Description
Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., marketed simply as "Hills", is an American pet food company that produces dog and cat foods. The company is a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive.
History
Hill's Pet Nutrition was founded in the spring of 1907 by Burton Hill and started operation as Hill Rendering Works. Hill Rendering Works provided rendering services to Shawnee County, Kansas, and had a contract with Topeka, Kansas, to dispose of dead and lame animals. Hill Rendering Works produced tallow, hides, tankage, meat scraps and farm animal feed including hogs and chicken feed.
By the 1930s, the name had changed to Hill Packing Company, which included a milling division, Hill Milling company. At this time the company produced farm animal feed, dog food and horse meat for human consumption, processing 500 head of horse per week. The meat was shipped to markets in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. Much of the horse meat was sold to the east coast as a product called Chopped and Cured and shipped to Europe as barreled horse loins.
In 1948, Mark L. Morris contacted Hill Packing Company to produce Canine k/d. Hill Packing Company became the license producer of Canine k/d. In 1968, the food line was made available through veterinarians and pet professionals as Hill's Science Diet. The line continued to expand and includes more than 60 Prescription Diet brand pet foods (prescription foods for cats and dogs with specific diseases, only available through a vet or pet pharmacy) and Science Diet brand pet foods (sold through veterinarians and pet specialty stores). In 1968, Hill Packing Company was sold to Riviana Foods, then in 1976 the Colgate-Palmolive Company merged with Riviana Foods.
