I feel the need to add a bit more commentary to the prior emails of what's
in "Chicken Meal" as a cat food ingredient.
One poster suggested "chicken meal" contains pigs, roadkill, restaurant
grease, diseased and dead animals and zoo creatures etc which of course is
not true, it has only chicken finely ground.
What is relevant in the pet food industry is that dead animals of various
kinds DO get into pet food, but only as generic ingredients from a
"rendering" plant. A rendering plant is a place where animal remains are
cooked up into a soup for sale as supposedly usable protein
allowed for use in pet foods by the FDA, and grabbed by big conglomerates
as a way to get rid of waste.
So while "chicken meal" and any other specific species meal like fish meal
or beef meal or lamb meal has none of it, pet food may well have all sorts
of junk inside "rendered" ingredients, which then have generic names like
"meat meal", "Animal meal", "by-product meal", and "poultry meal".
The trick is to know what is rendered and what is not, as "rendered" is
not on the label. The above examples of *generics* are typical however, of
rendered ingredients. All "by-product" ingredients are also rendered.
It is a complex and involved industry and the discussion I started was
only intended to cover the specific food I recommended - in which there
is chicken meal, fish meal and egg, but no rendered ingredients, and no
no pigs, roadkill, zoo animals or restaurant grease in it.
I repeat that ProPac food meets *human* export food standards - there is
no rendering of anything in any of their products. However I recommend
ONLY one of their products - NOT all of them - just the kitten dry food. I
suggest it for dogs too (with dog-appropriate additions like pumpkin,
spinach, fish oil, rice bran and berries and any other good meat, fish or
egg) as the dog food situation is even worse than the cat food situation
when it comes to good protein - though one dog owner pointed out to me
that if his dog's friends found out he was eating kitten food, he'd
totally lose his "street cred"
The complexity of the pet food industry is completely confusing to the
consumer and I'd left all that out as this is a homeopathy site rather
than a cat health site and because I feel that unless the homeopath is
prepared to do many *months* of work to understand the issues - it can
confuse things a lot. We have hardly scratched the surface here so far.
I have remained - on purpose for those reasons - with the discussion of
the food I recommend as best available - and the reasons I choose it -
plus the relatively poor 2nd choices if one is forced to use them.
I also debunked the supposed goodness of a few specific foods on
request - in hopes of helping folks know some things to look for, and
alluded to a food checklist I have developed for the purpose. These are
all positive approaches which I chose rather than to discuss details of
the abhorrent practices of the majority in the pet food industry.
Perhaps that was a mistake - perhaps people need to at least have a
feel for what is going on behind the scenes, without perhaps detailed
discussion of those details - but just to know they exist and how to
avoid them.
Perhaps then, my biggest error of omission could be considered the
ingredients which have been "rendered". I consider that nobody should ever
buy a food that has a rendered ingredient.
I'll explain why rendered ingredients are a no-no.
"Rendering" may be involved (and usually is) in generic ingredients like
"meat meal", "animal by-products", "tallow" "anything containing
"by-products" etc - so anywhere a single species is not identified, or
if "by-product" occurs even with a single species - and then it is a
mixology of leftover animal bits and pieces.
Rendering plants are places that take in "animal waste" from multiple
sources, and cook it up to supposedly extract usable nutrient results. The
big problem here is not so much that they include road-kill (which MIGHT
theoretically be edible healthy protein at the outset or after boiling
long enough to destroy micro-organisms - emphasis on MIGHT) - but that
they include euthanised animals such as from vet clinics, shelters and
farms including potentially huge volumes of cats and dogs in one batch -
thus with these all potentially ending up in one batch of pet food.
People worry about the micro-organisms in the dead creatures - but those
are nearly all (but not all) destroyed in the heating process. A few have
been shown to survive but it is unnusual. However more importantly - it
includes the toxins used in euthanasia and those are NOT removed by
heating.
Pets can get very sick or die from eating pet food from a batch containing
a large batch of euthanized animals.
Yet Pet food companies use this rendered slush and proudly say they are
involved in beneficial recycling. But they are feeding dead cats to live
cats, along with euthasnasia chemicals. We already know what happened
when dead cows were fed to cows.... and there are feline prion diseases
already known too (eg. feline spongiform encephalopathy). So rendered
ingredients are certainly to be avoided in pet foods.
How to do it?
Avoid foods containing in the ingredients list, words like "by-product",
"gluten" or anything generic (meat meal, tallow, poultry meal etc - where
one specific species is not identified) and know the worst offenders:
The worst offenders for using this slush - I'd rather call it toxic sludge
- are the big pet food conglomerates who are owned by human food chain
bigger conglomerates. This is because the human food chain manufacturers
want to get profits from the leftover junk they produce that is not
alllowed in human food - and from out of date human food such as meat and
fish complete with "unavoidable" wrappings of poloystyrene and saran wrap,
that all goes to rendering plants.
This profitable garbage fed to pets, is what is behind the takeover by
human food manufacturers, of pet food manufacturers.
Some examples (hence to be avoided as pet food makers):
Proctor and Gamble purchased Iams (who also brands Eukanuba and a lot of
supermarket brands) for $2.05 billion in 1999. In 2000 Mars Inc., which
already owned Kal Kan, Pedigree and Whiskas, acquired Royal Canin, a
French "premium" pet food company for $730 million. Nestle acquired
Ralston-Purina in 2001 for $10.3 billion, to become the “dominant force”
in the pet food industry with 45% of the market share.
So - It is big business to turn human food waste into "pet food".
There is NO consumer protection in the pet food industry. There are
several bodies that control the industry - but not on behalf of consumers.
The complexity of the issues is immense and some idea can be obtained by
reading the following site - but I still consider it will take months of
study to even start to get a feel for it all - and I offer my own
gleanings after many years of study of the feline nutrition research PLUS
this manufacturer mess because the consumer can not be expected to delve
deep to find how to assess petfood information in this environment - and
the vets are selling the worst products of all (Iams, Science Diet, etc),
so they are not doing the homework either:
http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/7 ... tml#fnB189
(Not all the conclusions on this website are correct - but most of the
presented facts are. Please differentiate fact from conclusion.)
It is reasonable in my view, to develop a working relationship with a
small enough manufacturer and to know over time whether what they say is
valid.
In addition, trusting *no* manufacturer leaves the consumer who does not
make pet food, with no pet food.
That is not a good situation or a realistic one.
Again - my discussion was about the current best COMMERCIAL pet food.
I have been using ProPac's kitten dry (NOT canned) product since 1996.
It is NOT perfect, but I have not caught them in misstatements or lies to
date
I do not like everything about their product by a long shot, and
would rather pay more for a better one - but So far, they are quick to
respond to a complaint - sending their vice president of operations to
follow up, not some clerk. Their kibble once came with some big chunks in
one bag back in 1999, and they came to fetch the bad bags, plus all
distributor ones of the coded manufacturing plant - not expecting me to
do work to send them back, and they delivered good replacements plus
coupons for double free etc. I got feedback that the problem was in one
machine in a specific plant (somewhere in USA, I forget which state) and
that it would be repaired, and they thanked me for reporting the problem.
The problem *I* had - is that when they have an issue they pull ALL the
food off the market and check it out. That forced me to use an alternative
as a result of which a litter of kittens all were born 10 days early and
all died and their mother got very ill. (The OTHER food I used contained
alfalfa, in the days before I knew it was toxic to cats. [Coumestrol in
sunflower seeds and alfalfa sprouts has been found to adversely affect
fertility, fetuses and reproductive cycles of animals.]
It was after that, I got myself involved in some more in depth details
about cat foods. I do NOT like that PROPAC kitten dry, is the only food I
am using but the next best one is just so much worse.
Finding an acceptable commercial cat food is difficult indeed - BUT it is
necessary in the modern world for people who need to work to earn a living
and who can not stay home and stay awake to feed their cat on the hour
(which is the ideal) 24/7.
I do not address fully here, the extensive research showing the need for
dry food for cats that is available 24/7 - it is the only realistic way to
provide fresh protein every 2 hrs as cats need - for indoor cats who can
not hunt insects and mice for themselves.
There is plenty of "opinion" out there - but not backed by proper research
- which is available.
I just wish manufacturers and vets would use it.
Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."