To most people, dog food is synonymis with kibble. Commercially manufactured bagged kibble and canned wet food has been synonymous with kibble or over fifty years.
James Spratt of Cincinnati, Ohio invented first processed dog biscuit in 1860. I wasn't until World War II that commercial dog food manufacturers began to promote the ease of kibble and canned food onto financial struggling families. No one considered the quality of the food or the ingredients. This new time saver had to be better than the table scraps that domestic animals enjoyed at the time, right?
They couldn't have been more wrong!
Even though early commercial dog food manufacturers admitted that feeding dogs meat, vegetables and some grains was better for the dogs than processed kibble, people bought it for the convenience, never considering the long-term health consequences of manufactured dog food made from meat scraps, meat- by-products, and grain factory waste. It was cheap and convenient, but was it healthy? Today, with 6 decades of dog health statistics shouting something is wrong, millions of people do what their parents and grandparents did- they give their dogs manufactured dog food.
The commercial pet food industry has been a win-win operation for everyone involved. Instead of paying for removal and disposal, grain farmers and slaughterhouses actually made money selling left overs to dog food manufacturers, that were unfit for human consumption. Unaware dog owners were easy targets for slick Madison Avenue advertising agencies. Purina pushed the envelope when they developed an extrusion process; a technique that puffed up the kibble before drying, making it appear like more than it actually was.
The Pet Food Institute began their massive media campaign against feeding your pets table scraps in 1964. Veterinarians throughout the world jumped on the bandwagon without having any scientific basis. By the early 1960s, the majority of pet owners were feeding their four-legged family members this wondrous, convenient and readily available food.
