Green grub: Pet owners seek natural food for Fido
A typical shopping trip for Denise Taylor finds her carefully reading food labels. “Organic is a great word to see on a bag,” she explains. “I also look for a complete list of ingredients that I can easily read and understand.”
Taylor is among the growing local population of shoppers in search of a healthy diet free of preservatives, fillers and unknown ingredients. But on this particular shopping trip, she’s looking for the same qualities in a food for her pets.
“I want my dogs and cats to have the same quality food that I eat and for them to live as healthy and as long as possible,” says Taylor, a Dogtown resident, of course.
Amy Pizano and her husband own Pets in the City, the natural pet specialty store where Taylor shops.
“People are seeking a better diet for themselves, and that thinking naturally transfers to their pets,” explains Pizano. “We are realizing that spending a little more money on our pets’ food can easily equal less vet bills.”
St. Louis shoppers’ trends fall right in line with a recent national survey conducted by Purina Pro Plan Selects, a natural pet food offering from St. Louis-based Nestle Purina PetCare Co. According to the survey, 90 percent of those surveyed said that when shopping for themselves, they always try to purchase foods with the most health benefits. And fully 82 percent look for foods with the most wholesome ingredients to feed their pets.
Natural pet food is now an emerging market in St. Louis. But when Matt Brazelton and Jeff Jensen opened their natural pet specialty store in Soulard in 1994, the concept of natural food for pets wasn’t such an easy sell.
“We actually had to educate many of our customers about why natural pet foods are better for their pets,” explains Brazelton, co-owner of Four Muddy Paws. He and Jensen had to share their deep-rooted belief that pet food should be made with hormone-free meat as the first ingredient, minimal and easily digestible grains and wholesome organic ingredients like fruits and vegetables.
For many of those who may not have initially been sold on natural pet food, last year’s melamine contamination scare was the tipping point. When more than 5,300 pet food products were recalled, pet owners were shocked to learn that so many major pet food brands out-sourced their manufacturing to one gigantic Canadian company. The news sent millions of pet owners scrambling for a safer solution. Natural pet food seemed to offer that.
“I like that the food we feed now is made by smaller companies,” says pet owner Jennifer Utter. “I feel like there is more control over the quality of the ingredients.”
Utter and her husband Eric, owners of Soulard Pet Sitters, are big believers in natural pet foods. So much so, they recommend them to their clients. The Utters made the move to natural after hearing Pizano’s compelling argument about the poor quality of the ingredients found in some of the pet foods that line grocery store shelves.
Pet food giant Nestle Purina, best known for the grocery channel products Dog Chow and Cat Chow, also has its hand in the natural pet food market, and some of them are even available in the grocery aisle. In pet specialty stores, Purina has expanded its successful Pro Plan Selects pet food line, made with real meat as the first ingredients, with wholesome ingredients like sweet potatoes and carrots and without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Taylor, however, still isn’t buying it.
“I won’t buy myself food manufactured by (Nestle),” she says. “Therefore, I wouldn’t feed it to my dogs.”
That point is not lost on the decision makers at Nestle Purina. Their Pet Promise brand natural pet food, available at Whole Foods, has the statements “no animal byproducts,” “no antibiotic-fed protein” and “no added growth hormones” on the front of the bag. But Taylor won’t find the words Nestle or Purina anywhere on the package.
P.Richelle White is a St. Louis-based freelance writer and co-owner of Herb’n Maid (herbnmaid.com). You can e-mail her at herbnliving@herbnmaid.com.
