Review:Food Pets Die For
Sunday March 25, 2007
The ongoing Menu Foods pet food recall has pet owners wondering if they can even trust the pet food industry today. While I do not believe a widespread condemnation is warranted, I do think this recall is a red flag that changes need to be made in laws governing the manufacture of pet foods, as well as their enforcement and inspection by the FDA. If anything positive can result from this tragic and sorrowful pet food recall, I pray those changes will happen, sooner rather than later.
Ann Martin did her homework well. This book was seven years in the making, from the time she filed a courageous lawsuit against one of the largest manufacturers of pet food in North America, until the first publishing of "Food Pets Die For. She lost that lawsuit, which alleged that toxic amounts of minerals in her dogs' food was responsible for serious illness, however the evidence she has collected since that time makes one wonder.
Certainly, the pet food industry has undergone positive changes in the years since this book was first published. Consumer awareness has made us demand better ingredients in the foods we feed our cats and dogs and the elimination of undesirable ingredients such as "meat by-products," large amounts of cheap fillers such as corn, and potentially dangerous chemicals, such as BHT, BHA, and ethoxyquin. Many manufacturers (not on the recall list) have answered our demands, and we have a pretty good selection of wholesome, well-balanced cat and dog foods to choose from now.
Suggested Reading:How to Choose the Right Food for Your Cat
Why All the Fuss About Cat Food?
Top 10 Canned Cat Food
Cat Food FAQs
Ann Martin did her homework well. This book was seven years in the making, from the time she filed a courageous lawsuit against one of the largest manufacturers of pet food in North America, until the first publishing of "Food Pets Die For. She lost that lawsuit, which alleged that toxic amounts of minerals in her dogs' food was responsible for serious illness, however the evidence she has collected since that time makes one wonder.
Certainly, the pet food industry has undergone positive changes in the years since this book was first published. Consumer awareness has made us demand better ingredients in the foods we feed our cats and dogs and the elimination of undesirable ingredients such as "meat by-products," large amounts of cheap fillers such as corn, and potentially dangerous chemicals, such as BHT, BHA, and ethoxyquin. Many manufacturers (not on the recall list) have answered our demands, and we have a pretty good selection of wholesome, well-balanced cat and dog foods to choose from now.
Suggested Reading:
Comments
We feed our cats Wellness. It is primarily meat, and has no fillers. Neither their wet or dry food has by-products or fillers. (We eat organics, and figure our cats should be healthy, too.) It is worthy the extra expense.
My heart goes out to those who have lost beloved furry members of their family.
I feed my cat and dog a rotation of Wellness, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, Blue Spa and Canidae. Expensive to feed both of them but it is worth it.
MY ADOPTED PERHAPS FERRULE FEMALE HAS MADE GREAT STRIDES IN SOCIALIZING IN THE 5 MONTHS THAT I’VE HAD HER. EATING HAS BEEN A PROBLEM, INCLUDING THE TOP BRANDS AND MY OWN HOMEMADE VARIETIES UNTIL YESTERDAY WHEN SHE FAIRLY INHALED A RELATIVELY NEW BRAND CALLED ERUVA. THE ONE SHE LOVED IS AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK AND HAS BIG CHUNKS OF GELATINOUS FISH I.E. TERRALLY AND BARAMUNDI (SEA BASS) NO VEGGIES THO BUT LOTS OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS. PRICEY..$1. FOR 5.5 OZ WHICH I CAN’T REALLY AFFORD BUT ALL OTHER BRANDS HAVE BEEN TOSSED OUT UNTOUCHED.
RE THE RECALLS: I THINK THAT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MENU FOODS IS TO HOUSE TEST ALL PRODUCTS THAT THEY BUY AND THEN INCLUDE IN ALL THE FOODS THEY MARKET. IT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THEM TO PURCHASE FROM ANY COMPANY, BELIEVING THAT THEY ARE REPRESENTING THEMSELVES IN A POSITIVE WAY WITHOUT THIS IN HOUSE PROCEDURE.
THREE OF OUR PREVIOUS 4 CATS DIED OF VARIOUS FORMS OF CANCER…EVEN ONE WHO WAS AN INDOOR CAT ( SHE HAD BEEN RESCUED OUTDOORS) AT THAT POINT I FELT STRONGLY THAT THERE HAD TO BE A COMMON DENOMINATOR AND THE ONLY ONE THAT MADE SENSE WAS THE FOOD CHAIN. ENTER THE MONSTER GREED…NO DOUBT THIS IS WHAT PROMPTED MENU FOODS TO GO TO A CHEAPER SOURCE ..NO CHEAPER ANY MORE!!!
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This book just arrived from my library yesterday – it’s one of three I ordered from my library dealing with feeding natural foods.
For the first bit I was feeling pretty good about my feeding choices – the naming conventions were ones I knew about, and by avoiding unnamed meats I felt I was avoiding any of the rendered animal products that might contain the euthenasia drug. Then I came to the part where she mentioned that “animal fat” came from rendering plants – something I never thought to check for on the canned foods I feed. So now I’m adding that, along with the other “meal and bone meal”, “animal digest”, and “beef and bone meal” rendered products that she mentioned, to my list of ingredients that would make me take a food off of my “high quality foods” list.
The idea of using cat and dog meat in and of itself doesn’t bother me – our revulsion against it is cultural, not biological. But the idea that there is no way to insure that euthanized animals aren’t included in the animal food supply really bothers me. And I was disturbed to find out how much of an impact it had on wildlife as well! It definitely seems that there should be required safe disposal methods for any animal euthanized to keep the drugs from getting into any food chain, be that wildlife, companion animals, or human.