Month: October 2013

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Are There Safe Dog Treats Anymore?

About a year ago, I was devastated to find out the my dog’s favorite treat in the whole world, chicken jerky, was killing dogs. We found out that the treats were being made in China and the Chinese were adding something to the treats and other pet food that was poison to dogs. Everyone looked to the FDA to find out what was going on and to stop it, but the FDA didn’t seemed to worry about it, as it was dogs being poisoned, not humans.

Everyone eventually stopped buying the chicken jerky treats and passing the word along to other pet owners about the thousands of dog deaths and the stores stopped selling it. Notably, WalMart was one of the very last retailers to stop carrying the poisoned dog treats. That kinda pisses me off in itself. WalMart should have been the first to raise hell with the Chinese and make them clean up their act. But, no.

I have now become suspicious of any dog food or dog treat that is not made in the USA. I was OK with the fact that dog treats are made from the less desirable parts of the animals and that it was not human grade food going into the pet food and treats. But poison? No.

Have you found any dog treats that are made in the USA and are similar to the chicken jerky treats that we used to buy? I have seen some knock offs, but they are lying on the label, saying they are made in the USA when they are actually just packaged here. The poisoned dog treats are just being put in different packaging and using deceptive wording on the label to make you believe that they are not made in China. I’m too smart to fall for that bull shit.

I have money I am willing to spend on an American made, safe dog treat. Why isn’t someone making them and selling them?

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Apple Harvest Season

Everywhere I look there are apples being sold, as October is the middle of apple harvest season. The roadside stands are full of them, the local orchards are advertising everywhere, and the grocery stores have many varieties in the produce section – all begging to be taken home to someone’s kitchen and cooked.

I like to eat an apple just out of hand rather than cooking them into something fattening. Let’s face it, most recipes that include apples also include butter, sugar and flour. Why add all that fat and cholesterol to something that tastes great right off the tree?

My favorite apple variety is still the Red Delicious Apple. This is the apple that I grew up with – my mom kept a bowl of apples on the kitchen table as a centerpiece and we were encouraged to eat an apple any time we ran in the house and complained of being hungry.

I heard that Johnny Depp lost about 100 pounds for a movie role by eating nothing but apples and drinking nothing but coffee every day for about 4 months. I find it interesting that the apple was considered healthy enough to replace all food for that long a period of time. He seems to have suffered no ill effects from starving his body like that for the movie role.