To most people, the concept of prepared pet food makes perfect sense and they don't question it for a second. Pets eat pet food and people eat people food. Well, that wasn't always the case. In truth, extruded pet food pellets as we know them today aren't quite 50 years old.
Before the advent of pet foods, most dogs and cats lived off of grains, meats, table scraps and homemade food from their owners. It wasn't until the mid-1800's that the world saw its first food made specifically for dogs. An American electrician, James Spratt concocted the first dog treat. Living in London at the time, he witnessed dogs around a ship yard eating scraps of discarded biscuits. A light bulb went off in his head and shortly thereafter he introduced his dog food, made up of wheat meals, vegetables and meat. His company flourished and by 1890 he was taken over by a large corporation and production had begun in the United States as well.
But it wasn't until the early 1900's that pet food really caught on. Canned horse meat was introduced in the United States under the Ken-L-Ration brand after WWI as a means to dispose of deceased horses. The 1930's saw the introduction of canned cat food and dry meat-meal dog food by the Gaines Food Co. During WWII metal used for cans was set aside for the war effort, which nearly ruined the canned pet food industry. But by the time WWII ended, pet food was off and running again, and sales had reached $200 million. For companies such as Nabisco, Quaker Oats, and General Foods, pet food represented an opportunity to market by-products as a profitable source of income. The number one benefit was convenience, and with the economy booming, people could now afford the luxury of pet food. At first, canned pet food was the primary type sold, but by 1956 the first extruded pet foods were hitting store shelves. Extrusion is the process by which pet foods are formed into pellets, and then sprayed with synthetic nutrients to compensate for nutrition lost during processing.
Success continued throughout the 60's and 70's as companies began to diversify flavors and refine the extrusion technology. The 80's saw the introduction of ailment-specific diets such as those offered by Hill's Pet Nutrition. Around the same time, our company was first established. In 1985 Sojourner Farms was launched as an attempt to set aside technology and simplify pet food to resemble simple, real food like those which humans eat (in addition to our all natural dog treats). Since then, many "innovations" have been introduced by other companies including natural pet foods, semi-moist, vacuum-packed, frozen, freeze-dried, and breed-specific pet foods. The pet food industry has grown to $15 billion in annual sales, dominated by multi-national corporations such as Heinz and Nestle. Ironically, as a result of dog health problems we're now seeing a trend toward natural, holistic, raw, and yes, homemade, human-quality pet foods– not too different from the type of foods folks fed their pets before pet food ever existed.
