What is really in pet food

  

Does your pet’s food contain dead pets?

 



Pets that have been euthanized by lethal injection are prohibited from being rendered as food--which includes all dogs and cats euthanized at veterinary hospitals, and most shelters. The biggest problem is where to dispose of all the bodies. Also, Approximately 17 million households are seeking a new pet every year and have not decided where the new pet is coming from (an additional 5 million are also adding a new pet and have already determined a source). Between 3 and 4 million pets are euthanized in shelters every year, supposedly for lack of homes. There are more than enough homes out there for every dog or cat killed in a shelter. In fact, some shelters in the northeast and northwest are *importing* dogs from countries with alot of strays, so there is "product" for the public to adopt when they come looking for pets. 
  Besides, the number of dogs that die in shelters yearly is 2% of the dog population of the US, and has steadily decreased since the 70's. I don't happen to know the stats for cats, but I have looked at a fairly recent breakdown for dogs. 
 "Under Food and Drug Administration regulations, only about 50 percent of a cow can be sold for human consumption. The hide, bones, digestive system and it contents, brain, feces, udders, and various other undesirable parts are all left over after a cow is slaughtered and butchered. The stuff that can’t even go into hotdogs gets consolidated and shipped to rendering plants. " 

 Just because something is inedible doesn't make it "undesirable". The hides are used to make leather products and glue, the bones(at least some of them) are used to make various bone products (jewelry, knife handles, etc.). It's a little disingenuous to act as if everything that isn't regular meat gets rendered into pet food.
  Sure, pets don’t' get the prime rib you or I eat but does that really matter? They don't care what is in their food, they don't have a nutritional requirement for "fresh chicken, or "non-farmed pacific salmon", they have requirements for amino acids like lysine and for vitamins and minerals. Animal feed is based on finding the best mixes of ingredients available to meet these needs while not busting the bank to do it. I think feeding animals human food is enormously irresponsible, not sustainable and environmentally unsound
  As for rendering plants, they don’t' just toss in a slab of elephant along with some raccoon off county road nine and pinch of your neighbor’s terrier. It is actually a highly regulated industry that ever since the BSE (Mad Cow to the non-science crowd) scare in Europe 15 years ago has been even more tightly regulated. Packing residues, medication residues and traces of disease are not tolerated at all. I would encourage people who have questions about what their pets eat to speak with a nutritionist at various companies that make feed to get a better sense of how and why it is made the way it is. 

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