Fwd: [S-A] [SoFlaVegan] Poisons in Pet Food

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" Misty L. Trepke "

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 02:18:35 -0000

[s-A] [soFlaVegan] Poisons in Pet Food

 

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Misty L. Trepke

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The Poisons in Pet Food

JOHN ANDERSON

 

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A homeopath of our acquaintance, who specializes in animal health,

recently reported that nearly all of her new cases are dogs and cats

with cancer. This is a most unusual and alarming trend, she told us.

One of the reasons America's dogs and cats are getting very sick can

be found in the pet foods they eat every day. The realities of animal

health aren't much different than human health: if you consume a diet

of toxins, eventually you will get terribly sick.

 

Despite the appealing blandishments of pet food advertisements with

their claims of providing " complete and balanced nutrition, " if

you're not exceedingly circumspect, you may end up feeding your pet

chicken heads, road kill, spoiled or moldy grains, cancerous material

cut from slaughterhouse animals, tissue high in hormone or pesticide

residues, and even shredded Styrofoam packaging, metal I.D. tags, and

minced flea collars.

 

Don't expect the pet food label to be any true guide to the product's

contents. The list of ingredients on that bag of dry pet food or can

of " meat " can mask the toxic horrors behind innocuous-sounding

phrases such as " meat meal, " " bone meal, " and " meat by-products. "

It's the substances you don't know about in that can of pet food that

may sicken or even kill your pet.

 

Rendering Garbage Into Pet Food-Rendering is the process of grinding

up and then melting down or cooking scrap material from animals. The

final products of this process-meat and bone meal and squeezed-out

fats - are sold primarily to pet food companies.

 

The list of materials that go into the rendering process is extensive

 

and horrific. When cattle, sheep, and poultry are slaughtered for

human consumption, the parts deemed unsuitable for eating-heads

(including growth hormone implants in cattle), skin, fat containing

pesticide residues, toenails, hair or feathers, joints, hooves,

stomach, and bowels–are rendered.

 

Other animal parts sent to rendering plants include cancerous

tissues, worm-infested organs, contaminated blood, and blood clots.

Compounding these toxins, slaughterhouses add carbolic acid and fuel

oil to these remnants as a way of marking these foods as unfit for

human consumption.

 

Slaughterhouses aren't the only source for animals that end up

rendered. Animals classified as " 4-D " (dead, diseased, dying, and

disabled) - that is, too unhealthy for human consumption-are

rendered. These include animals with residues of antibiotics, such

as chloramphenical and sulfamethazine, that are commonly used in

meat production.

 

All of this material is slowly ground up at the rendering plant, then

chipped or shredded, and cooked for up to an hour at 220° F to

270° F. The fat or tallow separates during the cooking and is

removed. What's left over is then pressed to remove all moisture and

crushed into what is misleadingly called " bone meal " or " meat meal. "

 

Meat and poultry by-products, another major category of pet food

ingredients, are the unrendered parts of the animal left over after

slaughter, everything deemed unfit for human consumption.

 

In cattle and sheep, this includes the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen,

lungs, blood, bones, fatty tissue, stomachs, and intestines. The

items on this list that would normally be consumed by humans, such as

the liver, would have to be diseased or contaminated before they

could be designated for pet food. Poultry by-products include heads,

feet, intestines, undeveloped eggs, chicken feathers, and egg shells.

 

Other items counted as acceptable protein sources and included under

" by-products " are dried animal blood and hair, dehydrated stomach

contents from cattle, and dried pig and poultry excrement. As

explicit as the facts about pet food contents may be, you won't find

them listed on the label; the truth about these poisons is

conveniently buried under the rubric " by-products. "

 

The primary ingredient in many dry commercial pet foods is not

protein but cereal. Corn and wheat are the most common grains used

but, as with the meat sources, the nutritious parts of the grain are

generally present only in trace amounts. The corn gluten meal or

wheat middlings added to pet foods are the leftovers after the grain

has been processed for human use, containing little nutritional

value. Or they may be grain that is too moldy for humans to eat, so

it's incorporated into pet food.

 

Perfecting the Contamination-The nutritional needs of pets are hardly

 

the concern of most manufacturers. Commercial pet foods are usually

concocted with the profit margins in mind, and nothing else. A new

food may be tested to see whether animals like it (eat it in large

quantities), but not whether it is good for them.

 

For dry foods, ingredients (meat meal, by-products, cereals) are

mixed together with water or steam, pushed through a machine called

an extruder which gives the food its shape, then cooked at high

temperatures and dried. To make the food palatable to your pet,

fats–often the tallow separated during the rendering process–is

sprayed on after the food is dried.

 

Wet foods are made from raw ingredients ground up with additives and

preservatives. " Chunky " canned foods are run through an extruder to

produce the look of natural meats.

 

Harmful chemicals and preservatives are added to both wet and dry

food. For example, sodium nitrite, a coloring agent and preservative

and potential carcinogen, is a common additive. Other preservatives

include ethoxyquin (an insecticide that has been linked to liver

cancer) and BHA and BHT, chemicals also suspected of causing cancer.

The average dog can consume as much as 26 pounds of preservatives

every year from eating commercial dog foods.

 

Nobody's Watching the Pet Bowl-No consumer agencies are looking out

for your pet's health interests. The pet food industry is virtually

unregulated regarding food composition. In fact, information about

the poisons in pet foods is not easily obtained; hence its

shock-value when it's finally revealed to the unsuspecting public.

 

The problem is that only the label, not content, of pet foods is

regulated. The Association of American Feed Control Officials

(AAFCO), a group of federal and state bureaucrats, define the

ingredients listed on the labels of pet foods, but they do no testing

on the foods themselves and have no enforcement authority. So don't

expect their semantics to keep your pet healthy.

 

The United States Department of Agriculture, a government agency you

might think would be watching the pet food industry, only oversees

food for human consumption, letting pet food makers off the leash.

 

The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine

(FDA/CVM) concerns itself mainly with labeling: manufacturers must

substantiate any health claims they make for their pet food, but they

aren't asked to prove that their food is not quietly toxic to pets.

While the FDA/CVM can prohibit an ingredient's use if it is proven

detrimental to health, they do no ingredient quality testing on pet

foods, so how will they ever know?

 

The claims of " complete and balanced nutrition " on many commercial

pet foods are based on AAFCO nutrient profiles. What isn't addressed

on the label is the quality and bioavailability of these nutrients.

For instance, the label may state that the food contains a " minimum

of 65% protein, " but is it clean and can it be absorbed? The labels

will never tell you.

 

" Although the AAFCO profiles are better than nothing, they provide

false securities, " states Quinton Rogers, D.V.M., a veterinarian with

the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Veterinary School of

Medicine, University of California at Davis. " There is virtually no

information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion animals

in many of the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. "

 

110 Million Sick Pets?-There are an estimated 55 million dogs and 63

million cats living in American households. Given the appalling

condition of most commercial pet foods, it's a wonder there are any

healthy pets walking around anymore.

 

Recent studies have shown processed foods to be a factor in

increasing numbers of pets suffering from cancer, arthritis, obesity,

dental disease, and heart disease, comments Dr. Wysong. Dull or

unhealthy coats are a common problem with cats and dogs and poor diet

is usually the cause, according to many veterinarians and breeders.

The AAFCO nutrient fidyl profiles may play a role here, in that the

" balanced " nutritional levels they recommend may be inadequate for an

individual animal.

 

It is estimated that up to two million companion animals suffer from

food allergies. Dr. Plechner believes that commercial pet foods are a

 

primary cause and can contribute to a host of health problems. " Among

pets, there is a widespread intolerance of commercial foods, " he

states. " This rejection can show up either as violent sickness or

chronic health problems. It often triggers a hypersensitivity and

overreaction to flea and insect bites, pollens, soaps, sprays, and

environmental contaminants. "

 

Feline urological syndrome, a chronic condition similar to cystitis

in humans (characterized by frequent urination with blood in the

urine), is an increasingly common and potentially fatal illness in

cats. It has been linked to elevated levels of ash and phosphorus,

two substances commonly found in commercial pet foods. High iodine

levels are seen as a contributing factor for thyroid tumors in cats.

 

" New diseases are being discovered that are linked to '100% complete'

diets, " states Dr. Wysong. These include " polymyopathy [a muscle

disorder] from low potassium levels, dilated cardiomyopathy [heart

muscle disorder] from low taurine levels, arthritic and skin diseases

from acid/base and zinc malnutrition, and chronic eczema from

essential fatty acid malnutrition, " he reports.

 

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