Halo Spot’s Stew is a dog food that deserves all-around praise and one I am using exclusively for my own dogs. I waited over five years to choose a pet food company whose outlook on the world of pets and whose dog food was so much better than any other. I held off on making that decision because I never wanted to have to say “I’m sorry” or be on the defensive about any business practices that came to light later about how a company conducts itself or what they slide into their dog food.

The first thing that attracted me to HALO was the excellence of their ingredients and a solid commitment to not skimping on the high quality while also having transparency about their origin. I learned that the protein content in HALO’s dry food is just about the same as WELLNESS CORE – but there is a gigantic difference. ALL the meat used in HALO foods is “fit for human consumption” (that is, no chicken meal, or other rendered meats). I do not know of any other company using such extraordinarily high quality and really costly basic protein ingredients.

Click over to my original blog on “Why I Chose Halo” for the whole story!

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

It’s why I’ve chosen HALO dry food for my dogs and can rest easy that the ingredients that went into making it were tip-top. “Meat by-products” is an ingredient which may not sound as bad as it really is – and companies using it are depending on your not questioning what it means.

You can learn more on page 443 of my book “The Dog Bible” about how to read a food label. You’ll learn what “crude protein” actually is – and that it does not contain protein as we think of it (the meat itself). You’ll soon figure out to avoid foods with words like “by-product meal” and fats from an unspecified species when a food says “animal fat” (instead of “chicken fat”).

All of these and many more are a signs of inferior dog foods. Don’t be surprised if all the dog foods carried by supermarkets have these ingredients-to-avoid. Don’t be surprised if you find them right on the food you’re feeding now – even when you thought it was a premium brand.

I think a company like HALO sets the bar high, where it needs to be for the health and wellness all of our pets. You get what you pay for: quality ingredients that your dog’s body can really digest and put to good use for energy, skin health, insurance against mediocre (and even unsafe) ingredients and contribute to overall wellness.

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and the Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

Bahrke, founder of the Silver Bean Coffee Company, brewed up a way to help our furry friends with Best Friends Animal Society, America’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned pets.

For every bag of Silver Bean’s Best Friends special blend you buy, Best Friends and the animal on the front of your bag of coffee receives $5.

Bahrke tells NBC that her love of animals is one thing people don’t know about her.

“Whether it’s my own kitty cat or somebody else’s dog or fish in a tank, I just love animals,” Shannon said. “And I really have a soft spot about them. I’m going to be the cat lady, that’s what I tell everyone, I’m going to be the cat lady with like 30 cats because I love them all.”

Halo loves to help Best Friends’ furry friends too. We are longtime supporters, and recently donated 3,599 cases – or 43,188 cans – of Spot’s Stew for its 400-plus dogs.

You literally saved my Golden’s life!!

My precious 13 year old Golden is a different dog since eating Halo. In the past she has been diagnosed with chronic UTI, thyroid problems, hip displasia, had her spleen removed, was told she had liver cancer and lymphoma… The list just goes on.

She had been on prescription Science Diet for about 8-10 years. She has been on so many different antibiotics there were few left the vet had not tried. In October of last year she was so weak she could not walk and had to be feed soft food by spoon. My husband and I carried her out to potty.

She started chattering and shaking and was sicker than I’ve ever seen her. She was taking two very strong antibiotics one of which was Batril she was put on Valium and pain meds. Also still giving wet Rx Science Diet. Late October my vet suggested it was time to let her go!!! I was sick, scared and just wasn’t sure I had done everything I could.

SO, that’s when I read about Halo!!! I made the decision the last week of October to take her off all meds except Rimadyl and try feeding her Halo wet food. This is not an exaggeration… I am serious, within four days of feeding her Halo along with Halo supplements she got up for the first time in a month on her own, walked into the kitchen where I was cooking dinner and literally bumped me on the leg and dropped her ball at my feet!!!!!!!

All I could do was get on the floor with her and cry tears of JOY! I am convinced Halo was the main reason she is still with us today. She has not been to the vet since late September of 2009, and is so healthy her hair stopped falling out, her skin isn’t flaking off and she is so happy and absolutely LOVES her Halo Food!!!

Thank You doesn’t even come close to how I feel.
Wendy and Codi

Even though we won for top dog treat – many of our reviews come from cat families, who know that felines can get ferociously addicted to Halo Liv-a-Littles!

As Bettina from Roy, Utah’s Buzzillions review states, “Five stars. Great for either cats or dogs. We purchased these treats for our two Pomeranian’s. It was very interesting to see our very aloof cat come running when we called “chicken” after he got a taste of the treat. It is always fun to see which one of our little ones will get to the kitchen first. ”

Susan D from Illinois explained, “We have three cats who absolutely love this product. It is the only treat our 13-year old diabetic boy can have since it doesn’t contain additives, preservatives or anything else that will raise his blood glucose. He doesn’t mind having his blood sugar tested, he knows his favorite treat will follow.”

That reflects my own experience at home, where our cat Sterling runs to the kitchen when our dog Bert gets his injections – so then they each enjoy a treat.

All Halo treats are made with the highest quality ingredients. Spot’s Stew Dry Dog Food is part of Halo’s Natural Dry Dog Food that is highly digestible, high in protein and quality ingredients, low in carbs and always created with your pet’s entire well-being in mind. Halo never uses chicken meal or other rendered meats.

“This recognition for our pet food is especially important to all of us at Halo because it comes straight from the consumer,” said Steve Marton, CEO of Halo. “Halo wins awards like this only because consumers are demanding great ingredients. Every Halo ingredient is a real, natural ingredient that consumers recognize and understand. Every meat we use can also be sent to make human food products. That’s what consumers are demanding, and that’s what Halo has delivered for over 20 years.”

Click over to our News page to see the Buzzillions reviews and our press release.

Here’s a sneak peak.

“Halo products have the best ingredients for dogs and cats. Plain and simple, that’s what we strive to be known for,” explains Marton. “That’s why Ellen DeGeneres became a part owner of our company. That’s why she spreads the word.”

“As more consumers are reading ingredients labels –and understanding what the ingredients are—our sales improve. For example, consumers are just starting to understand ingredients like chicken meal, which is a rendered meat.”

Click over to our news page for the whole story.

The majority of pet owners don’t even read the label and have no idea what they are giving their pets, according to the study, brought to our attention by Generation Natural Pet, a social media community launched by PETCO (Halo is a founding Council Member).

Frighteningly, most pet foods — unlike Halo, which uses only real meat, fish and eggs — have chicken meal. Sounds tasty, right?

Well, dear reader, chicken meal is legally unfit for human consumption and may contain waste products from restaurants, supermarkets, meat processing facilities and packinghouses. It is not the lean muscle that WE eat, but the stuff humans are forbidden by law to consume: the remaining bones, organs, beaks and other products that are rendered (obtained by melting down the animal’s remains) in a processing plant when made into meal.

“Chicken meal sounds like something wholesome that could be served in any household,” says Halo’s veterinarian, Dr. Donna Spector. “But don’t be fooled. Meat meals — such as chicken meal — are unfit for human consumption. In my mind, that means unfit for our beloved pets.”

Yet ignorance is bliss: despite confessing no knowledge of the ingredients on a bag or can of food, the majority of the 1,305 pet owners surveyed say they treat their animals as a member of the family, and wouldn’t want to feed their pets food containing allergens and prefer to feed their pets only natural pet food.

Halo never uses chicken meal or other rendered meats. Halo uses real chicken that can be sold to humans and meets FDA human safety standards. And while we don’t advocate opening up a can of Spot’s Stewto share with your pooch, many of us have.

Please remember, while these products are wonderful, they are not the same as what you can buy at the store. You’ll find earlier formulas, old labels, or short-dating. Short-dating means that the product will reach its “Best if Used By” date within 1-2 months of purchase.

Remember, these coupons are only valid at stores where Halo is sold.

For Halo store locations, enter your zip/postal code here. Products sell out fast, so please call ahead to make sure your nearest retailer has what you need (if not, they can usually order it for you quickly).

Thanks to the efforts of our friends at Best Friends Animal Society, former fighters such as Hector have transformed into loving pets. The trainers at the Utah-based Best Friends took this fighter with battle scars scattered about his compact maple-brown body and trained him to love: he is now a gentle therapy dog who visits nursing home and hospital patients. And thanks to you, our loyal customers, Halo was able to donate 43,000 cans of Spot’s Stew to Best Friends to provide the animals at the Best Friends sanctuary with top-quality nutrition.

Hector now lives with a Minnesota family, and he’s appeared at a local elementary school as part of a lesson on compassion and empathy. Says teacher Amber Anderson: “I hope that these children never forget Hector’s story, and that they learn to treat animals and people with compassion; there is a connection between how we treat animals and how we treat people.”