Pet food - we all better check what we buy!

[Randi]

The true horrors of pet food revealed: Prepare to be shocked by what goes into dog food and cat food.

First paragraph:
What mysterious "meat byproducts" really are

Let's start with what usually appears as the protein source and the primary ingredient in pet food: Meat byproducts or meat meal. Both are euphemisms for the parts of animals that wouldn't be considered meat by any smart consumer. The well-known phrase "meat byproducts" is a misnomer since these byproducts contain little, if any, meat. These are the parts of the animal left over after the meat has been stripped away from the bone. "Chicken by-products include head, feet, entrails, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, stomach, bones, blood, intestines, and any other part of the carcass not fit for human consumption," writes Henry Pasternak in Healing Animals with Nature's Cures. Meat meal can contain the boiled down flesh of animals we would find unacceptable for consumption. This can include zoo animals, road kill, and 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying) livestock. Most shockingly, this also can include dogs and cats. That's right, your pets could be cannibals. Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser writes, "Although leading American manufacturers promise never to put rendered pets into their pet food, it is still legal to do so. A Canadian company, Sanimal Inc., was putting 40,000 pounds of dead dogs and dead cats into its dog and cat food every week, until discontinuing the practice in June 2001. "This food is healthy and good," said the company's vice president of procurement, responding to critics, ''but some people don't like to see meat meal that contains any pets."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/012647_pe...#ixzz1KkVElqDJ

[moosmom]

I've been using Wildernes Blue for a few years. I used to use IAMS and Science Diet but did my homework and read labels. That's when I switched to Wilderness Blue.

[sparks19]

This is an EXCELLENT source of information about dog food if anyone wants to read more into it

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

[Freedom]

Reading and understanding labels is SO important, for our pets as well as for ourselves.

[Marigold2]

I understand some poor folks actually eat road kill like deer, squirral, and rabbit. I find the whole thing just disgusting. But a dog will eat another dog's vomit and so will most cats, they see things differently.
Cats will eat an entire mouse or rabbit bones, skin, eyes and all.
Some dogs will too.
Dogs will eat rotten carcass.
I am not saying what they put in animal food is the right thing I am just saying that is how animals are.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Yes, I've known about what goes into a lot of the lower quality pet foods for quite some time now and it's disgusting. Many of the labels show real chicken and other appetizing things but the truth is that it's made with horrible meat by products. If you read the labels of veterinary presription diets you'll also see this and these diets are supposed to help sick animals. I just don't get it.

I've been feeding my 4 older cats a grain free diet for several years now and they've been doing great on it. They were on Innova Evo dry and canned, then Nature's Variety dry and canned, and now Wellness Core and Wellness grain free canned as well as Natural Balance grain free canned. My two youngest didn't do well on grain free so they're on a high fiber diet. It's still a good food because although it does contain some grains, it doesn't contain corn or wheat which aren't good for cats. They're on Chicken Soup For The Cat Lovers Soul Adult Light Formula dry and Adult Hairball Formula canned.