Pet Food Alert: 3rd Installment

"GENERAL PET FOOD INGREDIENTS
Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determinewhether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a goodindicator of quality. It would be impossible for a company thatsells a generic brand of dog food at $12.95 for a 40-lb. bag touse quality protein and grain in its food.
The cost of purchasing quality ingredients would be much higherthan the selling price. The protein used in pet food comes from avariety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or anynumber of other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such aslean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for humanconsumption.
However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not getused in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass - bones,blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the otherparts not generally consumed by humans - is used in pet food,animal feed, and other products.
These "other parts" are known as "by-products" or other names on petfood labels. The ambiguous labels list the ingredients, but do notprovide a definition for the products listed.
The Pet Food Institute - the trade association of pet foodmanufacturers - acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foodsas additional income for processors and farmers:
"The growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet owners withbetter foods for their pets, but also created profitable additionalmarkets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the meatpacking, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food forhuman consumption."
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nourishmentfor our pets. 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 ofMolecular Biosciences, University of California at Davis VeterinarySchool of Medicine, assert that,
"There is virtually no information on the bioavailability of nutrientsfor companion animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used inpet foods. These ingredients are generally by-products of the meat,poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a widevariation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional adequacyof pet foods based on the current Association of American FeedControl Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles') do notgive assurances of nutritional adequacy and will not untilingredients are analyzed and bioavailability values are incorporated."
Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone meal arecommon ingredients in pet foods. The term "meal" means that thesematerials are not used fresh, but have been rendered.
What is rendering? Rendering, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is"to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses andto extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting."
Home-made chicken soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms overthe top when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process.Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solidmaterials, and kills bacterial contaminants, but may alter ordestroy some of the natural enzymes and proteins found in theraw ingredients.
What can the feeding of such products do to your companion animal?
Many veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animalsincreases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases.The cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers - such as renderingand extruding (a heat- and-pressure system used to "puff" dry foodsinto nuggets or kibbles) - do not necessarily destroy the hormones usedto fatten livestock or increase milk production, or drugs such asantibiotics or the barbiturates used to euthanize animals."

Do you really want to feed Fido all this junk? Tomorrow I'll tell you 3 brands that are worth your money- because your dog's life may depend on it.
Once again, to recieve this same pet food alert by e-mail, visit www.i-love-dogs.com and subscribe to the Pet Food Alert on the top right hand side.