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The Worst Horrors of Pet Food on Video
- 7-21-2010
- Categorized in: Pet Food Ingredients, Pet Food Recall
I don't know the source of this video, it was received in a Google Alert for pet food. I do know that while it is hard to stomach, it is a video that every concerned pet lover should watch. If this video doesn't make you fighting mad and disgusted about the pet industry as a whole, nothing will.
Again, this is not a video that TruthaboutPetFood.com put together. I found it on YouTube from a Google Alert. I did not make the video and I cannot alter the video in any fashion - it is not my property to alter.
A warning before you watch. The first part of the video consists of interviews with heart broken pet owners from the 2007 pet food recall. The second part of the video shows graphic hidden camera images from a rendering plant and 'pick up' of raw materials. The raw materials shown are mostly dead dogs and cats. It is very disturbing. It will ruin your day. It will probably haunt your dreams. However, it is a reality that needs to become public.
To me, this video is a graphic explanation of the horrors that occur to pets every single day in this country that all of authority seem to ignore. Hundreds of thousands of pets die from reckless pet food. Hundreds of thousands of pets are being killed in shelters across the country despite proven methods of saving them. Not only are these animals killed, their lifeless and chemically laden bodies are further disgraced to the fullest degree. They are not buried with respect, they are ground up along side of horrid waste, cooked, and become sellable goods to numerous industries including the pet food industry. Recycling into further killing. A very vicious circle.
This is a crime beyond description.
There are countless individuals - little guys - that work endless hours trying to save them. And then there are a handful of hugely powerful, wealthy organizations that have the means to save them but don't.
This simply has to stop.
Every veterinarian needs to spay and neuter pets for free. The AVMA needs to stop tossing dead fish at their conventions (the 'learning' activity at the 2009 convention) and they need to lobby Congress to provide every single vet a tax credit for each spay and neuter.
No Kill shelters do work - are working - are saving lives. The wealthy national animal charities need to immediately wrap their stubborn brains around the No Kill logic. Their hearts are long calloused to euthanasia so I dare those that continue to kill to go watch the hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats to be ground into sellable goods. I doubt they are that calloused; perhaps that would be their wake-up call.
Euthanized dogs and cats should NEVER be rendered into sellable goods. Every single industry - from body lotions to shampoos to crayons to pet foods and treats - that purchase ingredients from dead stock rendering facilities should be boldly listed for public awareness. Warning labels, just as with alcohol and cigarettes, should be prominently displayed on these products.
Diseased meat and poultry, expired grocery meat, restaurant waste, road kill, and countless other horrors should not be processed into sellable goods. The billions of tons of such waste could be turned into bio-fuel and just maybe prevent another deadly oil spill like what's happening in my back yard right now (the Gulf of Mexico).
Why doesn't anyone in Washington, D.C. care about these issues? Why hasn't one single U.S. State taken the bull by the horns and led the way for others to follow? This CAN change, these horrors CAN stop - but someone of authority has to get the point. Perhaps every State and Federal Government Official should be required to spend a week at a dead stock rendering facility. Maybe then they'd get the point this HAS TO CHANGE. Federal law says these type of ingredients are illegal in ANY FOOD including pet food, yet the FDA ignores Federal law and gives Pet Food permission. Your and my tax dollars are supporting a Federal agency that is ignoring Federal Law.
The way things are - is costing all of us far more than doing the right thing would cost. Actually, its been proven that NoKill actually saves government money. It's been proven by hundreds of thousands of educated pet owners that pet foods with wholesome ingredients actually costs far less in the long run. Add into the save money mix the proper usage of waste such as producing bio-fuel, the U.S. could possibly pay off all of our Chinese loans.
Pet foods and treats that contain the ingredients by-product meal, meat meal (not a specific meat meal such as chicken meal), meat and bone meal, animal fat, and animal digest could contain a euthanized dog or cat. This is fact, not speculation. It has to stop. Do not purchase pet foods and treats that contain these ingredients; tell a friend. Friends don't let friends pets eat euthanized animals.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best, Susan Thixton
Truth about Pet Food
Petsumer Report
www.TruthaboutPetFood.com
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THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!!
I have lost a pet from 2007 pet food recall.
What would i feed my 2 cats now?
I am just speechless.....
I am absolutely incredulous that 1) People whose animals die at a veterinarian's office don't claim the body and make final arrangements themselves, and 2) they actually leave the animal's COLLAR with tags attached on it!! What are they thinking??? Many funeral homes now offer pet cremation services at reasonable rates. Honestly, if you don't want your pet's body desecrated in such a horrible manner, DON'T trust the vet to humanely dispose of it! We lost our beautiful Shih Tzu to the melamine poisoning in 2007 and after we had him euthanized we took him with us and buried him in a lovely secluded area.
One other thing, I would love to know if there is a list floating about with the names of the major pet food brands who are suspected of using companion animal carcasses. Susan, can you answer this?
How do you know, without a doubt, that the ashes you are getting back are your pet's? Also, it is illegal in most places to just bury your animal wherever you please.
I lost a beloved pet in January, and it BROKE MY HEART to leave her there at the vet's office...but I really felt I had no options.
What is apalling about this is that any decent human being can condone using these animals in pet food. Surely the vets are aware this goes on...is there a way to tell if a vet participates?? I'm really speechless that this even goes on!
i think its a little hipicritical to say you want to let pet owners know whats in their pets food and claim you care so so much but then want to charge $18.00 for the info dont you.. if you cared so much you would put it on the site for free. to me that makes you just as bad as the pet food manufacters all about the all mighty buck!! and yea i know you wont be approving this to go on your site either i dont care i just wanted to say what i had to say to you!
I think rather than broad-brushing the entire pet food industry don't we need to single out those that are using rendered companion animals, i.e. those with generic meat ingredients like animal and meat? Are you saying that companies with named meat and fat ingredients like beef, chicken, turkey, pork, etc. are also including rendered companion animals? I'd just hate to include reputable manufacturers in the same boat as the horrible ones.
Any pet food company that uses by-product meal, animal fat, animal digest, meat and bone meal, or meat meal (not chicken meal) could include a rendered euthanized dog, cat, cow, or horse. So no, pet food companies that use meat specific ingredients as beef, chicken, turkey and meat specific meals such as chicken meal - those companies are not suspect of using euthanized animals. Specifically only the generic catch all ingredients by-product meal, animal fat, animal digest, meat and bone meal and meat meal (generic version) are the horrors.
I as well do not wish to put human grade ingredient pet food manufacturers into the same boat as ones that recycle garbage into billions in profits.
This is absolutely revolting, but I agree with Susan ~ knowledge we as loving pet parents must know. The ignorant consumer that the industry assumes they are dealing with is no more and we will NOT settle for less (no matter how many wholesome food pictures you put on your labels!). Thank you for making us uncomfortable in sharing this Susan, comfort rarely moves us to action. I have just linked to this story here on my website and facebook account.
I just don't have the mental fortitude to watch but the description is enough. Even though the FDA and all our senators and congressional representatives are well aware of this, I wish media would plaster our TV screens with this and let the rest of the country know how many pet foods are made of this and how government sits on the sidelines and lets it continue.
I just sent this to 200 friends. I had read the stories about rendering plants but seeing this video nauseated me.
Susan, I think your site does a good job of educating us all.
I know what my pet food ingredients label reads and I hope after my friends watch this, they will too. Sometimes it takes something awful and blatant like this to wake up people. It can be the beginning of their education and a better, healthier life for their pets.
I've seen a similar video on youtube. They use the euthanized shelter animals, maggots and all, for protein in pet food.
I am thankful you bring attention to this; however I'm also hopeless because as I said videos like this have been circulating for years and nothing is done about it, nothing but pet owners changing to raw food or homecooked diets at least.
What is the link to the video?
Silence is the voice of complicity. Get mad! Take action!:
Boycott all the companies that produce, or include "meat meal" and "by-product meal" as an ingredient.
Call Senators and Congressional Representatives to demand that the Federal law prohibiting the use of these ingredients be enforced.
Senators or Congressmen that refuse to enforce Federal law should be impeached or voted out of office.
Finally, share this heartbreaking video with all your friends so they can become educated and aware.
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CVM/CVMFOIAElectronicReadingRoom/ucm129131.htm
Since DNA proved no dogs or cats were in pet food, it’s time this propaganda is stopped. It is theorized that the pentobarbital traces originated in cattle or horse remnants, which are often used at….rendering plants.
Don't even bring that lame excuse to this website. The 'truth' of the matter is that FDA testing found NO DNA at all. NO species source DNA. None, zero, zippo. Those test results used to be on the CVM/FDA website - my website was linked to them. They have since been removed.
Because the FDA/CVM found NO species source DNA, they make the broad assumption that no dogs and cats were/are used in pet food. They claim that euthanized cattle (find me one livestock producer that pays the vet bill to use pentobarbital to euthanize a sick cow...find me one) or euthanized horses. While there are numerous - probably thousands each year - of horses that are euthanized with pentobarbital - there are hundreds of thousands of pounds of pentobarbital euthanized dogs and cats each month. Hundreds of thousands of pounds each and every day. Do the numbers. Most State law does NOT allow these euthanized dogs and cats to be buried in land fills. Do your research - I have.
Common sense - if there can be such with this issue - is that the known and scientifically proven pentobarbital in dog food, cat food, and pet treats is sourced from pets too.
I personally have called labs all over the world. I've spoken with the brightest and the most educated scientists. That all have told me it is incredibly difficult to clinically prove the species source of pentobarbital in pet food.
The FDA has clinically proven pentobarbital is in pet food. No grey area. Regardless of the source - it still violates Federal law. Cows, used restaurant grease, road kill, dogs and cats - it STILL violates Federal law. Billions are made from these garbage, illegal ingredients are being comsumed by unknowing animals; unknowing pet owners. The source doesn't legally matter.
Ethically it does. And no one - no one - has bothered to prove otherwise.
Ask any livestock owner - find the numbers of the animal shelter in your city. The reality is this bad. "Spreading the truth where there is none" - do you work for the PFI or pet food industry? Or do you 'work' for the FDA? Either way, you are wrong.
If you did your research you'd know that most dead pets get cremated before going to a landfill.
Artist Dying to Have Your Cremated Ashes
<snipped> Knowing that human ashes might be difficult, he decided to focus on dead pets. Finally, he called the local Humane Society to ask what it did with the ashes of unwanted pets who get euthanized.
As a result, Ortega hooked up with a crematorium truck driver whose job was to take pet ashes to a Los Angeles landfill. Once Ortega convinced the driver he wanted to turn the ashes into sincere pet tributes, he managed to get five pounds of powdered dogs and cats for experimentation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Besides, they also used very sensitive tests to look for canine and feline DNA, which were not found.
Your shock video is disturbingly reminiscent of PETA tactics.
ps I do not work in any pet related or gov't field.
Thank you
The video is not mine - it was filmed by Last Chance for Animals investigative team in May of 2007. http://www.lcanimal.org/invest/index.htm Scroll down to the bottom of the page for this investigation.
Yes, again, the FDA did use sensitive tests to look for canine and feline DNA - no dog or cat DNA was discovered. But, no cattle or horse DNA was discovered either. Thus, the DNA testing was inconclusive.
That explains a lot.
PETA and Last Chance for Animals share the same bed!
http://www.mymag.com/blog/olivia-munn-joins-peta-protest-at-staples-center/
Using distorted info from animal rights groups like Last Chance for Animals or PETA is not going to benefit our pets in the long run.
If you'd like to read a current (2008) article on rendering of euthanized dogs and cats, you can visit http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2008/07/21/ocs-dead-pets-enter-the-food-chain-mmmm/
I do understand how difficult this information is to accept; however it does happen and cannot be ignorned.
That article is an animal rights scare tactic to fool people into falsely believing mandatory spay & neuter would be the answer to ultimately stop pets from becoming pet food. The company, now called West Coast Reduction, does not render cats and dogs.
West Coast Reduction Ltd. does not accept pets or road kill for rendering. http://www.wcrl.com/products/raw_material_suppliers.htm
In 1997, Ann N. Martin wrote a book on this topic titled, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food. In 2008 it was in it's third printing.
Her follow up book titled Protect Your Pet: More Shocking Facts came out in 2001 and not only deals with the Pet Food industry, but the controversy on vaccinations.
Both I would recommend to any loving dog owner!
My German Shepherd was euthanized in 2003 and we sadly left his body at the vet's, unaware of rendering practices in this country. It is illegal to bury large pets in one's backyard in the city limits, so we felt we had no choice at the time. Cremation by private facilities was not offered at the time either. I am happy to say I have been feeding a human-grade pet food for over a year and my current dogs and cats are doing very well. Are the veterinarians in on this? Do they get paid for the bodies by the rendering companies? Thank-you for giving us the tools to educate pet owners, Susan.
First, most pets and/or strays that are put down by shelters are NOT cremated, cremation is expensive and not always available, many urban areas prohibit burial and few pet owners are aware that animals euthanized whose bodies are left at the vet get sent to the rendering plants, and yeah, the vets get paid by the pound for the corpses, think of it as the final way to wring a dime from your pet, even after death.
Not a pretty way for an "alleged" medical profession to act but then, once you start looking into the kickbacks from pet food and endure a few "upsells" and outright shilling by a vet, it becomes clear that you and your pet are nothing but cash cows for commissioned salespeople.
So, I call bullsh!t on the pet industry shill posting the PFI progaganda.
Second, every single advertisment you see on TV for pet food, every single mailing from your vet, all personalized with your pets name to USE your love for your pet to sell a credit card, every magazine that takes giant ad money for bogus seals of approval, every sample or coupon ( names and addresses of pet people are VERY valuable ) all of these things USE the love of pets, all of these things STEAL quality from the food.
Refuse to watch TV that shows pet food commercials, cancel magazine subscriptions that shill pet food with lies, tell your vet that marketing and upselling is unacceptable, question EVERY place where you spend money on your pet . Give less money and time ( and EVERY instant of a pet owners attention is very valuable- do not GIVE it away) to pet charities that are just fronts for Purina marketing.
When the only way to get money from a pet owner is to treat both the pet and the pet's people with respect, then things will get better and not until then.