David Howell

"Cats and dogs are just like people," says organic pet-food entrepreneur David Howell. "If you feed them processed food, they have health risks and a shortened life span." Howell's own several cats and one dog prosper under a diet of his Wave-O's Organic Pet Foods. Howell got started in the food business at age 14, as a box boy at Rosauer's Grocery in Moscow, Idaho. He arrived in Eugene in 1983 and began work at Newman's Fish Company in 1986. "I became a fish monger -- did it for 15 years," he relates. Noting that large quantities of leftover salmon wound up in the dump, Howell began to pressure-cook some of the excess fish at home and to experiment with pet-food recipes. Burned out on retail selling, he left Newman's in 2001 and launched Wave-O's a year later. Wave-O's cat and dog foods, made from raw beef or chicken, or cooked salmon, mixed with raw vegetables and slightly cooked grains, sell for $3/pound at The Foxy Dog, Suds'Em Yourself, and Bare Bones Dog Wash. The gourmet duck/venison variety goes for $4. Call Howell at 607-6188 to arrange for breed-specific or allergy-specific blends -- delivery is available.

happening people photograph and story by Paul Neevel Eugene Weekly / 4 November 2004