That's interesting Keith, never thought about it from that angle. It would be some work, but hey it is man's best friend after all... I feed Purina to my short-haired and it is kinda pricey.
Anybody remember several years back when a bunch of dogs died from dogfood? And if memory serves I believe it came from china. I rember talking about shooting a couple deer and grinding them for dogwood to avoid any chance of something happening. To many deer on our place anyways. Never ended up doing it though.
I also wondered about grinding up some of them Asian carp too. I think them natives in Alaska feed them sled dogs fish. Just an idea I had, I'm usually not short of ideas but most times I'm told they're not good ideas....lol.
Illinois was giving away frozen Asian Carp and may still be doing so. You had to take a large amount at one time. I thought about sending someone out to pickup a load.
I sell many thousands of pounds of whole animals for reptile food. I cull and freeze the animals and sell them whole. They get cut into manageable chunks and run twice through a Hobart meat grinder, hair or feathers, bones guts and all.
Dog and cat food is often made the same way for people feeding raw.
If you buy 10,000 spent ISA Brown hens at 25 cents each, that average 4.68 pounds (their normal cull weight), your cost per pound is only 18.62 cents plus the cost incurred in picking up, freezing, grinding and wrapping.
I've helped people set up two raw dog and cat food businesses in the last year. They charge $2.00 a pound, for the cheaper meats, up to $5.00 a pound on more exotic meats and make huge profit margins.
Pet food is mostly unregulated in the US. Canada is fairly easy to sell in from the US, with some minor inspections.
Keith