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"Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 15th 08, 03:51 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health,alt.med.veterinary
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Posts: 1,054
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

An excerpt from the book:

Television commercials and magazine advertisements for pet food would
have us believe that the meats, grains, and fats used in these foods
could grace our dining tables. Chicken, beef, lamb, whole grains, and
quality fats are supposedly the composition of dog and cat food.

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.

Hydrolysed 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.

In 1996 I decided to find out the cost of this "quality" material that
the pet food companies purchase from the rendering facilities. Aware
that a phone call from an ordinary citizen would not elicit the
information I required, I set about forming my own independent pet food
company. Stating that my company was about to begin producing quality
pet food, I asked for a price quote on meat by-products and meat meal
from a Canadian rendering company and from a U.S. rendering company.
Both facilities I contacted were more than pleased to provide this
information. As I was just a small company and did not require that much
material to begin production, the cost was higher than it would have
been for one of the large multinationals. Meat and bone meal, with a
content of a minimum of 50 percent protein, 12 percent fat, 8 percent
moisture, 8 percent calcium, 4 percent phosphorus, and 30 percent ash,
could be purchased by me, a small independent company for less than 12¢
(Canadian) a pound. As for the meat by-products the prices varied:.
liver sold at 21¢ per pound, veal at 22¢ per pound, and lungs for only
12¢ per pound.

The main ingredient in dry food for dogs and cats is corn. However, on
further investigation, I found that according to the AAFCO, the list is
lengthy as to the corn products that can be used in pet food. These
include, but are not limited to the following ingredients.

Corn four is the fine-size hard flinty portions of ground corn
containing little or none of the bran or germ.

Corn bran is the outer coating of the corn kernel, with little or none
of the starchy part of the germ.

Corn gluten meal is the dried residue from corn after the removal of
the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran
by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or
syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm.

Wheat is a constituent found in many pet foods. Again the AAFCO gives
descriptive terms for wheat products.

Wheat flour consists principally of wheat flour together with fine
particles of wheat bran, wheat germ, and the offal from the "tail of the
mill." Tail of the mill is nothing more then the sweepings of leftovers
after everything has been processed from the week.

Wheat germ meal consists chiefly of wheat germ together with some bran
and middlings or shorts.

Wheat middlings and shorts are also categorized as the fine particles of
wheat germ, bran, flour and offal from the "tail of the mill."

Both corn and wheat are usually the first ingredients listed on both dry
dog and cat food labels. If they are not the first ingredients, they are
the second and third that together make up most of the sources of
protein in that particular product. Perhaps the pet food industry is not
aware that cats are carnivores and therefore should derive their protein
from meat, not grains?

In 1995 one large pet food company, located in California, recalled $20
million worth of its dog food. This food was found to contain vomitoxin.
Vomitoxin is formed when grains become wet and moldy. This toxin was
found in "wheat screenings" used in the pet food. The FDA did
investigate but not out of concern for the more than 250 dogs that
became ill after ingesting this food. It investigated because of
concerns for human health. The contaminated wheat screenings were the
end product of wheat flour that would be used in the making of pasta.
Wheat for baking flour requires a higher quality of wheat. Wheat
screenings, which are not used for human consumption, can include broken
grains, crop and weed seeds, hulls, chaff, joints, straw, elevator or
mill dust, sand, and dirt.

Fat is usually the second ingredient listed on the pet food labels. Fats
can be sprayed directly on the food or mixed with the other ingredients.
Fats give off a pungent odor that entices your pet to eat the garbage.
These fats are sourced from restaurant grease. This oil is rancid and
unfit for human consumption. One of the main sources of fat comes from
the rendering plant. This is obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or
poultry in the commercial process of rendering or extracting.

An article in Petted Industry magazine does not indicate concern about
the impurities in this rendered material as it relates to pet food. Dr.
Tim Phillips writes, "Impurities could be small particles of fiber,
hair, hide, bone, soil or polyethylene. Or they could be dirt or metal
particles picked up after processing (during storage and/or transport).
Impurities can cause clogging problems in fat handling screens, nozzles,
etc. and contribute to the build-up of sludge in storage tanks."

Other tasty ingredients that can be added to commercial pet food include:

Beet pulp is the dried residue from sugar beet, added for fiber, but
primarily sugar.

Soybean meal is the product obtained by grinding the flakes that remain
after the removal of most of the oil from soybeans by a solvent
extraction process.

Powdered cellulose is purified, mechanically disintegrated cellulose
prepared by processing alpha cellulose obtained as a pulp from fibrous
plant material. In other words, sawdust.

Sugar foods by-products result from the grinding and mixing of inedible
portions derived from the preparation and packaging of sugar-based food
products such as candy, dry packaged drinks, dried gelatin mixes, and
similar food products that are largely composed of sugar.

Ground almond and peanut shells are used as another source of fiber.

Fish is a source of protein. If you own a cat, just open a can of food
that contains fish and watch kitty come running. The parts used are fish
heads, tails, fins, bones, and viscera. R.L. Wysong, DVM, states that
because the entire fish is not used it does not contain many of the fat
soluble vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids. If, however, the
entire fish is used for pet food, oftentimes it is because the fish
contains a high level of mercury or other toxin making it unfit for
human consumption. Even fish that was canned for human consumption and
that has sat on the shelf past the expiration date will be included.
Tuna is used in many cat foods because of its strong odor, which cats
find irresistible.

In her book The Natural Cat, Anitra Frazier describes the "tuna junkie"
as an expression used by veterinarians to describe a cat hooked on tuna.
According to Frazier, "The vegetable oil which it is packed in robs the
cat's body of vitamin E which can result in a condition called
steatitis.'' Symptoms of steatitis include extreme nervousness and
severe pain when touched. The lack of vitamin E in the diet causes the
nerve endings to become sensitive, and can also induce anemia and heart
disease. However, excess levels of vitamin E can be toxic. A
veterinarian with an understanding of nutrition should be consulted.

One commercial food that most cats and dogs seem to love are the
semi-moist foods. These kibble and burger-shaped concoctions are made to
resemble real hamburger. However, according to Wendell O. Belfield and
Martin Zucker in their book, How to Have a Healthier Dog, these are one
of the most dangerous of all commercial pet foods. They are high in
sugar, laced with dyes, additives, and preservatives, and have a shelf
life that spans eternity. One pet owner wrote to me explaining that she
had fed her cat some of these semi-moist tidbits. The cat became ill
shortly after eating them, and even professional carpet cleaners could
not remove the red dye from the carpet where her cat had been ill. In
his book, Pet Allergies: Remedies for an Epidemic, Alfred Plechner,
DVM., writes, "In my opinion, semi-moist foods should be placed in a
time capsule to serve as a record of modern technology gone mad."

The pet food industry corrals this material, then mixes, cooks, dries
and extrudes the stuff. (Extruding simply means it is pushed through a
mold to form the different shapes and to make us think that these so
called "chunks" are actually pieces of meat.) Dyes, additives,
preservatives are routinely added and they can accumulate in the pet's
body. According to the Animal Protection Institute of America
newsletter, "Investigative Report on Pet Food, "Ethoxyquin (an
antioxidant preservative), was found in dogs' livers and tissue months
after it had been removed from their diet."

After processing, the food is practically devoid of any nutritional
value. To make up for what is lacking, vitamins, minerals, amino acids,
and supplements are dumped into the mix. If the minerals added are
unchelated (chelated means minerals will more readily combine with
proteins for better absorption), they will pass through the body
virtually unused. Most are added as a premix, and if there is a mistake
made in the premix, it can throw off the entire balance. Veterinarians
Marty Goldstein and Robert Goldstein have stated that the wrong
calcium/magnesium ratio can cause neuromuscular problems. As an
example, when I had the commercial pet food tested by Mann Laboratories
for my court case, most of the minerals showed excess levels.
  #2  
Old December 15th 08, 05:59 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health,alt.med.veterinary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,344
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

chardonnay9 wrote:

An excerpt from the book:


clip a bunch of sensationalist lies that have already been disproven by
many reputable sources

For anyone reading this thread, Chardonnay is a known kook with an
agenda and no real knowledge or understanding of dog nutrition. I urge
you to disregard anything she posts on canine nutrition.
  #3  
Old December 15th 08, 07:52 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health,alt.med.veterinary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,054
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

Robin Nuttall wrote:
chardonnay9 wrote:

An excerpt from the book:


clip a bunch of sensationalist lies that have already been disproven by
many reputable sources

For anyone reading this thread, Chardonnay is a known kook with an
agenda and no real knowledge or understanding of dog nutrition. I urge
you to disregard anything she posts on canine nutrition.


For anyone reading this thread, I'm a long time advisor for holistic pet
health and know much more than the morons who think kibble is a good
diet for pets. One of them even said kibble is species appropriate!

Robin on the other hand has no knowledge about me to post and is
comfortable with posting lies.
  #4  
Old December 15th 08, 07:57 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health,alt.med.veterinary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

In article ,
chardonnay9 wrote:
For anyone reading this thread, I'm a long time advisor for holistic pet
health


I have an awesome catering business. Ask me about my
customers!

I thought of you today. One of the Alaska newspapers had an
article on Obama's approach to climate change and Alaska
being a very conservative state there were tons of comments
by global warming denialists. And one posted this:

Uhhh.. third grade science class- plants take in oxygen
and put out CO2. So, we better kill the plants and
trees- they are responsible for the extreme CO2 levels!

So I thought "Wow! Chard is branching out into botany!"
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #5  
Old December 16th 08, 01:48 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

chardonnay9 wrote:

For anyone reading this thread, I'm a long time advisor for holistic pet
health and know much more than the morons who think kibble is a good
diet for pets.


Yeah - you "know" lots of fantasies that people have posted
to fruitcake web pages, such as "dogs don't have the biochemical
pathways to break down and extract energy from carbohydrates"
(a completely silly statement FWIW).

Do yourself a favor and find someplace to post where people
are more ignorant than you are, OK? I know that's a tall order,
but the Internet's a big place so there must be some such place
SOMEWHERE...

Dianne
  #6  
Old December 16th 08, 02:06 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,344
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

(null) wrote:

chardonnay9 wrote:

For anyone reading this thread, I'm a long time advisor for holistic pet
health and know much more than the morons who think kibble is a good
diet for pets.



Yeah - you "know" lots of fantasies that people have posted
to fruitcake web pages, such as "dogs don't have the biochemical
pathways to break down and extract energy from carbohydrates"
(a completely silly statement FWIW).

Do yourself a favor and find someplace to post where people
are more ignorant than you are, OK? I know that's a tall order,
but the Internet's a big place so there must be some such place
SOMEWHERE...


I'm wondering who she "advises." I think she's counting us as some sort
of adjunct to her so-called profession.
  #7  
Old December 16th 08, 03:44 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,054
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

(null) wrote:
chardonnay9 wrote:
For anyone reading this thread, I'm a long time advisor for holistic pet
health and know much more than the morons who think kibble is a good
diet for pets.


Yeah - you "know" lots of fantasies that people have posted
to fruitcake web pages, such as "dogs don't have the biochemical
pathways to break down and extract energy from carbohydrates"
(a completely silly statement FWIW).

Do yourself a favor and find someplace to post where people
are more ignorant than you are, OK? I know that's a tall order,
but the Internet's a big place so there must be some such place
SOMEWHERE...

Dianne


I've found just such a place right here!
  #8  
Old December 16th 08, 08:12 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food."

chardonnay9 wrote:

I've found just such a place right here!


You make it a practice to preach to people who have absolutely
no interest in your "advice" and to the contrary have turned
making fun of you into a sport? Shades of Elame!

Dianne

 




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