Pet owners go organic

CINCINNATI — Debra Tarter’s two-year-old boxer, Patchez, is just like a member of the family. That’s why the national recall of the dog food Patchez had been eating for two years prompted Tarter to switch to brands that cost twice as much, but contain organic and natural ingredients.

“My children are grown, and Patchez is our baby,” said Tarter, 55, of Cincinnati. “We would pay anything to keep her safe.”

And pay she does. Tarter, who has taken Patchez for tests to make sure her kidneys weren’t damaged by the recalled food, had been paying 84 cents a can for the recalled wet food she mixed with a dry food costing about $20 per 16-pound bag. Now she pays $1.69 a can and $40 a bag for a brand with more-natural ingredients.

Concerned pet owners such as Tarter are helping to increase already booming sales of organic and natural pet food, according to industry officials and store owners. An executive at Wild Oats Markets Inc., the specialty food chain that caters to health-minded consumers, says that it’s still a little early to measure the recall’s impact on the natural and organic food segment for pets that’s been growing at 15 to 25 percent a year.

“People are extending their food ethic to their whole family, including the pets,” said Rickard Werner, director of dry grocery for Wild Oats, based in Boulder, Colo.

Daryl Meyerrenke, owner of Anderson Township Family Pet Center in suburban Cincinnati, will be stocking an extra brand of organic pet food this week, spurred by increased customer demand for organic and natural products since the recall.

“The demand for healthier pet food has been skyrocketing over the past few years, but since this recall, I’ve had a lot more people coming in asking for organic products,” said Meyerrenke. “Sometimes it’s not even organic they want — just a higher quality food with more natural ingredients.”

Before the recall, Meyerrenke had carried only one brand of organic dog food costing about $15 for a 5-pound bag. He has added a second organic brands.

Grocery stores charge as low as around $2 for a 5-pound bag of non-organic brands.

But Meyerrenke stocks more than 30 dog-food brands, many of which include ingredients such as carrots, rice, broccoli and even cottage cheese and often are geared specifically for dogs with sensitive stomachs or allergies.

As far as taste goes, Meyerrenke said, “dogs don’t turn their noses up at much. They’ll usually eat what’s there. It’s the owners that sometimes decide what they think looks tastier or more appealing.”

Menu Foods Inc., which makes pet food for most of North America’s top retailers, last week recalled 95 brands of products believed to be responsible for the deaths of cats and dogs around the country. A veterinarians information service said Tuesday that it had reports of 104 animal deaths. The maker of the recalled pet food has confirmed the deaths of only 16 pets.