"Dr. Ross' dog food is doggone good!"

In 1932 the old Los Alamitos sugar plant -- which had been closed since 1926 -- was leased to the Dr. Ross Dog Food Co. Before you ask,... NO, the Los Alamitos Race Track did not yet exist, and horse meat in the dog food came from wild horses, not from thoroughbreds who came in last.

However, Dr. Willard J. Ross was indeed creative when it came to sourcing cheap protein. Prior to going bankrupt in the Great Depression, Ross purchased boats to catch sea lions as a source of meat for his pet food. It's unclear exactly how far he got with that plan. It was rumored that he'd already been including whale meat in the pet food.

Perhaps even more distubing, Dr. Ross announced plans to process and sell whale meat for human consumption. Presumably the same boats, along with $150,000 worth of additional equipment, were to be part of the harvesting operations near San Clemente Island. Again, it's unclear how far this plan went before stalling.

Ross' tin suppliers in Asia (for canning) were occupied by the Japanese during World War II, which forced the closing of his business in 1943. 

In the mid-1950s, he sold the name "Dr. Ross" to the Lewis Food Co of Los Angeles, which already produced Skippy Dog Food. The new owners used more conventional contents in their products.

Ross invested in an Arizona mine that seems never to have paid off. In 1956, he was badly injured in the same car wreck that killed his wife. Then it seems he may have gone into the smelting business in Lomita, California for a time. By the early 1960s he was running a health food business in Hermosa Beach. 

But despite all his entrepreneurial efforts and the continued popularity of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" brand, Dr. Ross himself was broke by the time he died on February 12, 1964 at the age of 81.