# What is in your dog food?



## Tessa's Dad

I was sent an article a week ago about this and thought this would be the perfect place to share it. 

In spite of what it says on the labels on the bags or cans of food you feed your dog, you may not be getting what you THINK you are getting in that food. 

If you're squeamish, this might put you off your dinner. 

Part 1.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*  Rendering Plants  *
​ * Rendering Plants Recycling of Dead Animals and Slaughterhouse Wastes ​*








​  Huge mass killing in modern slaughterhouses create a big pile of carcasses. Rendering plants are developed to get rid of them and other stuff from various sources. Let's take a peak at them...  

 Rendering plants perform one of the most complementing functions for modern slaughterhouses. They recycle dead animals, slaughterhouse wastes, and supermarket rejects into various products known as recycled meat, bone meal, and animal fat. These products are sold as a source of protein and other nutrients in the diets of dairy animals, poultry, swine, pet foods, cattle feed, and sheep feed. Animal fat is also used in animal feeds as an energy source. Besides, without running rendering plants nearby each modern slaughterhouse, our cities would run the risk of becoming filled with diseased and rotting carcasses. Fatal viruses and bacteria would spread uncontrolled through the population. One estimate states that some 40 billion pounds of slaughterhouse wastes like blood, bone, and viscera, as well as the remains of millions of euthanised cats and dogs passed along by veterinarians and animal shelters, are rendered annually into livestock feed. This way they turn dairy cows, other cattle and hogs, which are natural herbivores (vegetarians), into unwitting carnivores (non-vegetarians).  

 This is a multibillion-dollar industry, and these facilities operate 24 hours a day just about everywhere in America, Europe and other parts of the world. They have been in operation for years. Yet so few of us have ever heard of them.  


* Raw Material: ​*
The dead animals and slaughterhouses waste which rendering plants recycle includes: Slaughterhouses waste such as heads and hooves from cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, blood, bones, etc. Thousands of euthanised cats and dogs from veterinarians and animal shelters, Dead animals such as skunks, rats, and raccoons, Carcasses of pets, livestock, poultry waste, Supermarket rejects. Along with the above material, the rendering plants unavoidably process toxic wastes as indicated below.  


* Toxic Waste: ​*
The following menu of unwanted ingredients often accompany with dead animals and other raw material: Pesticides via poisoned livestock, Euthanasia drugs that were given to pets, Some dead animals have flea collars containing organophosphate insecticides, Fish oil laced with bootleg DDT, Insecticide Dursban in the form of cattle insecticide patch, Other chemicals leaked from antibiotics in livestock , Heavy metals from pet ID tag, surgical pins and needles, Plastic from: Styrofoam trays from packed unsold supermarket meats, chicken and fish, Cattle ID tags, Plastic insecticide patches, Green plastic bags containing dead pets from veterinarians.  

 Skyrocketing labor 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.  


* Recycling Process: ​*
The rendering plant floor is piled high with 'raw product' 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. First the raw material is cut into small pieces and then transported to another auger for fine shredding. It is then cooked at 280 degrees for one hour. This process melts the meat away from bones in the hot 'soup.' This continuous batch cooking process goes on non-stop for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During this cooking process, the soup produces fat of yellow grease or tallow (animal fat) 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 pulverizes the product into a gritty powder. Shaker screens remove excess hair and large bone chips. Now the following three products are produced: Recycled meat, Yellow grease (animal fat) Bone meal. Since these foods are exclusively used to feed animals, most state agency spot check and test for truth in labeling such as: 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 not done or is done incomplete.  


* Recycled Products and Usage: ​*
Every day, hundreds of rendering plants across the United States truck millions of tons of this 'food enhancer' to dairy industry, poultry ranches, cattle feed-lots, hog farms, fish-feed plants, and pet-food manufacturers. This food enhancer is mixed with other ingredients to feed the billions of animals. Rendering plants have different specialties. Some product-label names are: meat meal, meat by-products, poultry meal, poultry by-products, fishmeal, fish oil, yellow grease, tallow, beef fat and chicken fat. A 1991 USDA report states that approximately 7.9 billion pounds of meat, bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal was produced by rendering plants in 1983. Of that amount: 12 percent was used in dairy and beef cattle feed, 34 percent was used in pet food, 34 percent was used in poultry feed, 20 percent was used in pig food. Scientific American cites a dramatic rise in the use of animal protein in commercial dairy feed since 1987.


----------



## Tessa's Dad

* Part 2.​
The Story of North Carolina ​*
In an article entitled "Greene County Animal Mortality Collection Ramp", states that: "With North Carolina ranking in the top seven states in the U.S. in the production of turkeys, hogs, broilers and layers, it has been recently estimated that over 85,000 tons of farm poultry and swine mortality must be disposed of annually. To meet this disposal need, in 1989 the Green County Livestock Producers Association began using an animal carcass collection site. Livestock producers bring the dead animal and bird carcasses to the ramp and drop them into a water-tight truck with separate compartments for poultry and other livestock parked behind the retaining wall. A local farmer, contracted by the Livestock Association, hauls the animal and bird mortality to the rendering plant each day and maintains the collection site. The rendering plant pays the Livestock Association each week based on the current prices of meat, bone, feather meal, and fat. During the first 16 weeks of operation in 1989, over 1 million pounds or a weekly average of 65,000 pounds of dead animals and birds (mortality) were collected and sent to the rendering plant. The end result of this very successful project is that Greene County livestock and poultry producers have a convenient, safe, and economical alternative to disposal of animal and bird mortality. Now it must be very evident that the dairy cows are no longer vegetarian animals. The dairy industry feeds them recycled meat products, which is derived by recycling slaughterhouses waste and other dead animals such as millions of euthanised cats and dogs from veterinarians and animal shelters. Hence the milk produced by cows contains non-vegetarian elements.  


* Food Even A Dog Shouldn’t Eat – Killing Our Pets with Every Meal By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. ​*
Each year, Americans spend $10 billion on pet food for our beloved companion animals, animals we treat like members of our families and who we love as our closest friends. Yet 95 percent of the food fed to these treasured creatures is made up of materials that are unfit for human consumption and contain little nutritional value. As a result, “man’s best friend" has skin disorders, arthritis, obesity, heart disease and a variety of cancers. Without speech, our animal companions cannot tell us of the insidious, often life threatening ill health they experience.  


 A large percentage of commercial pet food is made up of meat by-products, a toxic brew containing diseased and contaminated meat from slaughterhouses, animal heads, toenails, chicken feathers, feet and beaks. It also includes dead animals picked up from the nation's roads, rancid kitchen grease and frying oil from the nation's kitchens, and millions of pounds of dead animals from the country's animal hospitals and shelters.  


* Meat Packing Plant ​*
The meat industry produces a tremendous amount of waste. Half of every cow and one-third of every pig butchered is wasted. Add to that the millions of tons of dead animals each year and you have an incredible waste problem. In the United States alone, rendering is a $2.4 billion industry with 286 rendering plants disposing of over 100 million pounds of dead animals, meat wastes and fat EVERY DAY. A few years ago, Baltimore reporter Van Smith visited a rendering plant in his city and found that the large vats that collect and filter the animals prior to cooking contained a vast array of animals including dead dogs, cats, raccoons, opossums, deer, foxes, snakes, a baby circus elephant and the remains of a police department horse. This one rendering plant alone processes 1,824 dead animals every month. Every year this one plant turns 150 million pounds of decaying, diseased and drug filled flesh and kitchen grease into 80 million pounds of meat and bone meal, tallow and yellow grease. This nutritionally dead, often toxic material provides the base for most pet foods and is found in a vast array of products used by humans as well.  


* Shredding before boiling at the rendering plant ​*
This meat and bone meal is used to augment the feed of poultry, pigs, cattle and sheep destined for human consumption. The deceptive product label names to watch out for that indicate the presence of this deadly soup include meat meal, meat by-products, poultry meal, poultry by-products, fish meal, fish oil, yellow grease, tallow, beef fat, chicken fat and fatty acids. Fatty acids can be found in lipstick, inks and waxes and other rendering products such as tallow and grease go into soaps, candles, tires, many drugs and gummy candies. The health conscious consumer should avoid all these ingredients in human and pet foods. Many toxic chemicals make their way into the rendered products. In addition to the unused meat from the livestock slaughtering process, dead, dying, diseased and disabled animals are also included. These animals are known as "4D meat" in the trade. Along with the meat comes disease, antibiotics and other drugs used during the animals' lives, pesticides, cattle ID tags and surgical needles. Unsold supermarket meats, still in their plastic and Styrofoam wrappings, go into the mix as well as the plastic bags they are delivered in. The millions of dead dogs and cats from veterinarians and animals shelters go into the rendering pots, including their flea collars containing toxic pesticides, ID tags and a variety of powerful drugs. The city of Los Angeles sends 200 tons of euthanized cats and dogs to West Coast Rendering plant every month. This is just from the city's animal shelters and does not include animals from private veterinarians.  


* Euthanized dogs ​*
A common drug found in the rendering brew is phenobarbital, commonly used to euthanize sick animals. The American Journal of Veterinary Research did a study in 1985 that showed there was virtually no degradation of this drug during the typical rendering process and that measurable quantities of it remain present in the rendered material used for pet foods and for feeding cattle destined for human consumption. The grains in pet food bear little resemblance to the nutrient rich cereals we assume are present. Pet food grain consists of the leftovers after the grain has been processed for humans. It also contains moldy grain that has been declared unfit for human consumption. Some of the mold is toxic and potentially deadly. The preservatives added to pet foods, and human foods, are highly toxic. Sodium nitrite, a coloring agent and preservative, ethoxyquin, an insecticide, BHA and BHT have all been linked to cancer. Your dog could be consuming as much as 26 pounds of preservatives each year if it is fed these foods.  


 The state of ill health that these non-foods generate is responsible for a host of health problems and can cause a hypersensitivity to flea and insect bites. Many flea allergies would go away in animals if their diets were changed. 8,000 gallon fat boiler. The pet food industry is unregulated by government bodies. An organization called the Association of American Feed Control Officials sets the standards. Its membership includes a few state agency representatives, but it is mostly run by commercial pet food industry workers. Don't be fooled by pet food sold at a veterinarian's office. Depending upon the brand, this food can contain most of the same ingredients as commercial pet foods sold in supermarkets. The corporations that own these brands are simply very clever with their advertisement and product placements and begin courting vets during their training with free food, lectures and even clothing.


----------



## Tessa's Dad

Part 3.

* The Use of Recycled Animal Waste In Animal Feed ​*
INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS, Food And Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine  

 Recycled animal waste is a processed feed product for livestock derived from animal manure or a mixture of manure and litter. Incorporation of this product into animal diets is a viable alternative to land application or land fill.  

 The recycling of animal waste as a feed ingredient is primarily a local practice. The bulk and weight of the product are such that transportation costs for significant shipment across State lines is  generally uneconomical. Generally, animal waste is used within the State where it is produced. Many State feed control agencies have taken the initiative in establishing standards regarding the used of processed animal waste as a feed ingredient. Because it is generally used within the State where it is produced and the States have the capacity to effectively regulate its use, FDA policy is not to take an active surveilance role in regulating the use of processed animal waste as an animal feed ingredient (FDA Compliance Policy Guide, Sec. 685.100, Recycled Animal Waste--CPG 7126.34.)


----------



## Tessa's Dad

CBC Documentary: A Dog's Breakfast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrBOOhDCC6g


----------



## KidWhisperer

This is awful....truly AWFUL! Is it any wonder our children have developed food allergies and other immune disorders, and that our dogs are often so ill? I had read before about some unsavory meat by-product ingredients, like feathers or toenails, but never knew that flea collars and styrofoam get thrown into the mix. I'm nearly speechless. What can we do about this?


----------



## Jamie Hein

KidWhisperer said:


> This is awful....truly AWFUL! Is it any wonder our children have developed food allergies and other immune disorders, and that our dogs are often so ill? I had read before about some unsavory meat by-product ingredients, like feathers or toenails, but never knew that flea collars and styrofoam get thrown into the mix. I'm nearly speechless. What can we do about this?


You can make your own dog food or purchase food from a credible company that does not use ingredients that are vague like meat meal, by products, ect. or purchase from a company who uses human grade ingredients.


----------

