Are there “Pets” in Pet Food?

The answer is “maybe”. If your food contains one of the mystery ingredients, it might contain cat or dog meat. The mystery Ingredients are “Meat Meal”, “Meat by-products”, and “Animal fat”. You will note none of these actually tell you what animal the product was from. Seattle King 5 news conducted a wonderful interview with Herschel Pendell, who, at the time was president of AAFCO (the group responsible for regulating pet food standards in the USA), he was asked if pet foods contain euthanized pets, and replied “If the ingredients list meat or bone meal, you don’t know if it is cattle or sheep, or horse, or… fluffy.”.

Photo source 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dog_body_language_new_sound_tilting_head.jpg

Do these dogs wonder about their food?  You should!  Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Building up a resistance

What was happening at the time was that veterinarians were noticing that it took more and more of the needed drug to euthanize animals, as such it was felt that pets were some how building up a resistance by presumably eating previously euthanized animals. Certainly some of the animals used in pet food were horses or goats, for example, that had been pets and were humanely euthanized (as opposed to being killed in a slaughter yard). These deceased animals would have been collected by the rendering company and used in pet food. However as we noted above, any dead animal could have been rendered into pet food.

More on Mystery Meat

An other reason why a person should avoid mystery ingredients like Meat Meal is because you do not know what your dog is eating, one bag might contain goat, the next might contain cattle. Many dogs are prone to allergies and this will only be aggravated by not maintaining a consistent meat source. Meat meal may even be road kill.

A bit about By-Products

By Products are the non-food ingredients that lurk in your pet food. They are stuff you are paying for, but for the most part are considered indigestible. By-Products may be things like chicken feet, feathers, beaks, unformed eggs, believe it or not but even collars and diseased organs may be legally included in by-products. By-products are pretty much every thing that is not muscle meat.

Is any thing Safe?

There are several things an owner can look for to ensure their pet food does not contain any questionable ingredients.

1. Look for an actual meat source, such as “Chicken Meal”.

2. Ensure the ingredients do not include any “By-Products”.

3. Look for an indication that the food has “Human Grade” ingredients, which would eliminate any previously euthanized animals.

Smart Consumers Know

Smart consumers know that all pet foods market themselves as “complete nutrition”, but all this means is that a particular food has met the minimum required nutrition level. It does not tell you anything further.

People eat dogs, why can’t dogs eat dogs?

True, people of several nationalities do eat dog meat, but if you recall from above, the pets who end up in pet food are the ones who where euthanized. Many people would feel uncomfortable knowing that their pet is eating another pet, but even beyond this, you certainly do not want them eating an animal that had been injected with something to end its life. Again, because you do not know if the food contains this dead animal or that one, it is best to avoid mystery meat at all costs.

It’s a Big World

I have not listed any food brands, because from country to country, they vary. Additionally from year to year brands change their quality and ingredients, so it is impossible to label any food as being exceptionally good or bad. After King 5’s story aired, many food companies in the United States did try to improve their standards, mostly due to embarrassment at the time, because a full study was launched and certain foods were named where euthanized animals had been used. However this was more than 10 years ago, and euthanized animals might be slipping into pet foods again. Additionally laws and standards are different in every country, what the AAFCO allows in the USA, might be less or more, than other regulatory groups allow elsewhere.