If it's been several years since you last visited a feed or pet store, you might want to prepare
yourself emotionally before you go again. It isn't for the faint of heart. The old standby
selection of bone-shaped rawhide dog treats that most of us remember have been
augmented in recent years by a host of exotic - and fairly grisly - delicacies. Most of us are
familiar with some of the more pedestrian of these - pig's ears and cattle hooves, for
instance - but those are just the tip of the iceberg. A display rack in a feed store today
might feature pig snouts, cattle noses, smoked pig hearts or even a beef shank - a entire
foreleg of a cow, complete with hoof, boxed and gift-wrapped for the holidays.
Looking around at all this stuff, the question arises - who is it all for? Is any of this
something that a dog would really want, or is it something that is geared
toward the dog's owner? Is there a sort of reverse marketing going on - a "This is
so disgusting that my dog just has to love it" sort of thing?
"No," says Sandy Sanel, "it's the dogs. Would you want any of this?"
Sanel is the owner of Sandy's Pet Nutrition Center in Concord, a health-food store for
pets. She says that so far as pet treats in general are concerned, the disgusting, meat-based
ones are pretty good. "We're pretty picky about what we bring in here," she says, "but if
it's an animal part, at least it's a natural part of a dog's diet. It's better than the plastic chew
toys which vets were recommending for years." She says that the idea behind the treats is
basically to give dogs something to do. "Dogs love to chew," she says. "They absolutely
need to chew - it relieves a lot of frustration. If you don't give a dog
something constructive to chew on like a toy or a treat, he's likely to go after your furniture.
The important thing is not to give your pet too many of them at a time. They are very rich
and your dog's system can't handle it if it's introduced all at once. It's best to let him chew
for short periods of time at first, until he gets used to it."
Sanel is amused by the variety of animal parts that have been marketed to pet owners over
the past few years. "Basically," she says, "they are selling all the parts of the animals that
they used to have to throw out or use in other things." She points out some of the more
dramatic treats in her store - pig ears (which are standard in most pet food outlets at this
point), smoked knuckle-bones, pig snouts and something called "Bully Sticks", which are...
well...hmmm... (what is the best way to describe them in a family paper?) - let's just say
that the steers from which the "Bully Sticks" came gave the last full measure of sacrifice.
The perfect treat though, according to Sanel is still a raw beef bone. "The marrow is still
in there," she says, "which the dogs love and if the bone is raw, it won't crack or splinter.
This is the sort of thing Nature designed your dog to eat ; think about it - there aren't any
ovens in the wild."
Sanel isn't the only one selling these types of treats. Stores all over the country carry them.
The animal parts business is very strong right now, says Kay Roach, a Sales Representative
for Merrick Pet Foods of Herford, Texas - one of the top producers of preserved animal
parts. "Sales are very good," she says. "Merrick has been producing this type of product
for 7 years now. We had tremendous growth for the first 4 years or so, but it has slowed
in the past few years - there has been a lot of competition as more people get into the
business, especially in the area of pig ears, which is just about the best seller. Our
company is still just about the biggest though - we probably have over 200 different types
of treats at this point. There are over 50 million dogs in the US and their owners love to
buy them treats. As Baby Boomers are aging and their own children leave the home,
they're pampering their pets more and more." Roach laughs. "I'm glad that business is so
good, but I have to admit that I don't understand it," she says. "I grew up on a farm and
the idea of babying a dog like that seems strange to me."
You only have to look at the displays in one of the large pet supply stores to see just
how good business is. Petco in Manchester has several aisles devoted to
preserved animal parts. As you walk in the door, you pass by a "pet bar" - a sort of salad
bar of doggie treats, which run the gamut from rawhide "chew flips" to bacon-flavored
pretzels and dog cookies which are indistinguishable from human ones (until, presumably
you bite into one in the dark, late some night.) The aisle directly behind this devoted
exclusively to rawhide toys and things like "braided beef" - unflavored jerky that has been
braided into pigtails. ("Pig tails?" you imagine a sales clerk asking. "Those are in aisle
Five.") There are large bins filled with pig ears - plain and smoked, and aisle after aisle of
economy packages of hooves, snouts and items too uncomfortable to contemplate. The
most amusing product has to be something called "Baa-baa-q". It comes in a package
similar to that of potato chips and shows a happy dog in an apron and chef's hat grilling
something on a hibachi. Only a very close examination of the back of the package
discloses what its one ingredient actually is.
