend and companion, Fluffy (of RBB), and I was thinking about pets when I arrived home last night.
I noticed that my beloved had left 5 bags of shopping at the bottom of the stairs, and it now became my job to carry them up and load the groceries and stuff into the appropriate cupboards and shelves. I don't mind at all doing this chore, as my beloved has 3 prolapsed disks (caused by years of lifting patients when she was a nurse)and carrying weights, especially upstairs is very painful for her.

As I was putting away the dog biscuits and doggie dental chews, I noticed the blurb on the front of the packet.

"Lamb and Mint flavoured for maximum enjoyment."

Who's enjoyment?

We spend millions making dog and cat foods, some of the ingredients could easily be used in human foods (like the soya meal in the biscuits), and the morality of feeding pets before starving children introduces uncomfortable questions of morality.
Yes our pets are affectionate (we think).
Has a cat ever said "I love you mista?", or dog volunteers to go out on a walk alone in the pouring rain?

As humans we tend to anthropomorphise observed animal behaviours and superimpose human emotions onto the animal.
We don't know, but probably assume that all of the pets we keep (probable exceptions of fish, spiders and snakes)have emotions identical to ours.

Anyway this business of pet food flavours. Lamb and mint is a human favourite, so is "Chicken in a thick and tasty savoury gravy" or "Delicious salmon with traces of Dill".


I have observed my little dog, when out on a walk, sniffing and trying to eat;
dead bird
cat poo
decomposing roadkill rat/possum (it was very flat)
apple core

Dog's do not seem to be very discriminating when it comes to food. They seem to have one rule. If it's edible, scarf it down as fast as possible.

So I think that the pet food manufactures put the nice flavours on the packets to entice the humans who actually buy the stuff.

And how do we know the flavours are accurate. Do you try the Lamb and mint flavoured biscuit, or the salmon and dill? As far as we know it could really be "cat poo and fish guts" flavour, or even "unidentifiable material found in the bottom of a skip" flavour.

Sometimes people are weird.

I can speak with some experience on this as I work with


Richard (of RBB)
The Basket Guy
The Computer Guy
Kiwidoug
Man of Errors

and until recently

Fflur
Nicola (of Nicola's Travel Bag )

So I can really recognise weirdness when I see it.