The pet food industry is largely under regulated, most pet foods do not meet the basic requirements for our pets. Of note is the fact that cats are true carnivores, yet many cat foods use corn as a primary ingredient.

Imagine if one were to cut up leather boots, mix in some wood chips, and cover this with motor oil and put it in a can labeled “Dog Food”. You would not expect such a product to be approved.. and yet.. such a food would meet certain standards.

As a test a dog food was made up of leather boots to represent protein, motor oil to represent fat, and crushed coal to represent fiber. (Other tests also used boots, and motor oil, replacing coal with wood chips, or shavings) and water. Amazingly enough this food met the minimum standards as required by the pet food industry in the United States, having 10% protein, 6.5% fat, 2.4% fiber, and 68% moisture.

Dog owners must realize a few things when they are out shopping for a pet food. Firstly veterinarians are often not qualified as pet nutritionists. Veterinarians regularly recommend a pet food that they sell, and that was promoted to them for the purpose of allowing them to make some profit. Not all of the pet foods sold by veterinarians are good quality, some are even known to contain harmful ingredients (BHT, BHA, Ethoxyquin – used in by-products).

Dog Owners must realize that, at least in the United States, the quality standards as set by the AAFCO are relatively poor, allowing for foods that are not natural in a pet's diet to be used as cheap filler in pet foods. This is why some pet foods contain corn gluten meal, brewers rice, and other ingredients of low quality. It is even legal for pet food to contain euthanized pets (they would be listed as meatmeal on an ingredient list, which could be any dead mammal).

Many dog foods contain ingredients known to be common allergens, soy, corn, wheat, beef, and pork.

Some manufacturing companies own, and make, several brands of pet food. In some cases the ingredients are the same, the only difference being the shape of the kibble, and the bag. As well color dyes are added not for the benefit of the pet, but rather to appease the human who buys the pet food.

When shopping for dog food the picture on the bag is not important, how well your pet seems to like the food is not important (most will eat more food when its a poor quality food than when its a good one), price should not be important, the only factor that should matter is the ingredients list. It is worth noting that the lower quality pet foods are often the ones who do the most advertising, while the best pet foods are the ones who spend their money on quality ingredients.

Dog owners will note that feeding better foods typically means less shedding, fewer allergies, fewer health problems, and less mess in the back yard.

In the end, it is up to the consumer to learn to read the ingredient list on the side of the bag, or can, of dog food, before they end up buying a food that is leather boots, coal, and motor oil.