OK since Bob didn't have any emails telling him not to pick on kibble,
here's a partial complaint on behalf of pet food companies, not that I am
that eager to defend them.
 
The AAFCO definitions of chicken, chicken by-product and chicken meal, for
example, make it hard to companies to completely define what they are using.
I recently saw these definitions, but can't track them down now, so this is
a rough example.  "Chicken" is flesh only, "by-product" includes organ
meats, skin, feathers, etc (but maybe not bone?), "meal" I think can contain
bone, but not feet or feathers (again, not sure).  But the point is, any of
these can contain flesh.  However, for example if you do include organ meat,
you MUST call it by-product, if any bone is ground in, it must be meal.
 
Thus the premium pet food companies argue that their chicken by-product is
really a high quality food, with lots of real flesh and organ meats, and a
minimal amount of what we would consider yucky bits.  Of course, we the
purchasers of the food, have no real idea just what we are getting for our
beloved pets, but it MAY not be as bleak as Bob implies.
 
Just remember, you get what you pay for, so look more closely at that $1 per
pound product than the $3 per pound premium stuff.
 
Linda Iroff
North Coast Ferret Shelter West
"The Raisin Retreat"
http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html
[Posted in FML issue 2316]