0:00

This is The Guardian. Florence

0:33

Myamelade came to me on a chilly

0:36

winter's night last year. A

0:38

one-year-old orange tabby with a little pink

0:40

nose, she arrived at my door in

0:42

London after travelling for three days in

0:45

a van with 30 dogs across continental

0:47

Europe. She brought

0:49

with her an EU pet passport,

0:51

a soiled pink blanket, and a

0:53

penchant for snuggling into any available

0:55

lap. Growing

0:58

up, I had a dog, a husky, a goldfish

1:01

that jumped out of its bowl, and

1:03

a clutch of gerbils that refused to

1:05

stop procreating. But those had all

1:07

been family pets. The arrival

1:10

of Florence, or Lady Myamelade, as

1:12

she shall be addressed by her

1:14

lessors, marked the first time in

1:16

my life that I had a small creature

1:18

entirely dependent upon me for her wellbeing. And

1:21

like so many pet owners before me, her

1:24

wellbeing became my fixation. During

1:28

her time on the streets of Vaslui in

1:30

Romania, Florence's teeth had come

1:32

loose. By the time

1:34

she reached me, she had none. Her

1:37

foster mother, who cared for Florence in

1:39

Romania until she left for London, assured

1:42

me that she still had a healthy

1:44

appetite and could sustain herself

1:46

on kibble, dry compound

1:49

food, albeit the kind made

1:51

for kittens. And

1:53

she seemed to like it. She

1:55

came to us at least a kilo overweight,

1:58

her pouch swaying whenever she wanted. whenever she

2:00

trotted into the room. But

2:03

I couldn't stop worrying about her little

2:05

pink gums, which she flashed at

2:07

us every time she chirped or squeaked for

2:09

our attention. If

2:11

I had no teeth, I wondered, would

2:14

I enjoy gumming down hard-baked pellets

2:16

for every meal? Or

2:18

would I prefer some of that soft

2:20

wet mix that in pet food

2:22

commercials, you see getting spooned

2:24

so alluringly onto pristine white plates?

2:29

Most pets once got by on little

2:31

more than table scraps, and

2:33

whatever extra they could hunt or

2:35

scavenge. Today, things

2:37

are different. The love

2:39

humans have for their pets, combined

2:42

with capitalism's eagerness to exploit our

2:44

every desire and anxiety, means

2:46

pets can now eat better than their owners

2:49

do. As

2:51

a pet owner, the sheer level of

2:53

consumer choice can be overwhelming. Curms

2:56

like complete and nutritionally balanced

2:58

shout out at you from

3:00

brightly colored packaging in the pet food aisle

3:03

of the supermarket. In

3:06

adverts, hearty-looking dogs sprint in

3:08

slow motion toward kibble cascading

3:10

into bulls. On

3:13

social media, targeted posts barrage

3:15

me with warnings about meat

3:17

meal and ash content while

3:19

pushing the latest curated pet food delivery service.

3:23

Our pets are more than just animals to

3:25

us, and the $150 billion, 120 billion pound global

3:27

pet food industry has risen up to cash in on that.

3:42

One of the world's centers for pet food innovation

3:44

is located on the site of an old horse

3:46

farm, deep in

3:48

the rolling green fields of the British Midlands.

3:52

The Waltham Pet Care Science Institute

3:54

in Melton, Mowbray is the science arm

3:56

of Mars Pet Care, a leading company

3:58

in the pet food industry. The

4:01

research that takes place there determines the

4:03

future products of dozens of pet food

4:05

brands. Iams, Caesar,

4:08

Whiskas, Sheba, James Well

4:10

Beloved, Pedigree, Yukonuba,

4:12

and more. About

4:16

a third of the staff at Walsam work in

4:18

its research labs. The other

4:20

two thirds are dedicated to feeding,

4:22

training, exercising, and maintaining the living

4:24

spaces of the real stars of

4:27

the show, the 200 dogs and

4:29

200 cats that live at

4:31

Walsam and test the products developed there.

4:34

The 200 dogs belong to four

4:37

different breeds chosen to represent different

4:39

canine sizes. Labradors

4:41

for big dogs, Beagles for

4:43

medium, and Norfolk Terriers and

4:45

Petite Baset Gréphon Von Dians for

4:48

small dogs. Almost

4:50

all the cats on site are domestic short

4:52

hairs, but the odd long hair can also

4:54

be found. When

4:57

I arrived at Walsam one overcast day last

4:59

summer, I found cats lounging

5:01

in their outdoor catios, gazing out

5:04

over swaths of manicured lawn, or

5:06

shimmying up scratch trees. Labradors

5:09

of every hue chased balls in play areas

5:12

and walked on leaves with their handlers. The

5:15

animals live in state-of-the-art facilities. The

5:18

dogs have heated squares for sleeping and

5:20

bunked two to a room to prevent

5:22

loneliness. The cats have

5:24

specially designed climbing nests that look

5:27

like spiral staircases. All

5:29

the animals can access the outdoors from their

5:31

living quarters. The

5:34

dogs are well trained in the arts of

5:36

sitting still, lying flat, and

5:39

chin to hand, placing their snouts

5:41

onto the waiting hand of the person in front

5:43

of them, all of which

5:45

aid the various checkups and observations they

5:47

undergo. Some of

5:49

these observations require the dogs to

5:51

be absolutely still, which is

5:53

no small feat. Have

5:55

you ever tried to get a Labrador

5:58

to stop wagging its tail? Leslie Beacon,

6:00

Welcome behavior and training lead asked dryly.

6:04

Amid all the training, playing,

6:06

tongue lolling, and tail wagging,

6:09

these cats and dogs are hard at work.

6:12

Each day, they eat two meals,

6:14

and from there, teams of

6:17

behaviorists, statisticians, and nutritionists study

6:20

how they respond to the food. Each

6:23

bull is protected with a cat slap,

6:25

activated by a specific animal's microchip,

6:28

so each dog or cat can freely

6:30

access its own food but cannot eat

6:33

food meant for another animal. The

6:36

bulls are equipped with electronic balances,

6:38

so researchers can track things like

6:40

how fast the animals ate their food or

6:43

if they paused during eating. Like

6:46

professional athletes, these dogs and

6:48

cats wear monitors that track their vitals.

6:51

All of them have had their

6:53

DNA sequenced, and their quarters are

6:55

under video surveillance, with staff closely

6:57

monitoring them for any variations in

6:59

behavior or appetite. All

7:03

the animals are slated for adoption once they

7:05

begin to show signs that they're done with

7:07

product testing. Most pets

7:09

end up going home with the staff and scientists

7:11

who have grown attached to them. To

7:14

prepare them for the outside world, the

7:16

dogs play fetch and go on walks

7:18

at onsite parks designed with a series

7:21

of different textures—woodchips, brick, pebbles—so

7:24

they won't get spooked when they encounter them off

7:26

campus. When Scott

7:28

McGrain, one of the research managers at

7:30

Waltham, took home a cat named Joey

7:32

ten years ago, he found

7:35

that Joey was a bit perplexed

7:37

by the television. The

7:39

cat's socialization rooms now contain TVs,

7:41

and on the day I visited

7:43

Waltham, the cats were watching Wimbledon.

7:48

This all may seem a bit much for animals known

7:51

to eat their own feces, but

7:53

they're a good business reason for this

7:55

astonishing attention to detail. The

7:58

bowl of kibble or wet mix placed in

8:00

front of pets each day

8:02

is the end result of

8:04

months, if not years, of

8:06

research and experimentation into pet

8:08

nutrition, food chemistry, and veterinary

8:10

science. And it is

8:13

this process that companies believe will give

8:15

them the edge in the increasingly

8:17

lucrative world of pet food. When

8:24

Waltham opened its first nutritional facility

8:26

in the UK in 1960, the commercial pet

8:30

food industry was about 100 years old. Before

8:34

the mid-19th century, household pets survived

8:37

mostly on table scraps, while

8:39

working animals received heartier fare.

8:42

For the fluffy white toy dogs who acted as

8:45

status symbols for the rich, the

8:47

16th century French court employed a

8:49

Boulanger de Petite Chamblant, a

8:51

baker whose job was specifically baking bread

8:54

for these pooches. Then

8:57

came James Spratt, an

8:59

American electrician and lightning rod salesman in

9:01

England. He was horrified to

9:04

see malnourished dogs at the docks

9:06

surviving on the sailors' leftover hard

9:08

tack, the dense, tasteless

9:10

biscuits taken on long-sea

9:12

voyages specifically for their

9:14

durability. In

9:17

the early 1860s, he launched

9:19

the patented Spratt's Meat Fibrine

9:21

Dog Cakes, a mixture

9:24

of wheat meal, vegetables, beetroot,

9:26

and beef blood, thus

9:28

inventing the commercial pet food industry.

9:32

From the beginning, Spratt advertised his

9:34

Meat Fibrine Cakes as the food

9:36

of show dogs, animals

9:38

with sleek coats, in peak health and

9:41

form. The association

9:43

was already there. Their

9:45

dog will be the best because of what it

9:47

eats. Following

9:50

Spratt's success, others began their own

9:52

ventures into pet food, which they

9:54

marketed to the growing middle class.

9:57

In 1922, Ken L. Rush introduced

10:00

canned dog food in the US, largely

10:03

made of horse meat. Canned

10:06

pet food became the norm until the rationing

10:08

of tin during the Second World War forced

10:10

the industry to look for alternatives. The

10:13

result was dry pet food, which

10:16

had a longer shelf life and could be left

10:18

out in bowls overnight. In 1956,

10:21

Purina reformulated its core brand, dog

10:24

chow, as a dry kibble, the

10:26

first of its kind. Cibble

10:28

has dominated the industry ever since.

10:33

Waltham opened at a time when veterinarians

10:35

in the UK were seeing a lot

10:37

of dogs and cats with vitamin D

10:39

deficiencies and rickets. The

10:41

center has always focused on nutrition, and

10:43

it was at Waltham that scientists made

10:45

a number of discoveries that have shaped

10:47

the composition of pet food throughout the

10:49

world. It's possible you've

10:52

spotted a chicory root or chicory extract on

10:54

the ingredient list of some pet food or

10:56

another. That came about

10:58

after Waltham researchers demonstrated in 1997 the

11:00

prebiotic digestion benefits

11:04

of the nutrient-dense fiber. All

11:07

cat food now includes taurine, an

11:10

amino acid critical for heart function,

11:12

vision, and digestion that cats

11:14

cannot produce naturally. And

11:17

it was at Waltham in the

11:19

1980s that researchers determined the levels

11:21

required in dry and wet food.

11:24

This research extends beyond mere

11:27

nutrition. In the

11:29

1990s, MARA scientists developed the first

11:31

nutritional supplement to make dog farts

11:33

less odorous. And today,

11:35

a major part of the research

11:37

at Waltham is about how to make healthy

11:40

food actually taste good to pets. If

11:43

they won't eat it, they won't get

11:45

the nutrients they need. Darren Logan, Vice

11:47

President of Research at the MARA's Advanced

11:49

Research Institute and Global Food Safety Center,

11:52

told me, nutritional

12:00

value, but it entices you to

12:02

finish your meal. In

12:06

2005, welcome scientists, in conjunction with

12:08

the Manel Chemical Census Center in

12:11

Philadelphia, discovered that cats

12:13

do not have taste receptors for sugar.

12:16

They tend to go for umami

12:18

and kokumi, a taste of

12:21

fullness and richness that flavor scientists

12:23

purport to be the sixth taste after

12:26

sweet, salty, sour, bitter,

12:28

and umami. Cats,

12:30

as it turns out, have a

12:32

very similar palate to what Asian

12:35

cuisine is based around, said Logan.

12:38

While Mars can't go into detail about

12:40

how that information translates into the products

12:42

you see on supermarket shelves, the

12:45

flavor profiles that the team at Waltham

12:47

came up with have recently found their

12:49

way into the worldwide Whiskers brand. The

12:53

enthusiasm of the Waltham cats and

12:55

dogs as they eat a given

12:57

product provides crucial data, but

13:00

taste research goes far beyond

13:02

this. Taste

13:04

receptors are encoded in DNA, which

13:06

means that scientists can use a

13:08

particular animal's DNA sequence to see

13:10

which flavors it will respond to.

13:14

As with humans, dogs and

13:16

cats' palates vary. Building

13:18

individual taste profiles offer answers

13:20

when some pets don't respond well

13:23

to certain foods. If

13:25

only one or two cats out of a

13:27

panel of 40 seem to dislike what they're

13:29

tasting, researchers can look at

13:31

their taste profiles and determine which specific

13:33

flavor in the product is causing the

13:36

cat's aversion. The goal

13:38

isn't to develop a food that will please

13:40

every cat, but one that will

13:42

appeal to most. For

13:45

pets as well as humans, there are elements

13:47

other than taste that contribute to the enjoyment

13:50

of a meal. Texture,

13:52

consistency, appearance, temperature,

13:54

and aroma. main

14:00

role at Waltham is to smell. The

14:03

majority of her sniffing is done in

14:05

front of a gas chromatograph that isolates

14:08

the individual's sense coming from the pet

14:10

food in order to build an aroma

14:12

profile. The

14:15

day I visited, she handed me a

14:17

small container and asked me to describe

14:19

the smell. I

14:21

would describe it as dog

14:23

food, I said tentatively. It smelled

14:27

of dry kibble. She

14:29

laughed. Potato, she said.

14:32

Starch! Grondinger's

14:35

job is to note which smell is

14:37

the strongest in each pet food recipe.

14:41

She can't say for sure how a cat

14:43

or dog will perceive any given smell, but

14:46

researchers believe that the relative strength

14:48

of each part of the aroma

14:50

is similar between people and pets.

14:53

The notes that smell strongest to a grondinger

14:55

are typically the ones that are further researched

14:57

for their appeal to cats and dogs. The

15:02

research done in the labs at Waltham

15:04

then goes to the recipe formulators at

15:06

the Innovation Centers who produce

15:08

a new flavor formulation. This

15:11

formulation then goes back to Waltham for testing

15:13

on the dogs and cats. If

15:16

the pets respond positively, the company's

15:18

corporate teams assess the feasibility of

15:20

producing that formulation on a large

15:22

scale and figure out which

15:24

of Mars' numerous brands should produce it.

15:27

These brands are located throughout the

15:29

world and different regions have different

15:32

preferences. Some

15:34

countries like dry food, some like good

15:36

food, and Japanese markets are

15:39

very different from North American and

15:41

South American markets, Logan said. The

15:44

formulations also have to change according to

15:47

what is and isn't available at any

15:49

given moment. your

16:00

ingredients. All

16:03

this means that it can take years for

16:05

a recipe to go from passing testing at

16:07

Waltham to being stocked on

16:10

supermarket shelves. Thanks

16:17

for listening to the Guardian Long Read. The

16:19

story continues right after this. Welcome

16:24

back to the Guardian Long Read. Protein

16:33

is at the heart of the pet food industry.

16:36

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning

16:39

that they must have meat, and

16:41

their dogs have evolved into omnivore

16:43

scavengers. They also require

16:45

protein-rich diets. But

16:48

for the products that dominate the

16:50

industry, no animal is actually slaughtered

16:53

solely for pet food. We've

16:55

always been, as an industry, a kind

16:58

of reuse and recycling mechanism to deal

17:00

with excess in the human food chain,

17:03

said Michael Bellingham, the chief executive

17:05

of the Industry Association UK

17:07

Pet Food. If you

17:09

look at an animal that you're going to eat, you're

17:12

not going to use all of it. Our

17:15

industry uses those materials in a

17:17

constructive way. Worked

17:19

and processed organ meat and bones, all

17:22

of which still retains nutritional value for the

17:25

pet, are the main

17:27

components of pet food and appear

17:29

on ingredient lists as animal byproducts.

17:34

But there are those who say our

17:36

pets deserve better than our leftovers. These

17:39

are the raw food evangelists, owners

17:42

and pet companies who argue that we should

17:44

go back to feeding dogs and cats what

17:46

they ate in the wild, chiefly

17:49

a mix of raw meat and bone.

17:52

Raw food fans denounce kibble as

17:54

junk food and equate it to

17:56

eating McDonald's every day. Imagine

18:00

getting optimal nutrition from one

18:02

bag of food your entire

18:05

life, wrote Dr. Karen

18:07

Shaw-Becker and Rodney Habib in their book,

18:09

The Forever Dog, surprising new science

18:12

to help your canine companion

18:14

live younger, healthier, and longer.

18:17

Sound impossible? It is. This

18:21

perspective is becoming increasingly popular.

18:24

In the UK, the raw pet food sector has

18:26

grown by about 20% in the past year, and

18:30

is now worth about 200 million

18:32

pounds, around 5% of

18:34

the UK sector as a whole. The

18:38

concept began gaining popularity in

18:40

the 1990s, when an

18:42

Australian veterinarian, Ian Billinghurst,

18:44

introduced it as the Barf

18:47

Diet, Biologically Appropriate

18:49

Raw Food, or Bones

18:51

and Raw Food. Proponents

18:54

of raw feeding tend to be critical

18:57

of the modern pet food industry, and

18:59

the power of its major companies. In

19:03

addition to producing food, companies

19:05

such as Mars fund a number of

19:07

veterinary schools and clinics, which,

19:10

raw food advocates claim, push the

19:12

company's products on trainee, vets, and

19:14

pet owners, regardless of pet

19:16

health. When any

19:19

of our veterinary professionals provide nutrition

19:21

advice, they have the freedom

19:23

to recommend the best product for that

19:25

pet, regardless of brand. Said

19:28

a spokesperson for Linnaeus, a veterinary

19:30

group that's part of Mars Veterinary

19:32

Health. Many

19:35

owners claim that switching their pets

19:37

to raw food has given them

19:39

more energy, made their coats shinier,

19:42

and resulted in healthy, non-messy bowel

19:44

movements. But scientists

19:46

at places like Nestle Purina

19:48

maintain that there is no

19:50

scientific evidence that raw

19:52

meat diets provide any specific health

19:55

benefits. Instead,

19:58

these companies have warned again. against

20:00

the dangers of raw feeding and

20:02

possibly exposing your pet to salmonella

20:04

or E. coli. In

20:07

turn, raw feeding companies and owners

20:09

point at the number of recalls

20:11

of processed pet foods in recent years.

20:15

Jonathan Self, who has been feeding his various

20:17

dogs raw food for 17 years,

20:20

launched Honey's Real Dog Food in 2009. A

20:25

former livestock farmer who went vegetarian

20:27

after struggling to slaughter his pigs.

20:30

He understands that though he may not

20:32

need meat to survive, his dogs

20:34

do. I made

20:37

a trip out to Honey's a few months

20:39

after my Waltham visit. Situated

20:41

on the site of an old fish processing

20:43

plant in the countryside of West London, the

20:47

company has no team of highly studied

20:49

cats and dogs. Almost whichever

20:51

of the staff's dogs decided to accompany

20:53

their owners into work that day. Before

20:57

the pandemic and remote work, six

21:00

or seven dogs could be found trotting

21:02

about Honey's offices above the processing room

21:04

on an average day. When

21:07

I visited, however, it was just

21:09

blue, a one-year-old border collie

21:11

belonging to the general manager. In

21:15

the processing room, heaps of raw lamb

21:17

ribs sat in vats, tinging

21:19

the refrigerator chilled air with

21:22

the rich metallic scent of blood.

21:25

The processing typically takes about five

21:27

hours. Lamb takes longer than

21:29

that because the bones are harder. Three

21:33

staff members were overseeing the processing of

21:35

almost three tons of food. The

21:38

meat went into the mincer, bone

21:40

and all, along with carrots, parsnips,

21:42

and a leafy green. From

21:45

there, the meat, bone, and vegetable

21:47

blend went into the mixer, then

21:49

into the casing machine that shaped

21:51

the mixture into a sausage-like package.

21:55

The package is frozen before being

21:57

shipped to customers. Honey's

22:00

pork comes from the organic

22:02

pig firmer down the road and

22:05

its goat meat from the Gourmet

22:07

Goat Farm in Norfolk, Silsford. The

22:10

average honey's customer spends 70 to 80

22:12

pounds a month on pet food, in

22:15

comparison with the 43 pounds a month

22:17

spent by the average British household. Honey's

22:20

is by no means the priciest raw

22:22

food option. If your pet

22:25

is large and you choose one of the more

22:27

expensive brands, you could find yourself spending in excess

22:29

of 300 pounds a month. That

22:33

sum doesn't include the treats and

22:35

supplements that some owners add to

22:37

their pets raw food bowls. On

22:40

social media, you can see

22:42

pet food influencers garnishing their offerings

22:45

with quail eggs, freeze-dried

22:47

organ meat, green-lipped mussels

22:49

and smelt. Silsford

22:53

admits that Honey's clientele includes

22:55

a royal and some well-known

22:57

actors, but the company

22:59

also serves pensioners and manual workers who

23:01

don't have high incomes. They're

23:04

often feeding their dogs better than they're

23:06

feeding themselves, in my opinion, Silsford said.

23:13

Soon after her arrival, I brought

23:15

Florence Miamile to a vet, who

23:17

voiced some concerns about the impact kibble

23:19

would have on her gums. A

23:22

different vet told us not to worry. If

23:25

she enjoyed kibble, we should continue giving it

23:27

to her. But by then, I

23:30

had become the sort of neurotic owner

23:32

who regularly Googled phrases like, Is

23:35

my cat depressed? or Cat

23:37

ears cold? Is cat sick? It

23:40

didn't help that whenever I told raw feeding

23:42

advocates that I fed my cat kibble, they

23:45

would respond with some variation of, Oh,

23:48

you mustn't blame yourself. I

23:51

began searching for an affordable wet food Florence

23:54

would like. I

23:56

started Florence on whiskers, which she seemed

23:58

to like well enough. She

24:01

finished her morning and evening bowls that first

24:03

day. The next

24:05

day, she took about two bites

24:07

and walked away. I

24:10

think she doesn't like the fish flavor,

24:12

I told my husband. I

24:15

gave her only the chicken flavor. She

24:17

started sticking her paw into the bowl and

24:20

flicking bits of it onto the floor. Maybe

24:24

it's the brand, I said, and

24:26

changed her over to a more expensive mix,

24:29

which she left in the bowl until it hardened

24:31

and congealed. I

24:34

had discussed with self whether I could try

24:36

Florence on honeys, but we realized that

24:38

without teeth, she wouldn't be able to get through

24:40

the bits of bone. I

24:43

remembered the pet influencers whose reels I

24:45

had watched on Instagram, but I

24:47

was unable to afford the delicacies they served

24:49

up. I settled on

24:52

a small pouch of powdered bone broth

24:54

and soaked Florence's kibble in it, but

24:57

it was no good. The broth-soaked

24:59

kibble sat there uneaten, attracting

25:02

flies. It

25:05

was hard for me to not project my

25:07

own experiences onto my cat. I

25:10

try not to eat overly processed food,

25:12

nor do I enjoy eating the same thing

25:15

every day. Why would she?

25:18

Yet here was my weird little toothless

25:20

cat who just seems to

25:22

love kibble. Frustrated,

25:26

I recalled the meal I made Florence on the

25:28

day she arrived. Boiled

25:31

chicken breast, hand-torn into

25:33

tiny digestible pieces. She

25:36

had licked the bowl clean. With

25:39

that meal, I had been telling her

25:41

I could take care of her. I

25:44

could make her happy. Remembering

25:46

that chicken and the satisfaction

25:48

I felt watching Florence eat it, I

25:51

began to understand my mother's compulsion

25:54

to serve me plate after plate

25:56

of hand-wrapped dumplings even

25:58

when I'm close to bursting. A

26:02

person can let you know directly what food

26:04

they like and why. Not

26:06

so a cat. Florence

26:09

cannot tell me that she prefers

26:11

to graze rather than eat big

26:13

meals. Something I

26:15

only realized somewhere between the second and

26:17

third wet food bombs we tried. Nor

26:20

can she tell me that she actually enjoys the

26:22

feel of the kibble on her gums, a

26:25

theory I've been running with for the past few

26:27

months. So we've

26:29

gone back to kibble, though in the morning I

26:31

give her a bowl of hand shredded boiled chicken

26:34

as well. She'd be

26:36

happy with just kibble. I know this now.

26:39

Even so, every morning I carefully

26:41

shred another chicken breast. Just

26:44

in case. Thanks

26:51

again for listening to the Guardian Longread.

26:54

That was 200 Cats, 200 Dogs, 1 Lab. The

26:58

Secrets of the Pet Food Industry by Vivian

27:00

Ho. Read by

27:02

Jinia Cheng and produced by Nicola

27:04

Alexandru. The executive producer

27:06

was Ellie Beery. For

27:11

more Guardian Longreads in text and a

27:14

selection in audio, go

27:16

to theguardian.com/longread.