I recently received an e mail from The Humane Society of the United States, regarding an article as to how they recently worked with local police and animal groups to rescue nearly 100 dogs bound for the dog meat trade. Please see this link for more details:

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=14752362

This precipitated me to once again author a blog regarding What is in our pet commercially produced pet foods, INCLUDING DEAD CARCASSES OF ANIMALS!.

Meat By-products: Pet grade meat by-products consist of organs and parts not desired or not fit for human consumption. This can include organs, bones, blood and fatty tissue. It can also include brains, feet, heads, intestines and any other internal parts. Unbelievably, by-products can also contain cancerous or diseased tissue containing parasites.

The pet food industry is an 11 billion dollar a year, unregulated operation
that feeds on the garbage that otherwise would and should end up in a
landfill. Pet food manufacturers have become masters at getting pets to eat
things they would normally turn their nose up at.

Pet food scientists have learned that it's possible to take a mixture of
inedible garbage, fortify it with artificial vitamins and minerals, preserve
it so it can sit on the grocery shelf for more than a year, add dyes to make
it attractive and then extrude it into whimsical shapes, making it appealing
to us humans so we will purchase it. Unfortunately what makes up most of dog
and cat food today comes from the rendering plant. To render, as defined in
Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for industrial use; to render
livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting."
Some things that go into rendering are:

* Spoiled rotten meat from the supermarket, styrofoam wrap and all.

* Road kill that can't be buried on the roadside.

* The "4-D's" of cattle; dead, dying, diseased and disabled

* Rancid restaurant grease

* Euthanized pets, this is NO joke!

When chickens, lambs, cattle, pigs and other animals are slaughtered for
food, usually only the lean muscle is cut off for human consumption. This
leaves about 50% of a carcass left over. These leftovers are what become
what we so commonly find on pet food labels such as "meat and bone meal" or
"by-products". So basically what pets are eating are lungs, ligaments,
bones, blood and intestines.

When dead animals from pastures are picked up, they many not be rendered for
up to a week after they have died. Because of this it is estimated that E.
coli bacteria contaminates more than 50% of meat materials. The rendering
process destroys the E. coli bacteria, but it does not eliminate the
endotoxins bacteria that is released when they die. These endotoxins, which
can cause sickness and disease, are not tested for by pet food
manufacturers.

Slaughterhouses where cattle, pigs, lambs and other animals meet their fate
provide more fuel for rendering. After slaughter, heads, feet, skin, hair,
feathers, carpel and tarsal joints and mammary (milking) glands are removed.
This material is sent to rendering. Animals that have died on their way to
slaughter are also rendered. Cancerous tissue, tumors and worm infested
organs are rendered. Injection sites, blood clots and any other inessential
parts are rendered. Stomach and bowels are rendered. Contaminated material
including blood is rendered. Carcasses with high levels of drugs or
pesticides in excess of limits prescribed under the FDA (not fit for human
consumption) are rendered.

At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, supermarket refuse, rancid
restaurant grease, dead livestock, road kill and euthanized pets are dumped
into huge containers. A machine slowly grinds the entire mess. After it is
chipped or shredded, it is cooked at 220 - 270 degrees F. for approximately
20 minutes to one hour. The grease or tallow rises to the top where it is
removed from the mixture. This is the source of animal fat in most pet foods
on the market today. The remaining material, the raw, is then put into a
press where the moisture is squeezed out, we now have the meat and bone meal
that is added to most pet foods today.

Animals wouldn't normally eat this stuff in the wild, so why will they eat
it out of their bowls? Their noses are tricked by the smell of it. Pet food
manufacturers are masters at getting a pet to eat something they would
normally turn their nose up at.

These flavors usually come from rancid restaurant grease, you know from
those big dumpsters you see in the back parking lot. This grease is often
outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its
future use. The rancid grease is then picked up by fat blenders who mix the
animal and vegetable fats together, stabilize them with powerful
antioxidants to prevent further spoilage, then they sell it to pet food
manufacturers. Rancid, heavily preserved fats are extremely difficult to for
animals to digest and can lead to a host of pet health problems including
digestive upsets, diarrhea, gas and bad breath. These fats are sprayed
directly onto the kibble or nuggets to make an otherwise distasteful product
palatable.

Two thirds of the pet food manufactured today contain synthetic
preservatives, of the remaining one third, 90% includes ingredients already
stabilized by synthetic preservatives. Be wary of pet foods that advertise
as preservative free, if they using animal by-products or ingredients that
have been rendered they will mostly like contain preservatives. Natural
preservatives such as Rosemary and Vitamin E are used by quality
manufacturers of natural pet foods not containing artificial/chemical
preservatives. However, Pet food manufacturers are not required to list
preservatives they themselves have not added. Here are some of the chemical
preservatives that are used in mass-produced pet food today:

* BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) - known to cause kidney and liver
dysfunction

* BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene) - known to cause kidney and liver
dysfunction

* Ethoxyquin - suspected of causing cancer

* Propylene glycol (also used as automotive antifreeze) causes destruction
of red blood cells-and is also commonly found in many treats such as
Pedigree Dentabone/DentaStix etc