# OMG, the crap they put in dog foods! New newsstory coming out this week.



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

The naming of names will be very helpful but this story isn’t new. This has been known for years, we just forget about it and need to be reminded. This is a good reminder. 

It does make me feel better about all the labor that I do to make my own dog food. I can’t tell you how many times I wish I could flip a can lid or dip a measuring cup into a bag of kibble instead of the couple of hours I spend making a batch of my dog’s food. I’m preparing homemade food for one minipoo. I don’t know how people like Catherine do it for three large dogs.


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## scooterscout99 (Dec 3, 2015)

There’s a chapter on the dog food industry in Pukka’s Promise. Also a book on the subject by Linda Case, Dog Food Logic.

Bottom line, methods and recipes change and require rechecking even trusted brands at locations such as dog food advisor.


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## JMC3 (Mar 27, 2016)

Well thanks to Scooter, I just now checked my dog food and it is 4.5 stars. I knew it was rated well, but nice to confirm. Cooper is allergic to chicken, sweet potatoes and peanut butter which makes it difficult to find a dog food at all. Taste of the Wild SW Canyon is the only one we could find in our area and both dogs like it. I went ahead and signed up for their email alerts for recalls etc...


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

This is why I am glad I cook my dogs' food myself. I could eat what they eat, but for the distaste I have for livers. It is work, but the improvements in health problems they had has made it very well worth it.


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

I'm also very happy to make the food that my girls eat, but honestly, I think just plain old table scraps that we fed our dogs growing up is better than processed kibble.


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## Vita (Sep 23, 2017)

Caddy said:


> ... I think just plain old table scraps that we fed our dogs growing up is better than processed kibble.


Amen to that. As a kid, my dad also used to give our cocker spaniel an egg two or three times a week, and add a little bacon grease for her coat. She looked great and lived a very long time.


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

*Working Dogs.*

Working dogs are valuable assets. Go ask your police K9 division what they feed. Find a big ranch that has a lot of working dogs and ask them. No one with a good working dog wants health problems.

Eric.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

Here's another article.

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10018997/Patrick06.html

A couple of paragraphs from the above article:

What goes into the rendering vat? ... [R]endering persists because it provides an essential service: disposing of millions of pounds of dead animals.[164] Proponents of rendering claim that there is no other way to dispose of these dead animals. Dr. William Heuston, formerly associate dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, argues that disposing of animals via landfills would create a “colossal public health problem,” because dead animals are the ideal medium for bacteria.[165] Cost and potential air pollution problems preclude burning the animal carcasses.[166]

Instead, United States rendering companies pick up 100 million pounds of “waste material” every single day. This “waste material” includes: heads, feet, stomachs, intestines, spinal cords, tails, restaurant grease, feathers, bones, and dead or diseased animals rejected from slaughterhouses.[167] Remember that under FDA and USDA regulations half of every cow and at least one third of every swine is not consumable by humans. Cancerous tissue, tumors, contaminated blood, injection sites and any tissues treated with a substance not permitted by or in excess of FDA or EPA limits is also rendered.[168] The inclusion of such items in pet food violates the FDA’s requirement regarding unadulterated food. Recall that foods containing “any part of a diseased animal” is deemed adulterated. [169] With an understanding of the rendering process and its ingredients, it is then unclear how AAFCO (and thereby the FDA) approves ingredients such as meat and bone meal for use in pet foods.

In addition to the “waste material,” six to seven million dogs and cats killed every year in animal shelters make their way into rendering vats.[170] The city of Los Angeles alone sends 200 tons of dogs and cats to a local rendering firm every month.

I feed a mostly home-cooked diet. I do use a little bit of kibble, but the kibble that I use is either vegan (v-dog) or certified humane (Open Farm).


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

peppersb do you know for sure that the Open Farm doesn't contain any rendered material? I would think it shouldn't but am curious.

As a biologist I have dealt with all manner of yucky stuff doing dissections and the like and think I have a pretty strong stomach, but this discussion has my gut in a twist. It is so gross, but I guess I get why it happens at some level.

I do maintain my chickens as organic birds and feed lots of fresh organic produce, but I do also feed two commercially prepared organic feeds as well. One is like scratch and you can identify he corn and other grains clearly (but it is expensive and I use it as a treat). The other is a pelleted certified organic food and this conversation has me wondering what its production is like.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

lily cd re said:


> peppersb do you know for sure that the Open Farm doesn't contain any rendered material? I would think it shouldn't but am curious.
> 
> As a biologist I have dealt with all manner of yucky stuff doing dissections and the like and think I have a pretty strong stomach, but this discussion has my gut in a twist. It is so gross, but I guess I get why it happens at some level.
> 
> I do maintain my chickens as organic birds and feed lots of fresh organic produce, but I do also feed two commercially prepared organic feeds as well. One is like scratch and you can identify he corn and other grains clearly (but it is expensive and I use it as a treat). The other is a pelleted certified organic food and this conversation has me wondering what its production is like.


Open Farm has no rendered meat products. I think "Certified Humane" is a higher -- or maybe just different -- standard than certified organic. It is important to me that the meat the my dogs eat (and the limited amount of meat that I eat) is humanely raised and humanely slaughtered.

With Open Farm, you can actually trace the origin of every ingredient in your bag of kibble. Interesting that the sources may vary from lot to lot. See this page:
https://www.openfarmpet.com/our-standards/transparency

If you'd like to see how it works, you can enter the lot number from my most recently purchased bag: W02517FTC


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