* Road kill that can’t be buried on the roadside.

* The “4-D’s” of cattle; dead, dying, diseased and disabled

* Rancid restaurant grease

* Euthanized pets, this is NO joke! (I talk more about this later in the article)

When chickens, lambs, cattle, pigs and other animals are slaughtered for food, usually only the lean muscle is cut off for human consumption. This leaves about 50% of a carcass left over. These leftovers are what become what we so commonly find on pet food labels such as “meat and bone meal” or “by-products”. So basically what pets are eating are lungs, ligaments, bones, blood and intestines.

When dead animals from pastures are picked up, they may not be rendered for up to a week after they have died. Because of this it is estimated that E. coli bacteria contaminates more than 50% of meat materials. The rendering process destroys the E. coli bacteria, but it does not eliminate the endotoxins bacteria that is released when they die. These endotoxins, which can cause sickness and disease, are not tested for by pet food manufacturers.

Slaughterhouses where cattle, pigs, lambs and other animals meet their fate provide more fuel for rendering. After slaughter, heads, feet, skin, hair, feathers, carpel and tarsal joints and mammary (milking) glands are removed. This material is sent to rendering. Animals that have died on their way to slaughter are also rendered. Cancerous tissue, tumors and worm infested organs are rendered. Injection sites, blood clots and any other inessential parts are rendered. Stomach and bowels are rendered. Contaminated material including blood is rendered. Carcasses with high levels of drugs or pesticides in excess of limits prescribed under the FDA (not fit for human consumption) are rendered.

At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, supermarket refuse, rancid restaurant grease, dead livestock, road kill and euthanized pets are dumped into huge containers. A machine slowly grinds the entire mess. After it is chipped or shredded, it is cooked at 220 - 270 degrees F. for approximately 20 minutes to one hour. The grease or tallow rises to the top where it is removed from the mixture. This is the source of animal fat in most pet foods on the market today. The remaining material, the raw, is then put into a press where the moisture is squeezed out, we now have the meat and bone meal that is added to most pet foods today.

Animals wouldn’t normally eat this stuff in the wild, so why will they eat it out of their bowls? Their noses are tricked by the smell of it. Pet food manufacturers are masters at getting a pet to eat something they would normally turn their nose up at.

These flavors usually come from rancid restaurant grease, you know from those big dumpsters you see in the back parking lot. This grease is often outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. The rancid grease is then picked up by fat blenders who mix the animal and vegetable fats together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to prevent further spoilage, then they sell it to pet food manufacturers. Rancid, heavily preserved fats are extremely difficult to for animals to digest and can lead to a host of pet health problems including digestive upsets, diarrhea, gas and bad breath. These fats are sprayed directly onto the kibble or nuggets to make an otherwise distasteful product palatable.

Two thirds of the pet food manufactured in the US today contain synthetic preservatives, of the remaining one third, 90% includes ingredients already stabilized by synthetic preservatives. Be wary of pet foods that advertise as preservative free, if they using animal by-products or ingredients that have been rendered they will mostly like contain preservatives. Pet food manufacturers are not required to list preservatives they themselves have not added. Here are some of the chemical preservatives that are used in pet food today:

        * Ethoxyquin - suspected of causing cancer

Once considered a filler by the pet food industry, the amount of grain products, especially corn, used in pet food has risen sharply over the last decade to where it is usually one or two of the top three ingredients. For instance one Purina brand lists ground yellow corn, poultry by-products and corn gluten meal as its top three ingredients. Notice that two of the three ingredients are corn based products from the same source. This is an industry practice know as splitting. When components of the same ingredient are listed separately (ground yellow corn and corn gluten meal) it appears that there is less corn then poultry-by products, when it truth the corn ingredients when added together may weigh more then the chicken by-products.

Unfortunately when a vet tells a grieving pet owner they will “take care” of their dead loved one, they usually mean sending it off with a disposal company for rendering. This is all perfectly legal. Many veterinarians and especially shelters don’t have the money to bury or cremate animals. I know from personal experience that cremation is not cheap and fees can start at $110 and go up from there depending on what options you choose.

A rendering plant employee was quoted as saying to a reporter in Sacramento, “thousands and thousands of pounds of dogs and cats are picked up and brought here everyday”. Although many in the pet food industry deny they use euthanized animals, proof that the practice goes on continues to surface. Research done on rendering plants that sell meat to pet food companies found that the rendering plants accept everything from road kill, dead zoo animals and euthanized pets from both shelters and veterinary clinics. One such plant was found to have rendered 11 tons of dogs and cats in one week! Another plant in California reported processing an average of 200 ton of dogs and cats per month.

In the 1990’s veterinarians began reporting to the FDA/CVM that the drug they used for anesthetizing and euthanizing pets, sodium pentobarital, seemed to be losing its effectiveness. This prompted the CVM to research the cause. In 1998 they went about testing dry dog food containing the ingredients meat and bone meal, animal digest and animal fat. They found the drug sodium pentobarital in 31 of the 37 pet foods tested. They concluded that animals were becoming immune to the drug from eating food laced with sodium pentobarbital, and the likely source of the chemical was euthanized animals.

Huge food manufacturers use pet food companies as a cheap and profitable way of disposing of the waste from their human food manufacturing plants. Here is a list of some of these companies and the pet foods they manufacture:

* Nestle: Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, Purina

* Heinz: 9 lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe

* Colgate-Palmolive: Hill’s Science Diet

* Proctor & Gamble: Iams, Eukanuba

* Mars: Kal Kan, Mealtime, Sheba, Waltman’s

Below are ingredient comparison charts that I complied of some well know pet foods on the market today. I think you will be surprised at the lack of nutrition these foods actually have.