Pet Food Recall - Are Our Dogs Really Safe?

[Ann Stewart]

Recipes for homemade dog foods are popping up all over. More and more
pet owners are deciding to make their own homemade dog foods. The pet
food recall list is growing by the week. The food that you are feeding
your beloved dog that is safe today, may not be tomorrow. Pet owners
are in a panic trying to keep their best friend safe...and rightfully
so.
The Secrets of the Pet Food industry are coming to light.
The recent pet food recall has left many of us asking about the safety
as well as the quality of our pets food. Can the suppliers and
manufacturers of pet foods be trusted or has that trust been broken?
Chinese suppliers of animal feed have admitted that for years they
have been spiking shipments to pet food companies in the US to make it
appear as though the food was a high protein quality product. Before
Melamine, there was Urea, another Nitrogen-based chemical that was
used until it started making animals sick, then it was quietly
discontinued.
Guarding against contaminated products being imported has become quite
a problem. According to the Commerce Department, the pet food industry
now imports 7 times the amount of animal feed it did in 2000. Wheat
gluten and rice protein come in the form of a powder and chemicals
like melamine can easily be mixed in (whether intentional or
unintentional) and not be detected by the FDA because they are not on
its battery of tests.
The FDA oversees a trillion dollars worth of products anually, this
includes about half of all imports. The agency regulates about 25% of
every dollar that is spent by American consumers annually, so it is
impossible for the agency to inspect more than a fraction of all
imports. About 99% of all food imports are not inspected.
This massive pet food recall has not only brought to light safety
issues with our dog food supply but also quality issues. Little was
known about Wheat gluten and rice protein until the recent pet food
recall. Now they are everyday words. People have been researching to
find out just what they are...and the results are eye-opening.
The chunky bits that we thought were meat in our beloved dog's food we
find out are actually wheat gluten, a totally meatless product. Rice
Protein is another meatless additive to increase the protein levels in
the pet foods. Which leads us to ask just how much meat are our
carnivores getting.
A healthy dog's diet consists of 40% meat, 30% protein and 30% starch.
It appears that the majority of the pet food products on the market
today consist mostly of cheap cereal fillers. Even many of the so
called "premium brands" were not immune from the pet food recalls as
they also contained wheat gluten and rice protein.
The meat-by-products that are used in these commercial recipes are
animal scraps that the FDA has deemed "unfit for human consumption"
these include heads, feet, intestines, lungs, spleens, ligaments, and
other scary parts. Even when the recipe consists of meat, for the most
part, it is scrap meat like backs and necks.
Several companies that got their pet food from one of the
manufacturers have said that the rice protein that was included in the
recipes for their dog food was without their knowledge or consent (the
manufacturer has denied this). How do we know who's telling the truth?
Many of us were under the assumption that all of the ingredients for
the recipe had to be listed on the package. What else are in the
commercial dog food recipes that we don't know about?
Lawmakers are hurrying to change things but everyone knows that takes
time. So in the mean time what should you do? The choice is one that
every one of us is going to have to make. You can take your chances;
you can turn to an even higher priced organic or natural pet food; or
you can turn to your own kitchen and use recipes for homemade dog
foods. After all, how difficult can it be to feed your best friend a
well balance diet? We manage to do it for our children everyday.
More information on the pet food recall
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