It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
"There is nothing more hideous and insidious than the pet food company.And responbile owners are blissfully unaware of what they are giving to their pets.
The dog and cat food we are feeding our pets is garbage at best. Most people never take a look at the ingrediants, and what they represent.
Why did I title this Did you Know you a feeding Fifi to Fluffy? Because one of the ingrediants in pet foor is meat rendered dog and cat. Along with all the nasty stuff that remains of any stock animal that is processed. The math is simple: if you buy a steak, it will cost you several dollars depending on the steak or meat. Why then does a can of pet food only cost 40-50 cents. What kind of meat only costs several cents after shipping and markup by the retailer?
The remains of any processed animal goes into a meat rendering plant. Where it is piled on the floor, left to rot, mixed in with rats, snakes, maggots, and bugs. It is melted down to a large vat of fat. Dried, and then turned into pet food. It is a cheap way to dispose of unwanted animal parts. Not only is it cow, sheep, pig, or what have you. But it is dog and cat. Many animal control facilities dispose of euthanized, and unwanted pets by selling to these meat rendering plants. Which in turn, are put into pet food. Ever wonder what the ingrediant "meat by product" is? It would be hooves, bones, eyes, intestines, some organs, like reproductive organs. Reproductive organs contain a huge amount of hormones, naturally. But cow, sheep, or pig hormones are not necessarily good for a cat or dog.Not anymore than for a human. Cats especially have very delicate systems.
What else goes in there? Well, you have the euthanized cats and dogs. They don't remove the euthanization medicine. Which in turn, goes into the pet food. Chemicals that are used to kill pets in the first place.
Reporter John Eckhouse was one of the first people to discover the practice of sending euthanized pets to the rendering plants.
He quoted an employee of Sacramento Rendering as saying, "Thousands and thousands of pounds of dogs and cats are picked up and brought here every day."
When a vet tells a grieving owner that they'll "take care" of their dead loved one, they usually mean sending it off with the disposal company for rendering. This is all perfectly legal. Many veterinarians and especially shelters don't have the money to bury or cremate animals.
Although many in the pet food industry deny that they use euthanized animals, proof that the practice goes on continues to surface.
Over a few years in the 1990's, veterinarians began reporting to the FDA/CVM that the drug they used for anesthetizing, and euthanizing, dogs—sodium pentobarbital—seemed to be losing its effectiveness.
This prompted the CVM to explore the most likely cause: animals were becoming immune to the drug because they had been eating food with trace amounts of sodium pentobarbital for years. The likely source of the drug in their food? Euthanized animals.
In 1998, the CVM went about testing dry dogs foods containing the ingredients meat and bone meal, animal digest, animal fat and beef and bone meal. They found the drug in 31 of 37 foods tested.
Two years later, they conducted a study to find the levels of the drug in parts per billion for each food. Some examples were:
* 32 ppb: Old Roy—Puppy Formula, chicken and beef
* 25.1 ppb: Heinz—Kibbles 'n Bits Beefy Bits
* 16.4 ppb: Super G—Chunk Style Dog Food
* 15 ppb: Weis—Total High Energy Chicken and Rice
* 11.6 ppb: Pet Gold—Master Diet Puppy Formulation
* 10 ppb: Old Roy—Puppy Formula, beef flavor
Note that these products may be free of this drug now, as these are the findings in 2000.
The buck doesn't stop there. Within the animals, you already have antibiotics, anabolic steroids and growth promoting hormones. Then you have all the synthetic chemicals and preservatives such as ethoxyquin, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA).Other additives and preservaties that can be found are:
* Additives in Processed Pet Foods
* Anticaking agents
* Antimicrobial agents
* Antioxidants
* Colouring agents
* Curing agents
* Drying agents
* Emulsifiers
* Firming agents
* Flavour enhancers
* Flavouring agents
* Flour treating agents
* Formulation aids
* Humectants
* Leavening agents
* Lubricants
* Nonnutritive sweeteners
* Nutritive sweeteners
* Oxidizing and reducing agents
* pH control agents
* Processing aids
* Sequestrants
* Solvents, vehicles
* Stabilizers, thickeners
* Surface active agents
* Surface finishing agents
* Synergists
* Texturizers
* Information supplied bywww.takingthelead.co.uk...
Originally posted by smirkley
Oh yes, almost forgot the 'anti-freeze' toothpaste too.
I think one or two more high-profile 'faulty' items discovered and displayed as sold in America, will do plenty to cause the curtail of things people buy 'Made in China'.
Bet this happens in the next month or two, as the iron is hot and ready to strike.
Originally posted by JupiterJustice
The all mighty dollar?
Originally posted by smirkley
Originally posted by JupiterJustice
The all mighty dollar?
Well we all remember what happenned to Firestone when just ONE of their products was found to be faulty, the company dang near went out of business.
Now we are talking several products, and targeting one countries economy. It doesnt take rocket science to see the potential impact on an economy artificially propped up, after their primary consumers of their manufactured products begin to shy away for fear of safety on many levels.
PR goes both ways, and damage control is more expensive and harder to pull off many times.