WHAT THE MANUFACTURERS DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

How would you feel if you knew the protein sources in your dog’s food were actual rejected animals from the human food chain because of disease and drugs? How would you feel if you knew your dog’s food contained other dogs and cats that were euthanized? How would you feel if you found out that the chemical used to euthanize these animals remains in the dog food? How would you feel if you found out that a chemical that was considered unsafe to preserve human food (known to cause cancer and tumors) is routinely used in dog food and dog treats?

Are you shocked? Appalled? In disbelief? At the bottom of this page, you will find a list of links that will document all of this, and more. Read them and discover the truth for yourself, just like I did. When you have finished, you will understand why I make the statement: I WILL NEVER FEED MY DOGS COMMERCIAL DOG FOOD AGAIN! NEVER!

DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

You’re probably asking yourself, “How can they get away with this?” It’s really very simple: the laws regarding the content of dog food permit the manufacturers to regulate themselves.

There are three bodies that “govern” the manufacturing of pet food. They are The Pet Food Institute (PFI), the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA/CVM). The PFI functions as the media relations arm, and representative before Federal and State Governmental Agencies for 97% of the manufacturers of pet food in the United States. They are hardly unbiased, and certainly not legally binding in their decisions. Most of the members of the AAFCO are on the payroll of pet food companies such as Heinz Pet Foods, Bil Jac Pet Foods, Nutramax, Purina, Iams Co, Nutro and more. Other members are from the rendering industry and the Pet Food Institute. This is one of the most blatant examples of conflict-of-interest that I have ever seen. The regulations of the FDA/CVM, the only ones from these groups that are legally binding, basically come down to the making and distributing of food additives and drugs for pets. The regulations do not address the sources of the actual ingredients for proteins or fats.

I’m sure you noticed the words “rendering industry” in the previous paragraph. You might have even asked yourself, “What the heck is 'rendering?'” I didn’t know either when I began my research. What I found was the industry’s “dirty little secret.” I would like to quote now from the book, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food by Ann N. Martin (NewSage Press, 1997). This book is available for purchase at Amazon.com.

In her book, Martin says, “In my opinion, when we purchase these bags and cans of commercial food, we are in most cases purchasing garbage. Unequivocally, I cannot state that all pet food falls into this category, but I have yet to find one that I could, in all good conscience, feed my dog or cats.

Pet food labels can be deceiving. They only provide half the story. The other half of the story is hidden behind obscure ingredients listed on the labels. Bit by bit, over seven years, I have been able to unearth information about what is contained in most commercial pet food. At first I was shocked, but my shock turned to anger when I realized how little the consumer is told about the actual contents of the pet food.

As discussed in Chapter Two, companion animals from clinics, pounds, and shelters can and are being rendered and used as sources of protein in pet food. Dead-stock removal operations play a major role in the pet food industry. Dead animals, road kill that cannot be buried at roadside, and in some cases, zoo animals, are picked up by these dead stock operations. When an animal dies in the field or is killed due to illness or disability, the dead stock operators pick them up and truck them to the receiving plant. There the dead animal is salvaged for meat or, depending on the state of decomposition, delivered to a rendering plant. At the receiving plants, the animals of value are skinned and viscera removed. Hides of cattle and calves are sold for tanning. The usable meat is removed from the carcass, and covered in charcoal to prevent it from being used for human consumption. Then the meat is frozen, and sold as animal food, which includes pet food.

The packages of this frozen meat must be clearly marked as "unfit for human consumption." The rest of the carcass and poorer-quality products including viscera, fat, etcetera, are sent to the rendering facilities. Rendering plants are melting pots for all types of refuse. Restaurant grease and garbage; meats and baked goods long past the expiration dates from supermarkets (Styrofoam trays and shrink-wrap included); the entrails from dead stock removal operations, and the condemned and contaminated material from slaughterhouses. All of these are rendered.

The slaughterhouses where cattle, pigs, goats, calves, sheep, poultry, and rabbits meet their fate, provide more fuel for rendering. After slaughter, heads, feet, skin, toenails, hair, feathers, carpal and tarsal joints, and mammary glands are removed. This material is sent to rendering. Animals who have died on their way to slaughter are rendered. Cancerous tissue or tumors and worm-infested organs are rendered. Injection sites, blood clots, bone splinters or extraneous matter are rendered. Contaminated blood is rendered. Stomach and bowels are rendered. Contaminated material containing or having been treated with a substance not permitted by, or in any amount in excess of limits prescribed under the Food and Drug Act or the Environmental Protection Act. In other words, if a carcass contains high levels of drugs or pesticides this material is rendered.

Before rendering, this material from the slaughterhouse is "denatured," which means that the material from the slaughterhouse is covered with a particular substance to prevent it from getting back into the human food chain. In the United States the substances used for denaturing include: crude carbolic acid, fuel oil or citronella. In Canada the denaturing agent is Birkolene B. When I asked, the Ministry of Agriculture would not divulge the composition of Birkolene B, stating its ingredients are a trade secret.

At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, restaurant and supermarket refuse, dead stock, road kill and euthanized companion animals are dumped into huge containers. A machine slowly grinds the entire mess. After it is chipped or shredded, it is cooked at temperatures of between 220 degrees F. and 270 degrees F. (104.4 to 132.2 degrees C.) for twenty minutes to one hour. The grease or tallow rises to the top, where it is removed from the mixture. This is the source of animal fat in most pet foods. The remaining material, the raw, is then put into a press where the moisture is squeezed out. We now have meat and bone meal.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials in its 'Ingredient Definitions,' describe meat meal as the rendered product from mammal tissue exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, hide, trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen (the first stomach or the cud of a cud-chewing animal) contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. In an article written by David C. Cooke, 'Animal Disposal: Fact and Fiction,' Cooke noted, 'Can you imagine trying to remove the hair and stomach contents from 600,000 tons of dog and cats prior to cooking them?' It would seem that either the Association of American Feed Control Officials' definition of meat meal or meat and bone meal should be redefined or it needs to include a better description of 'good factory practices.'

When 4-D animals are picked up and sent to these rendering facilities, you can be assured that the stomach contents are not removed. The blood is not drained nor are the horns and hooves removed. The only portion of the animal that might be removed is the hide and any meat that may be salvageable and not too diseased to be sold as raw pet food or livestock feed. The Minister of Agriculture in Quebec made it clear that companion animals are rendered completely.

Pet Food Industry Magazine states that a pet food manufacturer might reject rendered material for various reasons, including the presence of foreign material (metals, hair, plastic, rubber, glass), off odor, excessive feathers, hair or hog bristles, bone chunks, mold, chemical analysis out of specification, added blood, leather or calcium carbonate, heavy metals, pesticide contamination, improper grind or bulk density and insect infestation.

Please note that this article states that the manufacturer might reject this material, not that it does reject this material.

If the label on the pet food you purchase states that the product contains meat meal, or meat and bone meal, it is possible that it is comprised of all the materials listed above.

Meat, as defined by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and is limited to that part of the striate muscle that is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, diaphragm, heart or esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels that normally accompany the flesh. When you read on a pet food label that the product contains 'real meat,' you are getting blood vessels, sinew and so on-- hardly the tasty meat that the industry would have us believe it is putting in the food.

Meat by-products are the non-rendered, clean parts other than meat derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. Again, be assured that if it could be used for human consumption, such as kidneys and livers, it would not be going into pet food. If a liver is found to be infested with worms (liver flukes), if lungs are filled with pneumonia, these can become pet food. However, in Canada, disease-free intestines can still be used for sausage casing for humans instead of pet food.

What about other sources of protein that can be used in pet food? Poultry-by-product meal consists of ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcasses of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practice.

Poultry-hatchery by-products are a mixture of egg shells, infertile and unhatched eggs and culled chicks that have been cooked, dried and ground, with or without removal of part of the fat.

Poultry by-products include non rendered clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as heads, feet, and viscera, free of fecal content and foreign matter except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice. These are all definitions as listed in the AAFCO 'Ingredient Definitions.'

Hydrolyzed poultry feather is another source of protein - not digestible protein, but protein nonetheless. This product results from the treatment under pressure of clean, intact feathers from slaughtered poultry free of additives and/or accelerators.

We have covered the meat and poultry that can be used in commercial pet foods but according to the AAFCO there are a number of other sources that can make up the protein in these foods. As we venture down the road of these other sources, please be advised to proceed at your own risk if you have a weak stomach.

Hydrolyzed hair is a product prepared from clean hair treated by heat and pressure to produce a product suitable for animal feeding.

Spray-dried animal blood is produced from clean, fresh animal blood, exclusive of all extraneous material such as hair, stomach belching (contents of stomach), and urine, except in such traces as might occur unavoidably in good factory practices.

Dehydrated food-waste is any and all animal and vegetable produce picked up from basic food processing sources or institutions where food is processed. The produce shall be picked up daily or sufficiently often so that no decomposition is evident. With this ingredient, it seems that what you don't see won't hurt you.

Dehydrated garbage is composed of artificially dried animal and vegetable waste collected sufficiently often that harmful decomposition has not set in and from which have been separated crockery, glass, metal, string and similar materials.

Dehydrated paunch products are composed of the contents of the rumen of slaughtered cattle, dehydrated at temperatures over 212 degrees F. (100 degrees C.) to a moisture content of 12 percent or less, such dehydration is designed to destroy any pathogenic bacteria.

Dried poultry waste is a processed animal waste product composed primarily of processed ruminant excreta that has been artificially dehydrated to a moisture content not in excess of 15 percent. It shall contain not less than 12 percent crude protein, not more than 40 percent crude fiber, including straw, wood shavings and so on, and not more than 30 percent ash.

Dried swine waste is a processed animal-waste product composed primarily of swine excreta that has been artificially dehydrated to a moisture content not in excess of 15 percent. It shall contain not less than 20 percent crude protein, not more than 35 percent crude fiber, including other material such as straw, woodshavings or acceptable bedding materials, and not more than 20 percent ash.

Undried processed animal waste product is composed of excreta, with or without the litter, from poultry, ruminants, or any other animal except humans, which may or may not include other feed ingredients, and which contains in excess of 15 percent feed ingredients, and which contains in excess of 15 percent moisture. It shall contain no more than 30 percent combined wood, woodshavings, litter, dirt, sand, rocks and similar extraneous materials.

After reading this list of ingredients for the first time and not really believing that such ingredients could be used in pet food, I sent a fax to the chair of the AAFCO to inquire. 'Would the Feed Ingredient Definitions apply to pet food as well as livestock feed?' The reply was as follows: 'The feed ingredient definitions approved by the AAFCO apply to all animal feeds, including pet foods, unless specific animal species restrictions are noted.' If a pet food lists 'meat by-products' on the label, remember that this is the material that usually comes from the slaughterhouse industry or dead stock removal operations, classified as condemned or contaminated, unfit for human consumption. Meat meal, meat and bone meal, digests, and tankage (specifically animal tissue including bones and exclusive of hair, hoofs, horns and contents of digestive tract) are composed of rendered material. The label need not state what the composition of this material is, as each batch rendered would consist of a different material. These are the sources of protein that we are feeding our companion animals."

TAKE ACTION

The next question people ask me when I’ve told them what is in their dog’s food is: “Why haven’t I heard about this before? Why hasn’t this been on TV?” Do you know who owns most of the commercial Pet Food Brands? Multinational conglomerates.

Pet food companies owned by multinational companies include:

Nestle: Alpo, Come ‘N Get It, Mighty Dog, Chef’s Blend, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Kit ‘N Kaboodle, Deli-Cat and Nestle Purina products such as Dog Chow, Pro Plan, Beneful and Purina One

Colgate-Palmolive: Hill’s Science Diet Pet Food, Prescription Diet

Del Monte: Nature’s Recipe, Nine-Lives, Kibbles’n Bits, Cycle, Gravy Train and Reward

Proctor & Gamble: Eukanuba and Iams

Mars: Pedigree, Advance, Cesar, Whiskas and Sheba

When you consider the power of the advertising dollars that these companies wield, is it any real wonder that the commercially-funded television industry hasn’t done any investigative reporting on this subject? After all, it’s not like people are being hurt... JUST ANIMALS.

I know that you care about your dog. I know that you want him to have the healthiest, happiest life possible.

So do I.

Read everything that you can before you make a decision. Be informed. The best way to be an advocate for your dog is to stop buying commercial dog food. Maybe, when sales drop enough, the industry will take notice... maybe. In the mean time, feed your dog the healthiest diet possible. If you have the time, make your own homemade dog food. If you don’t, well, that’s why we're here. Our clients love their dogs-- they want what’s best for them. They simply don’t have the time to make the kind of healthy, nutritious meals for their dogs that they know are deserved.

I do and I plan on spending the rest of my life informing as many dog owners as I can of the dangers in commercial dog food. Our dogs depend on us to be leaders, the leaders of their pack. Join me in leading others to the path of proper nutrition for their beloved dogs.

Thank you,

-Cherish Blake, Dining for Dogs Founder



The following are just a sampling of the links that document the horrors in the commercial pet food industry.

http://www.newsagepress.com/foodpetsdiefor.html#author

http://www.newsagepress.com/protectyourpet.html

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Contents.htm

http://siriusdog.com/articles/pet-food-industry-poison-rendering.htm

http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html

http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/fall97/fe_fall97petfood.html

http://www.5stardog.com/dog-food.asp

http://www.newstarget.com/012647.html

http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&more=1

http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/