October 14th, 2008 by admin

While imported ingredients remain high on the awareness of pet owners
across the US and Canada, there is something right here in the US that
few are aware of and poses a similar threat to our pets. The FDA terms
the ingredients SRM’s – specified risk materials. SRM’s are a common pet
food ingredient that is little more than waste from the human meat
industry. The name alone – Specified Risk Materials – explains the concern.

To start, you should understand that the pet food industry began by
doing about the same thing that pet owners used to do…feeding their dogs
and cats leftovers from family meals. Corporations saw the opportunity
with leftover ingredients from the manufacturing and processing of human
food and commercial pet food was born. While leftovers from your family
dinner doesn’t sound too harmful for pets – leftovers from the
commercial side can be quite different. Interestingly enough, back in
the 1960’s the pet food industry initiated a nationwide campaign warning
pet owners of the ‘dangers’ in feeding your dog or cat leftovers – yet
they themselves did and continue to do the very same on a commercial level.

A common concern discussed by those in the know about pet food is known
as the 4-D ingredients. The 4-D’s are dead, diseased, drugged, and
downed meat producing animals. These 4-D animals are rejected for use in
human food for apparent reasons. Common sense would cause one to assume
the animals are destroyed, but that is not the case. 4-D animals are
processed for use in pet food and are one part of the FDA’s Specified
Risk Materials.

Another concern of SRM’s comes from a more modern day risk of mad cow
disease – BSE - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. The FDA’s definition
of BSE is “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a chronic,
degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system of cattle.”
For more information, visit the FDA’s web page on BSE at
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bse.html. To give the FDA credit,
they have stepped up control a great deal in recent years and does not
allow SRM’s to be introduced into the human food chain by prohibiting
any possible SRM’s into the feed of cattle, sheep, or pigs – ruminant
animals. But these SRM’s are allowed in pet foods. BSE or mad cow
disease has crossed species to cats in Europe, mink worldwide, and deer
and elk in the US. (For more information on BSE visit
http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AnSci/BSE/ ) I’m the first to admit that the
risk of mad cow disease entering the pet population of the US is a long
shot, but it remains a risk of concern.

To provide you with some startling numbers explaining just how much
Specified Risk Material is processed, I will quote a letter from Garth
Merrick to the FDA…”Federal Measures To Mitigate BSE Risks:
Considerations for Further Action”….( full letter available he
https://web01.aphis.usda.gov/regpubl...85256ed00044eb
1f/b5773ca9a76035d487256edf00540410/Body/M2?OpenElement )

“SRM’s in cattle under 30 months of age have been estimated to be 20
pounds per head. In Texas there are four packing houses processing
approximately 100,000 head per week times 20 pounds equals 2,000,000
times 52 weeks equals 104,000,000 of product that no one has discussed
what to do with. Also, in Texas, there are approximately 18,000 head of
cows over 30 months of age slaughtered weekly at four packing plants
which have approximately 60 pounds per head of SRM material equals
1,080,000 per week equals 56,160,000 pounds per year. Our company
services mostly Texas and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. Last
year we processed 255,000 head of dead stock not counting calves with an
average weight of 600 pounds per carcass. The total weight comes to
153,000.000 pounds that makes its way into feed ingredients.”

The 4-D material discussed above – from one company – processed 153
million pounds of dead cattle in one year. I repeat – 153 million pounds
of processed dead cattle in one year from one company! There is no
testing to determine the reason the animal died – causes could run from
old age to disease. We just don’t know. The current FDA and AAFCO
regulations allow dead (4-D) animals to be processed into pet food. They
are not allowed to be processed into the human food chain either
directly or in-directly (through use in cattle or pig feed). The other
104 million and 56 million pounds of SRM’s processed by this one company
in one year is also allowed into pet food but not allowed to be
processed into human food directly or in-directly. The current FDA
ruling on the processing of SRM’s - effective 1/9/07 - does not protect
pet food. http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/E6-16830.htm

Mr. Merricks letter to the FDA does bring up a valid point in that what
should the processors of meat do with these millions and millions of
pounds of SRM’s? I don’t have an answer to that question. But I can tell
you that I don’t want SRM’s in my pet’s food bowl. It’s not my
responsibility to find a selling point for SRM’s.

Besides pet owners that are aware of SRM’s in pet food and a handful of
knowledgeable veterinarians, there are some national organizations that
feel SRM’s should be eliminated from pet food as well. From a December
2005 letter from the American Farm Bureau Federation to the FDA…
(http://google2.fda.gov/search?client...r=&proxystyles
heet=FDA&output=xml_no_dtd&getfields=*&q=what+is+4 D+animals
+in+pet+food&as=GO ) …
“Our members recognize the importance of and strongly support the
ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban that went into effect in August 1997.
Given what is currently known about the epidemiology and
characteristically long incubation period of BSE, we agree that it is
appropriate for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement
additional measures which will minimize the risk of BSE recycling in the
U.S. cattle herd. Specifically, we support extending to all livestock,
poultry and pet feed the current ruminant ban on brain and spinal cord
material from bovines 30 months of age and older.”

If the FDA doesn’t extend the ban of SRM’s to include pet food, at the
very least the pet food label should state their presence in the food.
Currently you won’t find SRM listed on any dog food or cat food label.
Pet food manufacturers weren’t born yesterday. I doubt that many sales
would occur from the words Specified Risk Materials listed on a dog food
or cat food label. SRM’s come in the pet food ingredients by-products
(meat by-products, chicken by-products, by-product meal, and so on).
Unless you are comfortable with your pet eating a specified risk
material – I’d suggest you avoid feeding any pet food or pet treat with
by-products listed in the ingredients!

SRM’s in pet food is frightening to consider. One estimate of the
economic impact of destroying SRM’s instead of recycling SRM’s into pet
food has been estimated to cost $15 million dollars a year. Considering
the 56.4 million pet owning U.S. households spend over $40 billion
dollars a year on their pets, I say it is money well spent.

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