It’s funny, when we think of really poor dry dog food we imagine it coming from the likes of China, largely a result of the melamine scandal (when a chemical fertiliser used to boost the apparent protein content of the food, saving the company having to use more expensive items like the dregs of the meat industry). That little hiccup killed tens of thousands of pets back in 2007. And there has been many, many more recalls since. Every week.
China aside, you’d think that the stuff made in America around this time would be held to a higher standard though, wouldn’t you?!
Anybody who want’s to know how “protein meal” is made in the US in 2007, check out the video below!
[warning video shows dead dogs being used in dog food].
Americans Have Been Using Pets in dry Food for Years…
Studies in the 1990’s and 2000’s show euthanised pets are used in pet food the world over, and there has been no change in legislation since (Martin 2007, author of “Food Pets Die For”). In the 1980s a startling 40% of pets euthanized in large US cities were rendered for meat, bone meal and fat (O’Connor, Stowe and Robinson, 1985, cited in Martin 2007). Martin (2007) highlights that in 2002 figures from the National Animal Control Association stated that 13 million household pets are euthanized each year in the US, 200 tonnes from L.A. alone each month. 200 tonnes. Martin (2007) states that of the 13million pets killed each year, 30% are buried, 30% cremated and the rest, 5.2 million animals, rendered as above.
Moreover, at the time of Martin’s writing, pet food companies did not DNA test what is in the meat meal flour they receive. A pet food industry media release in 2004, representing over 90% of the pet food companies in the US, assured readers that most of its clients did not use cat/dog by-products. However, its website is linked to the top five renderers in the country, two of which collect pets. Martin (2007) points out that even if they decided to test meat meal coming in, not all meal supplied contains cats and dogs and animal DNA is lost in cooking. Thus frequent and rigorous tests would be required; these would be expensive and time-consuming and are simply not conducted. That’s the U.S. situation. I wonder how much better Ireland and the UK fare
References
Ann Martin, author of Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food (third edition, New Sage Press)
