Dog Food

The Los Angeles-based maker of Skippy dog food and Petuna cat food said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its pet food business to foods giant H. J. Heinz for an undisclosed sum. California Home Brands Holdings, a privately held firm based in Terminal Island, said the sale would include pet food plants in Long Beach, Wilmington, San Leandro and Etiwanda, Calif., and Camp Hill, Pa. The plants employ about 550 people.

Every time I saw a preview for the Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America," I changed the channel. I wrote it off as just another reality TV competition loosely based on cooking and didn't think twice about it. But Sunday night, I found myself sitting at home watching TV and stumbled upon the new season. I laughed so hard I started crying and found myself professing out loud, on more than one occasion, "Best show ever, best show ever. " The show's premise involves Bobby Flay and Anne Burrell competing to turn the worst cooks in America into decent cooks.

Carnivorous plants have been on the decline in the Southeastern United States for decades, plagued both by poachers and human development. Now scientists say they could face another threat -- food poisoning from the insects they eat. Researchers from Bournemouth University in England tested whether the swamp-dwelling pitcher plant Sarracenia leucophylla would be affected if the bugs it ate contained high levels of trace metals. After letting maggots feast on dog food laced with copper or cadmium, the researchers fed the maggots to the plants.

SAN FRANCISCO - Hudson Landers is high-energy and loves sports. Spencer Witaszek is into quiet evenings lounging at home. And Marley James? The Topanga Canyon blond enjoys the mountains and has an independent streak. All three are looking for love, just not the kind you might imagine. Hudson, Spencer, Marley and their two-legged guardians are part of a novel online service called City Dog Share, whose motto is as straightforward as its members: "I will watch your dog if you can watch mine!"

SAN FRANCISCO - Hudson Landers is high-energy and loves sports. Spencer Witaszek is into quiet evenings lounging at home. And Marley James? The Topanga Canyon blond enjoys the mountains and has an independent streak. All three are looking for love, just not the kind you might imagine. Hudson, Spencer, Marley and their two-legged guardians are part of a novel online service called City Dog Share, whose motto is as straightforward as its members: "I will watch your dog if you can watch mine!"

There was a time when a cup of kibble and a can of dog food were all that people thought a dog needed for a complete diet. Although that's often still the case, a growing contingent of pet lovers feels that Fido needs to get in on the trend of super-foods. That desire has helped fuel the bottom line of Designing Health, a Valencia-based company started in 1992 by a veterinarian.

WHAT HAPPENED to Tennie Pierce at Fire Station 5 in Westchester cannot be compared, as one angry Angeleno suggested, to an episode of "Survivor" or "Fear Factor" with a payout of $2.7 million. Pierce wasn't given a choice. Instead, he was fed dog food against his will for the purpose of "humbling" him, as the Fire Department's own inquiry found, and was forced off the job when he followed department rules and reported the incident. The $2.

Lelys Campos and her sister worked hard to make their home a place where stray and sick dogs could heal their wounds and feel at home. But their good deed turned ugly late Tuesday afternoon, when 160 pounds of dog food fell on Campos' sister, 60-year-old Melany Paula Campos, apparently crushing her to death. Melany Campos had been trapped beneath four 40-pound bags of food for hours before Lelys, a physician with a general practice in Sun Valley, found the body about 8:30 p.m.

Pate or dog food? Either could be yummy. That's because you probably wouldn't be able to differentiate which is which in a blind tasting, according to a study scheduled to be released today by the American Assn. of Wine Economists. Researchers provided 18 volunteers five food samples to try in a blind taste test. Only three were able to identify the canine fodder.

A pet food company has recalled 160 bags of dog food sold in Southern California after a veterinarian reported that as many as 50 dogs may have died from eating it. Steve Wawrzyniak, vice president of technical services for the Doane Products Co., said the figure of 50 deaths was "highly exaggerated. There are some cases that could be heart worms or something else, that we haven't determined," he said.

Arnold des Contes D'Hoffmann, who joined the Department of Defense in 2008, has never been to Afghanistan or Iraq. But numerous of his progeny have deployed to the war zones and are credited with saving American lives. Arnold has a unique job description in the American military: He's a stud. With 149 offspring - and six more expected soon - the Belgian Malinois is one of the more productive males in the breeding program at the military working dog program at Lackland Air Force Base, a sprawling military installation in San Antonio.

As a Utah dog rescue worker, Brenda Gordon has seen lots of crazy situations in homes where the animals rule the roost. But she has never seen anything like this. Gordon was among of phalanx of animal advocates scrambling Wednesday to care for 149 sick and hungry Chihuahua dogs rescued from the home of an animal lover turned hoarder who officials say lost control of his Ogden house. “When this man first opened the door, we had to back up 10 feet,” Gordon, a spokeswoman for Pack 'N Pounce Animal Rescue, told the Los Angeles Times.

"The Walking Dead" is back! While we've been waiting all summer for the return of our occasionally intrepid band of zombie apocalypse survivors, an entire winter has passed for them since the exodus from the farm . We open on Rick, Daryl and Carl emptying a house of walkers and ushering the rest of the crew inside for a temporary rest. A quick sweep of the kitchen reveals no provisions save two cans of dog food, but that still looks pretty good to Carl, who barely has time to crack one open before Rick pulls it out of his hands and tosses it in the fireplace.

A woman with a history of fighting New Jersey's controversial annual black bear hunt scored a court victory this week when a judge ruled that the pile of bear-friendly food and bear feces found in her front yard did not prove she had violated state laws against feeding the animals. It was the second time Susan Kehoe has faced criminal charges since New Jersey in 2003 permitted its first black bear hunt in 33 years.  Kehoe, 61, was acquitted in a court in Vernon on Tuesday night, the Star-Ledger reported , despite testimony from state wildlife officials that they found dog food, sunflower seeds and bear feces in the front yard of Kehoe's home in a rural area of northern New Jersey.

The fact that “No Love,” now in its world premiere at the Eclectic Company Theatre, went up 25 minutes late with absolutely no explanation as to why, was undeniably irritating. And a lengthy opening monologue delivered in almost total darkness by an actor who couldn't find her light (granted, in John Dickey's lighting design there was precious little of it to be found), proved almost insurmountably annoying. Yet those glitches faded into insignificance given the accumulated problems of Andrew Osborne's play - a sort of latter-day “La Ronde” in which various loosely connected characters hook up, act out and get kinky, frequently sans clothing.

The pup chosen to star as Sandy in the Broadway revival of "Annie" has been announced -- and it's (appropriately) a rags-to-riches story. Four months ago, animal trainer William Berloni spotted online photos of Sunny, a 2-year-old female terrier mix, while conducting a nationwide search for the part. The Houston pound holding Sunny incorrectly listed her as a male by the name Bruno. When Berloni learned the dog was due to bei euthanized, he decided to adopt Sunny, not for the role, but to find her a home.

Clarence Francis Gaines, founder of the dog food firm that bears his name and a well-known breeder of horses, has died at his home here. He was 88. Gaines, who died Tuesday, founded the company in 1928, introducing a complete dog meal product that he had perfected for his own pets. "They were eating me out of house and home and not doing any good either," Gaines once said. The concept of complete nutrients in a single package was credited with revolutionizing the dog food industry.

We know it's not advisable to drive with the family dog strapped to the top of the car -- just ask Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner who recently drew the ire of animal lovers for sharing an anecdote about doing so decades ago. But, in Rhode Island at least, it may soon be illegal to drive with a dog on one's lap. The state is considering such a ban to crack down on distracted drivers.  The Providence Journal reported Monday that...

Norman Vaughan was born on Dec. 19, 1905. He spent his whole life chasing adventures. As a boy living in Massachusetts, Norman's four-legged companion was Rex, a mixed German shepherd. His friend, Eddie Goodale, also had a special dog, Fido. Both Norman and Eddie liked to read true-life adventures. They learned that Eskimos used sealskin to make harnesses for their sled. The boys thought, "Why not?" Norman found a long rope in his barn. He hitched their two dogs to a sled.