The recent pet food recall offers another timely reminder of the fact that the majority of pet food on the market is lavishly packaged and persuasively sold junk food for dogs and cats. The UK's Pet Food Manufacturers Association (PFMA), which includes many international conglomerates, states the following on their web site in relation to pet food: "The industry's use of by-products from the human food and agricultural industries prevents the need for, and the costs of, disposal."

The human food industry dumps its landfill rubbish, which is obviously dangerous or unpalatable to humans, into pet food to make a tidy profit while boasting that it's a friend to the environment by saving on waste disposal.

Billion-dollar by-products
If you look at the early days of the pet food industry, you see that soup companies such as Campbell and Lipton
competed with cereal manufacturers like Post and General Foods to add pet foods to their human lines. They were soon joined by candy companies (Mars and Nestle), and dairies(Carnation). It's now a multi-billion dollar international business.

A few short years ago, five people were imprisoned for selling hundreds of tonnes of pet food as meat fit for human consumption. The "condemned" meat was sold to butchers, supermarkets and restaurants. The prosecution said the criminals had caused an incalculable risk to human health. But, what about the animals' health?

Containers of smelly, badlybruised poultry, covered in fecal matter, flies and feathers, were found by investigating officials. The crime was committed by a company whose main customers were international pet food giants Spillers and Pedigree.

Unhealthy results
Back in 1979, "Consumers Digest" stated: "There is mounting evidence that a lifetime of eating commercial pet foods can shorten your pet's life, make him fatter than he ought to be and contribute to the development of
such increasingly common disorders as cystitis and stones (in cats), glaucoma and heart disease (in dogs), diabetes, lead poisoning, rickets and serious vitamin-mineral deficiencies (in both cats and dogs)." Yet the pet food industry would have us believe, via their multi-million dollar advertising budgets, that pets are living longer, thanks to them.

Wendell O. Belfield, DVM, spent seven years as a veterinary meat inspector for the Department of Agriculture and the US Air Force. During this time, he was assigned to a number of major slaughterhouses. He does not recommend pet food, and says in his book How to Have a Healthier Dog, "Condemned parts and animals that are rejected for human consumption are commonly used in commercial pet foods. So-called 4-Ds, meaning dead, dying, diseased or disabled animals are also used for pet foods."

Canadian Ann Martin, author of Food Pets Die For writes, "A veterinarian in the United States advised me that the use of pets in pet food was routine practice. Rendering is a cheap and viable means of disposal for euthanized pets. Pets are mixed with other material from slaughterhouse facilities that have been condemned for human consumption, such as rotten meat from supermarket shelves, restaurant grease and garbage, 4-D animals, road kill and even zoo animals."

In my own book, Shock to the System I quote a year 2000 announcement from the American FDA. Their report stated that almost half of all the dog food tested for pentobarbital showed the presence of traces of the drug. The  survey included popular brands chosen at random, including Ken 1 Ration, Ol' Roy, Heinz, and Purina dog foods.

The FDA suggested that pentobarbital probably came from disabled or diseased horses and cows, which are euthanized and rendered and allowed to be used in pet food products. The FDA, meanwhile, stated that it didn't intend to take any further action. Dog food makers weren't forced to notify consumers of the presence of pentobarbital, which is a potent hypnotic and sedative (Schedule 3 poison). It is toxic if swallowed and can be absorbed through the skin.

Recent reports indicate that in addition to the contaminated wheat gluten found during the first wave of pet food recalls, contaminated shipments of rice protein and corn gluten have been used for pet food and could have entered the human food supply. On April 2nd of this year, a Chinese company sold rice protein to Wilbur-Ellis and a second unknown importer. Wilbur-Ellis said that the shipment was distributed to five pet food manufacturers. It has been suggested that melamine was added to foodstuffs in China, deliberately, in order to boost apparent protein content. Melamine has now been found in pigs' urine, destined for human consumption.

Back to basics
In 1998, Canine Health Concern surveyed people who had rejected pet food and started feeding their dogs raw meat and bones, vegetables, and good quality table scraps. They reported an 85 percent drop in veterinary visits, and increased vitality and health in their dogs. In some cases, veterinary medication was no longer required.

The recent pet food recall simply shows the wide scale, international, damage that can be visited upon unsuspecting citizens, and their family friends, at the hands of conglomerates. This particular 'mistake' was so bad, and so many pets have died, that governments are involved. In my view, current news is nothing compared to the millions of pets who have slowly faded away over the years on toxic 'foods' that bring diseases of malnutrition in their wake.

Catherine O'Driscoll is author of What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines and Shock to the System (available from www.dogwise.com), founder of Canine Health Concern, and a columnist for Dogs Today. She lectures worldwide on canine healthcare, and has just returned to Scotland from BC. Visit www.canine-health-concern.org.uk.

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