AR-News: (US MI) What is REALLY in your pet's food?

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

abc12.com
Monday, May 10, 2004
You may not want to know

By Animal Protection Institute
Undated — (05/10/04) Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, 
and all the wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need. 
These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through the media and 
advertising. This is what the $11 billion per year U.S. pet food industry 
wants consumers to believe they are buying when they purchase their products. 
This report explores the differences between what consumers think they are 
buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general terms on 
the most visible name brands -- the pet food labels that are mass-distributed 
to supermarkets and discount stores -- but there are many highly respected 
brands that may be guilty of the same offenses. 
What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry is an extension 
of the human food and agriculture industries. Pet food provides a market for 
slaughterhouse offal, grains considered "unfit for human consumption," and 
similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, 
udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts. 
(for footnote references, click here). 
Three of the five major pet food companies in the United States are 
subsidiaries of major multinational companies: Nestlé (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, 
Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina products such as Dog Chow, ProPlan, and Purina 
One), Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature's Recipe), 
Colgate-Palmolive (Hill's Science Diet Pet Food). Other leading companies include 
Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba and Iams), Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, 
Waltham's), and Nutro. From a business standpoint, multinational companies 
owning pet food manufacturing companies is an ideal relationship. The 
multinationals have increased bulk-purchasing power; those that make human food products 
have a captive market in which to capitalize on their waste products, and pet 
food divisions have a more reliable capital base and, in many cases, a 
convenient source of ingredients. 
There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this country. And 
while many of the foods on the market are similar, not all of the pet food 
manufacturing companies use poor quality or potentially dangerous ingredients. 
Ingredients 
Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determine whether a 
pet food is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of quality. It 
would be impossible for a company that sells a generic brand of dog food at $9.95 
for a 40-lb. bag to use quality protein and grain in its food. The cost of 
purchasing quality ingredients would be much higher than the selling price. 
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, 
swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such 
as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. 
However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in human 
foods. Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, intestines, lungs, 
ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is 
used in pet food, animal feed, and other products. These "other parts" are 
known as "by-products," "meat-and-bone-meal," or similar names on pet food labels. 
The Pet Food Institute -- the trade association of pet food manufacturers -- 
acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foods as additional income for 
processors and farmers: "The growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet 
owners with better foods for their pets, but also created profitable 
additional markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the meat 
packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food for human 
consumption."1 
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nourishment for our 
animals. The nutritional quality of meat and poultry by-products, meals, and 
digests can vary from batch to batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers, two 
professors with the Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of California 
at Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, "There is virtually no 
information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion animals in many of 
the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. These ingredients are 
generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the 
potential for a wide variation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional adequacy 
of pet foods based on the current Association of American Feed Control 
Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles') do not give assurances of 
nutritional adequacy and will not until ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability 
values are incorporated."2 


full story:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/051004_CO_r2_pet_food.html 

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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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