PET FOOD INGREDIENTS - THE SHOCKING TRUTH

 

The top ingredients in cat food sold at my vet clinic are:  corn gluten meal and chicken by-products, followed by more gluten and other cheap ingredients to add up the calories.  

So what are those meat byproducts?

 

 

NATURAL NEWS - Meat byproducts or meat meal. Both are euphemisms for the parts of animals that wouldn't be considered meat by any smart consumer.

 

The well-known phrase "meat byproducts" is a misnomer since these byproducts contain little, if any, meat.

 

These are the parts of the animal left over after the meat has been stripped away from the bone. "Chicken by-products include head, feet, entrails, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, stomach, bones, blood, intestines, and any other part of the carcass not fit for human consumption," writes Henry Pasternak in Healing Animals with Nature's Cures. 

 

Euthanized animals can end up in the mix too

 

Meat meal can contain the boiled down flesh of animals we would find unacceptable for consumption. This can include zoo animals, road kill, and 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying) livestock. Most shockingly, this also can include dogs and cats. That's right, your pets could be cannibals.

 

Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser writes, "Although leading American manufacturers promise never to put rendered pets into their pet food, it is still legal to do so. "

 

A Canadian company, Sanimal Inc., was putting 40,000 pounds of dead dogs and dead cats into its dog and cat food every week, until discontinuing the practice in June 2001. "This food is healthy and good," said the company's vice president of procurement, responding to critics, ''but some people don't like to see meat meal that contains any pets." 

 

The process that turns these animals and animal parts into pet food is also disgusting. After all, it takes a lot to turn roadkill into something owners feel good about pouring into their pets' bowls.

 

Ann M. Martin describes the process in Food Pets Die For: "At the rendering plant a machine slowly grinds the entire mess in huge vats. Then this product is cooked at temperatures between 220 degrees Fahrenheit and 270 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes to one hour. The mixture is centrifuged (spun at a high speed) and the grease (or tallow) rises to the top and it is removed from the mixture.

 

The grease becomes the source of animal fat in most pet foods. Oftentimes, when you open a standard can of dog food, you will see a top layer of fat. The centrifuged product is the source of that fat, which is meant to entice a hungry dog or cat.

 

After the grease is removed in the rendering process, the remaining material is dried. Meat meal, and meat and bone meal are the end product of this process. This dried material is usually found in dry pet food."

 

Chemical dangers in pet food

 

Rendering practices aren't just gross; they're also dangerous for your pets. The chemicals used to euthanize zoo animals, dogs and cats can survive the cooking process, which means these chemicals end up in pet food, and ultimately, in your pet.

 

Martin writes, "Euthanized cats and dogs often end up in rendering vats along with other questionable material to make meat meal, and meat and bone meal. This can be problematic because sodium pentobarbital can withstand the heat from rendering.

 

For years, some veterinarians and animal advocates have known about the potential danger of sodium pentobarbital residue in commercial pet food, yet the danger has not been alleviated." In short, that means the poisons designed to kill pets are the same ones being fed to them. 

Read more - http://www.naturalnews.com/012647_pet_food_dog.html

Suggestion - You can prepare homemade food for your pet.  Here is some advice on the matter:

Dog Food - http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/homemade-dog-food

Cat Food - http://pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/homemade-cat-food-and-raw-cat-food

There is more on the web.  As long as you make sure your pets are getting all the nutrients and vitamins they need, homemade food is a healthier choice.  They should be familiar with commercial food too, just in case they ever need to be boarded or hospitalized.

By the way, it is possible that as seafood becomes inedible for human consumption due to Fukushima radiation contamination in the Pacific Ocean, much of that highly radioactive seafood will end up as pet food.

Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/09/pet-food-ingredients-shocking-truth.html

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