Canada pet food firm turns back on dog and cat meat

[Guest guest]

Canada pet food firm turns back on dog and cat meatTuesday, June 5, 2001By Patrick White, ReutersQUEBEC CITY ‹ Bowing to public concern that Fido might end up eating Fluffy,a Canadian company said on Monday it had decided to stop mixing meat fromdead dogs and cats into its processed pet food.Quebec rendering giant Sanimal Inc., which formerly processed the meat fromabout 40,000 pounds of dead cats and dogs a week, said it was no longeraccepting the carcasses of domestic animals, many of which had come fromCanadian animal shelters."Clients were concerned and we had faced pressures in the past. It is aquestion of public image," said Mario Couture, Sanimal's vice-president ofprocurement. Coutire, whose firm has revenues of more than $65 million a year, renders 20million pounds of meat carcasses a week. It said dead cats and dogs hadpreviously been processed into powder that was mixed with cereal to producepetfood. "This food is healthy and good, but some people don't like to see meat mealthat contains any pets," Couture said.He said Canada's entire petfood industry was also shunning that type ofpetfood to avoid a North American-style repetition of Europe's mad cowdisease, where cattle fodder containing material from sick sheep is blamedfor a new strain of that sickness in cattle."We want to be sure that it won't hit us in North America," Couture said.Other Canadian rendering companies said they were not impressed withSanimal's use of meat from cats and dogs in the first place."I don't like the idea. It is bad public policy. We don't do it and mostrenderers have never done it despite the fact it is not harmful for health,"said Humphry Koch, executive vice-president of Vancouver-based West CoastReduction. Sanimal, a 62-year-old company based in Quebec, uses dead animals ‹ mainlypigs and chicken ‹ from Quebec and other parts of Canada. It has alsostarted banning sheep and roadkill animals to ensure safer petfood.But petshop owner Paul Latendresse said Sanimal's decision would pose newproblems for veterinaries who will face hefty fees to dispose of euthanizedcats and dogs ‹ rendering plants charged only a modest fee for that."It will change things for veterinaries, it will be much more expensive forthem now to bury or incinerate domestic animals," said Latendresse, owner ofthe Quebec City petshop Animalerie Boutique Tropicale.He said some veterinaries have already started to put dead cats and dogs infreezers, not knowing what to do with them."We might end up in a situation where people will get rid of domesticsanimals in unsuitable locations," he said.Latendresse said most consumers did not even know that some animal feedmight include cats and dogs. "People ignored it and never questioned foodcontent," he said. http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/06/06052001/reu_petfood_43890.asp?site=emailCopyright 2001, Reuters 2001 Environmental News Network Inc.