Pets & Their Food

.. I often am asked about what I feed the bassets here.. Well I say a mixture of both raw and kibbled food.. Raw as I am a true believer of the B.A.R.F. diets .. as you see here my Percy loves chicken legs..



The pet food industry is an 11 billion dollar a year, unregulated operation that feeds on the garbage that otherwise would and should end up in a landfill. Pet food manufacturers have become masters at getting pets to eat things they would normally turn their nose up at.

Pet food scientists have learned that it’s possible to take a mixture of inedible garbage, fortify it with artificial vitamins and minerals, preserve it so it can sit on the grocery shelf for more than a year, add dyes to make it attractive and then extrude it into whimsical shapes, making it appealing to us humans so we will purchase it. Unfortunately what makes up most of dog and cat food today (those not qualified as "human-grade) comes from the rendering plant. To render, as defined in Webster’s Dictionary, is “to process as for industrial use; to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting.” Some things that go into rendering are:

* Spoiled rotten meat from the supermarket, styrofoam wrap and all.

* Road kill that can’t be buried on the roadside.

* The “4-D’s” of cattle; dead, dying, diseased and disabled

* Rancid restaurant grease

* Euthanized pets, this is NO joke! (more about this below)

Slaughterhouses where cattle, pigs, lambs and other animals meet their fate provide more fuel for rendering. After slaughter, heads, feet, skin, hair, feathers, carpel and tarsal joints and mammary (milking) glands are removed. This material is sent to rendering. Animals that have died on their way to slaughter are also rendered. Cancerous tissue, tumors and worm infested organs are rendered. Injection sites, blood clots and any other inessential parts are rendered. Stomach and bowels are rendered. Contaminated material including blood is rendered.
At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, supermarket refuse, rancid restaurant grease, dead livestock, road kill and euthanized pets are dumped into huge containers. A machine slowly grinds the entire mess. After it is chipped or shredded, it is cooked at 220 - 270 degrees F. for approximately 20 minutes to one hour. Here are some of the chemical preservatives that are used in mass-produced pet food today:
* BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) - know to cause kidney and liver dysfunction

* BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene) - know to cause kidney and liver dysfunction

* Ethoxyquin - suspected of causing cancer

* Propylene glycol (also used as automotive antifreeze) causes destruction of red blood cells-and is also commonly found in many treats such as Pedigree Dentabone/DentaStix etc

Are there really pets in pet food?

Unfortunately when a vet tells a grieving pet owner they will “take care” of their dead loved one, they usually mean sending it off with a disposal company for rendering. This is all perfectly legal. Many veterinarians and especially shelters don’t bury or cremate animals.
Reporter John Eckhouse was one of the first people to discover the practice of sending euthanized pets to the rendering plants. A rendering plant employee was quoted as saying “thousands and thousands of pounds of dogs and cats are picked up and brought here everyday”. Although many in the pet food industry deny they use euthanized animals, proof that the practice goes on continues to surface. Research done on rendering plants that sell meat to pet food companies found that the rendering plants accept everything from road kill, dead zoo animals and euthanized pets from both shelters and veterinary clinics.

The unfortunate reality is

Huge food manufacturers use pet food companies as a cheap and profitable way of disposing of the waste from their human food manufacturing plants. Here is a list of some of these companies and the pet foods they manufacture:

* Nestle: Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, Purina

* Heinz: 9 lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe

* Colgate-Palmolive: Hill’s Science Diet

* Proctor & Gamble: Iams, Eukanuba

* Mars: Kal Kan, Mealtime, Sheba, Waltman’s


First Eight Ingredients

Eukanuba Adult

Chicken, chicken-by product meal, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain barley, chicken fat, fish meal, brewers rice

Iams Chunks

Chicken, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, dried beet pulp, natural chicken flavor

Kibbles N Bits Original

Corn, soybean meal, ground wheat flour, beef and bone meal, animal fat, BHA used as preservatives, corn syrup, wheat middlings, water sufficient for processing, animal digest

Pedigree Complete Nutrition

Ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, animal fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), wheat mill run, natural poultry flavor, rice, wheat flour

Pro-Pak Adult Chunk

Chicken meal, ground yellow corn, chicken fat, rice flour, dried beet pulp, natural flavoring(unspecified), flaxseed, salt

Purina One Natural Blend

Chicken, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, brown rice, oat meal, animal fat, beet pulp, calcium phosphate

Purina Beneful Original

Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow, rice flour, beef soy flour, sugar

Purina Dog Chow Complete Formula

Ground yellow corn, poultry by-product meal, animal fat, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal digest

Science Diet Adult

Ground whole grain corn, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, animal fat, corn gluten meal, brewers rice

So what foods are used here.. Orijen.. http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/orijen/ ..
Wellness Core or Puppy http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/dog_wellness_dry_index.html ..Allergic dogs.. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/ .. These are the types we use..