| I want to past on a disturbing fact, there are no | | | | pet-food labels and it says meat or bone meal, |
| assurances of quality in pet food. | | | | that's what it is -- cooked and converted animals, |
| I am certain at some time you have noticed a | | | | including some dogs and cats." |
| change in your dog after feeding him or her | | | | Some of these dead pets -- those who were |
| different batches of the same brand of pet food. | | | | euthanized by veterinarians -- already have |
| Your pet may have diarrhea, increased flatulence, | | | | sodium pentobarbital in their bodies before being |
| a dull hair coat, intermittent vomiting, or may | | | | treated with the denaturing substances. In |
| scratch more often. These are the most | | | | veterinary offices most cats and dogs are put to |
| common symptoms I have observed over the | | | | sleep with this chemical. According to Eckhouse, |
| years, and they are all associated with commercial | | | | veterinarians at the University of Minnesota |
| pet foods. | | | | warned that the sodium pentobarbital used to put |
| Mr. Eckhouse, an investigative reporter, writes: | | | | pets to sleep "survived rendering without |
| "Each year, millions of dead American dogs and | | | | undergoing degradation," but they concluded that |
| cats are processed along with billions of pounds of | | | | the residue amount would be too small to cause |
| other animal materials by companies known as | | | | problems if the carcasses of euthanized pets |
| renderers. The finished products -- tallow and | | | | were mixed with other raw materials during a |
| meat meals -- serve as raw materials for | | | | day's production run. No mention was made of |
| thousands of items that include cosmetics and pet | | | | the cumulative effects on a cat or dog from |
| food." There were the usual denials by pet food | | | | ingesting this small amount daily for years. Thus |
| executives. Yet federal and state agencies, | | | | far we have come across the denaturing |
| including the Food and Drug Administration and | | | | chemicals and the sodium pentobarbital, and I |
| medical groups such as the American Veterinary | | | | have only just begun. |
| Medical Association and the California Veterinary | | | | Lead also shows up frequently in pet foods, even |
| Medical Association, confirm that pets, on a | | | | if they are made from livestock meat and bone |
| routine basis, are rendered after they die in animal | | | | meal, simply as a result of our environment. A |
| shelters or are disposed of by health authorities, | | | | paper from the Massachusetts Institute of |
| and the end product frequently finds its way into | | | | Technology, titled "Lead in Animal Foods," had two |
| pet food. | | | | frightening conclusions. First, a 9-pound cat is |
| Prior to World War II, most slaughterhouses were | | | | ingesting more lead daily than what is considered |
| all-inclusive; that is, the livestock was slaughtered | | | | potentially toxic for children. Second, since some |
| and processed into fresh meat in one location. | | | | commercially prepared pet and laboratory animal |
| There was a section for smoking meats, a | | | | foods routinely contain lead, feeding these |
| section for processing meats into sausages, and a | | | | preparations to laboratory animals could add a |
| section for rendering. During the years after | | | | significant, uncontrolled variable to experiments |
| World War II, the meat industry became more | | | | and may lead to uncertain experimental results |
| specialized. A slaughterhouse just slaughtered and | | | | (James G. Fox, et al., Journal of Toxicology and |
| dressed the carcasses; the making of sausages | | | | Environmental Health, Vol. 1, 1976). |
| was done in a separate facility; and the rendering | | | | One last word of caution, not for pets this time |
| of slaughter waste also became a separate | | | | but for their owners: meat and bone meal from |
| specialty -- and no longer within the jurisdiction of | | | | sources not fit for human consumption has found |
| government meat inspectors. | | | | its way into poultry feed. This means that the |
| The condemned livestock carcasses treated with | | | | animal products rendered under questionable |
| these toxic chemicals can then become meat and | | | | conditions are being fed to birds that may wind up |
| bone meal for the pet food industry. Worse yet, | | | | on your table. Remember this when you are |
| since rendering facilities are not | | | | eating your next piece of chicken or turkey. I |
| government-controlled, any animal carcasses can | | | | have to add, however, that the bone meal sold |
| be rendered, including those of cats and dogs. | | | | as a calcium supplement is from carcasses graded |
| Eckhouse quotes Eileen Layne of the California | | | | for human consumption; it is not from condemned |
| Veterinary Medical Association: "When you read | | | | animals. |