Fresh mince, popcorn and ice cream. It could be the shopping list for a summer barbecue.

But it could also be the weekly shopping list for the owner of a pampered pooch, as I discovered this week.

Not being a pet owner myself, the ‘pet humanisation’ phenomenon (reported on in The Grocer’s Focus On Petcare, 30 October 2010) passed me by somewhat.

But it’s now reaching new heights.

Pet food manufacturers have, for years, described pet food products like they were dishes in a Michelin-starred restaurant, but I didn’t know that Fido and Felix could now lay their paws on breakfast cereals, or raw lean buffalo mince.

Yes, you read it right. Not content with selling cheese, ale, biltong and energy drinks, the ever-entrepreneurial ex-Formula Formula One driver Jody Scheckter recently branched out into selling raw pet food in the same form as human food.

As well as typical doggy delights such as pork ribs, lamb bone niblets and beef offal tubes, pre-packed organic lamb mince and buffalo mince is also available to purchase.

“For me, it’s simple with dogs, just as with humans. For thousands of years existence has been on a natural diet, however over the last 80 years we have started consuming processed foods – which I believe has contributed to health problems today. Dogs are ultimately carnivors and have evolved to eat and thrive on a raw meat diet, not on cooked processed food and dried biscuits!” he says.

Vegan dog food manufacturers, such as V-dog, take a different view, claiming that “dogs are true omnivores and thrive on a high-protein, nutritiously balanced plant-based food.” [See their website for their full USP]

And for those pet owners who feel their dog is missing out on cakes and biscuits, Mrs Bishop’s Doggy Deli is scheduled to re-open tomorrow at its new venue in Kimberley, Nottingham.

If you can’t make it down there, you can always order some of her delectable Cherry Blossom Biccy Bones, Cherry Barkwells, Pemutt Butter Cups and Petit Paws online.

And if you’re ever in Germany, do swing by the Pets Deli.

It’s a dog’s life. Not half!

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