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From the beginning, Idahound’s primary values have been canine health and environmental sustainability. To compassionately feed our dogs the healthiest foods, but not care for the earth is illogical. Food production is what connects humanity most intimately to nature and the soils that sustain us all. In the descriptions that follow, you’ll learn just how Idahound goes about ethically sourcing ingredients, processing animals, minimizing waste, all while making fresh and healthy products that will make your hound drool.
Our holistic line of products starts with live, grass-fed cows ewes, and rabbits that we buy exclusively from Idaho ranchers and growers.
Beef Products: Idahound sources our line of grass-fed beef raw diets and dried treats from a handful of ranches in Jerome or Bellevue, Idaho, such as Prescott Land & Livestock, who are committed to sustainable practices . After years of bringing cows to our facility, we began "field dressing" in 2022, which involves a mobile butcher traveling to the ranch and slaughtering on-site. The quartered animal is then delivered to our facility in Carey, where it is deboned, ground, and packaged before being frozen. This approach significantly reduces animal stress, as they're not trucked and held, often indoors, at the slaughterhouse.
Lamb Products: Culled because of age after a life of range living, from ranches like the Peterson Sheep Company, Idahound's grass-fed ewes are delivered to Carey "on-the-hoof," as they say. Once the ewes arrive at Idahound’s facility in Carey, Idaho, they graze freely before being slaughtered as humanely as possible. We take this procedure very seriously, minimizing to respect both the sheep and the pets who will consume them.
Rabbit Products: Since 2018, Idahound has partnered with the same grower in Burley, Idaho, a small farming community an hour and a half from Carey. The rabbits are raised in a temperature-controlled, indoor space with extra large cages. Each doe has constant access to its nesting box and nesting materials. They are fed a diet of alfalfa and straw, along with small amounts of apple cider vinegar. While we've researched the "colony style" of rabbit butchering, the method is too chaotic for a commercial operation. Every rabbit is slaughtered humanely, according to standard practices.
For each protein, the butchering takes place on Idahound's ranch-ette in an old horse barn that we’ve converted into a food processing facility. Idahound employees render muscle tissue, fats, and organs for our grinds and treats, the stomach compartments for ground tripe, and a variety of bones. All product is immediately refrigerated and then processed within days, meaning our raw dog food goes from a live animal to a meal in less than 48 hours, frozen only after being packaged. The same goes for Idahound’s raw meaty bones and green tripe. We like to consider it a “farm to bowl” menu, fresher than anything produced by larger manufacturers.
Without our involvement, all of these animals would be trucked to general slaughterhouses, often out-of-state, enduring lengthy trips that are physically taxing and sometimes fatal. In addition, these shipments are expensive and energy intensive. Idahound’s demand for cows, ewes and rabbits helps ranches reduce both transportation costs and impacts, while improving animal welfare.
"We like to consider it a 'farm to bowl' menu, fresher than anything produced by larger manufacturers."
Idahound's renders our single-ingredient treats from the same animals that constiute other raw products. Our Crisps, Chews, and Bites, Slivers, and other snacks are sliced, dehydrated, packaged by hand. In addition we source supplemental “offal,” or organ meats, from a nearby custom slaughterhouse, who processes local grass-fed beef. These highly nutritious parts are often difficult to move into human channels, especially for small producers. As with our cull ewes, Idahound’s offal purchases create a novel revenue stream for the ranchers involved.
To nutritionally balance our raw diets, Idahound’s recipes also include organic carrots, squash, and apples. While we're not able to source these ingredients exclusively in Idaho, we don't import any produce and the vast majority of our purchase come from organic farms in Utah and the Northwest.
Finally, we arrive at packaging and waste. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to reuse or recycle all of Idahound’s packaging. Food safety requirements, for example, forces us to seal the raw diets in polyurethane bags, which must be thrown away. We do, however, group the aforementioned bags into cardboard six-packs, a quarter of which we collect from participating retailers and reuse. The remainder we encourage customers to recycle. Internally, we recycle all of our cardboard and paper waste.
Our most substantial environmental impact, by far, is the use of styrofoam for shipping insulation. We've tried to transition away from EPS for years, but haven't found a suitable alternative that we can purchase in small enough quanities to store. As a result, we try to ship in bulk as often as possible. Furthermore, orders between 15-20 lbs we are able to ship in "Renewliners," which are made from recycled plastic bottles and are curbside recyclable themselves.
As we grow, Idahound is committed to finding more and more sustainable packaging options.
When it comes to sustainability, our dogs’ diets should not be ignored. The pet food industry is heavily reliant on industrial agriculture, using all the animal parts that, for instance, can’t be ground into fast food. One of Idahound’s goals is to pull back the veil and help owners see the connection not only between fresh food and pet health, but fresh food and good environmental stewardship.