Yet Another Pet Food Recall

June 26, 2008 at 3:50 am (Animals)
Tags: Animals, Contaminants, Homemade meals, Pet food, Recalls, Vegan

 

 

Recently U.S. Marshals, on behalf of the FDA, raided a PETCO food facility and removed pet food that they stated was infested with rodent and bird matter. Apparently their main concern was the fact that the outward packaging would contain remnants of the rodents and birds and therefore possible disease and germ issues. This only affects 16 states, to see the complete list go here. Its alarming that so many pet food recalls have been occuring in recent years. It begs the question: how many should there have been years before that? I doubt that pet food companies have drastically changed their pratices from saintly to ill in just the last year or two. So how many poor animals have suffered from the ineptitude of these companies over the decades mass produced pet food has been popular? And that is only the tip of the iceburg!

As a whole commercial pet food is an inept and disgusting process. There are many things that go into pet foods that are not, well, real foods. However, what are the recalls most often about? Cheap ingredients from China, “potential” contamination and now rodent and bird infestation on the outside of the bags. But why does noone talk about other “ingredients” in the foods? Ones that may not cause short term ill affects but may have severe damage in the long run. Not to mention the fact that the never mentioned ”ingredients” are morally horrific, even to a staunch meat eater. These lovely “pet food” companies include such things as:

–Rendered road kill, euthanized dogs and cats from shelters and factory farmed animals that were considered too ill, cancerous or lame to be “human” food (what affect will the diseases and cancer have on the dog or cat consuming it?)

–Flea collars, ear tags and other items that may have been on the helpless creatures, that were either from an animal shelter or factory farm, which the rendering plants do not care to remove (chemicals in these collars are insecticides that kill fleas and eggs, and as we all know, insecticides are not safe to ingest)

–Meats removed from supermarket that were considered expired or not safe for human consumption for one reason or another (and they do not remove the styrofoam and plastic wrappings from the meats)

With these “items” and more contained in pet food, is there any wonder why pet food is recalled? I personally cannot believe that pet food is not completely banned from our supermarket shelves. Who truly wishes to persist in feeding their dog a polluted, chemical ridden, cannibalistic meal each day? I believe that if more people knew what was contained in those cans and bags they would think twice about their pets’ meal choices.

When pet food recalls like this appear in the news I am ever more grateful that I feed my two dogs home prepared vegan meals. At the very least, I know exactly what they are digesting daily!

For further information please refer to Obligate Carnivore by Jed Gillen. Its an excellent, informative book and funny to boot!

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