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If you feed commercial food of any kind,
we suggest you SUBSCRIBE TO ALERTS AT
www.itchmo.com/alerts
and make a daily check at
www.howl911.com,
www.petconnection.com and/or
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/
We believe it is risky to rely on any
one source or to trust that your food
seller has a list that is up to date.
Complete list of all foods and treats
related to melamine.
Howl911.com's list of foods reportedly
containing rice protein concentrate.
Complete list of other foods and treats
that have received a warning or been
recalled for reasons other than
melamine.
List of organizations that provide
financial assistance for pets'
veterinary bills.
We will no longer be keeping a list of
recalled foods at this site as keeping
it up to date is becoming increasingly
difficult and the sites above are doing
an excellent job.
Although
some of the smaller companies produce
foods far better than most of the big
mass-marketed brands, we believe the
only way to give your dog or cat a
proper diet is to become educated on dog
or cat nutrition and to feed them fresh
foods. A slow death from poor nutrition,
as opposed to a quick death by tainted
food, is a premature and painful death
nonetheless.
Go back to our
Homepage.
Go to
AskThePetFoodExperts to learn about
our nutrition audios
How to
Keep
Your Pets Safe from Toxic Food!
In the
Menu Foods recall scandal, pets' kidneys
are being destroyed due to something in
the food. Wheat gluten has been put
forward as the prime suspect, but no one
has explained how an inocuous grain like
wheat can cause so much damage. Indeed,
it is probably not the wheat itself, but
the grain may have been contaminated
with toxic mold, heavy metals,
pesticides, or chemicals. Plant
products, such as grains, can be
condemned for human use due to mold,
excessive pesticide residue, and other
problems, but there are no legal limits
for using these condemned products
in pet
food.
Wheat gluten
is used in canned foods as for texture,
and as an inexpensive source of protein
that can be used to boost the protein
percentage without adding much to the
cost of producing the food. It is not an
officially defined ingredient according
to the Association of American Feed
Control Officials (AAFCO), which sets
the standards by which pet food is made
in the U.S.
Other suspects would have to include
drugs and other toxins from the
animal
by-products used in all the
recalled foods. By-products are a much
cheaper source of animal protein than
meat. All of the recalled foods used
some type of by-products (including
liver, giblets, and other organ meats)
as well as wheat gluten.
Toxins could also include antibiotics,
some of which can survive heat
processing intact. There are a few
kidney-toxic antibiotics that are
extremely restricted, with long
"withdrawal" times required before an
animal can be slaughtered for human
consumption. However, sick livestock, or
those that die with high levels of drugs
in their systems, can still be processed
for pet food.
Bacterial endotoxins and fungal
mycotoxins can pass unchanged through
all the processing a pet food undergoes.
Toxin-producing bacteria like
Salmonella and
Clostridia are very common
contaminants of all slaughterhouse
products, but especially the sorts of
things that make up by-products, like
digestive organs. You might know some of
the products of
Clostridia bacteria better as
botulism and
tetanus. Pet food makers know
that the animal ingredients they buy are
contaminated with these organisms, but
they have always relied on the high heat
used in processing pet food to kill the
bugs. However, they also know that
dangerous bacterial toxins remain in the
food even after the bacteria are dead.
Whether these are enough to cause
illness is unknown.
Fungal mycotoxins have been blamed for
several recalls of dry dog food in the
past several years, some of which killed
dozens of dogs. Aflatoxin, one of the
nastiest, is common in corn, but can
also occur in wheat. Tests on the
recalled pet food were reportedly
negative for aflatoxin, but there are
hundreds of others. Fungal toxins are
typically more toxic to the liver, but
some affect the kidneys.
Other drugs or chemicals could
potentially contaminate any of the
ingredients. In a recent incident in
South Africa, extensive testing found
ethylene glycol (antifreeze) in the food.
However, ethylene glycol, cleaning
solvents, some mycotoxins, and several
pesticides have been preliminarily ruled
out as the cause based on laboratory
testing.
If you've been reading our
CatsWalk newsletter for a while,
or if you've browsed our
Little Big Cat Library, you've
probably read quite a bit about
nutrition and feeding. Dr. Jean does
recommend feeding canned food,
especially to cats. Dr. Jean has always
stressed that foods containing a lot of
animal by-products or grains should be
avoided. Besides wheat gluten, a common
feature in all of the recalled products
is the use of by-products, which also
includes organ meats such as giblets and
liver.
Pet food makers have, in the past, been
"insulted" by Dr. Jean's allegation that
profit, not pet health, is the bottom
line for most of the big companies. But
this incident proves the point. It is
particularly interesting to note that
Menu Foods' initial press release was
directed to "Business and Financial
Advisors"--not consumers--and in fact
specifically stated that it should NOT
be released to the U.S. media. Menu
clearly had the potential damage to its
profits foremost in mind.
So how do you prevent such deadly
results in your pets? Many of the
smaller makers of natural and meat-based
pet foods are dedicated to putting out a
decent product at a reasonable price.
While they obviously have to make money
to stay in business, they still put
quality ahead of profit by using real
meat instead of by-products; fewer
grains; and other better-quality
ingredients. Those are the ones you want
to buy. The Little Big Cat
library has dozens of articles on
nutrition that explain what and how to
feed your pets to keep them healthy.
Feel free to make copies for your
friends and co-workers. Our new audio
series, available in our
Bookstore, covers all the info you
need to know in 70 minutes. Link to us
if you have a website. Let's get the
word OUT! |
