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Posts Tagged ‘Holistic Blend’
Cruelty-free pet food
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
A few years ago, I moved to a different neighbourhood and had to find a new source for healthy cat food and bio pet supplies within walking distance. The pickings were slim and I was relegated to checking the options at the grocery store. That’s where I found Iams. Okay, I thought; affordable food, close to home, and by a well-known, reliable pet food company that really loves my kitties. I knew this last part, of course, because that is what the Iams people have been telling me for years in their commercials. As it turns out, they might love my kitties but other cats and dogs… not so much.
By some bizarre coincidence – happenstance, perhaps, serendipity or divine intervention – I found myself researching something on PETA’s website mere days after my Iams discovery at the grocery store. There, on the home page, ready and waiting to capture my attention, a story about Iams’ “policy” of caging dogs and cats and turning them into guinea pigs (see www.iamscruelty.com). As it turns out, they are not the only ones. Pet food companies routinely use confined animals to test their products or lend them out to laboratories for experimentation. This discovery led me on a search for cat food that was not only healthy, but also cruelty-free.
Luckily, there is a growing market for ethical pet products, including a great find: Holistic Blend. A family-owned, Canadian company from Mississauga that set out to change the pet food industry 15 years ago, its motto is “If we can’t eat it, why should our pets?” They offer grain-free, wheat-free, low carb, high protein options for cats and dogs, as well as treats, supplements and alternative aids for a variety of pet-problems, such as hairballs, anxiety, diabetes and bad breath.
It is a sad fact that there has to be a distinction for cruelty-free animal products. Fortunately, Holistic Blend is just one of the many homegrown businesses that are striving to make our beloved pets as healthy as can be. Let us hope this will take a bite out of all the “Iamses” of the world.
About the writer: Sophie a freelance writer, proud mother of four exceptional cats and a strong believer in ethical consumerism, cannot claim any expertise (in ethical pet care or anything else) other than the knowledge she has acquired over the years, researching products and shopping for myself. She believes in buying fair trade products, supporting companies that do not test on animals, opting for the recycled-material options, encouraging independent retailers, and on, and on… In a nutshell, She’s just a girl trying to make the world a better place, one bag of cat food at a time. |
