Say Bye, Bye to Pet Foods with By-Products
A common ingredient found in dog food and cat food is by-products. When you look at your pet food or pet treat label, you might see by-product, chicken by-product, turkey by-product meal, or a few more variations. Most pet owners have never been told exactly what by-products are. If you don’t know – don’t feel bad about it…my guess is that even the pet food manufacturers themselves can’t tell you exactly what by-products are in their own brand of pet food.
To give you an understanding of by-products, I’d like to compare it to pies. How many different types of pies you can think of? There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies (yuck!) – I think you get my point. Now imagine if you were to purchase your dinner at the grocery and you looked at the ingredients and you see ‘pie’ listed as the first ingredient in your dinner. You wouldn’t know if it was apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner contained ‘pie’. I’d guess if you knew that ‘pie’ could be any kind of pie – you wouldn’t be buying your dinner with ‘pie’ listed in the ingredients.
Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about ‘pie’ being a puzzling ingredient in people food. But there is the worry of the ‘pie’ ingredient in pet food – and that’s by-products.
Wikipedia describes a by-product as “a secondary or incidental product deriving from a manufacturing process,…”
The AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials – the organization responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines by-products as “meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.”
So, with respect to pet food – a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name. My guess would be that AAFCO decided that ‘chicken lungs’ or ‘cow intestines’ listing on a pet food label wouldn’t sound very appealing to the pet owner. Probably wouldn’t sell a lot of that food.
Instead, all these less than appealing left-overs are clumped into one ingredient name – by-product. There is NO certainty of what you are feeding – one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next batch of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. There is NO consistency to what is actually contained in the pet food ingredient by-product.
Without consistency of ingredients, there is no consistency to the quality of nutrition. Without consistency of quality nutrition, there is no consistency to your pet’s health.
The Center for Veterinary Medicine states that “animal feeds provide a practical outlet for plant and animal by-products not suitable for human consumption.” I can only imagine the conversation when that decision was made…’what are we going to do with all these left over intestines and spleens? Ah, what the heck, let’s put them in pet food. We’ll call it something else – no one will know – and then we don’t have to go through the expense and trouble of getting rid of the stuff.’
Personally I hope there will soon be a day for truth in pet food labeling. If some manufacturers are going to put intestines and spleen in their foods and treats – ok, just tell us. If you’ve got a clinical study showing pets thriving on these left-overs – show us your results. Just don’t put this stuff in my pet’s food bowl and tell me it’s premium and choice.
Please read your pet’s food and treat labels. Read the ingredients. Say bye, bye to by-products!
| http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ |
| http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ |
Wishing you and your pet the best,
Susan Thixton
Truth About Pet Food
Petsumer Report
www.TruthAboutPetFood.com
More articles on pet foods and pet treats can be found here: http://www.TruthAboutPetFood.com/PawsClub.html
All rights reserved PPC Publications.
Help Big Cat Rescue
And
Learn which dog foods, cat foods, and pet treats
Contain risky and inferior ingredients
And which pet foods contain the highest quality ingredients.
A full one year subscription of Petsumer Report™ Online costs less than $1.50 per month. That’s cheaper than the cost of one cup of coffee a month! About $.03 cents per review for just the existing pet food and treat reviews (as of August 2008 there are over 700 pet foods and treats reviewed). Forty plus reviews are added each month. By the time your year subscription expires there will be well over 1000 reviews of dog foods, cat foods, dog and cat treats, and soon pet toys and other pet supplies.
$17.95 for a one year online subscription.
$5.00 of every sale goes directly to Big Cat Rescue.
Help Big Cat Rescue and learn the Truth about Pet Food! Nutrition is one of the most neglected areas of pet care. Modern veterinary science tells us that the average size dog (30 pounds) should have a life span of 25 years and the average size cat should have a life span of 30 years. Sadly, we lose them far earlier. Genetics, environment, and nutrition – or lack of nutrition – all plays a role in the life expectancy of your pet. Improve your pet’s diet – improve their health and extend their life span.
Pet Food meat ingredients come from two VERY different categories or classifications…Pet grade/quality ingredients (which can be diseased or sick animals or animal parts rejected for use in human food) or Human grade/quality ingredients.
Do you know which your pet is eating?
Pet foods and Treats can legally contain chemical preservatives linked to cancer and tumors.
Do you know if they are in your
pet’s food or treats?
Many pet food manufacturers import pet food ingredients outside the US – from countries with little to no government regulations or quality control.
Do you know if any ingredient in your pet’s food
comes from outside the US?
Petsumer Report Does!
Let Petsumer Report help you find which pet foods DON’T use risky or inferior ingredients AND help Big Cat Rescue at the same time. Purchase a one year subscription to Petsumer Report Online today.
It’s simple to login after purchase. Go to www.TruthAboutPetFood.com. Click on the link at the top right of the page that says “Just Purchased Petsumer Report? Click Here to Register your subscription”. On the following page – enter the User Name and Password of your choice and your order number provided in your receipt email – and you’re set. Within minutes you can be scanning and comparing hundreds of different dog foods, cat foods, and treats. Return anytime to check out new reviews – 24/7. For all follow up logins go to www.TruthAboutPetFood.com. Click on the link at the top left of the page that says ‘Login to Petsumer Report’. Enter your User Name and Password. It’s that simple!
One more bonus available ONLY to supporters of Big Cat Rescue…
Instead of just one year, I’ll add an additional three months to your Petsumer Report Online subscription. Now…15 months for the one year subscription price of $17.95 – and $5.00 of every sale goes to benefit Big Cat Rescue.
This is a limited time offer. Don’t put it off another day!
Click Here to Order and Take Advantage of this Special Offer
https://00e07d5.netsolstores.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=45
Please note: This special offer to benefit Big Cat Rescue is ONLY available on the special page link above. You can read more about Petsumer Report at www.PetsumerReport.com or learn more about pet food at www.TruthAboutPetFood.com – but to help Big Cat Rescue and receive the bonus three months on your subscription – you MUST make your purchase on the Special Big Cat Rescue page linked above.
Link to Shopping Cart Page for Big Cat Rescue Special Offer:
https://00e07d5.netsolstores.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=45
