From Army Vet to Entrepreneur: A Deep Dive into Pet Nutrition and a Mission Against Veteran Suicide

Ever wondered what's really in your pet's food? Our latest episode finds us in the company of Tony Richardson, a 24-year Army veteran who took his concerns about pet nutrition from the kitchen to the commercial world with his pet food company, Harley's Food USA. Tony's journey from soldier to entrepreneur started when he realized the pet food market was filled with expensive products that lacked quality ingredients. His determination to provide healthier and affordable pet food options and his passion for helping the veteran community make this a conversation you won't want to miss.

We delve deeper as Tony enlightens us about the often-overlooked intricacies of pet food labeling and the harmful ingredients that are commonly used. Discover his insights on how high ash content in pet food can be linked to pet cancer and learn practical tips on improving your pet's diet without breaking the bank. Tony also passionately sheds light on his mission to combat veteran suicide, making this episode a truly insightful treat for pet owners and those who care about the well-being of our community. So, prepare to reevaluate your pet's dinner bowl and join us in this inspirational journey of change and awareness.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:21

Hey guys, ryan Diment from Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. Hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast we have Tony Richardson. He is the founder of Harley Streets, usa, a 24-year Army veteran Thank you for your service. And Tony's going to talk about what he's doing in the dog food space, but he has a really unique story in how he got there and I'll let him share that. Tony, welcome to the show, thank you. Thank you, ryan, for having me More than welcome. Thank you for a short notice of coming on the show and filling in for another guest, so I'm honored. You're out in Florida right now but you're in the Arizona space, so we've connected that way. But a little bit about who you are and what's going on.

Speaker 2: 1:04

As you said, I was a 24-year veteran. I've been out for a year now. I retire as a SAR major and was an intern. Some days maybe I complained, but it was a great life. I got to do a lot of things other people did not get to do and I got you some other not-so-great. It's part of the life. I will not say I did not want to do it or that it was a bad thing. I still feel in my heart that I was doing something for America and that was an important piece there.

Speaker 2: 1:38

Then, as I was transitioning out, we started Harley Streets, mainly because of the expense and ingredients and stuff that are out there the inputs and treats it was not up to my standards. Anyway, I'm finding out that it's not up to a lot of people's standards. While we started that, I was doing my transition out and found out that the VA is there but, like any other government agency, there's a lack of funds or whatever in order to be able to get to people in a tidally manner. With that, it ended up being almost every one of our treats ends up or end. The dog food will too. A certain part of that will be a donation to one of the many non-profit organizations that benefit veterans.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Just this weekend in Arizona there was a memorial for a family friend. He took his life and he was a veteran college graduate, veteran 25 years of age and took his life. Veteran suicide is a huge thing on our plate. We try to do all we can to help agency combat that. Giving back to veterans is it probably was not our original goal. It has quickly become a huge goal for our least treats. We're not out there to be millionaires. We are out there to give people an option for a healthy, nutritional treat as well as dog food, and giving back to the veteran community, that's where we're at.

Speaker 1: 3:22

That's a great mission and great purpose. Could you tell listeners a little bit about how you got there and why you created your company?

Speaker 2: 3:30

Yes, when was it? Years get off 2019,. We got a rescue All the way back to 2017. I had a buddy. His name was Marine Corps Reget German Shepherd. He was blown up in Afghanistan. He was in his back. Not only that, but he was born re and he would not take to other people. When we went to go get him, he took to me right away. They were like hey, he's yours. He was an amazing dog, extremely amazing. You could tell that he was trained for stiffening around cars because every car was hilarious. If he's on a leash or whatever, we'd come up on a car. He's going around doing the stiffening around the wheels. It was fine. We had him for six glorious years. The last year we did everything we could to get him going.

Speaker 2: 4:25

I was stationed in Germany at the time. Vett and I were working all close with each other. She helped give me on this path of animal nutrition. She really did. I had me gone to take classes and stuff at that time. We finally ended up having a buddy down and took about maybe six months before I got Harley. A friend of mine married a German over there. Their family had raised German Shepherd since time began. I was able to get Harley and we totally changed her diet compared to, however, I was getting any weight any other vet I've had. Due to what I had learned about animal nutrition, the poisons that what I consider poisons, or the FDA considers it's okay in the mountains that they're putting them in there. That started the realm there, or the starting to move it there.

Speaker 2: 5:21

Then, in 2019, I ended up getting a rescue classmate of mine at the Sarmadier Academy called me and she said hey, this dog just showed up. It's a really bad shape. She had two corn corseos and my dog was going to rip this dog apart. Please get over here and get this dog. We had both volunteered at the El Paso Humane Society and we both knew that there's no way in hell, I'm sorry, no way in heck. Then I'm going to bring a dog to the Humane Society. They do the best they can, but it's just whole Quick ran over there and grabbed her Bella is her name, or was her name it was supposed to be for two weeks, three and a half years later, we still had Bella, or had Bella.

Speaker 2: 6:06

My wife and I were sitting now we're doing, throwing some numbers around and we're realizing, like holy cow, we're spending so much more money on the dog's food than we are on our own food. That set me off on a huge mission. I started doing a bunch of research online. I started going to stores. I went to Walmart. I probably made some four-18-year-old kid cry because I was throwing stuff on the floor. You said can I help you? I'm like that's all I ever just throw it away. About that time when my wife said, hey, it's time to go it was very difficult, daunting task of trying to find something that was affordable but was still what I would consider okay to give to one of our dogs. That, literally, I looked at my wife said, hey, I'm going to start a pet food company.

Speaker 2: 6:56

She turned around, looked at me and she was like awesome, let's get this going. I'll get you the LLC Bam. We were at the time because my last duty station was Fort Lewis, washington, jblm. We were living in our. The housing market was difficult up there. We were waiting to get on base housing. We lived on our fifth wheel for a year up there and I was literally started making biscuits in a little I don't know, I think it's wild by 16 oven.

Speaker 2: 7:27

My wife got me enrolled in a couple of farmer's markets and it was going really well. It really was. There was a demand. We got many nights where I was doing my full-time Sarn major in this and coming home and until we hours of two or three o'clock in the morning make it biscuits and stuff to prepare for the farmer's market on Saturday and my wife was right there helping me out. They come and she packaged it for me and me, which then I retired and was able to devote my time full time to Harley's treats, which is great.

Speaker 2: 8:03

We chose Mesa, arizona. We chose the Phoenix area in Arizona because we wanna where daughters, as our first grandchild and my wife said, we're not gonna be far away from her. I'm like yep, that's fine. So Phoenix area is our home, which ended up being Mesa. Arizona is where we have our small storefront and really our production facility and I'm able to devote the full time to that. I do, speaking in the area to dog clubs and things of that nature and we're starting to get into wholesale. So that production facility is really being used right now and people there is a need for and I really enjoy people come in and store. They'll bring the dog food that they may be feeding their dog at the time and we'll just sit down. I got a little like a bar stool, coffee table thing. We'll sit down and I'll just we'll talk about it and because in that area there are a lot of people that are on a budget, I will help them find the best food they can for their pet on their budget. There are options out there, but you know there's and we just released, we call it true, it's trustworthy, real, true, trustworthy, real. You unmatched eats Sorry, I just spell, and we just released that and I will say that you are very hard to find anything like anything of that quality. It is a premium food, so it does come with the price tag, but I still will tell people yeah sure, if you want to buy it tonight, that's great, I'm all about it. Let's help you find something you can afford and you can maintain the same diet for your dog to help them out. And we, I got so many grateful, thankful people. They may come and buy a small little bag of treats or something like that, but they're really coming to me for the education Words.

Speaker 2: 10:02

Getting out Mesa, I average probably two people a day and these little events are about an hour long every time they come in, which takes me away from the baking which is creating a need, and we, I guess, skip that. We do employ veterans. I've got one retired Army nurse. She helps me do some baking. And I've got a retired Navy nurse, she helps me packaging just other odds and ends. And then I've got four other retired vets and most of these vets are all Vietnam vets. Two of them are GY and they'll come in. They sit around this big table. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they'll come in and I put the product in the middle of the table. They've got their packages, they've each got a scale and at their own pace they sit there and they go ahead and package product for me, tell war stories, act like they're kids again, giggle, laugh and they enjoy themselves and they actually look forward to it every week. It's just a few hours that they come in there for and it's something they literally look forward to.

Speaker 2: 11:07

So I'm keeping veterans that probably would not either be able to get employed when they're on a budget. This little bit of money helps them out a little bit, especially with the cost of inflation going up where they didn't have been a Walmart reader or something like that, or I've seen people just doing jobs at their age. They shouldn't be doing. It's harder on their body. So we will continue to do this. That's one thing I will always do. We will always have veterans and I am not gonna have a you have to package 20 packages in an hour, type of thing. Do what you can. We're gonna get the job done. We're gonna get it done together and we're gonna have fun while we do it.

Speaker 1: 11:48

That's a. These are all great things and there's a lot to unpack in here, so let me back up. So what really drove you? I know you were working with the one dog in Germany to be able to help him and save him is it? Is it that moment that you're saying, hey, I need to come up with something that's gonna be better for dogs? Or is it when you're in that moment at Walmart and you're saying, look at all this crap on the shelves? I truly need to make a change or make a difference, and this is my passion.

Speaker 2: 12:19

So I will say I was the first owner when I was in Germany and it was my ex-so. In fact, he bought product from me and when I went him and I were talking, email or whatever, I don't really remember it, but I guess I told him that, hey, when I retire I'm probably gonna start a dog food and treat company, right? So anyways, he was in the middle of an album. He did say, hey, I remember you saying that or talking about it. I'm like, okay, but the real moment where it was hey, no kidding, this is what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna make this happen, I'm gonna make it work was that moment at Walmart with the poor kid that had to pick up my mess just because I was so disgusted at that stuff. That's when I really truly made that decision, because even at our price point some of the stuff at Walmart's being sold there and nothing against Walmart Walmart does the best they can for what they can and they're a huge corporation. The profit margins are probably a little bit different than where I'm at, but it's they don't offer any at that time. Anyways, they did not offer anything that I would feed my dog nothing.

Speaker 2: 13:39

And I do periodic research. I'm gonna stay relevant, current and relevant in the market, and I do go to other stores and I do look at stuff online and really be honest with you, it's still not. I mean, your big companies are. They'll take a product like mine and they'll charge three times more than what I'm charging for, because they need their product. They have to. They have a different profit margin. They've got a board. They've got stockholders. I don't have any of that. I just have electric bill lease, few employees right now. Part of my original mission after I've made that decision was to stay as affordable as possible, and I think I'm definitely staying true to that. I'm happy about that.

Speaker 1: 14:30

So the quality of dog food and this is near and dear to my heart because I've been on a mission for many years. I've lost two dogs to cancer and I attribute to diet. To back up, we as humans put garbage in our bodies on a daily basis. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but there is oil and petroleum-based products in soda and three-letter words. There's an RGB and an IRBRQ, whatever those are, and I've researched what those are and they're all petroleum-based. But then when you go look in dog food, they have the same things in there, but it's just at a higher quantity, which is toxic.

Speaker 1: 15:08

Can you wonder why we have such high rates of cancer in animals and humans? But I'm with you on this whole mission. So I need to ask the question is how can we, as dog owners, really understand how to feed our animals if we don't do the same thing for ourselves? I know you're educating your customers and that's great, but how do you work through that in this process? Because a lot of people think they should just get a crappy kibble and that's it.

Speaker 2: 15:36

I agree and I do so obviously now I have certified in animal nutrition with a degree in everything Animal nutrition but it is closely related to human nutrition and I'll tell people excuse me if you're putting stuff like this in your own body and you're not doing it yourself and you're good. And I'm sorry to hear about your pets with cancer. And side note on there, and depending on your data source, cancer is no one killer for our pets. Yeah, it is exactly as you're saying. It's the ingredients that are in there. The FDA allows a certain amount of citric poison. The analogy I always use with all my customers Some of them are old enough to remember this Back in the 50s, housewives, if they did not care for their husband, would put arsenic in their dinner and about a year and a half, two years later they'd pass.

Speaker 2: 16:24

So yeah, that's the analogy I use. It's the process, the dog food companies. I don't think any corporation intentionally wants to give cancer to a pet. It's the process in which they're made. They make things as efficient as possible. So that means they flash baked stuff. I'm going down another rabbit hole here, no problem, but they flash baked things at 500 degrees.

Speaker 2: 16:48

So if you look at a lot of packages you're going to see an ash content. It's not required by the FDA. Then put that on there. By the way, they only have four things that they're required to put on the package. But why would you have to put an ash content on a bag of dog food or dog treat? Then the analogy I'll use there is, if you got a high ash content any ash content really the analogy I'll use. It's like your dog smoking a pack of cigarettes we got, and so what comes from that? Cancer?

Speaker 2: 17:27

And then another side note, bella the rest of you I was talking about just prior to you and I just prior to 4th of July, she ended up. She developed a brain tumor that grew immensely, caused her to misbehave, to become aggressive, and we had to put her down. She had a great three and a half years with us and I know that she was very happy. But again we're that brain tumor, compound cancer. The data source is out there. It's a newtonization or cancer, or the two. That are the number one. It just depends on which one you look at. And a lot of times the use of newtonization is happening because of, like Bella's incident she was newtonized but that's because she ended up brain tumor, so it was inofferable.

Speaker 1: 18:11

So when you're sitting down with your clients, what are some? Because you're trying to build a budget for them and help them. I know very few dog foods out there that actually meet any type of I call it stringent criteria. I've tried them all. I've started back in the day with I don't know if you blue buffalo and then blue buffalo went through the whole China byproduct and cancer and I had to go through that. I lost my first dog, red to that because of that. And then I worked on the Bravo, which is a raw, truly raw diet. It also had fillers so I had to get off of that.

Speaker 1: 18:44

And then, probably for the past, I'd probably say the last eight to 10 years I'm on Honest Kitchen and I have the base of Honest Kitchen which, if you look at there, there's still some stuff in there and you just can't get around it, but it's also raw. But I also feed them desiccated organs. So he's getting liver, he's getting part, he's getting pancreas, he gets the supplements I get. But how do you work with that? Because I know it's not cheap, it's sometimes unaffordable?

Speaker 2: 19:13

It absolutely is. So I will help people find the best cable out there on their budget. The one go-to I have, and one of the major greens I hate, is the fact of the matter. That has chicken meal on it. Yes, and anytime you use the word meal it's not good. And then on top of that, fda is definition of chicken meal. It could be the claws, beaks, feathers, it's yeah. To be honest, we get claws when we're back because it's a kosher meal in the claws, but it's the process. Then they take flashback. They had that 500 degrees. I'm grinding up it.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Nature's best salmon and sweet potatoes, one that I recommend to a lot of the clients. It seems that that's in an affordable area for them and there's straplacks with everything Talking to them and I'm not afraid to. I give tips all the time and even when I do TikTok lives as well as I'm baking product and I'll tell people there's nothing wrong with a couple of tablespoons pumpkin puree. Throw that in your dog's food. There's nothing wrong with taking some couple of tablespoons or a tablespoon of coconut oil, mixing that in with your dog's kibble. It's got the good saturated fats. Just like for you, it's good for them as well. There's nothing wrong with taking a couple of tablespoons of Greek plain yogurt no sugars, no vanilla plain yogurt. Throwing that in dog's food is great probiotic. I help people realize that they can extend things and make life better on their budget. Blueberries, or berries in general, have been linked and been proven, but they have been linked to preventing cancer and your animals.

Speaker 2: 20:59

I tell people if your dog will eat blueberries out of your hand when it's on sale in the spring or wherever. If you toggle the blueberries they are, and the more strawberry, blackberries, raspberries, apples, apples, apples, just obviously I'll tell people. Be calm, dogs actually have a huge benefit for the stomach as a whole, the fiber. So, yeah, I will work with people, we will come up with diet, we'll write things down. Okay, monday you're going to put two tablespoons of this in your dog's food. Tuesdays you're going to do this. A lot of people. And the other common thing I'll run across is a lot of people, small dogs. They've always fed the canned food. Yikes, yikes is right. If you read FDA's definitions to some of that stuff, you don't even want to know.

Speaker 2: 21:49

But my biggest concern with the canned food why do they have put sugar in there? What is the dog need sugar for? And all these people with small dogs and eight to 10 years of age, my dog doesn't have their teeth anymore. Their teeth are rotten when they were getting them pulled and blah, blah, blah. I hate to break it to you. The reason your dogs teeth are getting full is because you want paying attention to what's in the food and some people take that hard, but I feel that the straight, hard truth is something that's what you need and you know people need to understand what sugar is.

Speaker 2: 22:28

Now I say sugar, it's not going to be just plainly labeled. Sure, it's going to be labeled as high fructose corn syrup, or it's going to be glucose, something of that, and it's going to be a sugar and it's typically a manmade sugar, and but that's what's rotten and it just. There's no reason for that to be in a dog's fruit. It adds calories, stuff that hangs in their body and they don't digest. There's so many. Again, I'm sorry I went off on another tangent, but it just approved the garbage that's in. What in foods is for no reason other than nine times out of ten it's a filler or because of the sugar. Just like a human and I am, I do have a huge sweet tooth, by the way. I'm guilty of this. But they hope the dog on the sugar. You hear, customers, my dog won't eat anything else. What do we do? And I will say, phil Morris.

Speaker 2: 23:27

Yeah the cigarette manufacturer Don't know it. You know, that they're one of the top five dogs for pet food makers out there. Yeah, they learned something when they made cigarette. Pretty sure they they applied that to making their food. So it's just I have no proof, but something to think about. And it's the sugar is addictive for a dog. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 23:57

Just like it's addictive to a human. It's like I joke with people because I'll be in the dog food store or somewhere and people like why are you spending that money on your dog? And I'm like, good question, what are you putting your body? And then they'll tell me what they eat and I'm like, ok, I understand that, but I don't want garbage to go into my dog body. Why I don't want garbage to go into mine. And I joke with them and I tell them, if you put something good into your body, how much better can you feel in? The first thing you say is it doesn't taste good. And I'm like that's something you have to work on. And then they'll say the same thing about their dog and so forth.

Speaker 1: 24:34

And one of the biggest things that I've always tried to be is, ok, be open to change. And that's just business life and personal life. Yes, something I learned a long time ago is my mom every Wednesday would make us because it was my sister's favorite dish We'd have liver, onions and bacon Nasty, just horrible. You couldn't force me to eat it if my life depended on gun to my head, everything. But then once you learn about what the liver actually does and at that time we were doing chicken, but at a certain point time we switched over to beef. Ok, and I think there's so many nutrients in there, I'm like why don't dogs get that same nutrients? And that's when I caught on to Dr Carnivore, paul Saldino. That's here in Arizona. He lives in Costa Rica but he graduated from ASU.

Speaker 1: 25:23

I give Moose the same supplements I take. He gets desiccated organs on his food every morning and he gets bovine heart all organic, grass-fed on his food at night. And I've probably been doing that for about six to nine months and it's made a huge difference in who he is. He came with a very bad Coke so I can't remember if they were feeding him Puppy Chow or something. It was something crappy. So we've really worked on his diet.

Speaker 1: 25:52

But he is not a finicky eater but the one thing he loves is beef. So now I've got him stuck on beef to where he eats grass-fed, grass-finished beef on top of his food. So I'll go to Costco it's very few places that actually have those third-pound grass-fed, grass-finished patties. In the freezer section you get 15 patties for 22 or 24 bucks. He gets a whole package for himself and that's his topper with his honest kitchen and it's just a different dog than when he came. He doesn't have skin problems. He was having a lot of shedding issues. Mentally he's changed too. I also put organic coconut oil on his food and that's been a huge change in. People are like garbage in, garbage out, but great food's in great food out. It changes the dog, but you can also change yourself as a human.

Speaker 2: 26:46

It does that and deliver. You bring that up. So we do have our beef liver bites, which a $2 donation goes to Gold Star Pea, which is a great organization. On the backs of our packages I always list how to treat or how this food would benefit your pet, and the list on the beef liver is just amazing. It just goes on and on.

Speaker 2: 27:10

I tell people this is probably the best dog treat you could ever give your dog. And then you talk about every Wednesday having beef liver like smell in the house. People automatically think back to they've all had traumatic events like that too. I've had a horrible one. And they're like well, does it smell? Because I dehydrated. It doesn't smell at all, and it's just.

Speaker 2: 27:38

I tell people if you're going to buy a treat, and at the price point that I do this, there's no way you can find anything better for your dog. And you talk about garbage and garbage out. So garbage and garbage out. Your dog defecating on average, probably two to three times a day. Yeah, with what good in, good out. We'll use the horrible math analogy of your dog eats a pound of good. It's getting rid of a third of a pound of whatever it didn't digest. All right, so it defecating typically once a day, totally different. And I knew tell people and they get a little grossed out by this, but you need to look at the stools. Oh yeah, stools will tell you a lot of how your dog is doing. The stools are hard like rock hard it's not a good thing.

Speaker 2: 28:30

All right, we need to get some fiber in that diet and now to get off the cut. Sorry, no worries, muscle memory there, um and but yeah, so look, take a look at the stools. Know what they're like? You should. It should be semi soft, semi or I know that's not a really good definition that should have a dark color to it. A lot of people like so I'm sure you see this. Because you're feeding liver, the stools will darken up a little bit. Yes, and there's no cause for concern there. That's a good thing. It's the dog is going to digest and take the nutrients in that it can handle. And there's a reason why ordinary meat is is a fur and that's because the the I'm sorry, and or just split my mind. Anyways, going through the stomach, the amino acids and everything they'll attach to it digest better. That just raw meat is not going to digest. They're not going to be able to absorb the nutrients that that food may even have.

Speaker 2: 29:34

But that's and that's where, when you, when you talk about the raw diet, an actual raw diet or any diet, that in their ends will have a problem. And the reason is because people so I can say that there are people out there, even in the Phoenix area, and say, hey, we make raw dog food, it's nothing but ground meat. Okay, that's not right. Sure, it's raw dog food, but again, that's apples to oranges that we're looking at. That's old Roy dog food, even though you're giving them ground beef because they're not able to digest that are. They're not able to absorb nutrients. That is in that. Why are women? Meats are the prefer, because there's the dog stomach is different than humans. So what's so learn but different and they grab all the nutrients that that that their body can handle out of those solid meal like. And that's where it's important that it's well balanced.

Speaker 2: 30:32

And veterinarians have a problem because so many people are out there selling something that it's not well balanced and I totally agree with that. You're not doing your dog any good. You think you're doing your dog good and I'm glad you do. And that's why I always tell people come talk to me, you don't have to buy my stuff. Let's find the right thing for you and your dog and your budget. And I know about this stuff. I keep relevant on it. I take extra classes here or there for getting the latest technology and I will also say for just an average veterinarian degree. Yes, they do a lot of school. Yes, they sure do. The only requirement for nutrition is a three credit course Only. Require you, do they understand the digestive system and all the other stuff? Yes, they do, but the only requirement is a three credit course on you and military. On most programs that I've seen, they need to keep that in mind. Just because he's a veterinarian or she's a veterinarian doesn't mean that they know the full gamut of what your dog should be.

Speaker 1: 31:40

And unfortunately we take that direction from the vet, as is gospel. But if you can do your homework we live in an age of goading the internet and you can find a lot of stuff yourself. It's disheartening to see people that, hey, my vet told me, do this. My vet jokes with me and she always asks me are you feeding moose grains? No, I'm not feeding moose grains. And she thinks that grains are required for a dog. And I'm like grains cause inflammation and if you're going to want to put grains in a dog, it also causes inflammation in humans. So it just whoops there. I joke about it. But my vet will always ask the question about are we feeding moose grains? And I say no. And she goes why? And I say because grains are inflammatory and it does the same thing to humans. So why do I want to eat a grain when it doesn't have any nutritional value?

Speaker 1: 32:35

And then we start talking about liver and she really has gotten on board with the liver and she's younger I'm going to be 50 next year, I'd probably say she's in her mid-30s and she's really open to it and understanding that. And we talked about honest kitchen. I said honest kitchen is not a raw diet, it's in the form that they give you is slightly cooked, but I have to cook it for him, so I scoop it into his bowl and then I have to warm up water and then it cooks for a matter between five and 10 minutes, if he allows me to do it, if he doesn't go crazy. But it's then cooked. But it also has apples, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries I don't know what else it has from that base but then it's either chicken based, beef based or turkey based, and there's no byproducts.

Speaker 1: 33:22

It's all organic and it's short of me making his own food. That's probably the best I can get, and I'm sure there's some stuff in there that I would have to research, but I don't know what else I could actually do. We make them bone broth out of our Instapot and they get that. They get bone broth over their food. I'm doing as much as we can because I'm as I joke about it, I'm over two with dogs, with cancer, I struck out with two, but that's all I can do. I'm doing the best I can, but it's sad that we as humans don't realize the garbage we put in our bodies are the same garbage we put in our dogs, and we wonder why we lose both species to cancer so often. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 34:04

And it doesn't heal Like when you talk about fillers or, I'm sorry, the other word. Basically, the FDA's definitions of this stuff that allows these dog food companies or these companies to put this stuff in there is so broad, and so I've lost all respect for the FDA after they approved synthetic chicken for human concern. So, yes, I'm sorry they're telling me what I can do and I'm not gonna lie. They've actually me as a small business art. They have given me some serious headaches on what I can do. You know what I really love to put into my dog food and it is man-made, but I would love to put Nicosamine in my dog food. The minute I put in a supplement, I opened myself up to so much meat it would never get approved. Not a small business art. Again, there's bureaucracy, there's money involved and everything else, and it's a battle I'm not even gonna attempt to do. I try to stick with everything natural.

Speaker 1: 35:02

But that's sad.

Speaker 2: 35:05

Yeah, and I get really irritated just because their definition of or their explanation of 0.005% of this poison is okay for a dog treat and I'm like how many people you yourself are. I know I'm horrible with it, Even though I ruled my dog with an iron fist or a wet noodle, as my wife says. The treats are everywhere for my dog.

Speaker 1: 35:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:37

And if you are giving your dog and there's another product out there, I have to be careful how I One of these days somebody's gonna come at me. But you can buy a five pound box for $11. Yes, you can. You can also go to the dump and get a shell full of garbage, probably for free, and feed that to your dog, but you gotta look at the ingredients. You gotta know what's going into their body. And if you start Googling some of those words that you can't pronounce, back there you're gonna find out that there's poisons, or In a certain dosage you can consider the poison, but in the amounts that they're putting in there, no, it's just, it's disgusting.

Speaker 1: 36:29

It is and it's sad. It's a whole system that it just seems like it's all based on money and it's. I get it. I'm all about capitalism and going through that process, but do it right.

Speaker 1: 36:41

Do it right, do it right, yeah, be honest, yeah, and unfortunately that's just not where we're at in society. So you have to take you have to take care of yourself and your family and be on the lookout of all of these things and just don't put that crap in your body and you'll be okay. That's tough, so you've got to get going on the other side here. But before we get wrapped up, where can people find your treats? Where can they find you? Where can they connect with you?

Speaker 2: 37:09

And come see you and then if they ever want to talk about diet, please come on up to. We have a storefront in Mesa, arizona. It's 1226 South Greenfield Road. It's right off the 60. And they Come on in there. Bring your dog food that you feed your dog and we'll go ahead and have an educational conversation about it. You might be able to teach me something. I don't know everything and if you want to, we offer free shipping for all of our products online and they can go to Harleys Treats. That's H-A-R-L-E-Y-S-T-R-E-A-T-S-U-S-Acom, and we offer free shipping. Our treats and our food is all on there. We would appreciate it and, again, everything that we have has a monetary donation that goes to a nonprofit for veterans as well as first responders. They suffer from PTSD and many issues as well.

Speaker 1: 38:10

I will make sure we get the address and the link to your website in the show notes so we don't miss out on that. Sir, thank you very much for coming on. It's been an honor to chat with you. Thank you for what you're doing for the industry, but also all your time and effort that you put in to serve in the country. That's a big deal 24 years of your life serving the country. So thank you for that.

Speaker 2: 38:31

Thank you, Ry, for having me here on the show.

Speaker 1: 38:34

All right, have a safe trip.

Speaker 2: 38:36

Oh, I will Talk to you later. Talk to you later. See you in the heat. Bye.