Happy Howl Dog Food

While other dog food brands “kill your dog slowly,” Happy Howl “makes your dog live longer,” claims the company’s founder Colin Buckley in the above video, which appears on the Happy Howl website.

According to Buckley, this is because Happy Howl only makes “100% human-grade dog food,” with “100% human-grade ingredients” like potatoes, blueberries and carrots – in other words, foods that humans eat.

Happy Howl claims it’s different from other dog food companies that use “fancy marketing language to make their recipes sound healthy.” But after receiving a tip from a consumer, TINA.org found that “human-grade” itself may be something of a fancy marketing term.

According to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), an organization that works with regulators including the FDA to promote a safe pet food supply, the term “human-grade” means that “every ingredient and the resulting product [has been] stored, handled and transported in a manner that is consistent and compliant” with what the law requires for human food. To put it another way, it’s food that is safe for humans to consume (as Happy Howl’s founder appeared to demonstrate in a Facebook reel last year). That’s different from a pet food that provides a nutritional benefit compared to other pet food.

Further, according to some experts, “human-grade” dog food doesn’t necessarily translate into a healthier option. Moreover, by-products and meat-meal in pet food provide key nutrients for pets and feed-grade isn’t necessarily worse than human-grade.

It’s also worth noting that the FDA says that it “ensures that the ingredients used in pet food are safe and have an appropriate function in the pet food.”

Health claims disappear following TINA.org inquiry

Before TINA.org reached out to Happy Howl for comment on this article, the company claimed on its website that its dog food helps with health conditions like allergies, inflammation, arthritis, tumors and cancer. But the claims were removed after TINA.org informed the company that the FDA has sent warning letters to pet companies for making such health claims without its required approval.

Interestingly, Buckley, who answered our inquiry, did not respond to a question about whether the company has FDA approval for the health claims we cited. But it seems we got our answer.

Regarding his company’s “human-grade” dog food claims, Buckley said:

We understand that the term “human-grade” does not imply superior nutrition per se, as noted by AAFCO. However, we believe it reflects a significant difference in ingredient safety and quality.

He added that the company’s human-grade dog food is “cooked in a USDA-grade human-grade facility that is regularly audited and inspected by the FDA.”

The bottom line

In general, just because a dog food is marketed as “human-grade” doesn’t necessarily mean the food is a healthier option. Similarly, just because a dog food isn’t marketed as “human-grade” doesn’t necessarily mean the food is inherently unhealthy.

Find more of our coverage on pets.