Commercial Pet Foods

COMMERCIAL PET FOODS

Excerpts below discuss commercial pet foods.
To read the full articles, click on the links listed below the excerpts.

bioavailability of the foods, rendering plants, grain fragments, as well as

PET FOOD FEEDING TRIALS

“ . . . A look at a dog/cat food label usually assures the purchaser that it provides “100% Complete & Balanced Nutrition for Adult Cats and Kittens (or Dogs and Puppies).” This phrase isn’t just a marketing ploy. It is an industry standard set up by AAFCO——the American Association of Feed Control Officials. This private corporation, composed of officials and employees of any “state, dominion, federal or other government agency” that regulates animal feed, has provided two criteria by which a pet food company can label its food as “complete and balanced.”

The food can either pass an animal feeding test, or meet a chemical analysis test for amino acid, vitamin and mineral content. The feeding test for dogs lasts six months. It requires that six of eight dogs must make it through the test without losing more than 15 percent of their initial body weight, or dying from a nutritional deficiency.

In other words, six dogs can lose 15 percent of their body weight, and two can die from nutritional disease, and the food they ate can still be called “complete and balanced.” This should be a hint that AAFCO “standards” are not set with optimal health and longevity in mind. Indeed, a look at the “AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles” shows that they are set in terms of “maintenance minimum.” Since most dogs and cats have a potential life span of 10 to 30 years, what can one expect from food that is formulated to provide just minimum levels of nutrients needed to get 75 percent of the animals through the test alive for only six months? . . .”

“. . . A key issue for pet food is its “digestibility.” When a pet food company uses the AAFCO nutrient profiles to self-certify that its food provides “complete and balanced” nutrition, it uses chemical analysis to measure the amino acid, vitamin and mineral content of the food.

Chemical analysis may use powerful acids and alkalies to “digest” the food, to measure the nutrient levels contained therein. The acids and enzymes secreted into the digestive tract of living animals are much weaker, and may not produce the same degree of complete digestion as chemical analysis. As Morris and Rogers note in the Journal of Nutrition: “Until the AAFCO allowances are adequately referenced citing experimental data, they lack scientific veracity.... Although the pet food industry has been given a set of tables to use to make a nutritional claim on the label, the claim lacks integrity and will remain so until measured bioavailability values are included in the calculation of nutrient allowances.”

“ . . . Bioavailability is a crucial issue. Bioavailability is how much of the food can actually be utilized by an animal for critical functions like the growth of cells. A bowl of chicken feet does not provide the same nutrition as a bowl of chicken thighs. The "meat" part of commercial pet food is whatever decomposing slaughter house refuse and dead animals the rendering plant took in that day. It could be a lot of chicken feet or a few chicken feathers-not even the company that makes it can tell you what's in a can, box or bag of commercial dog or cat food. . . .”

A major portion of pet food ingredients are produced by “rendering.” As the Animal Protection Institute points out, “rendering” is “to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc. by melting.” Giant rendering machines slowly grind their contents. Then the ground material is placed into rendering vats and heated to temperature of between 220 and 270 degrees F for 20 minutes to an hour.

What goes into these rendering plants? Unfortunately, almost anything. As Ann Martin observes, “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 . . . a rendering plant. . . . Restaurant grease and garbage; meats and bake 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.”

An “open secret” of the pet food industry is that a large source of rendered protein comes from dead cats and dogs. The Feb. 19, 1990, San Francisco Chronicle published an article by John Eckhouse entitled, “How Dogs and Cats Get Recycled into Pet Food.” He 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 products —— tallow and meat meals —— serve as raw materials for thousands of items that include cosmetics and pet foods.” “

“ . . . Road kill, slaughter house rejects, animals that die on their way to meat packing plants - all are acceptable ingredients for pet food under the "4D" rule - diseased, disabled, dead and dying. Steroids, growth hormones and chemicals used to treat cattle for infestations - including insecticide patches - again end up mixed into the final product. Meat from grocery stores past its final due date is also added to the mix, as are the Styrofoam trays and plastic wrap they were packed in. . . .”

“ . . . Millions of euthanized pets from humane shelters and veterinary hospitals all across the United States and Eastern Canada are being recycled back into pet foods. . . .

. . . Rendering companies are entities unto their own and service many slaughterhouses, plus process any other animal waste that can be rendered. Recent figures state that the US meat industry produces over 30 billion pounds of by-products per year in 286 plants nationwide.

In a September, 1995 article titled “What's Cooking,” Baltimore City Paper takes their readers through Valley Proteins, Baltimore's only rendering plant with very graphic pictures of dead animals stuffed into barrels, one picture shows a dead dog ; another is of fried animal parts! Neil Gagnon, general manager of Valley Proteins says that 150 million pounds of rotting flesh are fed into the plants grinders and cookers each year to produce 80 million pounds of the plants three products; meat and bone meal, tallow and yellow grease. Most goes into chicken feed, the rest into dry pet food.

The use of dead pets, work animals,zoo animals and wildlife as raw material is an aspect of the rendering process that Gagnon doesn't like to discuss. Valley Proteins sells inedible animal parts and rendered material to Alpo,Heinz and Ralston Purina among other pet food makers. He further states that the meat and bone meal made at the plant includes materials from pets and wildlife and about 5% goes into dry pet foods.

Closer to home, just outside Seattle is a rendering facility cleverly disguised as Baker Commodities. Their raw material again is collected from veterinary hospitals and humane societies across Washington State. Seattle humane shelters have their clients sign a waiver indicating that pet's bodies not collected by their owners will be sent to the rendering facility.

Baker Commodities, a facility which is guarded like Fort Knox, sells meat meal by the ton - average price is over $200.00 per ton. The majority of their product goes to American Nutrition of Ogden Utah which manufacturers over 175 different private label brands of pet food. Some product names you may be familiar with are Alpho, Kal Kan, Albertson's, Western Family and Atta -Boy.

One of the largest rendering facilities is owned by Colgate Palmolive, who incidentally own Hills Science Diet Pet Food. . . ."

“. . . 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. . . .

. . . 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. . . .”

Another problem that has reared its ugly head in pet foods is Vomatoxin. What is Vomatoxin? Vomatoxin is a chemical compound produced by FUSARIUM molds. These molds are found in the following grains: ie. wheat and wheat products, corn and corn products, peanut meal and peanut products (Aflotoxin), soybean meal and hulls, and cottonseed (Aflotoxin.) In 1995, spring weather conditions across many areas of the midwest produced excess moisture, resulting in vomatoxin production by Fusarium molds on wheat and corn. Wheat by- products which are widely used in pet foods are more highly contaminated than whole wheat. Anything over 2.0 ppm vomatoxin can result in illness in pets , it affects the immune system and in some cases death. In a 1992 report from the Mycotoxin Committee of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, it states that virtually all animal foods contain some viable mold. Peanut hulls are particularly susceptible to aflotoxin in addition to being heavily sprayed with pesticides. Hills Science Diet is one pet food that uses peanut hulls as a source of fiber in its formulas. A standard practice in the pet food industry is the blending and dilution of contaminated grain products. By blending a higher ppm vomatoxin wheat with a lower ppm vomatoxin wheat they can hopefully get an acceptable level of 1.0 ppm vomatoxin. Nature's Recipe learned its lesson the hard way last year when 16,000 tons of product was recalled because of vomatoxin contamination. Vomatoxin levels were as high as 23 ppm, resulting in over 11,000 phone calls from unhappy pet owners, many whose pets had died as a result of consuming this product. The recall and replacement of dog food cost nature's Recipe up to $20 million! We can only hope that pet food companies implement thorough mycotoxin control.

“ . . . Raw material from slaughterhouses is composed of material unfit for human consumption, this includes cancerous tumors, offal, fecal matter, mammary glands, feathers etc. The raw material is then denatured to prevent it from going back into the human food change. Denaturing can be done with carbolic acid, creosote, fuel oil, kerosene or citronella. In Canada, a proprietary chemical Birkolene B is used. In addition to the above raw materials supermarket meats, restaurant leftovers, flea collars from dead pets, cattle insecticide patches, pesticides and plastic bags and wrapping from these items are all combined in these toxic soups. Rendering personnel say “ it is far too costly to cut off flea collars or unwrap spoiled steaks! " This whole mess is loaded into batch cookers that are fed continuously non stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week as meat is melted away from the 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 is sent to a hammer mill press, which squeezes out the remaining moisture and pulverizes 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, and meat and bone meal. This is what is used as a source of animal protein that goes into pet food and poultry, swine and cattle food.

In the veterinary text book, Euthanasia of the Companion Animal (1988), in the chapter headed , Animal Disposal: Fact and Fiction by David Cook, Cook states that "millions of America's deceased pets are being cooked and processed into pet food, most pet owners don't realize this fact. Does this raise questions of ethics that should be answered by the veterinary profession and the pet food industry?" Cook goes on to say, "Consider the introduction of dogs and cats into the human food chain by way of livestock food made from rendered by-products. What happens to all those toxic products that we use so liberally on our pets?" . . .”

The addition of euthanised pets goes beyond morally repugnant - it also introduces a host of chemicals not listed on pet food labels. At the rendering plant, time cannot be spared to remove even the green plastic bags the pets came wrapped in, let alone the insecticide laden flea and tick collars they were wearing. Even the very chemicals used to put these pets to death also find their way into the final product. "Facts of Sodium Pentobarbital in Rendered Products", a University of Minnesota research paper, stated that sodium pentobarbital, the barbiturate which is most commonly used to euthanize small animals,"survived rendering without undergoing degradation." When ingested, sodium pentobarbital has been shown to cause liver and kidney damage and renal failure. The pet food companies claim these chemicals are found in such low doses as to be harmless, but make no mention of what the cumulative effects of years of ingesting them may be. . . . “

“ . . . Ann Martin of London, Ontario who has been researching the pet food industry for over seven years says that after canvassing every state in the US and every Province in Canada, there are no regulations prohibiting the use of companion animals in pet food. In addition there are no regulations for any manner of testing for toxins in pet food and after talking with pet food manufacturers there is virtually NO testing done for chemical or drug residues in pet food.

In 1985 the University of Minnesota conducted a study regarding the survival of sodium pentobarbital in pet food. The investigation came about as there had been a number of reports, primarily from England that dogs and cats had died as a result of eating meat or tissue from cattle or horses that had been euthanized with pentobarbital, even though the meat had been cooked. One concern is the practice of rendering dead animals whose death may have been due to, or associated with, exposure to a toxic substance. The study mentioned that (in 1982 -1983) in the City of Los Angeles 52,216 animals were euthanized, Los Angeles County, a further 76,375 and in New York City , 56,000 animals ; 40 percent were sent to rendering.

The study concluded that sodium pentobarbital survived the rendering process.

The contamination of animal feeds with hazardous substances, drugs, pesticides, heavy metals and industrial chemicals poses a potential threat to the safety of animals and ultimately, persons.

If all this isn't enough in pet foods, you now have the manufacturers adding artificial flavors and colours along with chemical preservatives to prevent rancidity. One of the chemicals is ethoxoquin. . . . Ethoxoquin was initially used as a rubber preserver and stabilizer but found its way into pet food as a cheap and excellent source of preventing rancidity for periods of up to a year. It is classified as a toxic chemical with a rating of three (on a scale of 1-6) with 6 being super toxic requiring less than 7 drops to produce death. Ethoxyquin has been implicated in birth defects, stillborn puppies, liver failure, infertility and cancer. Ethoxyquin is approved for use in pet food at the rate of 150 ppm, in human food it is 0.5ppm. (note: recently changed to allow 75ppm.)

Labels can be misleading - the manufacturer DOES NOT have to state Ethoxyquin on the label if their other sources of ingredients already have ethoxyquin in it. In other words, Ethoxyquin is only on the label if the manufacturer has added it to the food themselves. Animal or poultry fat could already be preserved with ethoxyquin from a renderer and this would not be stated on the label. It's anybodies guess how many ppm's are in a daily ration of pet food.

The other preservatives commonly used are Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Introduced in 1947 they are also used to prevent fats and oils from becoming rancid. Research in animals shows that BHA and BHT affects the nervous system. The behaviour of animals with respect to sleep, aggression and freezing behaviour was remarkably different than those of the control animals. BHA and BHT also affect the normal sequence of neurological development in young animals. Some companies, ie. Iams, add both Ethoxyquin and BHA to their product lines.

Natural preservatives are being used more frequently . These are composed of topherols (vitamin E), citric or ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or a combination of the two. Again,Ethoxoquin may be in the other ingredients in the food and not listed on the label. . . .”

RANCID FATS AND GREASE

“ . . . 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. . . .”

ADDED VITAMINS AND MINERALS

“ . . . 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. . . .”