The FDA’s focus is misplaced and should be placed on ensuring that healthy, non-GMO, ingredients are used.
The vast majority of commercial pet foods are detrimental to our 4-legged companions. Most commercial pet food manufacturers use 4-D meats, euthanized pets, Genetically Modified grains, sugars, toxic chemicals, all of it the rendered (i.e., basically over-heating) which denatures the little value that the ingredients have. All of it makes our pets obese, diabetic, cancerous, and a slew of other deadly conditions. To add insult to injury, the industry then sells us “prescription” pet food which kills them even faster.
For those who are unaware, “4-D” meat is stand for animals, primarily cattle, that are dead, dying, diseased or down (known as “disabled” in the industry) at slaughter. Cattle that are sick and near death are pumped full of drugs like penicillin, procaine, and trimethoprim in a desperate attempt to save them (animals that cannot be slaughtered for meat are a drain on the company’s financial bottom line). These drugs, as well as the infectious or contagious pathogens that killed the food-source animals, remain in their systems after slaughter. The meat rendered from them can also carry anthrax, botulism, lockjaw, tuberculosis, salmonella, and other diseases. 4-D is produced by animal rendering plants. Many of the larger companies such as Qual-Pet, a subsidiary of National By-Products (parent company: Holly Farms Corp.), provide perks including freezers and jackets displaying the company name free of charge to kennels that continue to purchase their product. Another brand of 4-D is Monfort, a subsidiary of Conagra, Inc., which also owns Beatrice Foods and the Swift Meat Packing Company. Monfort, with headquarters in Greeley, Colorado, has plants in Iowa, Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas.
While the industry “warns” us of the Salmonella danger of feeding our pets a raw diet, hundreds of foods have been recalled because their products were contaminated with Salmonella. Let’s also not forget the tens of thousands of pets who died in 2007 when the industry imported food from China contaminated with melamine.
The industry – in general – maximizes profits by purchasing low quality ingredients at the lowest price possible, usually from China even though they are aware that Chinese growers/processors adulterate their products. For example, during the week of September 19, 2013, Chinese authorities seized more than 44,000 pounds of fake beef made from pork treated with paraffin and other industrial chemicals to make it look like it came from more costly beef. Selling fake meat in China is a fairly common practice where, over a a three-month period earlier this year, 904 people arrested for “meat-related offenses.” This is also an industry where a very proud CEO of a very large pet food manufacturing company proudly proclaimed that the company had increased its profit margin when they “discovered” how to hydrolyze chicken feathers into proteins for pet foods.
In fact, doubtless the latest crisis has its roots in China where FDA inspectors were denied the opportunity to obtain samples from 4 processors who provide jerky treats to Nestle, Purina, Mars and others.
Add to this the slew of toxic chemicals added to prolong the shelf life of the “food.” Ever wonder why you can leave your bag of dog/cat food open for months without it spoiling? Doesn’t food spoil? And doesn’t it spoil quicker the closer it is to its pure state (e.g., an organic apple will rot in a matter of hours or days depending on environmental conditions when cut open, and in a matter of weeks if left whole).
If you want your pet to live a long, healthy life, consider a raw food diet. We feed our dogs a diet of 100% grass fed beef neck bones and organs, pureed organic vegetables, organic berries, some garlic (no garlic for cats, please, and no onions for either), organic chicken broth, organic free-range chicken (from a local farmer as 80% of “free range” chickens are produced by mega-ranches housing up to 100,000 hens in tight quarters with outside access through a 2′X2′ door letting out to a covered concrete pad!). We make our own snacks: cookies baked with hemp and coconut flour, hemp seeds, organic pureed pumpkin or yam, peanut butter, or dehydrated organic free-range chicken strips.)
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The FDA’s focus is misplaced and should be placed on ensuring that healthy, non-GMO, ingredients are used.
The vast majority of commercial pet foods are detrimental to our 4-legged companions. Most commercial pet food manufacturers use 4-D meats, euthanized pets, Genetically Modified grains, sugars, toxic chemicals, all of it the rendered (i.e., basically over-heating) which denatures the little value that the ingredients have. All of it makes our pets obese, diabetic, cancerous, and a slew of other deadly conditions. To add insult to injury, the industry then sells us “prescription” pet food which kills them even faster.
For those who are unaware, “4-D” meat is stand for animals, primarily cattle, that are dead, dying, diseased or down (known as “disabled” in the industry) at slaughter. Cattle that are sick and near death are pumped full of drugs like penicillin, procaine, and trimethoprim in a desperate attempt to save them (animals that cannot be slaughtered for meat are a drain on the company’s financial bottom line). These drugs, as well as the infectious or contagious pathogens that killed the food-source animals, remain in their systems after slaughter. The meat rendered from them can also carry anthrax, botulism, lockjaw, tuberculosis, salmonella, and other diseases. 4-D is produced by animal rendering plants. Many of the larger companies such as Qual-Pet, a subsidiary of National By-Products (parent company: Holly Farms Corp.), provide perks including freezers and jackets displaying the company name free of charge to kennels that continue to purchase their product. Another brand of 4-D is Monfort, a subsidiary of Conagra, Inc., which also owns Beatrice Foods and the Swift Meat Packing Company. Monfort, with headquarters in Greeley, Colorado, has plants in Iowa, Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas.
While the industry “warns” us of the Salmonella danger of feeding our pets a raw diet, hundreds of foods have been recalled because their products were contaminated with Salmonella. Let’s also not forget the tens of thousands of pets who died in 2007 when the industry imported food from China contaminated with melamine.
The industry – in general – maximizes profits by purchasing low quality ingredients at the lowest price possible, usually from China even though they are aware that Chinese growers/processors adulterate their products. For example, during the week of September 19, 2013, Chinese authorities seized more than 44,000 pounds of fake beef made from pork treated with paraffin and other industrial chemicals to make it look like it came from more costly beef. Selling fake meat in China is a fairly common practice where, over a a three-month period earlier this year, 904 people arrested for “meat-related offenses.” This is also an industry where a very proud CEO of a very large pet food manufacturing company proudly proclaimed that the company had increased its profit margin when they “discovered” how to hydrolyze chicken feathers into proteins for pet foods.
In fact, doubtless the latest crisis has its roots in China where FDA inspectors were denied the opportunity to obtain samples from 4 processors who provide jerky treats to Nestle, Purina, Mars and others.
Add to this the slew of toxic chemicals added to prolong the shelf life of the “food.” Ever wonder why you can leave your bag of dog/cat food open for months without it spoiling? Doesn’t food spoil? And doesn’t it spoil quicker the closer it is to its pure state (e.g., an organic apple will rot in a matter of hours or days depending on environmental conditions when cut open, and in a matter of weeks if left whole).
If you want your pet to live a long, healthy life, consider a raw food diet. We feed our dogs a diet of 100% grass fed beef neck bones and organs, pureed organic vegetables, organic berries, some garlic (no garlic for cats, please, and no onions for either), organic chicken broth, organic free-range chicken (from a local farmer as 80% of “free range” chickens are produced by mega-ranches housing up to 100,000 hens in tight quarters with outside access through a 2′X2′ door letting out to a covered concrete pad!). We make our own snacks: cookies baked with hemp and coconut flour, hemp seeds, organic pureed pumpkin or yam, peanut butter, or dehydrated organic free-range chicken strips.)