- Sep 19, 2008
- 875
- 143
My labrador retriever developed what we found out is a grain allergy. The signs were her elbows lost fur, and she was practically eating her paws when she laid down for over 5 minutes. After being offered a $70.00 bag of pet food by the vet I decided to look into feeding alternatives. I saw a lot of DISGUSTING things about what's in petfood, but chalked a lot of it up to internet hype, haters, hippies 
, etc. Then I talked to my dad this week. He is part owner of a company that owns slaughterhouses and rendering plants in the western U.S. I went to him for the inside scoop, to confirm or debunk what I read. I grew up only knowing that some of what was made went to people, animal feed, and products like rubber. This is going to end up a loooong post. What he told me is nasty, so don't read if you're squeamish.
How it works is there's a big vat of byproduct 'soup'. What goes in that soup is roadkill, euthanized animals and roadkill from animal control, diseased parts of animals brought to slaughter, and expired meat and bread products from stores. It goes in as is, packaging (styrofoam & plastic), feathers, fur, hide, body bags, flea collars, etc. The explicit examples he gave me of diseased parts were abscesses and cancerous lungs and kidneys. What sticks out to me is they can cut those out with the legally required amount of additional tissue and continue to process the sick animal for human consumption.
It gets boiled to an insane temperature for a pre set time, then cools so a layer of fat forms on the top. The fat is scraped off and is sold as a separate product. 'Soup' goes into food as meat byproduct, the fat is sprayed onto it after to make carnivorous animals think it's tasty. It goes into herd animal feed too, but that gets a different treatment to make it palatable to them. This is all legal and standard. When I told my dad how disgusting that is he said food companies want a uniform product, you do what's legal and you do it like the rest of the rendering plants or you don't make money. Now I know how I did both gym and dance I guess. Plants that make a higher quality product aren't the same as the pet soup generic slaughterhouses at least.
I asked him if our family dog made it to 17 and a half years on this junk. He said nope, her food was no byproduct or grain and had USDA grade meat sources. Right back to $50-$70 a bag food, great. Marketing and advertising concerns are obviously the reason the media could care less. Though pet food recalls speak for themselves in the worst cases of vileness I suppose. I told him I was going straight to the internet and any pet owner I know with this, so obviously he named no names of buyers. If there's byproducts and no USDA grade meat source label it's a safe leap of logic to know what's in the food.
All my google-fu knowledge led me to change to a holistic vet. I told the vet what my dad had told me, and about getting insanely expensive food as my fix. (I don't have a vet in the family, so this is strictly his word I'm going by. Google may illuminate the truth of this claim, but I've made my choices so I'm done) He told me major manufacturers of pet food are consulted in the textbooks in veterinary school classes. They are essentially 'writing the book'. Their experts are also invited to give lectures on animal nutrition on lots of campuses. Then everyone graduates and gets sent all kinds of samples to push on pets at the office when they visit. Go figure!
So I'm sure lots of people may already know or had read what I wrote elsewhere. For those that didn't know or chalked it up to hype, there it is! I did feel compelled to write it because I'm sure how I feel about my pet is how others feel, and I was really disturbed.
, etc. Then I talked to my dad this week. He is part owner of a company that owns slaughterhouses and rendering plants in the western U.S. I went to him for the inside scoop, to confirm or debunk what I read. I grew up only knowing that some of what was made went to people, animal feed, and products like rubber. This is going to end up a loooong post. What he told me is nasty, so don't read if you're squeamish. How it works is there's a big vat of byproduct 'soup'. What goes in that soup is roadkill, euthanized animals and roadkill from animal control, diseased parts of animals brought to slaughter, and expired meat and bread products from stores. It goes in as is, packaging (styrofoam & plastic), feathers, fur, hide, body bags, flea collars, etc. The explicit examples he gave me of diseased parts were abscesses and cancerous lungs and kidneys. What sticks out to me is they can cut those out with the legally required amount of additional tissue and continue to process the sick animal for human consumption.
It gets boiled to an insane temperature for a pre set time, then cools so a layer of fat forms on the top. The fat is scraped off and is sold as a separate product. 'Soup' goes into food as meat byproduct, the fat is sprayed onto it after to make carnivorous animals think it's tasty. It goes into herd animal feed too, but that gets a different treatment to make it palatable to them. This is all legal and standard. When I told my dad how disgusting that is he said food companies want a uniform product, you do what's legal and you do it like the rest of the rendering plants or you don't make money. Now I know how I did both gym and dance I guess. Plants that make a higher quality product aren't the same as the pet soup generic slaughterhouses at least.
I asked him if our family dog made it to 17 and a half years on this junk. He said nope, her food was no byproduct or grain and had USDA grade meat sources. Right back to $50-$70 a bag food, great. Marketing and advertising concerns are obviously the reason the media could care less. Though pet food recalls speak for themselves in the worst cases of vileness I suppose. I told him I was going straight to the internet and any pet owner I know with this, so obviously he named no names of buyers. If there's byproducts and no USDA grade meat source label it's a safe leap of logic to know what's in the food.
All my google-fu knowledge led me to change to a holistic vet. I told the vet what my dad had told me, and about getting insanely expensive food as my fix. (I don't have a vet in the family, so this is strictly his word I'm going by. Google may illuminate the truth of this claim, but I've made my choices so I'm done) He told me major manufacturers of pet food are consulted in the textbooks in veterinary school classes. They are essentially 'writing the book'. Their experts are also invited to give lectures on animal nutrition on lots of campuses. Then everyone graduates and gets sent all kinds of samples to push on pets at the office when they visit. Go figure!
So I'm sure lots of people may already know or had read what I wrote elsewhere. For those that didn't know or chalked it up to hype, there it is! I did feel compelled to write it because I'm sure how I feel about my pet is how others feel, and I was really disturbed.
Three separate times? This is not good for bonding in my opinion. But I am rarely a fan of any of the alpha rolling stuff. The best training method in my experience is to not leave them alone with they are little and to use the crate if that is not possible (for short periods). This is why there's no puppy in my future for a looooooong time. I would have to be able to stay home with it. I am lucky my mom works at home so I could have that experience as a kid and the puppy could be trained but that's not going to be an option for me for a long time.
