BY-PRODUCTS

According to the US Department of Agriculture, there is not mandatory inspection of ingredients used in pet food manufacturing. Accordingly,  it allows the pet food industry to use what are called "4D" sources - that is, meat tissues, skin and insides of animals that are dead, dying, disabled, or diseased (AND NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION) when they reach the slaughterhouse.  From his experience as a veterinarian and federal meat inspector, Dr. P.F. McGragle concludes that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals may increase their chance of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. Those wastes can include moldy, rancid or spoiled meats and salmonella contaminated poultry parts, as well as the tissues to severely riddled with cancer to be eaten by people. The heavy use of hormones, steroids and antibiotics, in farm animals, is also a concern. These continue to be active, even in "dead" tissues.

BHT/BHA, ETHOXYQUIN, PROPYLENE GLYCOL

These popular preservatives are heavily used in the pet food industry, not only to preserve fats but to stabilize the whole product as well. Humans who were working with ethoxyquin in the rubber industry, reported a dramatic rise in such diseases as liver/kidney damage, cancerous skin lesions, loss of hair, blindness, leukemia, fetal abnormalities and chronic diarrhea.  In animals it has been linked to immune deficiency syndrome, spleen, stomach and liver cancer, as well as the above mentioned diseases. The steady increase in animal cancer and serious diseases has paralleled the increased use of chemical preservatives in the pet food industry during the last 25 years!

ARTIFICIAL COLOR

Coloring often includes the following coal-tar derivative dyes:  FD&C RED #40 (a possible carcinogen), RED #3, YELLOW #5 (not fully tested), YELLOW #6, BLUE #1 AND #2 (increases dogs’ sensitivity to fatal viruses such as parvo). SODIUM NITRATE, widely used as a red coloring and preservative, produces powerful carcinogenic substances known as nitrosamines. People have died from accidental nitrite poisoning. Animals ingest much larger amounts of these carcinogens and other chemicals daily in their diets, than is ever allowed for humans!

INGREDIENT STACKING

This is the practice of listing the same ingredient several times. For example, rice, rice bran, rice gluten, rice flour.  This usually means that much of your protein source is coming from the vegetable/grain rather than the meat.

FLOURS/FRACTIONED INGREDIENTS

Wheat, rice and soy flours consist mainly of soft finely ground sifted meal obtained from milling (containing essentially the starch and glutton of the endosperm) together with fine particles of wheat bran, germ and waste leftovers from the mill.  This is a highly preprocessed ingredient.  All naturally occurring vitamins have been leached out.