CONSUMING INTERES I
Dog's Breakfast
By LESLIE ADRIAN
The Petfood canine cans that I identified were Pal (another bingo offer on this label), 'liver rich' Lassie, 'pedigree' Chum, and Chappie. Prices and weights, respectively, Is. Id. for 7 oz., 111d. for 71 oz., Is. 114d. for 131 oz. and is. 3d. for 151 oz. Did someone say something about the difficulty of matching odd prices with odd weights? On the crudest calculation, I would offer Chappie as the bargain food for dogs (or cats) on its price/weight ratio alone. Oddly enough, as I remarked in this column some years ago, cats like dog food and dogs like meat.
But what the label says is not the whole of the story. In his 1964 report, the Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures for the Isle of Ely County Council commented that out of a sample of seven pet foods submitted for analysis there was a strong emphasis on the labels that the contents of the tins were 'all meat' and 'con- centrated meat,' but that four had failed to live up to their claims. As a result, two manufac- turers amended their descriptions, one put up a
legalistic battle but gave way in the long run, and the fourth was prosecuted under the Mer- chandise Marks Act for a false trade description.
Which? went to the trouble of working out whether it was cheaper to feed your pet out of tins or to give the deserving creature fresh food. A 20 lb. dog eating about 1 lb. of food a day costs Is. 8d. to feed with meat, milk and biscuits (though our family dog never drank milk, which would pare the cost by 2d.), while a bow-wow living on Chappie, biscuits and milk would add a mere Is. 34d. to the family budget (all prices about five years out of date, be it remembered). Nota bene, no scraps from the pet-owner's table are fitted into the equation, which consequently takes on a slightly unrealistic look. And, of course, opening a can is a lot less trouble than boiling fish heads or begging bones off the family butcher.
The fact remains that none of us can tell what's in the can, even if the pets don't gobble up the last one-eighth of an ounce. What does the Spratt's Top Cat label mean when it says, 'Con- tains lean meat, fresh fish and cereal'? No pro- portions are given. Though Scottish Animal Products are more definite with Kattomeat: 'All meat and liver with vitaminised gravy.' John Morrell of Liverpool, with Red Heart's 'balanced diet containing fish, meat and liver enriched with cod liver oil,' implies a complete absence of cereal. Spiller's Choosy admits pearl barley to its formula and lyricises about 'A unique recipe containing white fish and herring fresh from the sea, nutritious liver,' etc. etc.
Parting thought : cats are so much more fussy than dogs when it comes to diet, especially as they get older, that I would like to patent a special canned food for ageing, aristocratic moggies under the name Aristo-Cat. On the label: 'Contains traces of caviare, smoked salmon and lobster tails, double cream, pâté de grives and carrot juice, so that your failing feline may continue seeing in the dark until a really ripe old age.'
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