Fishing for Fido

Travel north to Alaska and you’ll find some other Heartland producers who follow Bob Comb’s lead in reusing and recycling.

There’s a small firm in Anchorage turning out dog treats for our four legged friends. Brett Gibson moved to Alaska from Ohio. He’s a lawyer by trade, but he decided to start a pet food treat company called, "Arctic Paws." Using salmon pieces that would have otherwise gone to waste, Brett began turning millions of pounds of pink salmon into dried dog treats called "Yummy Chummies."

As Brett says, "The pink salmon is sort of a poor cousin to the more popular red, Coho and king salmon. Why salmon? It’s very good for dogs, because it’s loaded with omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which is very good for their skin and their coat and their joints. Plus, they love it. They actually go crazy for it. "

Gibson buys more than a million pounds of fresh-frozen pink salmon a year from Alaska commercial fishermen. That’s turned into about 400-thousand pounds of Yummy Chummies. The fish is thawed, mixed with grains, dried, baked and bagged for sale in pet stores and supermarkets. The healthy salmon oil is also extracted and sold as a nutritious additive to your doggie’s dinner. Brett says, "We give both health and taste to dogs, while at the same time fully utilizing a sustainable resource."

Brett’s starting to expand his business across Alaska, the lower 48, even overseas.  He’s developed about a half-dozen Yummy Chummies varieties for dogs, but so far, just one for cats. Believe it or not, only about two-thirds of the felines he’s tested like the treats even with salmon, they’re much more finicky eaters than their canine counterparts!

Man’s Best Friend
Commercial production of pet food is said to have begun in England in the 1860’s It’s estimated to be an 8 billion dollar industry in the United States with hundreds of manufacturers using meat and grain products to produce some 7 million tons of pet food each year.