I know that by-products should be avoided because they could include parts of diseased animals or whatever. However, I have noticed that some of the more expensive, supposedly higher quality foods (including the ones I feed) have some pretty undesirable animal parts listed in the ingredients. Some examples are lung, liver, tripe, heart, etc, These seem like the undesirable parts of the animal to me. Aren't these just expensive by-products?
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Question about by-products
- Thread starter tabbysia
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I'm sure others here know more than I do but I think they aren't bad because a cat would be eating these parts in the wild if the caught an animal. I don't think the should be the main ingredient though.
I iagree I don't think I've ever seen anything of what you mentioned but liver listed on canned food as an ingredient, but I wouldn't mind seeing heart, and especially tripe! Tripe is a wonderful ingredient. I actually buy freeze dried green tripe as a treat for my cats. It smells like cow dung, but it's extremely healthy.
As to them being expensive by-products,when I was feeding raw, I didn't find the organs to be expensive, and I purposely fed hearts all by themselves sometimes, just because they were a special little treat AND they are full of Taurine
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Organ meat is not the same as by-product. In fact, organ meat is nearly always nutritionally superior to muscle meat.
Here's a good article on by-products: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/by-products-in-cat-food-five-facts-you-need-to-know
Organ meat falls under the heading of "by-products."
When a cat food states "chicken" or "chicken meal" as an ingredient, they mean chicken breast. Any other part of that chicken falls under the heading of "by-product." So they may use thighs, wings, dark meat. They may use heart, kidneys, liver, lungs. A reputable pet food company will not use beaks, feet or feathers, for example. So I will feed Royal Canin, because I know they're not filling my food with "diseased animals" (an urban legend if ever I did hear one, right up there with road kill), beaks, feet, feathers, etc...I will not feed things like Iams and Blue Buffalo with their sketchy reputations.
If a food states "poultry," "poultry meal," "poultry by-product," "poultry by-product meal," or "meat by-product," or "meat by-product meal," that can be a concern. The likelihood of their batches being consistent is low; they will get whatever is cheapest. One batch may be mostly chicken, another mainly turkey, the third a real hodge-podge of turkey, chicken, duck, beef, fish, etc...Depending on what is cheap and readily available. These foods tend to be low-quality foods like Meow Mix, Whiskas, and various barn cat recipes. Because of their inconsistency, it can be difficult to narrow down the cause if there's a problem.
When a cat food states "chicken" or "chicken meal" as an ingredient, they mean chicken breast. Any other part of that chicken falls under the heading of "by-product." So they may use thighs, wings, dark meat. They may use heart, kidneys, liver, lungs. A reputable pet food company will not use beaks, feet or feathers, for example. So I will feed Royal Canin, because I know they're not filling my food with "diseased animals" (an urban legend if ever I did hear one, right up there with road kill), beaks, feet, feathers, etc...I will not feed things like Iams and Blue Buffalo with their sketchy reputations.
If a food states "poultry," "poultry meal," "poultry by-product," "poultry by-product meal," or "meat by-product," or "meat by-product meal," that can be a concern. The likelihood of their batches being consistent is low; they will get whatever is cheapest. One batch may be mostly chicken, another mainly turkey, the third a real hodge-podge of turkey, chicken, duck, beef, fish, etc...Depending on what is cheap and readily available. These foods tend to be low-quality foods like Meow Mix, Whiskas, and various barn cat recipes. Because of their inconsistency, it can be difficult to narrow down the cause if there's a problem.
These parts of the animal are undesirable for people at least in the U.S. to eat. That is why they are called by products, they are parts of the animal left over after processing that can't be sold to people simply because people wouldn't buy them. A cat however would eat these parts of the animal in prey that it has killed. They are undesirable for human consumption in this country because we have been conditioned to view them as undesirable.
That is by-product meal - only in dry food. If it is from a non-slaughtered animal (downed, diseased, road kill, etc), it HAS to be rendered. That means kibble, not canned.
Any "By-product" in canned food must be from a slaughtered animal - that means USDA slaughtering facility. These are healthy additions to any canned food.
When feeding homemade raw, including liver is a critical component of the diet, though limited to 5% (normally), and including another organ (like spleen, kidney, pancreas) is also important (again, limited to 5%). Organs are very nutritious.
Betsygee, good article on by-products in canned food.
My cat was very picky about his food. I fed him canned food mainly but left dry out if he wanted some. I tried to buy the best food for him but he usually preferred Fancy Feast in the green can. Would give him 2 3.5 oz, sometime 3 cans. He never had a weight problem so I let him have what he wanted. I made the mistake of feeding him Tiki fish cat food. That is the only flavor of Tiki that is sold here. Well, of course he got hooked on fish. If or when I get another cat I will now know what to feed him.
They do not use diseased animals or road-kill in pet food. That is an urban myth that should've died years ago. I can't believe anyone still thinks they do this.
You are probably right about this. However, I never eat hot dogs because someone told me that they take every useable part of the pig and then the rest is for hot dogs! (LOL)
They do not use diseased animals or road-kill in pet food. That is an urban myth that should've died years ago. I can't believe anyone still thinks they do this.
I guess if that's the mental image you get every time someone offers you a hotdog, I can understand, but you know the old saying about pigs..."Everything but the squeal is useful."
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That's exactly the image I get when I think about hotdogs. That's why I have not eaten them since I was ten and that has been too many years ago to count! I bit down on a hard thing that I assumed was a bone fragment and I was DONE!
The funny thing is I still love pepperoni, even though I know it probably has atrocious things in it. It is just too delicious, so I try not to think about what is in it.
The funny thing is I still love pepperoni, even though I know it probably has atrocious things in it. It is just too delicious, so I try not to think about what is in it.
Every once in a great while I really want a chili dog with Cincinnati style chili and shredded sharp cheddar. It doesn't happen very often maybe once or twice a year. I always make them my self with Hebrew National Kosher Hot Dogs. I know they are still made with scraps but I figure the kosher certification limits the scraps used at least somewhat.
Our kitties though have not been raised with the mental ideas about what is edible or not edible. Any and all parts of a prey animal is edible.
Our kitties though have not been raised with the mental ideas about what is edible or not edible. Any and all parts of a prey animal is edible.
They do not use diseased animals or road-kill in pet food. That is an urban myth that should've died years ago. I can't believe anyone still thinks they do this.
chromium blues
Where does this information come from? Perhaps it is your definition of diseased. Mine is died on the farm prior to slaughter.
So what happens to the animals that die prior to slaughter?
ETA: I find the "urban myth" a very interesting comment. Are you saying that downed / diseased farm animals have never been used in pet foods as a matter of practice? So of course you believe that dead cats and dogs have never found their way into pet food? What about dead cats and dogs being rendered into animal feed? Also an urban myth?
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Information came directly from Mars Canada. Diseased animals do not go into pet food. Dead cats and dogs do not go into pet food. Road-kill does not go into pet food. They don't even use horse meat anymore. By law, the pet food manufacturer has to list everything that's in the food, the same as a human food manufacturer. Anyone see "Assorted Squirrels, Chipmunks, Raccoons, and Skunks" on the list?
Montgomery may have forced me to join the Rubber Sheet Brigade, but I refuse to join the Tinfoil Hat Club.
Montgomery may have forced me to join the Rubber Sheet Brigade, but I refuse to join the Tinfoil Hat Club.
"The Tinfoil Hat Club." :lol3: Well, I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat, but I surely don't believe everything I read or hear.
chromium blues
given the persistence of these "urban myths," as you call them, and the potential implications, it seems to me this is a topic one would not want to dismiss off-hand - neither on the word of pet food provider nor of fear-mongering pet food advocates. I conduct research by trade, and even if I didn't this would be something I'd want to explore. And did.
I have satisfied myself that including dead pets in pet food is not a common practice though in the 80s and into the 90s it was not unusual. What changed?
- The advent of BSE required changes in how rendering plants are managed, given the need to ensure that rendered ruminants did not wind up in cattle feed (requiring capital investment to separate vats and production lines)
- whistle blowers brought attention to the gruesome practice and (many) pet food manufacturers responded to consumer concerns.
Even though it was something that happened with some regularity at the time (given the non-division of types of deliveries in vats and lines), it was still a very minor percentage of rendered meat meal in kibble, and something that occurred in lower-end foods that sourced from the low-end independent renderers. The volume of dead pets from shelters (6 - 7 million per year, not all of which found their way to rendering plants) is nothing compared to the size of the available scraps-from-meat supplies in the farm industry (with 150 million head of cattle, calves, hogs, and sheep and more than 55 billion pounds of poultry annually). So the scale of the issue must be taken into consideration. But the fact of the matter is that those animals need to be disposed of, and they do go into animal feed (if not directly into pet food any longer).
Here is an excellent overview of the rendering industry and the changes taking place at the time (1997). This is a New York Times article from 1997, "Fear of Disease Prompts New Look at Rendering."
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/11/s...ew-look-at-rendering.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1
A "whistle-blower" article on the subject. It is no longer available on the Baltimore's City Paper website digital archives, but if anyone is interested in Van Smith's experience at a rendering plant, a blogger reprinted the article, "What’s Cookin’? Ever Wonder What Happens to Dead Animals? A Look at Baltimore’s Only Remaining Rendering Plant Explains", originally published in Baltimore City Paper on September 15, 1995.
https://goodnessgracioustreats.word...remaining-render-plant-explains-by-van-smith/
I have also satisfied myself that downed animals most definitely are included in pet foods - regularly. The amounts are not large, as the amounts of downed animals are not large in comparison to the slaughterhouse scraps that get rendered. Here is more information for you.
It is the FDA itself that makes it quite clear that downed animals are, in fact, in pet food. They tested pet foods both for cat and dog DNA and for pentobarbital. It is in the Appendix to their report: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Centers...VM/CVMFOIAElectronicReadingRoom/ucm129134.htm
"There appear to be associations between rendered or hydrolyzed ingredients and the presence of pentobarbital in dog food. The ingredients Meat and Bone Meal (MBM), Beef and Bone Meal (BBM), Animal Fat (AF), and Animal Digest (AD) are rendered or hydrolyzed from animal sources that could include euthanized animals."
Euthanized animals = non-slaughtered animals. Euthanized animals = diseased or downed animals.
This, of course, is perfectly legal. From the FDA's Compliance Policy Guidelines, CPG Sec. 675.400 "Rendered Animal Feed Ingredients." (Dry food).
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/ucm074717.htm
"No regulatory action will be considered for animal feed ingredients resulting from the ordinary rendering process of industry, including those using animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, provided they are not otherwise in violation of the law."
Bold, italic, my emphasis
FDA Compliance Policy Guidelines, CPG Sec. 690.300 "Canned Pet Food."
"Pet food consisting of material from diseased animals or animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, which is in violation of 402(a)(5) will not ordinarily be actionable, if it is not otherwise in violation of the law. It will be considered fit for animal consumption."
Bold italic, my emphasis
It is the very existence of pentobarbital in pet food that confirms that downed or diseased animals - animals that have died other than by slaughter - most certainly are in pet food.
So - no urban myth. No tinfoil hats.
As to this?
This is no surprise. The last three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. were shuttered in 2007. Horse meat is sold to other countries; horses are trucked to Mexico for slaughter.
And this
Apparently you are not aware of AAFCO ingredient definitions and labeling requirements.
The AAFCO definition of "Meal Meal" is "the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. It shall not contain added extraneous materials not provided for by this definition…. If the product bears a name descriptive of its kind, composition or origin, it must correspond thereto."
This compares to the AAFCO definition of "Meat" - "Meat is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and is limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve, and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."
(These definitions are not available from the AAFCO without purchase. These definitions were taken from Ohio State University: http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/myths-and-misconceptions-surrounding-pet-foods )
"Meat" is from slaughtered animals. "Meat Meal" is from rendered animals. There most certainly can be "Sheep meal" or "beef meal" etc. - but "Meat Meal" *is* a legal label and does not require that the mammals within it be listed separately. You'll note on the packaging of any dry food that contains "Meat Meal" they do not list the animals that comprise the meat meal. It is mammals. While I would not expect that road kill of small mammals makes it to a rendering plant - the volume is much too small to make any economic sense - the downed deer in our county is definitely delivered to a rendering plant.
For those wondering if collection of animals from shelters are still sent to rendering plants, the answer is yes. Los Angeles County signed (another) contract with D&D Disposal (which delivers the animals to its affiliate, West Coast Rendering as outlined in the document) in 2008. Here is the letter of intent: http://file.lacounty.gov/bc/q3_2008/cms1_105412.pdf
Rather gruesome, but the company is on Yelp, because it is illegal to dispose of an animal carcass in the county: http://www.yelp.com/biz/d-and-d-disposal-san-diego I guess I stand corrected. In some cities, the small dead wildlife may well end up in rendering plants.
Given the international nature of pet food these days, this is rather disconcerting. Dead dog DNA was found in pet food in Spain: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pain-used-make-pet-food-farm-animal-feed.html
And finally, from Render Magazine, April 2011, "Survey Says: A Snapshot of Rendering," ( https://d10k7k7mywg42z.cloudfront.net/assets/4e5653badabe9d3f81003ba1/techtopicsapr11.pdf )
"The survey indicates a sharp reduction in the volume and percentage of dead stock cattle and calves rendered since 2005, falling to just over one million estimated for 2010, down from nearly 1.9 million in 2005. As a result of increased regulation preventing the use of some of these materials in feed, and the negative economics of handling small volumes, today there are only 22 rendering plants that still accept all dead stock cattle and 24 that still accept calves. Across all species of livestock, the survey estimates that approximately 2.1 billion pounds of livestock that die prior to slaughter are rendered, with dead stock swine accounting for the largest share – about 43 percent of the total dead stock volume (all species) processed by renderers —followed closely by dead stock cattle. Poultry accounts for about 17 percent of the total on a volume basis." (p. 59)
P. 60, end-user markets: "Across all types of rendered proteins, the greatest share of these products is used in poultry feed, which consumes
significant quantities of each type of protein and accounts for 39 percent of total rendered protein usage. The pet food market is the second largest outlet for rendered proteins with a 31 percent share, and while it consumes no blood meal, it is the largest market for both poultry by-product meal and non-ruminant mammalian MBM."
Clearly "deadstock" is a small part of rendered proteins, accounting for 2.1 billion pounds annually out of a total of approximately 48 billion pounds of "raw material." But it is incorrect to say it is not used in pet food. It is not an urban myth, and those that say meat meal or by-product meal (rendered products) may contain downed / diseased animals - or road kill - or even dead dogs and cats - are not wearing tinfoil hats.
chromium blues
given the persistence of these "urban myths," as you call them, and the potential implications, it seems to me this is a topic one would not want to dismiss off-hand - neither on the word of pet food provider nor of fear-mongering pet food advocates. I conduct research by trade, and even if I didn't this would be something I'd want to explore. And did. I have satisfied myself that including dead pets in pet food is not a common practice though in the 80s and into the 90s it was not unusual. What changed?
- The advent of BSE required changes in how rendering plants are managed, given the need to ensure that rendered ruminants did not wind up in cattle feed (requiring capital investment to separate vats and production lines)
- whistle blowers brought attention to the gruesome practice and (many) pet food manufacturers responded to consumer concerns.
Even though it was something that happened with some regularity at the time (given the non-division of types of deliveries in vats and lines), it was still a very minor percentage of rendered meat meal in kibble, and something that occurred in lower-end foods that sourced from the low-end independent renderers. The volume of dead pets from shelters (6 - 7 million per year, not all of which found their way to rendering plants) is nothing compared to the size of the available scraps-from-meat supplies in the farm industry (with 150 million head of cattle, calves, hogs, and sheep and more than 55 billion pounds of poultry annually). So the scale of the issue must be taken into consideration. But the fact of the matter is that those animals need to be disposed of, and they do go into animal feed (if not directly into pet food any longer).
Here is an excellent overview of the rendering industry and the changes taking place at the time (1997). This is a New York Times article from 1997, "Fear of Disease Prompts New Look at Rendering."
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/11/s...ew-look-at-rendering.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1
A "whistle-blower" article on the subject. It is no longer available on the Baltimore's City Paper website digital archives, but if anyone is interested in Van Smith's experience at a rendering plant, a blogger reprinted the article, "What’s Cookin’? Ever Wonder What Happens to Dead Animals? A Look at Baltimore’s Only Remaining Rendering Plant Explains", originally published in Baltimore City Paper on September 15, 1995.
https://goodnessgracioustreats.word...remaining-render-plant-explains-by-van-smith/
I have also satisfied myself that downed animals most definitely are included in pet foods - regularly. The amounts are not large, as the amounts of downed animals are not large in comparison to the slaughterhouse scraps that get rendered. Here is more information for you.
It is the FDA itself that makes it quite clear that downed animals are, in fact, in pet food. They tested pet foods both for cat and dog DNA and for pentobarbital. It is in the Appendix to their report: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Centers...VM/CVMFOIAElectronicReadingRoom/ucm129134.htm
"There appear to be associations between rendered or hydrolyzed ingredients and the presence of pentobarbital in dog food. The ingredients Meat and Bone Meal (MBM), Beef and Bone Meal (BBM), Animal Fat (AF), and Animal Digest (AD) are rendered or hydrolyzed from animal sources that could include euthanized animals."
Euthanized animals = non-slaughtered animals. Euthanized animals = diseased or downed animals.
This, of course, is perfectly legal. From the FDA's Compliance Policy Guidelines, CPG Sec. 675.400 "Rendered Animal Feed Ingredients." (Dry food).
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/ucm074717.htm
"No regulatory action will be considered for animal feed ingredients resulting from the ordinary rendering process of industry, including those using animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, provided they are not otherwise in violation of the law."
Bold, italic, my emphasis
FDA Compliance Policy Guidelines, CPG Sec. 690.300 "Canned Pet Food."
"Pet food consisting of material from diseased animals or animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, which is in violation of 402(a)(5) will not ordinarily be actionable, if it is not otherwise in violation of the law. It will be considered fit for animal consumption."
Bold italic, my emphasis
It is the very existence of pentobarbital in pet food that confirms that downed or diseased animals - animals that have died other than by slaughter - most certainly are in pet food.
So - no urban myth. No tinfoil hats.
As to this?
This is no surprise. The last three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. were shuttered in 2007. Horse meat is sold to other countries; horses are trucked to Mexico for slaughter.
And this
Apparently you are not aware of AAFCO ingredient definitions and labeling requirements.
The AAFCO definition of "Meal Meal" is "the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. It shall not contain added extraneous materials not provided for by this definition…. If the product bears a name descriptive of its kind, composition or origin, it must correspond thereto."
This compares to the AAFCO definition of "Meat" - "Meat is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and is limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve, and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."
(These definitions are not available from the AAFCO without purchase. These definitions were taken from Ohio State University: http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/myths-and-misconceptions-surrounding-pet-foods )
"Meat" is from slaughtered animals. "Meat Meal" is from rendered animals. There most certainly can be "Sheep meal" or "beef meal" etc. - but "Meat Meal" *is* a legal label and does not require that the mammals within it be listed separately. You'll note on the packaging of any dry food that contains "Meat Meal" they do not list the animals that comprise the meat meal. It is mammals. While I would not expect that road kill of small mammals makes it to a rendering plant - the volume is much too small to make any economic sense - the downed deer in our county is definitely delivered to a rendering plant.
For those wondering if collection of animals from shelters are still sent to rendering plants, the answer is yes. Los Angeles County signed (another) contract with D&D Disposal (which delivers the animals to its affiliate, West Coast Rendering as outlined in the document) in 2008. Here is the letter of intent: http://file.lacounty.gov/bc/q3_2008/cms1_105412.pdf
Rather gruesome, but the company is on Yelp, because it is illegal to dispose of an animal carcass in the county: http://www.yelp.com/biz/d-and-d-disposal-san-diego I guess I stand corrected. In some cities, the small dead wildlife may well end up in rendering plants.
Given the international nature of pet food these days, this is rather disconcerting. Dead dog DNA was found in pet food in Spain: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pain-used-make-pet-food-farm-animal-feed.html
And finally, from Render Magazine, April 2011, "Survey Says: A Snapshot of Rendering," ( https://d10k7k7mywg42z.cloudfront.net/assets/4e5653badabe9d3f81003ba1/techtopicsapr11.pdf )
"The survey indicates a sharp reduction in the volume and percentage of dead stock cattle and calves rendered since 2005, falling to just over one million estimated for 2010, down from nearly 1.9 million in 2005. As a result of increased regulation preventing the use of some of these materials in feed, and the negative economics of handling small volumes, today there are only 22 rendering plants that still accept all dead stock cattle and 24 that still accept calves. Across all species of livestock, the survey estimates that approximately 2.1 billion pounds of livestock that die prior to slaughter are rendered, with dead stock swine accounting for the largest share – about 43 percent of the total dead stock volume (all species) processed by renderers —followed closely by dead stock cattle. Poultry accounts for about 17 percent of the total on a volume basis." (p. 59)
P. 60, end-user markets: "Across all types of rendered proteins, the greatest share of these products is used in poultry feed, which consumes
significant quantities of each type of protein and accounts for 39 percent of total rendered protein usage. The pet food market is the second largest outlet for rendered proteins with a 31 percent share, and while it consumes no blood meal, it is the largest market for both poultry by-product meal and non-ruminant mammalian MBM."
Clearly "deadstock" is a small part of rendered proteins, accounting for 2.1 billion pounds annually out of a total of approximately 48 billion pounds of "raw material." But it is incorrect to say it is not used in pet food. It is not an urban myth, and those that say meat meal or by-product meal (rendered products) may contain downed / diseased animals - or road kill - or even dead dogs and cats - are not wearing tinfoil hats.
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I surely don't believe everything either, especially if I find it on the internet. If I want to know something, I go to the source. The conversation I had with the Mars representative a couple of weeks ago was enlightening, covering Royal Canin and Nutro mainly. I've spoken many times to Royal Canin, Purina, Weruva, and Science Diet as well, face to face on most occasions, a few telephone conversations when I've had specific questions. They do not use dead pets, diseased animals, or road-kill. The look on the Mars representative's face when I put that one to her was of shock. Each person I spoke to gave me straight answers with no hesitation; they looked me in the eye. That's enough. I will not be paranoid about food.
As far as my own animals go, I'll stick with food that's been around a long, long time and has a good reputation (if a company has been around almost ninety years and has a solid reputation, why would they throw it away by grinding up Lassie or D.C.?) because it seems to be the hippie-dippy foods that do a lot of bragging and not so much research that do more harm than good. I have special needs cats, but they're healthy special needs cats and a good part of that is the food.
As far as my own animals go, I'll stick with food that's been around a long, long time and has a good reputation (if a company has been around almost ninety years and has a solid reputation, why would they throw it away by grinding up Lassie or D.C.?) because it seems to be the hippie-dippy foods that do a lot of bragging and not so much research that do more harm than good. I have special needs cats, but they're healthy special needs cats and a good part of that is the food.
We all choose to feed the diet we feel is best - that's neither here nor there. I'm glad you're satisfied with the foods you feed, I am not trying to convince you otherwise.
I merely wanted to address your comments about downed animals in rendered food being an urban myth. It isn't an urban myth. It may not be in the foods you feed or the companies you've talked to. But as you can see, downed animals are in at least some pet foods, no Tinfoil Hat Club or "THC" required. No one is asking you to be paranoid about your pet food choices. But I do think it is important to be aware of potential quality issues in pet food and not make light of it. Many are not aware that pet food is subject to animal feed regulations, and these differ substantially from human food regulations.
I merely wanted to address your comments about downed animals in rendered food being an urban myth. It isn't an urban myth. It may not be in the foods you feed or the companies you've talked to. But as you can see, downed animals are in at least some pet foods, no Tinfoil Hat Club or "THC" required. No one is asking you to be paranoid about your pet food choices. But I do think it is important to be aware of potential quality issues in pet food and not make light of it. Many are not aware that pet food is subject to animal feed regulations, and these differ substantially from human food regulations.
Its simply frustrating when I hear people saying things I know are not true. AAFCO regulations may not be the same as human food regulations, but what's on the label is what's on the bag. They're not substituting chicken with raccoon.
