Often, as I read about a pet food plant that neighbors complain emits the smell of freshly roasted ass, I wonder: Why is that?

All sarcasm aside, I know the reason. But knowing the reason and accepting it are two different things.

In fact, just today I read about a Diamond pet food plant that has been stinking up the neighborhood. To attempt to rid the surrounding area of the stench, the plant located in California, considered extending the roof-top stacks by 10 feet in order to get the exhaust higher into the atmosphere “as a way of dispersing odor before it reaches the ground.”

I don’t know if that would work, but to me, that really isn’t the point.

Doesn’t anyone wonder, “Gee, I wonder what could be so God-awful in there that they have to spend millions installing all sorts of newfangled contraptions, such as air scrubbers and such, to get rid of a stench that shouldn’t be there in the first place?”

When people gag as they walk by the plant, do they ponder, “Geez, what on earth are they cooking in there? And why in hell would anyone feed it to a pet?”

Meanwhile, as Diamond Pet Foods continues to search out solutions on eliminating the putrid stench, which has been the biggest complaint about the plant since they opened three years ago, they continue to pump out 130 to 140 truckloads of product each week while operating three processing lines of kibble.

When Diamond brags about their 151 step quality control system that “checks our pet food for quality assurance every step of the way…that marks our commitment to quality”, do you believe them?

Call me crazy, but anything that smells so rotten that makes neighbors within a five-mile radius want to puke – I would never feed to my pet. Period. Full stop.

Think about it the next time you see someone pick up a bag of Diamond pet food. Is that the kind of product you think should be for sale?

I don’t.

And I’ll bet you don’t either.