People Who Feed Kibble!!!-EPA Document Proves Euthanized Dogs and Cats are Rendered

JessicaRabbitJessicaRabbit
edited August 2010 in Food, Nutrition, & Health
If your dog food has the words "animal by-product " or "meat by-product" it could be this.
I <3 RAW even more now.
EPA Document Proves Euthanized Dogs and Cats are Rendered
http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/epa-document-proves-euthanized-dogs-and-cats-are-rendered.html

Comments

  • sjp051993sjp051993
    Glad I feed raw.
  • RacieRacie
    That is disgusting.
  • sailfloesailfloe
    Crossposting from the shiba-side:

    While I agree with Jessica that it's important to monitor what ingredients are in your dog's kibble (if that's what you're using), I'm not sure this is really a smoking-gun indictment against kibble.

    The article cited by the webpage is a section from an EPA document on air pollution emissions factors, with the chapter in question describing unit operations involved in meat rendering plants. In the introduction, they seem to run through potential sources of meat (that are destined to be rendered into grease or tallow). While I'm somewhat grossed out and surprised to see them list animal shelters, it's not as if the government has done a study showing that the Kibbles 'n Bits plant is dumping Mr Fluffy and Spot into an intake hopper. (Oddly, the document doesn't cite a source for the shelters as a source of meat products - I'd expect them to provide a citation for that, since it isn't obvious to me that rendering pet carcasses for grease/tallow is really all that economical).

    (Anyway, sorry for the somewhat morbid analysis, just wanted to chime in)
  • AraksAraks
    I read an article about his a while back, and swore off of commercial dog food. I've been cooking for Sevuk ever since. When we first found him we would feed him science diet (ugh, how did i not know any better!!??) and I remember him just looking at his bowl then staring at us. It got to the point were he just wouldn't eat it so my mom had started cooking beef and chicken and we'd give him that with different veggies(this is actually what he gets now).

    Good that there's this kind of information getting out now. People will hopefully become more aware of these things and some regulations will hopefully get passed for dog food.
  • ShikokuSpiritShikokuSpirit
    I don't think that sounds very healthy at all...but meat is meat, I suppose =/...it's just not species appropriate...FAIL. I feed mainly the so called "higher quality" brands such as Acana, Wellness & Wellness Core in additonal to raw and the occasional cooked foods. I'd hope that I'm getting exactly what I'm paying a ridiculous amount of money for when it comes to kibble and canned foods.

    Really...this is very sad. I don't like horse slaughter houses (I love horses) but truely horse meat by products I think would be more species appropriate then cats & dogs eating other cats & dogs. What ever happened to proper burials of these poor animals to give back to the soil...we don't need to recycle every carcass into "food"!

    I think all the "commerical" pet foods should either get out of the cat & dog food biz or raise the quality of their food!
  • AraksAraks
    edited August 2010
    oh another thing I had read one time (i should find that article...) When the euthanized dogs and cats are processed the chemical used to euthanize them (sodium cyanide) isn't removed in the cooking process and moves into the dog food. So imagine how unhealthy that is, a chemical used to kill animals and dogs and cats are eating it :(
  • okironokiron
    Soylent green.
  • dlrobertsdlroberts
    Unfortunately Corina, all meat is not created equal. Different cuts of meat from the same animal have different nutritional values. Further, the same cut of meat from two different animals have different nutritional values as well. The pet food industry, because it's not regulated as tightly as the human food industry, has six months leeway to update their packaging and labels if they change their ingredients. So you could be feeding your animals rendered dogs and cats without it even being listed on the package. I'd like to think the higher quality manufacturers don't take advantage of that loophole, but there's really no way to tell as I'm sure that's a closely guarded corporate secret.
  • sunyatasunyata
    Phew... Just read the ingredients on my kibble... No animal by products.

    But it is a little ridiculous that pet food companies can change their formula and not notify its consumers for 6 months.

  • aykayk
    edited August 2010
    The rendering of shelter animals is a bit of old news though. Collar, tag, pentobarbital, and all... This has been said to be happening for over a decade.

    I agree with Dave about meat sources not being all the same. For example, eating a chicken liver won't kill you, but eating a polar bear liver will.

    Meat can also be different even if it is from the same species but two different breeds. As an example, think of meat from Kobe cattle vs. meat from a local grocery store. Huge difference in marbling (and costs).

    I have a big thing against feeding a dog the remains of a dog. It's too close to cannabalism to me, and I can't help but remember how mad cow disease became an epidemic when people started feeding cattle the remains of other cattle. The prions which cause mad cow disease are pretty resilent. Acid (ie. stomach acid) and high temperature (cooking to well done or even boiling) doesn't break it down to simple harmless amino acids.

    I think food taboos must exist for a reason.
  • HeidiHeidi
    I recall hearing on the news a while back that animals euthanized at a local veterinarian were being processed into fertilizer. I also got into a discussion/disagreement with a farmer about why dog meat shouldn't be fed to dogs, because his theory was that any and all unwanted dogs should be shot (not euthanized - because it's cheaper) and made into dog food. I also read that Canadian law on dog food packaging only requires that the food be labeled as dog food, and it's not even required to list ingredients.

    Obviously, I find these things unsettling. I don't think this information is a blanket indication that all kibble is bad, but it certainly makes you want to be careful about what you feed.
  • ShikokuSpiritShikokuSpirit
    I think feeding an animal it's own kind (the same species: cannabolism) should be considered a form of "inhumanity". I know certain species (such as owls or a particular kind of owl) resort to cannabolism at times but this doesn't mean that we need to encourage/force it with any animal! I mean...forgetting the morbidness of it all...it's simply unhealthy for one to eat their own kind.

    Can you (the human) imagine dining out on the finest meat of homo sapien? -makes puking face-

    Yeah, that whole 6 months to notify a change is wrong, they should notify/update packaging immediately. Predators are NOT a food item! What happened to Predator vs. Prey? We need to stick to the prey animals in their diets. Has any food company thought up of a "Mouse Formula"? We have Polutry (Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Fowl), Cattle, Elk/Deer, Rabbit & heck...I've EVEN seen canned Beaver (lol)! I know 1 mouse or even 2 mice is enough of a meal for 1 cat per day =]. I don't know how many a dog would have to eat...depends on it's size.

    I just realized, in addition to the "grain-free", I've seen many other "no animal by products or soy", "etc". I'm glad that there are a few note-worthy kibble companies out there...I'm gonna go check my brand bag of dog food now, lol.
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