Ugh! Scrapple!!!

I haven't written lately as I have been preoccupied with falling in love with the most amazing girl. I'm not going to delve any further into my personal life other than to say that she is the butter on my biscuit, the cream in my coffee, the road map in my car, the fire in my cracker, the tube in my tuba...you get the idea. Sometimes the universe lines up and things that are supposed to happen just happen. So Big Cosmic Thing, we owe you an eternal debt of gratitude which we will do our best to pay back with good deeds, peace, and gardening.

And now for something completely different: Pet food. Yes the douches in China have been poisoning pets, and now apparently, humans as well, by adding melamine to wheat gluten, rice protein, chicken feed, and probably a host of other things that we don't even know about yet. Why? Because like anyone trying to make a buck (remember when the commies were all about forsaking capitalism? Oh wait...that only worked in Israel) they are willing to do just about anything to boost sales.

This is actually a subject near and dear to my heart. I have been an animal lover all my life. I currently live with two cats and two dogs. They are my children (let's face it...a dog is like a 5 year old that never grows up), and I refuse to feed them shit in a bag. I admit that I used to though.

I used to feed them Iams. I, like many others, fell for their wholesome image, only to find that Iams is basically shit in a bag. I should have known something was up when my oldest dog refused to eat it after a while. My younger dog will eat anything she can keep down so she's a poor canary in the coalmine. Everything was fine until I found out that Iams was performing all kinds of horrible experiments on animals in their contract labs. But they were busted by PETA (an organization that I wholeheartedly stand against as they advocate the wholesale euthanasia of domestic animals, i.e. dogs and cats, because they feel these animals are better off dead than living with humans...if you don't believe me go to YouTube and watch Penn & Teller's episode of Bullshit on PETA). But Iams was actually one case where PETA got it right, at least in the beginning.

Aside from the moral implications (Iams now uses their own facility to do food testing which the ASPCA claims is non invasive (keep in mind that Iams is a major corporate sponsor of the ASPCA, and as you hopefully know money talks and bullshit walks, so you use your own judgement). But the fact remains that, as far as I'm concerned, Iams is still shit in a bag.

So I did lots of research, and consulted with a friend, who is a self studied expert on dog food and nutrition, and have found a food that the dogs love, and is not made with any of the shit that is causing the recalls. The dogs get Timberwolf Organics, and the cats get Innova. Both are made by independent companies that have reliable sources for all their ingredients.

If you own an animal you should know that there is NO regulation of the pet food industry in the United States. None. Zero. Zilch. The big goose egg. Yes there is AAFCO. But they only set a standard of nutritional requirements. They are not a regulatory body. This is why some pet foods end up with the same chemicals that are used to euthanize horses, dogs and cats. How? Because the shameless profiteers who make the crap that Wal Mart, and others, sell put euthanized animals in their food. I'm not kidding. Do a web search and find out for yourself.

My feeling is that my animals are going to eat the best I can get. If that means I eat Ramen noodles then so be it. But that's just me.

Click on the title of this entry or go to http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ to get the latest on the recall, and to find out about what foods are healthy, and which are shit in a bag.