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You
Mean it Has THAT in It?
by Missy Brown, MAGRR volunteer
If you are reading these articles in order,
you have probably noticed references to some disturbing information about what
can be in your pet's food.
Am I exaggerating? Can there really be
euthanized pets, road kill, condemned meat, and other goodies in there?
While it may not be true in every case, or
even most of the time, the answer is yes. Those things can really be in
there.
There is mounting evidence of
less-than-pleasant meat sources in our pet foods. Although the topic is
not widely visited, nor very openly discussed, it does merit consideration, and
it makes choosing a food even that much more important. (It also makes
cremating or burying your dog or cat important, too.)
Rendering is a necessary industry for many reasons, and it's not a pretty thing
to think about. The truth is, we need renderers. Where else would
condemned meat from factory farms go? What happens to all the road kill?
What about the millions of euthanized dogs and cats from veterinarians and
shelters each year? And the parts of animals we won't eat have to go
somewhere, right?
All of these things go to rendering plants,
where they are processed and separated into greases, powders, and other forms.
In order to make money, the rendering companies sell these products to any
takers, and the highest bidder is usually the pet food companies.
How can you know you are buying a product
that doesn't contain these ingredients? Here are a few tips:
Look for specific meat sources. Don't
buy products that have 'poultry' or 'meat' as ingredients. Instead, choose
'Chicken' or 'lamb'.
Find foods that use meats from USDA inspected
facilities. If you aren't sure, visit the company website, or make a phone
call and ask them where their meat comes from. If they hem and haw, skip
it and find another.
Buy the best food you can afford. The
better the ingredients are, the more the companies must charge to make a profit.
If you're paying ten bucks for a 40 lb. bag of food, my bet is that you don't
want to know what's in there.
Look for truth in marketing and labeling.
The companies that don't have things to hide are going to be more forthcoming
with their product ingredients, and will often put things they are proud of on
the bag. Some examples would be steroid and hormone free chicken, or
organic lamb.
Avoid by-products altogether. Stick with meat
sources like chicken or chicken meal.
For more information on this topic, you can
visit the links below. MAGRR does not agree with all of these views, nor
do we endorse all of these sites. We do provide them for you for
informational purposes only.
>How
Pet Foods are Manufactured from the plant to the bag….what
exactly goes on?
>Does Your
Dog Food Bark? A Study of the Pet Food Fallacy shocking
expose written by Ann M. Martin about what meat sources are used
for pet food
>Allman
Report: What’s Getting Into Your Pets? Part 1 news report
by Jamie Allman, KMOV News 4, about rendered companion animals
being put into pet food
>Allman
Report: What’s Getting Into Your Pets? The Follow-Up follow
up report by Jamie Allman concerning traces of drugs found in pet
food
>Allman
Report: What’s Getting Into Your Pets: The Mayor’s
Response the mayor decides that euthanized companion animals will
no longer go to rendering plants, although no one admitted it was
being done
>Allman
Report: What’s Getting Into Your Pets: The FDA Report on
Phenobarbital the FDA releases their report, and Jamie Allman
brings us the story
>FDA Report
on Phenobarbital see the official report released by the
FDA in March of 2002
>FDA Report on
Phenobarbital: See which foods FAILED! This is the
chart that FDA released along with its report on traces of
Phenobarbital being found in pet food
>Your
Pet’s Dog Food Could be Dangerous coverage of the FDA study
on Phenobarbital by WAVY, News 10
>Food
Pets Die For book excerpt from Ann M. Martin’s excellent book
(we recommend it!)
>The
Truth About Cats and Dogs article written by Ann M. Martin
concerning the rendering industry and our pet’s food
>Food
Not Fit for a Pet article written by Dr. Wendell O. Belfield, DVM
about the rendering industry
>A
Look Inside a Rendering Plant an article by Gar Smith that takes
you behind the doors of the “silent industry”
>Healing
Our World: Food Even a Dog Shouldn’t Eat a look at the
factory farming industry and how it effects our pet’s food, with an
emphasis on rendering by Dr. Jackie Alan Giuliano
>The Dark
Side of Recycling by Keith Woods an in depth look at the
rendering industry, not for those with a weak stomach, but
definitely an eye-opener
>Rendering
Plants from NY Times News Service why human grade
ingredients? Read this to find out
>Pet
Food: Our Pets are Dying For it article on the horrors of the pet
food industry by Sandra Brigola
>Dog
Food Dangers more about the FDA study into traces of
pentobarbital found in pet food
>It's
in the Bag by naturalrearing.com
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