When I was young, we had a German Short-haired Pointer and it was my job to feed him one night. I came back in the house and made a slightly strange comment about the dog's food smelling kind of good. My brother -- prankster that he is -- dared me to eat some of it. I flat out refused. But he had the dog-food-eating bug by then so he grabbed a handful for himself. The thought of that still grosses me out. For good reason.

A recent outbreak of salmonella has been traced to the handling of dry dog food. This is the first time a link between dog food and human disease has been discovered. Approximately 70 people contracted salmonella from dry dog food produced by Mars Petcare's Pennsylvania plant. No dogs were reported to have contracted the illness. Many of the people who contracted salmonella from dog food were three years old or younger.