Beaks, Brains Found In Pet Food

[The Straight Story]

Beaks, Brains Found In Pet Food

POSTED: 11:44 pm EDT October 16, 2006

Dog owners who make sure their pets eat right and exercise may be unknowingly feeding their pets ground animal parts, including crushed bird beaks and brains, and possibly making them sick, according to a Local 6 News investigation.

The report said that the government agency that oversees pet food sold to the public -- the Food and Drug Administration -- said it is perfectly legal to include animal parts in pets' diets.

"It could be anything from heads, feet, intestines and undigested eggs," veterinary nutritionist Dr. Edward Moser said.

"Experts admit the labels (on pet foods) are not that graphic," Local 6's Mike Holfeld said. "The companies use terms like animal or poultry byproducts and not brains or crushed beaks."

Central Floridian John Pavano said he was not aware he was buying pet food with the animal parts in it for his dogs.

http://www.local6.com/news/10091600/detail.html

[MadMaddie]

1. The FDA

Fucked
Dinner
for America....

[amitten]

2. Well, I saw my cat devour a bird once...

"Picky" is not an accurate description...

(yeah, he ate pretty much everything) :puke:

[elehhhhna]

19. Our Elkhound, Jakey, ate live bunnies and a crow once...

feathers or fluff all over the yard the next day, every time. Euwwww.

[The Stranger]

39. Somehow, I think this is different.

Thanks anyway.

[Eurobabe]

3. FDA is why I buy only organic food for my cats

[wicket]

14. What kind do you buy?

Time to switch food for my kitties!

[magellan]

4. We don't buy any dog food that contains byproducts

Ever since I learned what that means our dogs have been off it and eat only Wellness brand natural foods. They're partial to the turkey and sweet potato blend. :)

[otohara]

37. Begone to Byproducts

I hear ya! The thought of my kitty eating byproducts is unthinkable.

[Infinite Hope]

5. So what? lol

"Dog owners...may be unknowingly feeding their pets ground animal parts"

And do hamburger eaters unknowingly feed themselves ground animal parts too? Duh! lol. I'm not trying to be mean, but I thought this as was common of knowledge as hot dogs being made from beef/poultry parts including the intestines and tongues.

[Jed Dilligan]

17. Beef tongue is good!

Tacos de lengua... yum!

[LeftyMom]

6. Roadkill, euthanized pets...

Beaks are not the nastiest thing in grocery store dog food, by far.

[tuvor]

7. Feed 'em raw meat, fruit and veggies, just like their wolf-brothers get.

That's what we feed our two dogs, as do most of our friends, and we'd never go back. Their coats are great, their energy's great, their teeth are great, our vet bills couldn't be much lower, and the food is affordable. (About $100 Canadian per month for a pug and a Lab.)

Oh! And no beaks or brains whatsoever.

Lots of info on the web if you're interested. Do your research, and don't take your vet's word at face value. (There's a lot of great vets out there--we happen to have one--but they've also got a vested interest in selling "special" kibble, thanks to nutrition courses taught by the people who just happen to MAKE that special kibble.)

[HamdenRice]

21. I agree and disagree

I understand what you are getting at -- that a natural diet is better than commercial dog food.

But you have to be careful comparing wolves' to dogs' diets. Dogs actually evolved to eat human garbage, not to hunt and kill. That's what made them branch off from wolves. They evolved as "camp cleaners" for human hunter-gatherers.

Hence, dogs are not able to digest raw meat nor rotten carcases
as safely as wolves.

And if you are going to suggest that dogs should eat more like wolves, than that would mean feeding dogs so called byproducts, became the part of the animal that all wild carnivores like most are organs, not what people like, muscle.

This suggests that the best diet for dogs is cooked organ meat, veggies and grains -- basically, table scraps supplemented by organ meats.

[tuvor]

26. Dogs are genetically the same as wolves.

"....Breeds of dogs can not be distinguished from each other by any known anatomical attribute or even biochemical genetic test, including DNA fingerprinting. Since a given breed of dog can not be defined by any scientific means currently known, our contention is that it is not possible to write any ordinance or law that would single them out for special treatment since they cannot be so defined in a legal sense. "Recently I attended a canine genetics workshop at Texas A & M University in which it was further emphasized that there is no biochemical genetic test that can even distinguish wolves from domestic dogs. "....I would taxonomically identify all wolves, wolf hybrids and domestic dogs as the species Canis lupus. Technically, the domestic dog and wolf hybrids should be designated as the sub-species "domesticus". I. Lehr Brisbin, Jr., Research Professor, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, The University of Georgia. Letter, 30, Jan. 1990

Google "BARF" and "raw food" if you're really interested.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=barf+%22raw+food%22&btnG=Search

(Edited to add the quote, and that we feed them organ meat, too, but raw, not cooked.)

[HamdenRice]

30. Dogs are not "genetically the same" as wolves

In fact, my dog is not genetically the same as your dog -- unless they are genetic twins or clones. So dogs and wolves are not genetically the same. If they were the same, their instinctive behaviors would be the same (and they aren't), and they would look the same (the don't).

The question is whether they are the same genetic species or population.

The scientific consensus is that dogs descended from wolves. When you talk genetics and populations as closely related as dogs and wolves there are really two questions: are the two populations genetically similar enough to mate and have fertile offspring? And what is the ratio of the statistical variance within the population compared to the variance between the populations. They can have fertile offspring, but there is disagreement about the variance between the populations.

But that is not the question -- it is what diet dogs as a population or species evolved to eat. Dogs are just not very effective hunters, unlike wolves. Look around you, around the world. There are hundreds of millions of dogs and the vast, vast majority of successful dog populations are basically parasites on humans, not hunters and eaters of raw prey.

Over the ten thousand years or so that dogs have been with us, successful dogs have been selected to eat human food leftovers, which is diverse. It takes only a few generations for a population to be selected for diet. I have a friend who is a nutritionist who studies how Native Americans have problems with diabetes because over many thousands of years they have self selected to eat maize in a feast and famine food cycle; Inuits have adapted to eat high fat and high protein; Italians and Greeks self adapted to eat the Mediterranean diet; and northern europeans to eat bread and beer; and so on. Innuits, Italians, and Native Americans are all obviously human, but they do better on different diets. Same with dogs versus wolves, whether they are the same species or not.

I looked at the web site and it has a blatant scientific falsehood on its front page: "not one animal on earth is adapted by evolution to eat a cooked food diet." That's just not true. People have been eating cooked food since before we were truly human. We evolved to eat cooked food. Try living on raw hard rice, raw hard beans, and raw meat. You wouldn't last a month. We don't even have the neanderthal teeth and jaw muscles to grind raw plant food anymore.

The idea that people should only eat raw food means that the 6 billion of us who eat cooked food have miraculously chosen to eat the wrong choice of food. By contrast, I believe that people are pretty good at chosing what is right for them.

Same with dogs -- 10,000 years of eating mostly cooked human leftovers makes them well suited to that diet.

[tuvor]

42. Not smart enough to discuss genetics, have to take the pragmatic approach.

I can name ten dogs in my small circle of friends who eat only raw fruit, vegetables, meat and bones. All have great coats, really good health, and lower vet bills compared to dogs we've fed kibble to.

Not sure what website you looked at on the list I linked to, but there's bound to be bad information in there as well as good, like anything other Google list. I've made my informed decisions, and I'm glad that you've made yours.

Cheers.

[HamdenRice]

44. Not disagreeing

I'm not disagreeing that this diet may be good for the dogs; just that there's not a real good genetic or evolutionary explanation for it.

But if it works, great for your dog!

[Seedersandleechers]

41. I agree with you. My cats have never eaten commercial food.

They primarily eat whole ground rabbit with the fur, and deer. Cats are 100% carnivorous, they haven't any business eating food that has corn, rice or any other type of grain. I don't have to worry about brushing their teeth because they don't eat carbs.

[tuvor]

43. My 4-year-old SPCA rescue lab's teeth got clean through raw bone.

Our vet suggested a dental cleaning worth about $200 when we first got him. A few weeks later after a raw diet, he was floored to see that his eating raw bones rendered any teeth-cleaning totally unnecessary.

Glad to hear you're having similar experiences.

[shawcomm]

8. Geez, don't tell this guy what is in his hotdogs...

What did he think pet food was made of, filet mignon?

[trekbiker]

9. have you seen some of the shit dogs eat??? literally... nt

[uppityperson]

10. We have a local small petfood store that sells human food grade food

they are very picky about what they sell, yes it is more expensive but my allergic pets are staying healthy eating decent dried pet food. Innova, Pinnacle, California Naturals, all have been decent with decent meat products.

[symbolman]

11. Nothing the farm dogs loved better

when it came to chicken rendering day, than to run over to the pile of chicken heads we'd just removed, as the chickens still ran the yard squirting blood from the tops of their necks, the heads would still be trying to cluck and you could see that they were still "in there", and the dogs would gobble it all down.

It's what they do. They have those teeth for a reason, and those intestines that don't puncture from chewing up bones.

I'd be more worried about potential Prion infections, rather know where these animals "byproducts" CAME FROM.

Here's a fun fact for you artists out there. When you buy BLACK oil paint, do you know where the black comes from? I found out in college. The Burnt Bones of Puppies. Cute, eh? They only gas and burn hundreds of thousands all over the US and the world almost weekly.

Made me sick, almost quit painting over that.. the tube actually mentions Animal Byproducts on it.

[HamdenRice]

23. Every American really needs to spend time on a farm!

I appreciate your recollection. Most Americans have lost touch with where food comes from and what has to be done to put it on the table.

I remember my grandmother and step grandfather slaughtering chickens. You lose your empathy for a creature so dumb that it's behavior without a head is just a little dumber than its behavior with a head!

But having slaughtered animals myself, it makes me eat much less meat.

[symbolman]

34. It's a little different

when you get to raise an animal and then look it in the eye and kill it to stay alive yourself. I hate that we live in a Vampire style universe where everything has to drain another being for energy..

I spent 10 years in Alaska as well, and that was an eye opener. I won't go into details here as some folks are prone to queasiness (and that's understandable), but while you get used to it, you still try to keep it to a dull roar, and responsibiity kicks in, like the old, "Don't kil it if you ain't gonna eat it."

And you kill as cleanly as possible to, practice so that the animals won't know what hit them.

Time on a farm would be good for all, if you've ever heard a pig scream like a little girl you might not look so fondly on the bacon next to the eggs.

We have killers do it for us, and all we get is a nice sanitized chunk of non guilt wrapped in plastic.

I still eat meat, but I respect it, like the Natives in Alaska who THANK the seal for giving it's life so that they may live, always thought that was the most beautiful prayer of all and I went to Catholic school..

Yeah, chickens ain't all that much smarter with the head on or off, I remember that, but I will never forget the blood, and that is what ties us ALL together, the same fluid runs in all of us, and our little DNA brothers and sisters :)

Or "Fur Persons" as my sister calls them :)

[KittyWampus]

32. Symbolman, you really can turn a phrase and write well.

And I agree with HamdenRice's post below about every person spending some time on a farm at some point in their life. To learn and understand what their food is, how it's grown and reaped.

Also think every American should take a half year in a television public access... so they learn the what, how and why of that medium since it's so prevalent and powerful to our society.

[symbolman]

35. Yep

It changes you, even if you only see one chicken rendered in your life, you'll have a whole new respect for all animals, who give their lives so we can live, gotta respect that..

Thanks for the writing compliment, am writing a book right now that has Hollywood interest before it's even finished :)

It's going to be a rough and tumble Alaskan bush adventure in Helicopters looking for Uranium, except the protaganist then comes to grips with the LIFE in the Bush and has an epiphany, I know a lot of people that will love this, been working on it for 5 years now, about two or three months from finishing it.. I'll announce it here when it's done, and hopefully they'll make a movie of it :) with any luck I can help save the ANWR which I loved so much living in the Bush for two summers..

Yeah, I know a little bit about animals :) Thanks

[windbreeze]

33. OMG....did you have to tell me that???

now I am going to have to check the tubes....
windbreeze

[symbolman]

36. I'm sorry

I forget that some folks haven't had some of these experiences, and while it's not gross to a farmer or kid from a farm, others are used to getting their meat from "the store" neatly packaged, sanitized for Guilt Protection....

I didn't mean to clog the tubes :)

[Maine-ah]

12. uh, what did people think

"animal byproducts" were? um, duh.

we don't use commercial food. only all natural for our beasts, and once we switched we noticed a huge difference in their coats, energy levels (especially in our older dog), and also in the size of their bowel movements, they got smaller.

[ck4829]

13. Prions?

We'll probably see Mad Dog Disease in the near future if using 'animal byproducts' isn't stopped.

[Vinca]

15. At 50 cents a tiny can, there better not be beaks in my cat's food! nt

[StellaBlue]

16. surprise, surprise

It's probably in most processed and fast food for human consumption, too.

Another reason I am vegetarian.

[Holly_Hobby]

18. Dogs like brains and chicken feet for treats

I feed raw meaty bones, brains, pancreas, liver, heart, raw eggs still in the shell, and I buy dried chicken feet for a crunchy treat. Heck, my Polish grandfather scrambled pig brains with his eggs every morning.

Dogs are intended to eat raw. Kibble is at least 40% grain, to keep the mix together long enough to dry. Wolves don't eat grains. They eat a few berries and fruits now and then, mostly for medicinal properties. Dogs don't have the necessary enzymes to digest plant material, they have a very short digestive system. All fruits and veggies given to dogs should be shredded or steamed. I don't give my dogs any plant material. They eat a little grass, and they have access to a big garden and lots of plants, but they don't touch them. They stopped begging for people food once they got raw food.

Kibble takes 12 hours to digest, raw meat a little over 4 hours.

[HamdenRice]

25. Not sure this is right

As I wrote in a post above, while wolves are highly evolved predators, dogs evolved as "camp followers" to human hunter gatherers, and basically evolved to eat human garbage, which included cooked meats and vegetables.

As for vegetable matter, wolves and even feline predators, fight over and eat first the stomach contents of prey so that they can get the partially digested plant material, so vegetables in some form are part of their diets.

[Holly_Hobby]

31. Look at the difference in teeth

The subject of eating stomach contents is hotly debated. Personally, I don't feed vegetable matter because they have carnivore teeth and not omnimore teeth, which are flatter. I have 4 Collies, one of which is 17 years old and has no health problems, not even arthritis. I've been feeding him raw for over 12 years without problem. I have his stool and bloodwork checked often, and all are normal, to the shock of my vet. Before raw, he had one anal sac infection after another, until the vet recommended removing the glands, which would possibly make it difficult for him to hold his stool. I said no thanks and started feeding him raw. The problem left, never to return. Don't get me wrong, he's slowed down, but can still run with the pups and he's the alpha.

My dogs have no interest in plant material, so I don't feed it. Also, I had a dog many years ago that developed pancreatitis from grazing too many carrots in the veggie garden. Once he was back on track and went back to eating carrots, the pancreatitis returned. We kept him out of the garden for the rest of his life and it didn't come back. He was an 85 lb. Belgian Groenendahl that lived to be 18. He was killed by a hunter illegally on my property and not of any illness. He was fed table scraps, raw eggs and a can of KenLRation. I firmly believe plant material needs to be shredded or steamed, and not fed every day.

I'm relating my 12 years of experience with raw. None of my dogs have any health problems whatsoever. When I got the other 3 as pups, I immediately fed them raw. They chewed on meaty bones and left my furniture and shoes alone. :) They also don't chew on sticks.

If you want your dog to have ruminant stomach contents, feed him green tripe. IMHO

Edited to add

[Retrograde]

45. I like chicken feet too!

Especially prepared the Cantonese fashion. Duck feet I'm not so crazy about. Haven't had brains since BCE came out, but they're not bad.

Seriously, what do people think carnivores eat in the wild? They do get some vegetable matter, but mostly IIRC from the stomach contents of their kill (or like my cats, nibbling grass so they can throw up later). Raw muscle meat alone is not suffiecient for some carnivores, since they need the nutrients found in organs. The ideal cat food would be puree of raw mouse, but marketing that is a challenge.

[MindPilot]

20. Finally there is some actual meat in the food!!

dogs are carrion eaters -- they've survived for millennia on dead animal parts particularly the partially decomposed stuff with real high bacterial counts. Their digestive systems require lots of bacteria to work right. Most of the pet foods these days are made from from grain, which dogs really have no nutritional use for, and what little meat there is has much of the nutrients processed out. Feed your dog raw meat, fruits and vegetables, and they will be a lot healthier than on the processed stuff.

[LongTomH]

22. Eyeballs and Assholes!

At least, that's how a friend characterized the stuff that goes into cold cuts. Looks like dog food is something similar.:puke:

[ReverendDeuce]

24. I believe the phrase is "lips and assholes"...

From some movie whose title escapes me...

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. "Everything but the oink" is another descriptive phrase.

Mmmmm.

[sinkingfeeling]

28. This practice of 'animal by-products' in domestic dog/cat food is

a likely source of the spread of disease. Dogs with significant health problems are on the increase.

[LTR]

29. My dog used to eat out of the cat's litter box

I really don't think he'd care what was in his Iams.

[flvegan]

38. Reason #2 that all our dogs are vegetarian.

Too many folks think that the "meat" in dog food is the same as the pretty raw meat sold in the grocery all nicely wrapped up. If only. Nope, nothing more than the slaughterhouse scrapings that they can't feed to people, along with roadkill, euthanized shelter dogs and cats, downer cows...

Not my animals. No thanks.

[kestrel91316]

40. Dear Mr. Pavano: If the only animal flesh your dogs get is

muscle meat, they are headed straight down the road to NUTRITIONAL SECONDARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM. By including all those "icky" pieces-parts, the pet food companies are rounding out the food's nutritional profile.

Pure muscle meat = unbalanced nutrition
All the animal's parts together = balanced nutrition

This is what happens when neither biology nor nutrition are taught in schools anymore. I bet this guy would have an attack of the vapors if he found out where milk and eggs came from.