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Webmaster
Beverley A. Carter
bevcarter@damascusroad.ca
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You
are What You Eat ¾ And Your Dog is
Too!
Papers/Articles from Various Sources
compiled by Bev Carter, Damascusroad
You
are what you eat! And your dog is what you feed it! No doubt,
there are good pet foods out there, you just have to know what
you're looking for and how to find it.
The
whole issue of pet food is another issue that has become quite
contentious and controversial over the last few years. This
partly has to do with the growth of the internet, and its
increased use as a means by which anyone can communicate
with a large number of people, a fact which has greatly
diminished the ability of the media to suppress information that
might reflect negatively on major advertisers.
The
following is a series of papers/articles that I found on the web
and/or in books. Some are by animal protection/rights activists
while others are by Doctors of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). The
source of each paper/article, including website address where
applicable, is provided either at the beginning or at the end of
each article. Most, but not all, articles/papers are reproduced
in their entirety. Where parts are omitted, this is indicated by
the insertion of three periods (i.e., ". . .").
Footnotes, when they are available, appear at the end of each
paper/article. Often you'll find other interesting information
at the websites where this information was obtained. Website
addresses are also provided.
If
you have, or know of, other papers you would like to see here,
please pass them along to me and I'll put them up as soon as I
can. Contact information follows the papers.
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List
of Titles
From
the book
Food
Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food
by
Ann N. Martin. NewSage Press (1997)
Food
Not Fit for a Pet
by
Dr Wendell O. Belfield, D.V.M.
A
Look Inside a Rendering Plant
by
Gar Smith
The
Dark Side of Recycling
[Author's
name withheld]
Concerns
about Commercial Pet Food: What
are you really feeding your pet?
by
William Pollak, DVM
What's
Really in Pet Food
Animal
Protection Institute
Does
Your Dog Food Bark? A
study of the pet Food fallacy
by
Ann Martin
The
Truth About Cats and Dogs
by
Ann Martin
Pet
Food — Our Pets are Dying For It
by
Sandra Brigola
Dog
Eat Dog: What's Inside the Foods We Feed
by
Carol Gravestock-Taylor
Who
Regulates the Pet Food Industry
Food
Not Fit for a Pet
by
Wendell O. Belfield, DVM
Links
to Various Other Sites of Interest |
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From the book
Food
Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food
by
Ann N. Martin. NewSage Press (1997).
http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html
(Ann Martin is an
animal rights activist and leading critic of the commercial pet
food industry. She lives in London, Ontario, Canada.)
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."
[Editors Note: If it goes in to livestock feed, and we eat
livestock, then we eat it too.]
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.
Please note: The information provided here is meant to
supplement that provided by your veterinarian. Nothing can
replace a complete history and physical examination performed by
your veterinarian. - Dr. Jeff
Back to List of Titles |
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by Dr
Wendell O. Belfield, D.V.M.
The most frequently asked question in my
practice is, "Which commercial pet food do you
recommend?" My standard answer is "None." I am
certain that pet-owners notice changes in their animals after
using different batches of the same brand of pet food. Their
pets may have diarrhoea, increased flatulence, a dull hair coat,
intermittent vomiting or prolonged scratching. These are common
symptoms associated with commercial pet foods.
In 1981, as Martin Zucker and I wrote How
to Have a Healthier Dog, we discovered the full extent of
negative effects that commercial pet food has on animals. In
February 1990, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer John
Eckhouse went even further with an exposé entitled "How
Dogs and Cats Get Recycled into Pet Food".
Eckhouse wrote: "Each year, millions of
dead American dogs and cats are processed along with billions of
pounds of other animal materials by companies known as renderers.
The finished product...tallow and meat meal...serve as raw
materials for thousands of items that include cosmetics and pet
food."
Pet food company executives made the usual
denials. But federal and state agencies, including the Food and
Drug Administration, and medical groups, such as the American
Veterinary Medical Association and the California Veterinary
Medical Association (CVMA), confirm that pets, on a routine
basis, are rendered after they die in animal shelters or are
disposed of by health authorities - and the end product
frequently finds its way into pet food.
Government health officials, scientists and
pet food executives argue that such open criticism of commercial
pet food is unfounded. James Morris, a professor at the School
of Veterinary Medicine at Davis, California, has said, "Any
products not fit for human consumption are very well sterilised,
so nothing can be transmitted to the animal." Individuals
who make such statements know nothing of the meat and rendering
business.
For seven years I was a veterinary meat
inspector for the US Department of Agriculture and the State of
California. I waded through blood, water, pus and fecal
material, inhaled the fetid stench from the killing floor and
listened to the death cries of slaughtered animals.
Prior to World War II, most slaughterhouses
were all-inclusive; that is, livestock was slaughtered and
processed in one location. There was a section for smoking
meats, a section for processing meats into sausages, and a
section for rendering. After World War II, the meat industry
became more specialised. A slaughterhouse dressed the carcasses,
while a separate facility made the sausages. The rendering of
slaughter waste also became a separate speciality - no longer
within the jurisdiction of federal meat inspectors and out of
the public eye.
To prevent condemned meat from being rerouted
and used for human consumption, government regulations require
that meat be "denatured" before removal from the
slaughterhouse and shipment to rendering facilities. In my time
as a veterinary meat inspector, we denatured with carbolic acid
(a potentially corrosive disinfectant) and/or creosote (used for
wood-preservation or as a disinfectant). Both substances are
highly toxic. According to federal meat inspection regulations,
fuel oil, kerosene, crude carbolic acid and citronella (an
insect repellent made from lemon grass) are all approved
denaturing materials.
Condemned livestock carcasses treated with
these chemicals can become meat and bone meal for the pet food
industry. Because rendering facilities are not
government-controlled, any animal carcasses can be rendered -
even dogs and cats. As Eileen Layne of the CVMA told the Chronicle,
"When you read pet food labels, and it says "meat and
bone meal", that's what it is: cooked and converted
animals, including some dogs and cats."
Some of these dead pets - those euthanised by
veterinarians - already contain pentobarbital before treatment
with the denaturing process. According to University of
Minnesota researchers, the sodium pentobarbital used to
euthanise pets "survives rendering without undergoing
degradation". Fat stabilisers are introduced into the
finished rendered product to prevent rancidity. Common chemical
stabilisers include BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated
hydroxytoluene) - both known to cause liver and kidney
dysfunction - and ethoxyquin, a suspected carcinogen. Many
semi-moist dog foods contain propylene glycol - first cousin to
the anti-freeze agent, ethylene glycol, that destroys red
blood-cells. Lead frequently shows up in pet foods, even those
made from livestock meat and bone meal. A Massachusetts
Institute of Technology study, titled "Lead in Animal
Foods", found that a nine-pound cat fed on commercial pet
food ingests more lead than the amount considered potentially
toxic for children.
I have been practising small-animal medicine
for more than 25 years. Every day I see the casualties of pet
industry propaganda. But the professors in the teaching
institutions of veterinary medicine generally support an
industry that has little regard for the quality of health in our
companion animals.
One last word of caution: meat and bone meal
from sources not fit for human consumption have found their way
into poultry feed. This means that animal products rendered
under questionable conditions are fed to birds that may wind up
on your table. Remember this when you are eating your next piece
of chicken or turkey.
(Dr Belfield is a graduate of Tuskegee
Institute of Veterinary Medicine and is now in private practice
in San Jose, California. Dr Belfield established the first
orthomolecular veterinary hospital in the US. He is co-author of
The Very Healthy Cat Book and How to Have a Healthier
Dog. This article first appeared in Let's Live Magazine,
May 1992.)
Back to List of
Titles
by
Gar Smith
Rendering has been called "the silent
industry". Each year in the US, 286 rendering plants
quietly dispose of more than 12.5 million tons of dead animals,
fat and meat wastes. As the public relations watchdog newsletter
PR Watch observes, renderers "are thankful that most people
remain blissfully unaware of their existence".
When City Paper reporter Van Smith
visited Baltimore's Valley Proteins rendering plant last summer,
he found that the "hoggers" (the large vats used to
grind and filter animal tissues prior to deep-fat-frying) held
an eclectic mix of body parts ranging from "dead dogs,
cats, raccoons, possums, deer, foxes [and] snakes" to a
"baby circus elephant" and the remains of Bozeman, a
Police Department quarterhorse that "died in the line of
duty".
In an average month, Baltimore's pound hands
over 1,824 dead animals to Valley Proteins. Last year, the plant
transformed 150 millions pounds of decaying flesh and kitchen
grease into 80 million pounds of commercial meat and bone meal,
tallow and yellow grease. Thirty years ago, most of the
renderer's wastes came from small markets and slaughterhouses.
Today, thanks to the proliferation of fast-food restaurants,
nearly half the raw material is kitchen grease and frying oil.
Recycling dead pets and wildlife into animal
food is "a very small part of the business that we don't
like to advertise," Valley Proteins' President, J. J.
Smith, told City Paper. The plant processes these animals
as a "public service, not for profit," Smith said,
since "there is not a lot of protein and fat [on pets]...,
just a lot of hair you have to deal with somehow."
According to City Paper, Valley
Proteins "sells inedible animal parts and rendered material
to Alpo, Heinz and Ralston-Purina". Valley Proteins insists
that it does not sell "dead pet by-products" to pet
food firms since "they are all very sensitive to the
recycled pet potential". Valley Proteins maintains two
production lines&emdash;one for clean meat and bones and a
second line for dead pets and wildlife. However, Van Smith
reported, "the protein material is a mix from both
production lines. Thus the meat and bone meal made at the plant
includes materials from pets and wildlife, and about five per
cent of that product goes to dry-pet-food manufacturers..."
A 1991 USDA report states that
"approximately 7.9 billion pounds of meat and bone meal,
blood meal and feather meal [were] produced in 1983". Of
that amount, 34 per cent was used in pet food, 34 per cent in
poultry feed, 20 per cent in pig food and 10 per cent in beef
and dairy cattle feed.
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)
carried in pig- and chicken-laden foods may eventually eclipse
the threat of "mad cow disease". The risk of household
pet exposure to TSE from contaminated pet food is more than
three times greater than the risk for hamburger-eating humans.
(Gar Smith is Editor of Earth Island
Journal.)
Back to List of
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[Author's
name withheld]
[In February 1990, the San Francisco
Chronicle carried a macabre two-part story detailing how
stray dogs, cats and pound animals are routinely rounded up by
meat renderers and ground up into — of all things — pet
food. According to the researcher who brought the information to
the Chronicle, the paper buried the story and deleted many of
the charges he had documented. A report he worked on for ABC
television's 20-20 was similarly watered down. In exasperation,
he sent the story to Earth Island Journal. NEXUS has been asked
to withhold the name of the author/researcher, who has been
forced to flee San Francisco with his wife and go into hiding as
a result of the threats made against his well-being. Ed.]
The rendering plant floor is piled high with
"raw product": thousands of dead dogs and cats; heads
and hooves from cattle, sheep, pigs and horses; whole skunks;
rats and raccoons&emdash;all waiting to be processed. In the
90-degree heat, the piles of dead animals seem to have a life of
their own as millions of maggots swarm over the carcasses.
Two bandana-masked men begin operating Bobcat
mini-dozers, loading the "raw" into a 10-foot- deep
stainless-steel pit. They are undocumented workers from Mexico,
doing a dirty job. A giant auger-grinder at the bottom of the
pit begins to turn. Popping bones and squeezing flesh are sounds
from a nightmare you will never forget.
Rendering is the process of cooking raw
animal material to remove the moisture and fat. The rendering
plant works like a giant kitchen. The cooker, or
"chef", blends the raw product in order to maintain a
certain ratio between the carcasses of pets, livestock, poultry
waste and supermarket rejects.
Once the mass is cut into small pieces, it is
transported to another auger for fine shredding. It is then
cooked at 280 degrees for one hour. The continuous batch cooking
process goes on non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week as
meat is melted away from bones in the hot 'soup'. During this
cooking process, the 'soup' produces a fat of yellow grease or
tallow that rises to the top and is skimmed off. The cooked meat
and bone are sent to a hammermill press, which squeezes out the
remaining moisture and pulverises the product into a gritty
powder. Shaker screens sift out excess hair and large bone
chips. Once the batch is finished, all that is left is yellow
grease, meat and bone meal.
A
Meaty Menu
As
the American Journal of Veterinary Research explains, this
recycled meat and bone meal is used as "a source of protein
and other nutrients in the diets of poultry and swine and in pet
foods, with lesser amounts used in the feed of cattle and sheep.
Animal fat is also used in animal feeds as an energy
source." Every day, hundreds of rendering plants across the
United States truck millions of tons of this "food
enhancer" to poultry ranches, cattle feed-lots, dairy and
hog farms, fish-feed plants and pet-food manufacturers where it
is mixed with other ingredients to feed the billions of animals
that meat-eating humans, in turn, will eat.
Rendering plants have different specialities.
The labelling designation of a particular "run" of
product is defined by the predominance of a specific animal.
Some product-label names are: meat meal, meat by-products,
poultry meal, poultry by-products, fish meal, fish oil, yellow
grease, tallow, beef fat and chicken fat.
Rendering plants perform one of the most
valuable functions on Earth: they recycle used animals. Without
rendering, our cities would run the risk of becoming filled with
diseased and rotting carcasses. Fatal viruses and bacteria would
spread uncontrolled through the population.
The
Dark Side
Death
is the number one commodity in a business where the demand for
feed ingredients far exceeds the supply of raw product. But this
elaborate system of food production through waste management has
evolved into a recycling nightmare. Rendering plants are
unavoidably processing toxic waste.
The dead animals (the "raw") are
accompanied by a whole menu of unwanted ingredients. Pesticides
enter the rendering process via poisoned livestock, and fish oil
laced with bootleg DDT and other organophosphates that have
accumulated in the bodies of West Coast mackerel and tuna.
Because animals are frequently shoved into
the pit with flea collars still attached,
organophosphate-containing insecticides get into the mix as
well. The insecticide Dursban arrives in the form of cattle
insecticide patches. Pharmaceuticals leak from antibiotics in
livestock, and euthanasia drugs given to pets are also included.
Heavy metals accumulate from a variety of sources: pet ID tags,
surgical pins and needles.
Even plastic winds up going into the pit.
Unsold supermarket meats, chicken and fish arrive in styrofoam
trays and shrink wrap. No one has time for the tedious chore of
unwrapping thousands of rejected meat-packs. More plastic is
added to the pits with the arrival of cattle ID tags, plastic
insecticide patches and the green plastic bags containing pets
from veterinarians.
Rendering
Judgements
Skyrocketing
labour costs are one of the economic factors forcing the
corporate flesh-peddlers to cheat. It is far too costly for
plant personnel to cut off flea collars or unwrap spoiled T-bone
steaks. Every week, millions of packages of plastic-wrapped meat
go through the rendering process and become one of the unwanted
ingredients in animal feed.
The most environmentally conscious state in
the nation is California, where spot checks and testing of
animal-feed ingredients happen at the wobbly rate of once every
two-and-a-half months. The supervising state agency is the
Department of Agriculture's Feed and Fertilizer Division of
Compliance. Its main objective is to test for truth in labelling:
does the percentage of protein, phosphorous and calcium match
the rendering plant's claims; do the percentages meet state
requirements? However, testing for pesticides and other toxins
in animal feeds is incomplete.
In California, eight field inspectors
regulate a rendering industry that feeds the animals that the
state's 30 million people eat. When it comes to rendering
plants, however, state and federal agencies have maintained a
hands-off policy, allowing the industry to become largely
self-regulating. An article in the February 1990 issue of
Render, the industry's national magazine, suggests that the
self-regulation of certain contamination problems is not
working.
One policing program that is already off to a
shaky start is the Salmonella Education/Reduction Program,
formed under the auspices of the National Renderers Association.
The magazine states that "...unless US and Canadian
renderers get their heads out of the ground and demonstrate that
they are serious about reducing the incidence of salmonella
contamination in their animal protein meals, they are going to
be faced with...new and overly stringent government
regulations."
So far, the voluntary self-testing program is
not working. According to the magazine, "...only about 20
per cent of the total number of companies producing or blending
animal protein meal have signed up for the program..." Far
fewer have done the actual testing.
The American Journal of Veterinary
Research conducted an investigation into the persistence of
sodium phenobarbital in the carcasses of euthanised animals at a
typical rendering plant in 1985 and found "...virtually no
degradation of the drug occurred during this conventional
rendering processÉ" and that "...the potential of
other chemical contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides and
environmental toxicants, which may cause massive herd
mortalities) to degrade during conventional rendering needs
further evaluation."
Renderers are the silent partners in our food
chain. But worried insiders are beginning to talk, and one word
that continues to come up in conversation is
"pesticides". The possibility of petrochemically
poisoning our food has become a reality. Government agencies and
the industry itself are allowing toxins to be inadvertently
recycled from the streets and supermarket shelves into the food
chain. As we break into a new decade of increasingly complex
pollution problems, we must rethink our place in the
environment. No longer hunters, we are becoming the victims of
our technologically altered food chain.
The possibility of petrochemically poisoning
our food has become a reality.
— Extracted from NEXUS Magazine Volume 4,
#1 (Dec '96 - Jan 1997).
PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. nexus@peg.apc.org
Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381
http://www.nexusmagazine.com//Petfood.html
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What
are you really feeding your pet?
by
William Pollak, DVM
What we’d like to speak on is the importance of freshness,
wholesomeness and the appropriateness of what is consumed.
The information we provide is for those people seeking
powerful yet simple suggestions for enhancing Wellness in their
companion animals, as well as their own lives. Not all seekers
are looking for this enhanced Wellness. Most people in fact are
satisfied with their dog or cat "looking" normal on
the current commercial food; they assume the animal is just
fine. It is not our wish to tell them otherwise. A developing
sense of and desire for greater Wellness is growing in the world
and is giving rise to this information. It is our hope that this
small change, switching your pet to a natural raw meat diet,
will enhance the quality of life of not just your pet but your
entire household. We have seen this time and time again.
Some concerns about Commercial Pet Food:
- Pet labels mislead and distort nutritional facts.
- Some animal byproducts make regularly consumed pet food
poisonous and toxic.
- Food additives, like coloring, are for the human
purchaser, not the animal consumer.
- Product deficiencies lead to overeating, the buying of
more product and the creation of greater malnutrition.
- Our companion animals’ life expectancies are growing
shorter every generation.
- Chronic allergic reactions are primarily food based; cause
suffering; and require additional treatments that often
exacerbates underlying dis-ease.
- Nutritional issues receive little publicity because the
subject matter is technical and usually leads to the
"naming of names". Pet food advertising revenue is
huge and consequently, the advertisers are very powerful.
Common editorial policy must balance
"news-worthiness" with business; this usually
results in avoiding negative references to advertisers’
products.
This situation is neither political nor, by contemporary
standards, even sensational. It is however, something we deal
with everyday. It is lack of information. Food manufacturers are
silent; they sell pet food in a highly competitive market at
prices that haven’t changed in many years. Have you ever asked
yourself, why not? The raw materials these food manufacturers
mix together to produce typical pet foods you find along the
supermarket aisles come from highly questionable, and in some
cases, unbelievable sources unfit for either person or beast.
Compounding this situation is the fact that pet food labels give
only vague ideas of a pet food’s content. The listed items are
essentially "catch-all terms" for more specific, and
often less desirable, substances. Protein, fat, carbohydrate and
crude fiber are general food categories; they have no functional
meaning in terms of nutritional source, quality or
digestibility.
Our biggest concern as consumers of commercially available
pet foods is that this food:
- Contains ingredients, chemicals, toxins and poisons that
should not be consumed.
- Lacks ingredients that should be part of our pet’s daily
food diet.
Package labeling is a necessary obligation the food
manufacturers are required to provide by law. These laws
however, perpetuate a classification system that has little to
do with nutritional value. Manufacturers can and do use obscure
and easily misunderstood terms. Why are these labels so obscure?
The first and most important question to ask, for a better
indication of the nutritional value of food we buy, is what
percent of the food is digestible. A substance is a nutrient
only when it is digestible, that is, absorbed and assimilated by
an animal consuming the food product. Unassimilated food
ingredients are at best, non-digestible roughage, and, at worst,
deadly toxins or poisons. Nowhere on the pet food label does it
state how much of the food can be digested. It is a fact that
animals on "supermarket" or convenience diets are
usually chronically malnourished due to excessive use of
fillers, stale food, and chemicals coming out of a food can or
pouch. This empty nutrition, non-vital state of health is the
fertile ground for sub-standard biological activity and
receptivity.
Pet and baby foods are unlike any other products sold in a
supermarket. Both items claim to be a complete,
"Whole" nutritional package for the consumer; all
other foods in the supermarket are part of an overall,
individually tailored diet. Deficiencies in one food product are
balanced by another food product if variety and wholesomeness is
valued. The possibility of choosing what one wants to eat is
available to humans. Our pets however, are denied this choice
when given only commercial pet food as the sole source of
nutrition. A pet owner must be satisfied in the belief the pet
food is all the animal really needs to insure minimum
nutritional needs. Rarely can one find a pet diet that provides
more than minimum daily nutritional requirements; that seeks to
provide, in fact, greater Wellness. It would be wise to seek out
commercial pet foods that are, at best, acceptable supplements
to a more natural, raw meat diet.
The average pet owner feels satisfied upon leaving the store
with a large bag of pet food purchased at a very affordable
price (food at 15 cents a pound). At home, the pet
"attacks" the food in it’s food bowl further
confirming its owner’s conviction that a "smart"
purchase in both value and quality has been made. The pet loves
the food! It eats it immediately with great vigor. This
"gusto" though is usually a sign of a pet’s lack of
proper nutrition. It is the voracious overeating observed
everyday at feeding time that indicates a lack in balanced
nutrition along with a hyperactivity usually unnoticed until the
animal is put on a more nutritious and wholesome diet.
Overeating quickly empties a food bag; non-nutrient fillers and
appetite stimulants (addictive agents such as sucrose, corn
syrup, salt, and artificial flavoring exacerbate a pet’s
already undernourished state When a pet overeats a food of low
nutritional value, they must "digest" additional
calories, protein, carbohydrates and waste products to derive a
minimal benefit from the diet. Already low "vital
energy" stores are further depleted. This borderline state
of starvation, despite regular feedings, produces a responsive,
though non-alert, living, though non-vital, animal. The end
result a pet owner or pet professional observes is an
overweight, doughy, dull-coated, undernourished pet that is
marginally poisoned. This is the main reason life expectancies
of our pets are growing shorter every year. Our companion
animals just survive on convenience pet foods. From a holistic
perspective, mere survival is not enough; organisms need to do
more than just survive. By achieving a state of Wellness, a
transcendent growth is secured.
—
William Pollack, DVM
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~aciro/pollak1.html
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What's
Really in Pet Food
Plump
whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, and all the
wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need.
These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate
through the media and advertising. This is what the $11
billion per year U.S. pet food industry wants consumers
to believe they are buying when they purchase their products.
This report explores the differences between what consumers
think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It
focuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands --
the pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets
and discount stores -- but there are many highly respected
brands that may be guilty of the same offenses.
What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry
is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries.
Pet food provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains
considered "unfit for human consumption," and similar
waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes
intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and
cancerous animal parts.
Three of the five major pet food companies in the United
States are subsidiaries of major multinational companies: Nestlé
(Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina
products such as Dog Chow, ProPlan, and Purina One), Heinz (9
Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature's Recipe),
Colgate-Palmolive (Hill's Science Diet Pet Food). Other leading
companies include Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba and Iams), Mars
(Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, Waltham's), and Nutro. From
a business standpoint, multinational companies owning pet food
manufacturing companies is an ideal relationship. The
multinationals have increased bulk-purchasing power; those that
make human food products have a captive market in which to
capitalize on their waste products, and pet food divisions have
a more reliable capital base and, in many cases, a convenient
source of ingredients.
There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this
country. And while many of the foods on the market are similar,
not all of the pet food manufacturing companies use poor quality
or potentially dangerous ingredients.
Ingredients
Although the purchase
price of pet food does not always determine whether a pet food
is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of quality.
It would be impossible for a company that sells a generic brand
of dog food at $9.95 for a 40-lb. bag to use quality protein and
grain in its food. The cost of purchasing quality ingredients
would be much higher than the selling price.
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources.
When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are
slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are
trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. However,
about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in
human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood,
intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not
generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food, animal
feed, and other products. These "other parts" are
known as "by-products,"
"meat-and-bone-meal," or similar names on pet food
labels.
The Pet Food Institute -- the trade association of pet food
manufacturers -- acknowledges the use of by-products in pet
foods as additional income for processors and farmers: "The
growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet owners
with better foods for their pets, but also created profitable
additional markets for American farm products and for the
byproducts of the meat packing, poultry, and other food
industries which prepare food for human consumption."1
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of
nourishment for our animals. The nutritional quality of meat and
poultry by-products, meals, and digests can vary from batch to
batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers, two professors with the
Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at
Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, "There is
virtually no information on the bioavailability of nutrients for
companion animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used
in pet foods. These ingredients are generally by-products of the
meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a
wide variation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional
adequacy of pet foods based on the current Association of
American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances
('profiles') do not give assurances of nutritional adequacy and
will not until ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability
values are incorporated."2
Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone
meal are common ingredients in pet foods. The term
"meal" means that these materials are not used fresh,
but have been rendered. What is rendering? Rendering, as defined
by Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for
industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil
from fat, blubber, etc., by melting." Home-made chicken
soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms over the top when
the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process.
Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid
materials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial
contaminants, but may alter or destroy some of the natural
enzymes and proteins found in the raw ingredients. Meat and
poultry by-products, while not rendered, vary widely in
composition and quality.
What can the feeding of such products do to your companion
animal? Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse
wastes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and
other degenerative diseases. The cooking methods used by pet
food manufacturers -- such as rendering, extruding (a
heat-and-pressure system used to "puff" dry foods into
nuggets or kibbles), and baking -- do not necessarily destroy
the hormones used to fatten livestock or increase milk
production, or drugs such as antibiotics or the barbiturates
used to euthanize animals.
Animal and
Poultry Fat
You may have noticed
a unique, pungent odor when you open a new bag of pet food --
what is the source of that delightful smell? It is most often
rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or other oils too rancid
or deemed inedible for humans.
Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade
animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held
in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to
extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use.
"Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick up
this used grease and mix the different types of fat together,
stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further
spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food
companies and other end users.
These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and
pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product
palatable. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which
manufacturers add other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet
food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of
these sprayed fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog
or a cat to eat something she would normally turn up her nose
at.
Wheat, Soy,
Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein
The amount of grain
products used in pet food has risen over the last decade. Once
considered filler by the pet food industry, cereal and grain
products now replace a considerable proportion of the meat that
was used in the first commercial pet foods. The availability of
nutrients in these products is dependent upon the digestibility
of the grain. The amount and type of carbohydrate in pet food
determines the amount of nutrient value the animal actually
gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates
from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of the
nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. The
availability of nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats is poor.
The nutrients in potatoes and corn are far less available than
those in rice. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used
for filler or fiber, and have no significant nutritional value.
Two of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly
dry foods, are almost always some form of grain products.
Pedigree Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken
By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three
ingredients. 9 Lives Crunchy Meals for cats lists Ground Yellow
Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first
three ingredients. Since cats are true carnivores -- they must
eat meat to fulfill certain physiological needs -- one may
wonder why we are feeding a corn-based product to them. The
answer is that corn is a much cheaper "energy source"
than meat.
In 1995, Nature's Recipe pulled thousands of tons of dog food
off the shelf after consumers complained that their dogs were
vomiting and losing their appetite. Nature's Recipe's loss
amounted to $20 million. The problem was a fungus that produced
vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin," a toxic
substance produced by mold) contaminating the wheat. In 1999,
another fungal toxin triggered the recall of dry dog food made
by Doane Pet Care at one of its plants, including Ol' Roy
(Wal-Mart's brand) and 53 other brands. This time, the toxin
killed 25 dogs.
Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have
diarrhea, vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more
dangerous mycotoxins can cause weight loss, liver damage,
lameness, and even death as in the Doane case. The Nature's
Recipe incident prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
to intervene. Dina Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North
Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of
vomitoxin in Nature's Recipe wasn't much of a threat to the
human population because "the grain that would go into pet
food is not a high quality grain."3
Soy is another common ingredient that is sometimes used as a
protein and energy source in pet food. Manufacturers also use it
to add bulk so that when an animal eats a product containing soy
he will feel more sated. While soy has been linked to gas in
some dogs, other dogs do quite well with it. Vegetarian dog
foods use soy as a protein source.
Additives and
Preservatives
Many chemicals are
added to commercial pet foods to improve the taste, stability,
characteristics, or appearance of the food. Additives provide no
nutritional value. Additives include emulsifiers to prevent
water and fat from separating, antioxidants to prevent fat from
turning rancid, and artificial colors and flavors to make the
product more attractive to consumers and more palatable to their
companion animals.
Adding chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago
with spices, natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the
last 40 years, however, the number of food additives has greatly
increased.
All commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay fresh
and appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a preserving
process itself, so canned foods contain less preservatives than
dry foods. Some preservatives are added to ingredients or raw
materials by the suppliers, and others may be added by the
manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to ensure that dry
foods have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping and
prolonged storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved with
either synthetic or "natural" preservatives. Synthetic
preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl
gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of
automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For
these antioxidants, there is little information documenting
their toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic use in pet
foods that may be eaten every day for the life of the animal.
Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and
ethoxyquin are permitted at relatively low levels. The use of
these chemicals in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied,
and long term build-up of these agents may ultimately be
harmful. Due to questionable data in the original study on its
safety, ethoxyquin's manufacturer, Monsanto, was required to
perform a new, more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996.
Even though Monsanto found no significant toxicity associated
with its own product, in July 1997, the FDA's Center for
Veterinary Medicine requested that manufacturers voluntarily
reduce the maximum level for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per
million. While some pet food critics and veterinarians believe
that ethoxyquin is a major cause of disease, skin problems, and
infertility in dogs, others claim it is the safest, strongest,
most stable preservative available for pet food. Ethoxyquin is
approved for use in human food for preserving spices, such as
cayenne and chili powder, at a level of 100 ppm -- but it would
be very difficult to consume as much chili powder every day as a
dog would eat dry food. Ethoxyquin has never been tested for
safety in cats.
Some manufacturers have responded to consumer concern, and
are now using "natural" preservatives such as Vitamin
C (ascorbate), Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), and oils of
rosemary, clove, or other spices, to preserve the fats in their
products. Other ingredients, however, may be individually
preserved. Most fish meal, and some prepared vitamin-mineral
mixtures, contain chemical preservatives. This means that your
companion animal may be eating food containing several types of
preservatives. Federal law requires preservatives to be
disclosed on the label; however, pet food companies only
recently started to comply with this law.
Additives in
Processed Pet Foods
Anticaking agents
Antimicrobial agents
Antioxidants
Coloring agents
Curing agents
Drying agents
Emulsifiers
Firming agents
Flavor enhancers
Flavoring agents
Flour treating agents
Formulation aids
Humectants
Leavening agents
Lubricants
Nonnutritive sweeteners
Nutritive sweeteners
Oxidizing and reducing agents
pH control agents
Processing aids
Sequestrants
Solvents, vehicles
Stabilizers, thickeners
Surface active agents
Surface finishing agents
Synergists
Texturizers
While the law requires studies of direct toxicity of these
additives and preservatives, they have not been tested for their
potential synergistic effects on each other once ingested. Some
authors have suggested that dangerous interactions occur among
some of the common synthetic preservatives.4 Natural
preservatives do not provide as long a shelf life as chemical
preservatives, but they are safe.
The
Manufacturing Process
How Pet Food
Is Made
Although feeding
trials are no longer required for a food to meet the
requirements for labeling a food "complete and
balanced," most manufacturers perform palatability studies
when developing a new pet food. One set of animals is fed a new
food while a "control" group is fed a current formula.
The total volume eaten is used as a gauge for the palatability
of the food. The larger and more reputable companies do use
feeding trials, which are considered to be a much more accurate
assessment of the actual nutritional value of the food. They
keep large colonies of dogs and cats for this purpose, or use
testing laboratories that have their own animals.
Most dry food is made with a machine called an expander or
extruder. First, raw materials are blended, sometimes by hand,
other times by computer, in accordance with a recipe developed
by animal nutritionists. This mixture is fed into an expander
and steam or hot water is added. The mixture is subjected to
steam, pressure, and high heat as it is extruded through dies
that determine the shape of the final product and puffed like
popcorn. The food is allowed to dry, and then is usually sprayed
with fat, digests, or other compounds to make it more palatable.
Although the cooking process may kill bacteria in pet food, the
final product can lose its sterility during the subsequent
drying, fat coating, and packaging process. A few foods are
baked at high temperatures rather than extruded. This produces a
dense, crunchy kibble that is palatable without the addition of
sprayed on palatability enhancers. Animals can be fed about 25%
less of a baked food, by volume (but not by weight), than an
extruded food.
Ingredients are similar for wet, dry, and semi-moist foods,
although the ratios of protein, fat, and fiber may change. A
typical can of ordinary cat food reportedly contains about
45-50% meat or poultry by-products. The main difference between
the types of food is the water content. It is impossible to
directly compare labels from different kinds of food without a
mathematical conversion to "dry matter basis."5
Wet or canned food begins with ground ingredients mixed with
additives. If chunks are required, a special extruder forms
them. Then the mixture is cooked and canned. The sealed cans are
then put into containers resembling pressure cookers and
commercial sterilization takes place. Some manufacturers cook
the food right in the can.
There are special labeling requirements for pet food, all of
which are contained in the annually revised Official Publication
of AAFCO.6 The use of the terms "all" or
"100%" cannot be used "if the product contains
more than one ingredient, not including water sufficient for
processing, decharacterizing agents, or trace amounts of
preservatives and condiments." Products containing multiple
ingredients are covered by AAFCO Regulation PF3(b) and (c). The
"95% rule" applies when the ingredient(s) derived from
animals, poultry, or fish constitutes at least 95% or more of
the total weight of the product (or 70% excluding water for
processing).
Because all-meat diets are usually not nutritionally
balanced, they fell out of favor for many years. However, due to
rising consumer interest in high quality meat products, several
companies are now promoting 95% and 100% canned meats as a
supplemental feeding option.
The "dinner" product is defined by the 25% Rule,
which applies when "an ingredient or a combination of
ingredients constitutes at least 25% of the weight of the
product" (excluding water sufficient for processing) as
long as the ingredient(s) shall constitute at least 10% of the
total product weight; and a descriptor that implies other
ingredients are included in the product formula is used on the
label. Such descriptors include "recipe,"
"platter," "entree," and
"formula." A combination of ingredients included in
the product name is permissible when each ingredient comprises
at least 3% of the product weight, excluding water for
processing, and the ingredient names appear in descending order
by weight.
The "with" rule allows an ingredient name to appear
on the label, such as "with real chicken," as long as
each such ingredient constitutes at least 3% of the food by
weight, excluding water for processing.
The "flavor" rule allows a food to be designated as
a certain flavor as long as the ingredient(s) are sufficient to
"impart a distinctive characteristic"to the food.
Thus, a "beef flavor" food may contain a small
quantity of digest or other extract of tissues from cattle,
without containing any actual beef meat at all.
What Happened
to the Nutrients?
Dr. Randy L. Wysong
is a veterinarian and produces his own line of pet foods. A
long-time critic of pet food industry practices, he said,
"Processing is the wild card in nutritional value that is,
by and large, simply ignored. Heating, cooking, rendering,
freezing, dehydrating, canning, extruding, pelleting, baking,
and so forth, are so commonplace that they are simply thought of
as synonymous with food itself."7 Processing
meat and by-products used in pet food can greatly diminish their
nutritional value, but cooking increases the digestibility of
cereal grains.
To make pet food nutritious, pet food manufacturers must
"fortify" it with vitamins and minerals. Why? Because
the ingredients they are using are not wholesome, their quality
may be extremely variable, and the harsh manufacturing practices
destroy many of the nutrients the food had to begin with.
Contaminants
Commercially
manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product meals are
frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because their
source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died
because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a source of
meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be rendered until
days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often
contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia
coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate
more than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill
bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria
produce during their growth and are released when they die.
These toxins can cause sickness and disease. Pet food
manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins.
Mycotoxins -- These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as
vomitoxin in the Nature's Recipe case, and aflatoxin in Doane's
food. Poor farming practices and improper drying and storage of
crops can cause mold growth. Ingredients that are most likely to
be contaminated with mycotoxins are grains such as wheat and
corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.
Labeling
The National Research
Council (NRC) of the Academy of Sciences set the nutritional
standards for pet food that were used by the pet food industry
until the late 1980s. The NRC standards, which still exist and
are being revised as of 2001, were based on purified diets, and
required feeding trials for pet foods claimed to be
"complete" and "balanced." The pet food
industry found the feeding trials too restrictive and expensive,
so AAFCO designed an alternate procedure for claiming the
nutritional adequacy of pet food, by testing the food for
compliance with "Nutrient Profiles." AAFCO also
created "expert committees" for canine and feline
nutrition, which developed separate canine and feline standards.
While feeding trials can still be done, a standard chemical
analysis may be also be used to determine if a food meets the
profiles.
Chemical analysis, however, does not address the
palatability, digestibility, or biological availability of
nutrients in pet food. Thus it is unreliable for determining
whether a food will provide an animal with sufficient nutrients.
To compensate for the limitations of chemical analysis, AAFCO
added a "safety factor," which was to exceed the
minimum amount of nutrients required to meet the complete and
balanced requirements.
The digestibility and availability of nutrients is not listed
on pet food labels.
The 100% Myth
-- Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition
The idea of one pet
food providing all the nutrition a companion animal will ever
need for its entire life is a myth.
Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial
pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their
dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore,
companion dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with
little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry
from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that
their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial
diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic
digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and
inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses
treated. These are often the result of an allergy or intolerance
to pet food ingredients. The market for "limited
antigen" or "novel protein" diets is now a
multi-million dollar business. These diets were formulated to
address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods that
animals have developed. The newest twist is the truly
"hypoallergenic" food that has had all its proteins
artificially chopped into pieces smaller than can be recognized
and reacted to by the immune system.
Dry commercial pet food is often contaminated with bacteria,
which may or may not cause problems. Improper food storage and
some feeding practices may result in the multiplication of this
bacteria. For example, adding water or milk to moisten pet food
and then leaving it at room temperature causes bacteria to
multiply.8 Yet this practice is suggested on the back
of packages of some kitten and puppy foods.
Pet food formulas and the practice of feeding that
manufacturers recommend have increased other digestive problems.
Feeding only one meal per day can cause the irritation of the
esophagus by stomach acid. Feeding two smaller meals is better.
Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are
sometimes inflated so that the consumer will end up purchasing
more food. However, Procter & Gamble allegedly took the
opposite tack with its Iams and Eukanuba lines, reducing the
feeding amounts in order to claim that its foods were less
expensive to feed. Independent studies commissioned by a
competing manufacturer suggested that these reduced levels were
inadequate to maintain health. Procter & Gamble has since
sued and been countersued by that competing manufacturer, and a
consumer complaint has also been filed seeking class-action
status for harm caused to dogs by the revised feeding
instructions.
Urinary tract disease is directly related to diet in both
cats and dogs. Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are
often triggered or aggravated by commercial pet food formulas.
One type of stone found in cats is less common now, but another
more dangerous type has become more common. Manipulation of
manufactured cat food formulas to alter the acidity of urine and
the amount of some minerals has directly affected these
diseases. Dogs also form stones as a result of their diet.
History has shown that commercial pet food products can cause
disease. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is
now known to be caused by a deficiency of the amino acid taurine.
Blindness is another symptom of taurine deficiency. This
deficiency was due to inadequate amounts of taurine in cat food
formulas, which itself occurred because of decreased amounts of
animal proteins and increased reliance on carbohydrates. Cat
foods are now supplemented with taurine. New research suggests
that supplementing taurine may also be helpful for dogs, but as
yet few manufacturers are adding extra taurine to dog food.
Inadequate potassium in certain feline diets also caused kidney
failure in young cats; potassium is now added in greater amounts
to all cat foods.
Rapid growth in large breed puppies has been shown to
contribute to bone and joint disease. Excess calories and
calcium in some manufactured puppy foods promoted rapid growth.
There are now special puppy foods for large breed dogs. But this
recent change will not help the countless dogs who lived and
died with hip and elbow disease.
There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be
related to excess iodine in commercial pet food diets.9
This is a new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when
canned food products appeared on the market. The exact cause and
effect are not yet known. This is a serious and sometimes
terminal disease, and treatment is expensive.
Many nutritional
problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based commercial
pet foods. Some have occurred because the diet was incomplete.
Although several ingredients are now supplemented, we do not
know what ingredients future researchers may discover that
should have been supplemented in pet foods all along. Other
problems may result from reactions to additives. Others are a
result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or other
toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet food is
understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that diets
composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meat
meals are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect for
your cat or dog.
References
Association of
American Feed Control Officials Incorporated. Official
Publication 2001. Atlanta: AAFCO, 2001.
Barfield,
Carol. FDA Petition, Docket Number 93P0081/CP1, accepted
February 25, 1993.
Becker, Ross.
"Is your dog's food safe?" Good Dog!,
November/December 1995, 7.
Cargill,
James, MA, MBA, MS, and Susan Thorpe-Vargas, MS. "Feed that
dog! Part VI." DOGworld, December 1993, 36.
Case, Linda
P., M.S., Daniel P. Carey, D.V.M., and Diane A. Hirakawa, Ph.D. Canine
and Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal
Professionals. St. Louis: Mosby, 1995.
Coffman,
Howard D. The Dry Dog Food Reference. Nashua: PigDog
Press, 1995.
Corbin, Jim.
"Pet Foods and Feeding." Feedstuffs, July 17,
1996, 80-85.
Knight-Ridder
News Syndicate. "Nature's Recipe Recalls Dog Food That
Contains Vomitoxin." August 28, 1995.
Morris, James
G., and Quinton R. Rogers. "Assessment of the Nutritional
Adequacy of Pet Foods Through the Life Cycle." Journal
of Nutrition, 124 (1994): 2520S-2533S.
Newman, Lisa. What's
in your pet's food? Tucson & Phoenix: Holistic Animal
Care, 1994.
New York State
Department of Agriculture and Markets. 1994 Commercial Feed
Analysis Annual Report. Albany: Division of Food Inspection
Services, 1995.
Parker, J.
Michael. "Tainted dog food blamed on corn." San
Antonio Express News, April 1, 1999.
"Petfood
activist." Petfood Industry, September/October
1991, 4.
Pet Food
Institute. Fact Sheet 1994. Washington: Pet Food
Institute, 1994.
Phillips, Tim,
DVM. "Rendered Products Guide." Petfood Industry,
January/February 1994, 12-17, 21.
Pitcairn,
Richard H., D.V.M., Ph.D., and Susan Hubble Pitcairn. Dr.
Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats.
Emmaus: Rodale, 1995.
Plechner,
Alfred J., DVM, and Martin Zucker. Pet Allergies: Remedies
for an Epidemic. Inglewood: Wilshire Book Co., 1986.
Rhode Island
Department of Environmental Management, Division of Agriculture.
1994 Report of the Inspection and Analysis of Commercial
Feeds, Fertilizers and Liming Materials. Providence:
Division of Agriculture, 1995.
Roudebush,
Philip, DVM. "Pet food additives." JAVMA, 203
(1993): 1667-1670.
Rouse, Raymond
H. "Feed Fats." Petfood Industry, March/April
1987, 7.
Sellers,
Richard. "Regulating petfood with an open mind." Petfood
Industry, November/December 1990, 41-44.
Smith, Carin
A. "Research Roundup: Changes and challenges in feline
nutrition." JAVMA 203 (1993), 1395-1400.
Strombeck,
Donald. R. Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Foods: The Healthful
Alternative. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999.
Winters, Ruth,
M.S. A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives. New
York: Crown, 1994.
Wysong, R. L.
"The 'complete' myth." Petfood Industry,
September/October 1990, 24-28.
[Wysong, R.
L.] Fresh and Whole: Getting Involved in Your Pet's Diet.
Midland: Wysong Corporation, 1990.
Wysong, R. L. Rationale
for Animal Nutrition. Midland: Inquiry Press, 1993.
Notes
1. Pet Food
Institute, 2.
2. Morris, 2520S.
3. Corbin, 81.
4. Cargill, 36.
5. The conversion is: ingredient percentage divided by
(100 minus moisture percentage).
6. Official Publication, Regulation PE3, 114-115.
7. Wysong, Rationale, 40-41.
8. Strombeck, 50-52.
9. Smith, 1397.
— Animal
Protection Institute
http://www.api4animals.org/doc.asp?ID=79
Back
to List of Titles |
|
Other Information
of Interest:
Does
Your Dog Food Bark? A study of the pet food fallacy, by
Ann Martin
http://www.poochnet.com/articles/foodbark.htm
The
Truth About Cats and Dogs, by Ann Martin
http://siriusdog.com/pet_food.htm
Pet
Food — Our Pets are Dying For It, by Sandra Brigola
http://www.homestead.com/VonHapsburg/petfood.html
Dog
Eat Dog: What's Inside the Foods We Feed, by Carol
Gravestock-Taylor
http://www.fuzzyfaces.com/lfood2.html
http://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/dogfood/
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