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Wednesday, November 05, 1997
Rendering is a cheap viable means of disposal for euthanized pets. Pets are mixed with
other material from slaughterhouse facilities that have been condemned for human
consumption, such as rotten meat from supermarket shelves, restaurant grease and garbage.
Ann Martin,
book author
By JEAN EDWARDS STACEY
The Evening Telegram
Ann Martin loves her pets but she refuses to buy them commercial pet food.
“I haven’t bought any in seven years. There’s no way a drop of that would
come into my house,” says the London, Ontario resident.
Martin hasn’t bought any pet food since she began an investigation into what goes
into it. Her recently released book, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food (New
Sage Press, $12.95 US), is a stinging indictment of the multibillion-dollar pet food
industry.
She says the industry is virtually self-regulated and that just about anything and
everything is fair game for use in pet food.
“This includes,” she says in the introduction of her book, “condemned and
contaminated material from slaughterhouse facilities, roadkill, dead, diseased, disabled
and dying animals picked up by dead-stock removal operations; and, although the industry
vehemently denies it, euthanized companion animals. These are just the protein sources.
Grains and fats, dregs from the human food chain, are also included.”
Up to seven years ago Martin fed commercial pet food to her menagerie of cats, dogs and
rabbits. She says she did so on the advice of her veterinarian and her own assumption that
this was the best way to give her pets a complete and balanced diet.
Her concern about the safety of pet food began in 1990 when her two dogs became ill after
eating a popular brand of dog food.
She began investigating the ingredients used in commercial pet food, and was horrified
when a veterinarian in the U.S. told her it was routine practice to use pets that had been
put to sleep (euthanized) in pet food.
In early 1992, Martin set out to find what happened to euthanized pets in her hometown of
London, Ontario, as well as in the surrounding area.
She had always assumed that dead animals were buried or cremated, but after contacting a
number of veterinary clinics she learned that euthanized pets were being incinerated by a
company that was picking them up from clinics.
Classified as “collectors,” these companies, along with receiving plants,
brokers and rendering plants, are licensed by the Ministry of Agriculture in Canada.
Collectors pick up dead animals that have died or been killed, take them to receiving
plants where the animals are skinned and deboned and where saleable meat for animal or pet
food is removed. A broker sells this material. Rendering plants cook the material at
temperatures of around 250 F. The rendered material is then sold to feed mills and pet
food companies.
Martin says the grease or tallow which rises to the top and is removed during the cooking
process is the source of animal fat in most pet food.
The remaining material, the raw, which is put into a press where the moisture is squeezed
out constitutes meat and bone meal.
“Rendering is a cheap viable means of disposal for euthanized pets,” she writes.
“Pets are mixed with other material from slaughterhouse facilities that have been
condemned for human consumption, such as rotten meat from supermarket shelves, restaurant
grease and garbage.” Also included in the rendering process are dead, diseased, dying
and disabled animals, including roadkill and even zoo animals.
When she contacted the Minister of Agriculture in Quebec — where she says the biggest
rendering plants in Canada are located — she learned that pets were indeed being sent
to rendering plants.
That’s not all. Cats and dogs were being rendered with their fur on. The news got
worse. In later investigations in both Canada and the U.S. she discovered that collars,
tags, flea collars and even the plastic bags in which the pets are wrapped are not removed
before they are shoved into the rendering pit.
As well, she learned that the barbiturate sodium pentobarbital — which is used to
euthanize pets and, in some cases, livestock and horses — is not broken down in the
rendering process. This rendered material is also being used in pet food and livestock
feed.
Martin finds the idea of rendering dead pets then recycling them to be used as pet food
personally repugnant. And she admits it may not always happen. Some dead animals are
buried and some are cremated.
In Newfoundland, there is a rendering plant in Foxtrap but an employee at Rothsay, a
member of Maple Leaf Incorporated, says no domestic animals are rendered there. The
facility does render roadkill, as well as chickens and pigs, and the resulting rendered
material is used in livestock feed.
Provincial veterinarian Hugh Whitney says as far as he knows all pets in this province are
either buried, cremated or disposed of in an incinerator located in Holyrood.
Rendering cats and dogs, however, is legal in Canada and the U.S. and millions of pets are
disposed of in this method each year.
In the city of Los Angeles, 200 tonnes of euthanized cats and dogs are sent to rendering
plants every month. In Canada, Martin says one rendering plant in Quebec is rendering 11
tons of dogs and cats per week.
Martin is very concerned about what’s in pet food and worried about the lack of
regulation in the industry.
In the rendering process, she says, no testing is conducted to detect drugs, pathogens,
heavy metals or pesticides. As well, she says there are now serious concerns that pets are
at risk of dying from “mad cow” disease and various forms of cancer from eating
rendered foods. Martin says most commercial pet food is “garbage.”
“Unequivocally, I cannot state that all pet food falls into this category, but I have
yet to find one that I could, in all good conscience, feed my dog or cats.”
No animals should be fed food made from rendered material says Martin.
“Don’t feed it to your pets or livestock. Use it as fertilizer,” she
advises.
If you’re a pet owner who is eating a healthy, balanced diet, Martin says,
there’s no reason you shouldn’t feed your pet leftovers.
However veterinarians such as Colleen Simms of St. John’s disagree with feeding pets
“people food.” Simms says pets need food designed for them.
But Martin insists, “If you can eat it, they can eat it.”
She adds you should avoid feeding your pet junk food, highly spiced food or chocolate. She
says there’s an ingredient in chocolate that can kill dogs and cats.
If you want to buy commercial pet food, Martin recommends buying it from small companies
who make their own using human grade materials. If that’s not possible make your own
or, as a last resort, supplement commercial pet food with fresh ingredients.
Neither Canada or the U.S. have regulations about what can or can’t be used in pet
food. There are labelling specifications, but nowhere is there a requirement that exact
product ingredients be listed on a label.
What happens in the U.S. is important to Canadian consumers because, says Martin, 95 per
cent of the pet food sold here comes from the U.S.
In Canada, the only government regulation of pet food falls under the Labelling Act.
Consumer and Corporate Affairs requires labels appear in both official languages, include
the produce name, the net weight and the manufacturer’s/distributor’s place of
business. All other information is voluntary.
Two voluntary organizations, the Pet Food Association of Canada (PFAC) and the Canadian
Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) do keep an eye on the pet food made in Canada by
setting voluntary guidelines.
Ever since 1976, the CVMA’s Pet Food Certification Program has been independently
evaluating products submitted by participating pet food companies. Products are tested for
composition, digestibility and taste. Those that meet the nutritional requirements are
given the CVMA seal of certification. The CVMA seal now appears on more than 240 pet food
products. Suzanne Lavictoire, manager of the CVMA pet food program, says the organization
establishes nutritional standards based on voluntary information given by participating
pet food manufacturers.
“We’re an independent third party there to test and monitor submitted pet food
on an ongoing basis,” says Lavictoire. She adds that participating manufacturers are
required to sign an affidavit affirming, among other things, that they haven’t used
products containing rendered dogs or cats.
Ann Martin doesn’t think that’s enough.
Martin, author of a new book called Food Pets Die For, says none of the large
multinational companies are involved in these voluntary programs in Canada.
And, what’s more, she says there’s no testing to ascertain sources of protein,
carbohydrates or fats. Nor is there testing for levels of pathogens, drugs, pesticides or
heavy metal. She’d like to see government regulations making it mandatory for
manufacturers to list all ingredients used in pet food. She wants to see truth in
advertising.
“As consumers,” she says, “we have the right to know what we are getting
for our loyalty, and most importantly, exactly what is in the food we are feeding our
pets.”
Jordemm