Abstract

"‘The Sure Way of Building Up a Dog’: The Evolution of Spratt’s and Transforming Nature into Dog Biscuits"

Neil Humphrey, The Ohio State University (humphrey.310@osu.edu)

The person responsible for inventing the first mass-produced dog biscuit was an unlikely fellow. James Spratt, a Cincinnati-born lightning-rod salesmen, spent a significant amount of his time peddling his wares throughout Britain. While stationed in Liverpool in the 1860s, Spratt took notice of the local canid population’s infatuation with sailor’s hard tack. Disembarking sailors shared their unpalatable biscuits with the dogs that haunted the docks. Hatching an idea, Spratt formulated a treat that he called a ‘Dog Cake’ by mixing together wheat, vegetable compounds, and cattle blood. The dog biscuit was born.

Dogs loved the product. However, packaged dog food was a foreign concept to English consumers. Britons fed their dogs as they traditionally had done for centuries prior on table scraps or by cooking their food themselves. Many consumers did not even possess the finances to purchase dog biscuits. Realizing the drawbacks of this alien product, Spratt targeted a group with significant disposable income: the British gentry. He marketed the treats to their hunting dogs as a healthy, modern foodstuff that proved the surest way of ‘building up a dog.’

As Spratt’s consumer-base grew, he shifted his marketing direction toward the middleclass. Middleclass consumers had recently accepted the dog into their homes as a furry family member. The company erected billboards, printed cigarette cards, and developed an innovative logo that popularized the brand in Victorian society. Spratt’s developed a factory complex in East London by the 1880s. By examining the rise of Spratt’s dog biscuits across the Anglo-world, we can see how natural substances, from beetroot to bovine blood, were refined into a tasty, transferable treat that forever changed human-canine relationships. Furthermore, we can see how the firm has historically influenced human-animals relations and, through their advertising, directed how consumers understood pet food.