The endless expense of pet food

My dog loves to eat garbage. Why do I spend so much on pet food? There was a period of time when my family dog, Bear (a bratty 3-year-old toy poodle), did not want to eat his kibble. He did, though, want to eat everything else: bits of paper and croissant crumbs and meals we made for him on the stove for fear that he, a runt and new to our lives, would starve himself down to bones just to annoy us. Eventually, we found a brand of dog food he would eat, which of course was more expensive than was convenient. But as reporter Benji Jones explains in his latest piece, [companies know that consumers will pay exorbitant prices for pet food](— we love our animals too much, and marketing spin and monopolies allow brands to basically charge what they want. As Marion Nestle, an author on the topic, told Jones, “The appeal of the more expensive foods is to pet owners who want to do right by their pets because they love them,” Nestle said. “The pet couldn’t possibly care.” —[Melinda Fakuade](, associate editor of culture and features   Why pet food is so doggone expensive [photo of different pet foods and treats]( Getty Images/iStockphoto My dog, Jumanji, loves beef pizzle — also known as bully sticks. Also known as dried bull penises. I can tolerate what they are, and even the pungent smell these things exude. What’s harder to stomach is the price tag. Each stick can cost more than $10, and my dog tears through them in a matter of minutes. Bully sticks aren’t the only pricey pet products. Foods, treats, and chews can cost owners hundreds of dollars a month, even though they’re often made with “byproducts” of the meat and poultry industry — essentially, anything that’s not muscle tissue, like udders, spleens, bones, and, yes, pizzle. These costs are hitting more people than ever before. During the pandemic, a whopping 23 million American households — about one in five — adopted a dog or cat. [And the prices are rising, too. Pet food was roughly 12 percent more expensive at the start of this year compared to early 2020, according to the research firm NielsenIQ.]( Cat or dog, mutt or purebred, your pet is probably pretty expensive, and there’s a reason why food and treats are such a big part of the cost. For one, “byproducts” aren’t really byproducts as you might think of them. More importantly, though, dog and cat owners have a trait that makes us especially vulnerable consumers: We are completely obsessed with our pets. [Read the full story »]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   The stock market’s panicking, but you don’t have to From stocks to crypto, Wall Street is on edge. [Read the full story »](   Trends are dead Everything and anything can be a trend on the internet. Why are we so determined to name them? [Read the full story »](   More good stuff to read today - [The YouTubers are not okay]( - [Abortion has been treated as a fringe issue by Democrats for decades. This is the result.]( - [Office snacks might be dying off. Good.]( - [Just admit that you loooove Twitter]( - [How to use Apple's new repair program]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=goods). If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved.