At this point in my investigative journey to decide what to feed my cats, the commercial, processed pet-food products were definitely not coming up roses — or even catnip. But let me state for the record that I don't think the manufacturers are purposely trying to harm our cats. I don't think there's a cigar-smoking executive sitting behind his desk (in a corner office with a big window) doing a Snidely Whiplash impression while chanting: "I'm going to hurt some kitties today," followed by evil laughter, of course. No, it's not that personal — it's just business. It's like any

The big, multinational pet food manufacturers — a subsidiary of our non sustainable and increasingly toxic agribusiness industry — and still far too many veterinarians, tell people not to feed their pets human food. "Dog food is for dogs, cat food for cats — all scientifically formulated and properly balanced for health and maintenance" is the constant refrain. What goes into manufactured pet foods of the kind that concerns us here are ingredients that food scientists and engineers have put together from the byproducts of the human food and beverage industries

The Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) published an article¹ in its November-December 2003 issue on salmonella in two cats fed a raw-meat diet. If you read the article closely, you'll see that both cats were unhealthy and, from my reading, were apparently not terribly well cared for. One was an unneutered (!?!) 14 year-old male with matted hair, lymphoplasmacytic infiltrates within the lamina propria (the connective tissue located just under the epithelial cells), mild pneumonia, and an ulcerated tongue. This cat had a history of weight