From dilated cardiomyopathy to by-products to pentobarbital, a wide range of topics in the pet food industry have spawned their own sets of rumors and false beliefs. Along with these specific myths, pet owners often harbor wider misunderstandings about pet food formulation, processing and regulation.

Lower-income groups, ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants and refugees could find business success in the U.S. pet food industry. Their plights are often well-known, yet many feel largely powerless to help. Buying a dog biscuit to help people escape suffering turns a banal buy into a social statement.

While much of the globalized economy has moved far from concerns over reciprocating with nature, pet owners form relationships with their animals that benefit all involved. Pet ownership serves as a vestige of that ancient connection to other animals, plants and aspects of nature.

For the pet food industry, competing trends create contradictions that challenge the development of sustainable business models from ingredient sourcing and manufacturing to marketing, packaging and distribution.

Neither Mars Petcare not Nestlé Purina PetCare use sharks in any of their recipes. Both have supply chain protocols that should screen out ingredients made with sharks, along with other endangered species.

The pandemic may have increased U.S. consumers' expenditures on impulse items. Could the pet food industry increase the amount of impulse spending by pet owners?

No one uses an Intel chip by itself, but the company advertises its product to computer buyers. Likewise, pet food ingredient suppliers could use component branding to make consumers aware of their product, develop a brand's reputation and increase transparency.

The two big-box retail companies plan a pilot store-in-store program. A miniature Petco will function inside a Lowe’s, forming a branded pet aisle essentially.

The pandemic, natural disasters, civil unrest and other factors may be fueling the growing importance of environmental and social consciousness in the pet food industry.

Find out if pet owners are primed to be animal lovers, and if that could make animal welfare claims particularly effective marketing tools.