Documentary of Pet Food Industry — "Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast"

We love our pets, but do we really know what we're feeding them? My last post discussed how to better interpret a pet food label.

Now, if you haven't already seen it, I've included a link to a must-see documentary about the pet food industry entitled, Pet Food: A Dog’s Breakfast (1).  But be warned— this film is almost 45 minutes long.

This film takes the lid off the can to discover what’s going on inside the $16 billion pet food industry. The program, produced by Yap Films, an independently owned production company (2), was originally televised by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in August of 2009. Its production was sparked by the 2007 pet food recall in which tens of thousands of cats and dogs in North America became sick after being fed tainted pet food.

The film supposedly had been scheduled to air on CNBC earlier this year but was canceled without explanation. But now, interestingly, it has resurfaced on YouTube for all of us to see.

So when you see the ads about pet food, claiming that the food is "healthy, has all the essential nutrients, and is best for your pet" we should stop and wonder — is all that marketing really true? This documentary uncovers part of the truth. Yet there is much more to learn. After watching this documentary, however, your eyes should open up and you may no longer blindly trust the commercial pet food companies. I no longer do.

But what to feed? Home-made, raw? I certainly don't have all the answers. But if you have the time, home-prepared diets may offer the best means to feed your pet a healthy whole food diet (3-5).

Links:

1. YouTube. Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast  
2. Yapfilms.com 
3. Strombeck's Home-Prepared Diets For Dogs and Cats: Safe, Balanced, Complete & Up-to-Date.  Dogcathomeprepareddeit.com. 
4. Schenck P. Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets. Second Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
5. Pierson LA. Making cat food.  Catinfo.org.