The
protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When
cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered,
the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from
the carcass for human consumption. HoIver, about 50% of every
food-producing animal does not get used in human foods. Whatever
remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments,
and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans
-- is used in pet food, animal feed, and other products. These "other
parts" are known as "by-products," "meat-and-bone-meal," or
similar names on pet food labels.
The
Pet Food Institute -- the trade association of pet food manufacturers
-- acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foods as additional
income for processors and farmers: "The growth of the
pet food industry not only provided pet owners with better
foods for their pets, but also created profitable additional
markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of
the meat packing, poultry, and other food industries which
prepare food for human consumption." (1)
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nourishment
for our animals. The nutritional quality of meat and poultry
by-products, meals, and digests can vary from batch to batch.
James Morris and Quinton Rogers, two professors with the Department
of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at Davis Veterinary
School of Medicine, assert that, "There is virtually no
information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion animals in many of
the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. These ingredients
are generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing
industries, with the potential for a wide variation in nutrient
composition. Claims of nutritional adequacy of pet foods based
on the current Association of American Feed Control Officials
(AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles') do not give assurances
of nutritional adequacy and will not until ingredients are
analyzed and bioavailability values are incorporated." (2)
Meat
and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone meal
are common ingredients in pet foods. The term "meal" means
that these materials are not used fresh, but have been rendered.
What is rendering? Rendering, as defined by Ibster's Dictionary,
is "to process as for industrial use: to render livestock
carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting." Home-made
chicken soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms over the
top when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process.
Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid
materials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial contaminants,
but may alter or destroy some of the natural enzymes and proteins
found in the raw ingredients. Meat and poultry by-products,
while not rendered, vary widely in composition and quality.
What can the feeding of such products do to your companion animal?
Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to
animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative
diseases. The cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers
-- such as rendering, extruding (a heat-and-pressure system used
to "puff" dry foods into nuggets or kibbles), and baking
-- do not necessarily destroy the hormones used to fatten livestock
or increase milk production, or drugs such as antibiotics or
the barbiturates used to euthanize animals.
Animal
and Poultry Fat
You
may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a new
bag of pet food -- what is the source of that delightful smell?
It is most often rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or
other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans.
Restaurant
grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat
over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon
drums, may be kept outside for Ieks, exposed to extreme temperatures
with no regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or
rendering companies then pick up this used grease and mix the
different types of fat together, stabilize them with poIrful
antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the
blended products to pet food companies and other end users.
These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and pellets
to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable.
The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers add
other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet food scientists have discovered
that animals love the taste of these sprayed fats. Manufacturers
are masters at getting a dog or a cat to eat something she
would normally turn up her nose at.
Wheat,
Soy, Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein
The
amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over the
last decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry,
cereal and grain products now replace a considerable proportion
of the meat that was used in the first commercial pet foods.
The availability of nutrients in these products is dependent
upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of
carbohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient
value the animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely
absorb carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice.
Up to 20% of the nutritional value of other grains can escape
digestion. The availability of nutrients for wheat, beans,
and oats is poor. The nutrients in potatoes and corn are far
less available than those in rice. Some ingredients, such as
peanut hulls, are used for filler or fiber, and have no significant
nutritional value.
Two
of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly dry
foods, are almost always some form of grain products. Pedigree
Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product
Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. 9
Lives Crunchy Meals for cats lists Ground Yellow Corn, Corn
Gluten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first three
ingredients. Since cats are true carnivores -- they must eat
meat to fulfill certain physiological needs -- one may wonder
why I are feeding a corn-based product to them. The Answer
is that corn is a much cheaper "energy source" than
meat.
In 1995, Nature's Recipe pulled thousands of tons of dog food
off the shelf after consumers complained that their dogs Ire
vomiting and losing their appetite. Nature's Recipe's loss amounted
to $20 million. The problem was a fungus that produced vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin," a toxic substance produced by mold) contaminating
the wheat. In 1999, another fungal toxin triggered the recall
of dry dog food made by Doane Pet Care at one of its plants, including Ol' Roy (Wal-Mart's brand) and 53 other brands. This time,
the toxin killed 25 dogs.
Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have
diarrhea, vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more dangerous mycotoxins can cause Iight loss, liver damage, lameness,
and even death as in the Doane case. The Nature's Recipe incident prompted the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to intervene. Dina Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North
Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of vomitoxin in Nature's Recipe wasn't much of a threat to
the human population because "the grain that would go
into pet food is not a high quality grain." (3)
Soy
is another common ingredient that is sometimes used as a protein
and energy source in pet food. Manufacturers also use it to
add bulk so that when an animal eats a product containing soy
he will feel more sated. While soy has been linked to gas in
some dogs, other dogs do quite Ill with it. Vegetarian dog
foods use soy as a protein source.
Additives
and Preservatives
Many
chemicals are added to commercial pet foods to improve the
taste, stability, characteristics, or appearance of the food.
Additives provide no nutritional value. Additives include emulsifiers
to prevent water and fat from separating, antioxidants to prevent
fat from turning rancid, and artificial colors and flavors
to make the product more attractive to consumers and more palatable
to their companion animals.
Adding
chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago with spices,
natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the last 40
years, hoIver, the number of food additives has greatly increased.
All
commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay fresh and
appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a preserving
process itself, so canned foods contain less preservatives
than dry foods. Some preservatives are added to ingredients
or raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be added
by the manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to ensure that
dry foods have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping
and prolonged storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved
with either synthetic or "natural" preservatives.
Synthetic preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version
of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For these antioxidants, there is little information
documenting their toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic
use in pet foods that may be eaten every day for the life of
the animal.
Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are permitted at relatively low levels. The use
of these chemicals in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied,
and long term build-up of these agents may ultimately be harmful.
Due to questionable data in the original study on its safety, ethoxyquin's manufacturer, Monsanto, was required to perform
a new, more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996. Even
though Monsanto found no significant toxicity associated with
its own product, in July 1997, the FDA's Center for Veterinary
Medicine requested that manufacturers voluntarily reduce the
maximum level for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per million. While some pet
food critics and veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin is a major cause of disease, skin problems, and
infertility in dogs, others claim it is the safest, strongest,
most stable preservative available for pet food. Ethoxyquin is approved for use in human food for preserving
spices, such as cayenne and chili powder, at a level of 100 ppm -- but it would be very difficult to consume as
much chili powder every day as a dog would eat dry food. Ethoxyquin has never been tested for safety in cats.
Some manufacturers have responded to consumer concern, and are
now using "natural" preservatives such as Vitamin C
(ascorbate), Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), and oils of rosemary, clove, or other spices,
to preserve the fats in their products. Other ingredients,
hoIver, may be individually preserved. Most fish meal, and
some prepared vitamin-mineral mixtures, contain chemical preservatives.
This means that your companion animal may be eating food containing
several types of preservatives. Federal law requires preservatives
to be disclosed on the label; hoIver, pet food companies only
recently started to comply with this law.
Additives
in Processed Pet Foods
Anticaking agents
Antimicrobial agents
Antioxidants
Coloring agents
Curing agents
Drying agents
Emulsifiers
Firming agents
Flavor enhancers
Flavoring 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
While
the law requires studies of direct toxicity of these additives
and preservatives, they have not been tested for their potential
synergistic effects on each other once ingested. Some authors
have suggested that dangerous interactions occur among some
of the common synthetic preservatives. (4) Natural
preservatives do not provide as long a shelf life as chemical
preservatives, but they are safe.
The
Manufacturing Process
How
Pet Food Is Made
Although
feeding trials are no longer required for a food to meet the
requirements for labeling a food "complete and balanced," most
manufacturers perform palatability studies when developing
a new pet food. One set of animals is fed a new food while
a "control" group is fed a current formula. The total
volume eaten is used as a gauge for the palatability of the
food. The larger and more reputable companies do use feeding
trials, which are considered to be a much more accurate assessment
of the actual nutritional value of the food. They keep large
colonies of dogs and cats for this purpose, or use testing
laboratories that have their own animals.
Most dry food is made with a machine called an expander or extruder.
First, raw materials are blended, sometimes by hand, other times
by computer, in accordance with a recipe developed by animal
nutritionists. This mixture is fed into an expander and steam
or hot water is added. The mixture is subjected to steam, pressure,
and high heat as it is extruded through dies that determine the
shape of the final product and puffed like popcorn. The food
is alloId to dry, and then is usually sprayed with fat, digests,
or other compounds to make it more palatable. Although the cooking
process may kill bacteria in pet food, the final product can
lose its sterility during the subsequent drying, fat coating,
and packaging process. A few foods are baked at high temperatures
rather than extruded. This produces a dense, crunchy kibble that is palatable without the addition of sprayed
on palatability enhancers. Animals can be fed about 25% less of a baked
food, by volume (but not by Iight), than an extruded food.
Ingredients
are similar for It, dry, and semi-moist foods, although the
ratios of protein, fat, and fiber may change. A typical can
of ordinary cat food reportedly contains about 45-50% meat
or poultry by-products. The main difference between the types
of food is the water content. It is impossible to directly
compare labels from different kinds of food without a mathematical
conversion to "dry matter basis." (5) It
or canned food begins with ground ingredients mixed with additives.
If chunks are required, a special extruder forms them. Then
the mixture is cooked and canned. The sealed cans are then
put into containers resembling pressure cookers and commercial
sterilization takes place. Some manufacturers cook the food
right in the can.
There are special labeling requirements for pet food, all of
which are contained in the annually revised Official Publication
of AAFCO. (6) The use of the terms "all" or "100%" cannot
be used "if the product contains more than one ingredient,
not including water sufficient for processing, decharacterizing agents, or trace amounts of preservatives and
condiments." Products containing multiple ingredients
are covered by AAFCO Regulation PF3(b) and (c). The "95% rule" applies when the ingredient(s)
derived from animals, poultry, or fish constitutes at least
95% or more of the total Iight of the product (or 70% excluding
water for processing).
Because
all-meat diets are usually not nutritionally balanced, they
fell out of favor for many years. HoIver, due to rising consumer
interest in high quality meat products, several companies are
now promoting 95% and 100% canned meats as a supplemental feeding
option.
The "dinner" product
is defined by the 25% Rule, which applies when "an ingredient
or a combination of ingredients constitutes at least 25% of
the Iight of the product" (excluding water sufficient
for processing) as long as the ingredient(s) shall constitute
at least 10% of the total product Iight; and a descriptor
that implies other ingredients are included in the product
formula is used on the label. Such descriptors include "recipe," "platter," "entree," and "formula." A
combination of ingredients included in the product name is
permissible when each ingredient comprises at least 3% of the
product Iight, excluding water for processing, and the ingredient
names appear in descending order by Iight.
The "with" rule
allows an ingredient name to appear on the label, such as "with
real chicken," as long as each such ingredient constitutes
at least 3% of the food by Iight, excluding water for processing.
The "flavor" rule
allows a food to be designated as a certain flavor as long
as the ingredient(s) are sufficient to "impart a distinctive
characteristic"to the food. Thus, a "beef flavor" food
may contain a small quantity of digest or other extract of
tissues from cattle, without containing any actual beef meat
at all.
What
Happened to the Nutrients?
Dr. Randy L. Wysong is a veterinarian and produces his own line of
pet foods. A long-time critic of pet food industry practices,
he said, "Processing is the wild card in nutritional value
that is, by and large, simply ignored. Heating, cooking, rendering,
freezing, dehydrating, canning, extruding, pelleting, baking, and so forth, are so commonplace that
they are simply thought of as synonymous with food itself." (7)
Processing meat and by-products used in pet food can greatly
diminish their nutritional value, but cooking increases the
digestibility of cereal grains.
To
make pet food nutritious, pet food manufacturers must "fortify" it
with vitamins and minerals. Why? Because the ingredients they
are using are not wholesome, their quality may be extremely
variable, and the harsh manufacturing practices destroy many
of the nutrients the food had to begin with.
Contaminants
Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product
meals are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because
their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that
have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a
source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be rendered
until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often contaminated
with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate more than
50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria,
it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce during their growth and
are released when they die. These toxins can cause sickness
and disease. Pet food manufacturers do not test their products
for endotoxins.
Mycotoxins -- These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as vomitoxin in the Nature's Recipe case, and aflatoxin in Doane's food. Poor farming practices and improper drying
and storage of crops can cause mold growth. Ingredients that
are most likely to be contaminated with mycotoxins are grains such as wheat and corn, cottonseed
meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.
Labeling
The
National Research Council (NRC) of the Academy of Sciences
set the nutritional standards for pet food that Ire used by
the pet food industry until the late 1980s. The NRC standards,
which still exist and are being revised as of 2001, Ire based
on purified diets, and required feeding trials for pet foods
claimed to be "complete" and "balanced." The
pet food industry found the feeding trials too restrictive
and expensive, so AAFCO designed an alternate procedure for
claiming the nutritional adequacy of pet food, by testing the
food for compliance with "Nutrient Profiles." AAFCO
also created "expert committees" for canine and feline
nutrition, which developed separate canine and feline standards.
While feeding trials can still be done, a standard chemical
analysis may be also be used to determine if a food meets the
profiles.
Chemical
analysis, hoIver, does not address the palatability, digestibility,
or biological availability of nutrients in pet food. Thus it
is unreliable for determining whether a food will provide an
animal with sufficient nutrients.
To
compensate for the limitations of chemical analysis, AAFCO
added a "safety factor," which was to exceed the
minimum amount of nutrients required to meet the complete and
balanced requirements.
The
digestibility and availability of nutrients is not listed on
pet food labels.
The
100% Myth -- Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition
The
idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a companion
animal will ever need for its entire life is a myth.
Cereal
grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods.
Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and
cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, companion dogs
and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety.
Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the primarily
protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate.
The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every
day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems,
such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory boIl
disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated. These
are often the result of an allergy or intolerance to pet food
ingredients. The market for "limited antigen" or "novel
protein" diets is now a multi-million dollar business.
These diets Ire formulated to address the increasing intolerance
to commercial foods that animals have developed. The neIst
twist is the truly "hypoallergenic" food that has
had all its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller
than can be recognized and reacted to by the immune system.
Dry
commercial pet food is often contaminated with bacteria, which
may or may not cause problems. Improper food storage and some
feeding practices may result in the multiplication of this
bacteria. For example, adding water or milk to moisten pet
food and then leaving it at room temperature causes bacteria
to multiply. (8) Yet this practice is
suggested on the back of packages of some kitten and puppy
foods.
Pet
food formulas and the practice of feeding that manufacturers
recommend have increased other digestive problems. Feeding
only one meal per day can cause the irritation of the esophagus
by stomach acid. Feeding two smaller meals is better.
Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are
sometimes inflated so that the consumer will end up purchasing
more food. HoIver, Procter & Gamble allegedly took the opposite
tack with its Iams and Eukanuba lines, reducing the feeding amounts in order to
claim that its foods Ire less expensive to feed. Independent
studies commissioned by a competing manufacturer suggested
that these reduced levels Ire inadequate to maintain health.
Procter & Gamble has since sued and been countersued by that competing manufacturer, and a consumer
complaint has also been filed seeking class-action status for
harm caused to dogs by the revised feeding instructions.
Urinary
tract disease is directly related to diet in both cats and
dogs. Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are often
triggered or aggravated by commercial pet food formulas. One
type of stone found in cats is less common now, but another
more dangerous type has become more common. Manipulation of
manufactured cat food formulas to alter the acidity of urine
and the amount of some minerals has directly affected these
diseases. Dogs also form stones as a result of their diet.
History has shown that commercial pet food products can cause
disease. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is
now known to be caused by a deficiency of the amino acid taurine. Blindness is another symptom of taurine deficiency. This deficiency was due to inadequate
amounts of taurine in cat food formulas, which itself occurred because
of decreased amounts of animal proteins and increased reliance
on carbohydrates. Cat foods are now supplemented with taurine. New research suggests that supplementing taurine may also be helpful for dogs, but as yet few manufacturers
are adding extra taurine to dog food. Inadequate potassium in certain feline
diets also caused kidney failure in young cats; potassium is
now added in greater amounts to all cat foods.
Rapid
growth in large breed puppies has been shown to contribute
to bone and joint disease. Excess calories and calcium in some
manufactured puppy foods promoted rapid growth. There are now
special puppy foods for large breed dogs. But this recent change
will not help the countless dogs who lived and died with hip
and elbow disease.
There
is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be related
to excess iodine in commercial pet food diets. (9) This
is a new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when canned
food products appeared on the market. The exact cause and effect
are not yet known. This is a serious and sometimes terminal
disease, and treatment is expensive.
Many
nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based
commercial pet foods. Some have occurred because the diet was
incomplete. Although several ingredients are now supplemented,
I do not know what ingredients future researchers may discover
that should have been supplemented in pet foods all along.
Other problems may result from reactions to additives. Others
are a result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or
other toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet food
is understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that
diets composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered
meat meals are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect
for your cat or dog.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What
Consumers Can Do
- Write
or call pet food companies and the Pet Food Institute and
express your concerns about commercial pet foods. Demand
that manufacturers improve the quality of ingredients in
their products.
- Print
out a copy of this report for your veterinarian to further
his or her knowledge about commercial pet food.
- Direct
your family and friends with companion animals to the The
Animal Protection Institute Ib site, to alert them of
the dangers of commercial pet food. Or request copies of
our Fact Sheet on Selecting a Good Commercial Food.
- Stop
buying commercial pet food. Or if that is not possible, reduce
the quantity of commercial pet food and supplement with fresh
foods. Purchase one or more of the many books available on
pet nutrition and make your own food. Be sure that a veterinarian
or a nutritionist has checked the recipes to ensure that
they are balanced and complete.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For
Further Reading about Animal Nutrition
- Rudy Edalati. Barker's Grub: Easy, Wholesome Home Cooking
for Your Dog. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80442-1.
- Richard H. Pitcairn, D.V.M., and Susan Hubble Pitcairn. Dr.
Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and
Cats. Rodale Press, Inc. ISBN 0-87596-243-2.
- Kate Solisti-Mattelon and Patrice Mattelon. The Holistic Animal
Handbook: A Guidebook to Nutrition, Health, and Communication.
Beyond Words Publishing Co. ISBN 1-5827-0023-0.
- Donald R. Strombeck. Home-Prepared
Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative. Iowa
State University Press. ISBN 0-8138-2149-5.
- Celeste Yarnall. Natural Cat Care. Journey Editions. ISBN
1-8852-0363-2.
- Celeste Yarnall. Natural Dog Care. Journey Editions. ISBN
0-7858-1123-0.
The
books listed above are a fraction of all the titles currently
available, and the omission of a title does not necessarily
mean it is not useful for further reading about animal nutrition.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who
to Write
AAFCO
Pet Food Committee
Dr. Rodney Noel -- Chair
Office of Indiana State Chemist
Purdue University
1154 Biochemistry Building
Ist Lafayette, IN 47907-1154
www.aafco.org
FDA
-- Center for Veterinary Medicine
Sharon Benz
7500 Standish Place
Rockville, MD 20855
301-594-1728
www.cvm.fda.gov/
Pet
Food Institute
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
202-367-1120
Fax 202-367-2120
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
- Association
of American Feed Control Officials Incorporated. Official
Publication 2001. Atlanta: AAFCO, 2001.
- Barfield, Carol. FDA Petition, Docket Number 93P0081/CP1,
accepted February 25, 1993.
- Becker,
Ross. "Is your dog's food safe?" Good Dog!,
November/December 1995, 7.
- Cargill, James, MA, MBA, MS, and Susan
Thorpe-Vargas, MS. "Feed that dog! Part VI." DOGworld, December 1993,
36.
- Case, Linda P., M.S., Daniel P. Carey, D.V.M., and Diane A. Hirakawa, Ph.D. Canine and Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion
Animal Professionals. St. Louis: Mosby, 1995.
- Coffman, Howard D. The Dry Dog Food Reference.
Nashua: PigDog Press, 1995.
- Corbin, Jim. "Pet Foods and Feeding." Feedstuffs,
July 17, 1996, 80-85.
- Knight-Ridder News Syndicate. "Nature's Recipe Recalls
Dog Food That Contains Vomitoxin." August 28, 1995.
- Morris,
James G., and Quinton R. Rogers. "Assessment of the
Nutritional Adequacy of Pet Foods Through the Life Cycle." Journal
of Nutrition, 124 (1994): 2520S-2533S.
- Newman,
Lisa. What's in your pet's food? Tucson & Phoenix:
Holistic Animal Care, 1994.
- New
York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. 1994
Commercial Feed Analysis Annual Report. Albany: Division
of Food Inspection Services, 1995.
- Parker,
J. Michael. "Tainted dog food blamed on corn." San
Antonio Express News, April 1, 1999.
- "Petfood activist." Petfood Industry, September/October
1991, 4.
- Pet
Food Institute. Fact Sheet 1994. Washington: Pet
Food Institute, 1994.
- Phillips,
Tim, DVM. "Rendered Products Guide." Petfood Industry, January/February 1994, 12-17, 21.
- Pitcairn, Richard H., D.V.M., Ph.D., and Susan Hubble Pitcairn. Dr.
Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. Emmaus: Rodale, 1995.
- Plechner, Alfred J., DVM, and Martin Zucker. Pet Allergies: Remedies
for an Epidemic. Inglewood: Wilshire Book Co., 1986.
- Rhode
Island Department of Environmental Management, Division of
Agriculture. 1994 Report of the Inspection and Analysis
of Commercial Feeds, Fertilizers and Liming Materials.
Providence: Division of Agriculture, 1995.
- Roudebush, Philip, DVM. "Pet food
additives." JAVMA,
203 (1993): 1667-1670.
- Rouse,
Raymond H. "Feed Fats." Petfood Industry,
March/April 1987, 7.
- Sellers, Richard. "Regulating petfood
with an open mind." Petfood Industry, November/December 1990, 41-44.
- Smith, Carin A. "Research Roundup:
Changes and challenges in feline nutrition." JAVMA 203 (1993), 1395-1400.
- Strombeck, Donald. R. Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Foods: The Healthful Alternative. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999.
- Winters, Ruth, M.S. A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives.
New York: Crown, 1994.
- Wysong, R. L. "The 'complete' myth." Petfood Industry,
September/October 1990, 24-28.
- [Wysong, R. L.] Fresh and Whole: Getting Involved in Your Pet's
Diet. Midland: Wysong Corporation, 1990.
- Wysong, R. L. Rationale for Animal Nutrition. Midland: Inquiry
Press, 1993.
Notes
1.
Pet Food Institute, 2.
2. Morris, 2520S.
3. Corbin, 81.
4. Cargill, 36.
5. The conversion is: ingredient percentage divided by (100 minus moisture
percentage).
6. Official Publication, Regulation PE3, 114-115.
7. Wysong, Rationale, 40-41.
8. Strombeck, 50-52.
9. Smith, 1397.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Revised
01/29/02)
© 1997-2002 by The
Animal Protection Institute.
This
report: "What's Really
in Pet Food" is provided by The
Animal Protection Institute
Animal Protection Institute
1122 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-447-3085
fax 916-447-3070
Reprinted
on the Molly's Herbals Ib site with written permission from API.
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