Animal husbandry – Exercise or amusement device – Toy – lure – fetch – or related device
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-11
2001-05-01
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Exercise or amusement device
Toy, lure, fetch, or related device
C119S710000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223693
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to soft rawhide and a method of forming soft rawhide and more particularly to an edible chew toy made of chopped rawhide, for pets, such as dogs.
Rawhide products originate from the natural skins of animals such as cows. Other animal skins, such as pig, goat and water buffalo skins can also be used. To form rawhide, a cow or other animal hide is split. The top grain is generally tanned and formed into leather products. The bottom half of the hide is generally kept in its natural “raw” state. Hides in such natural, untanned state, are generally referred to as rawhide. One common use for rawhide is the production of chemicals such as gelatin. Another important use for rawhide is the manufacture of edible chew toys for pets, such as dogs.
One characteristic of a pet chew toy is that it should be nontoxic. Thus, rawhide chew toys should not include dangerous substances such as formaldehyde and other preservatives which prevent the rawhide from becoming contaminated by bacteria, microbes, maggots and the like. A rawhide chew toy also cannot contain many of the processing chemicals commonly used in the tanning of leather which make the leather soft. Not only could these be unhealthy to a dog, but training a dog to chew on a toy which smells like leather could fool a dog into thinking that it is acceptable to chew on a shoe or leather handbag.
In order to make rawhide chew toys acceptably resistant to contamination, rawhide chew toys are commonly sold in a dehydrated state. An acceptably low moisture content can lead to a safe or stable water activity. Thus, if the water activity of the rawhide article is too high, there is a possibility that the chew toy will be contaminated by mold, bacteria and the like or otherwise become unsanitary and potentially harmful for the pet. Thus, many rawhide chew toy products contain less than about 13% moisture in order to have an acceptable water activity below about 0.75.
Water activity is defined by Encyclopedia of Food Science, AVI Publishing as the ratio of the vapor pressure exerted by the water contained in the product to the vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature. The lower the water activity of a product, the less susceptible that product is to the growth of bacterial, fungal and yeast organisms. Fruits, bread and meat all have water activities above 0.95. In contrast, crackers, cereal and sugar can have a water activity as low as 0.1.
Conventional rawhide chew toys have drawbacks. When made with acceptably low moisture, the product can be extremely hard and rigid. Thus, old dogs, small dogs or dogs with tooth problems are often unable to enjoy a conventional low moisture content, naturally hard, rigid, rawhide chew toy. Many dog owners also find conventional hard rawhide toys to be unpleasant to handle after a pet has been chewing the toy.
One form of a rawhide chew toy is made from chopped rawhide, which is subsequently formed into a desirable shape, such as that of a bone. However, conventional chopped rawhide chew toys suffer from drawbacks of conventional rawhide products, such as undesirable rigidity.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved rawhide product which is soft, sanitary, safe for a pet to eat and which can be formed into a desirable shape.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally speaking, in accordance with the invention, a soft rawhide product and method of forming the soft rawhide product are provided. Soft rawhide products in accordance with the invention can be made by soaking the untanned skins of animals in a humectant, such as a polyol, such as propylene glycol, glycerin, sorbitol or mannitol. The humectant is taken up by the rawhide and provides a soft rawhide product which stays soft, even after the product is permitted to dry or is exposed to the air for long periods of time. The presence of the humectant not only contributes to the softness of the rawhide product, but permits an increase in the moisture content of the rawhide while still maintaining an acceptably low water activity, such as below about 0.85, advantageously below about 0.75 and even below 0.7. In addition, other solutes, such as sucrose may be used to keep water activity at an acceptably low level. An additional benefit of the humectant is an increased ability to import colors, flavors, scents, nutritional supplements or drugs into the chew toy product.
In another aspect of the invention, one or more humectants, such as glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbitol or mannitol; water; and edible binders such as gelatin are combined with chopped bits of rawhide, such as what is commonly referred to as rawhide flour and then formed by a method such as extrusion or molding into a desired shape. In another aspect of the invention, a sheet of hard or soft rawhide (or any other suitable edible material) can be combined with a chopped rawhide shape. For example, a hard or soft rawhide sheet can be wrapped around a soft chopped rawhide center.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved rawhide product which overcomes inadequacies in the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide a soft rawhide product, which is both sanitary and edible.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method of making a soft rawhide product.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification and drawings.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the article possessing the features, properties, and the relation of elements, which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2988045 (1961-06-01), Fisher
patent: 3123047 (1964-03-01), Fisher
patent: 5339771 (1994-08-01), Axelrod
patent: 5419283 (1995-05-01), Leo
patent: 5476069 (1995-12-01), Axelrod
patent: 5673653 (1997-10-01), Sherrill
patent: 5832877 (1998-11-01), Markham
Glass Richard W.
Perlberg William
Schwartz David S.
Hartz Mountain Corporation
Poon Peter M.
Shaw Elizabeth
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
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