Reviews for Food Pets Die for: Shocking Facts About Pet Food

The average rating for Food Pets Die for: Shocking Facts About Pet Food based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-02-04 00:00:00 Omar Harbi Shocking information about the pet food industry in the United States. There are periodic mentions of other pet food manufacturing processes, to include: United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Japan, but for the most part this book dealt with the United States. Who regulates the Pet Food Industry in the U.S.? Basically, the pet food industry has been left to regulate themselves. There is not a single organization that oversees this billion dollar business. And NO ONE regulates what goes into pet food. Period. There are some regulations for labeling, but many have figured ways around the "ingredients." "Splitting" is used by some to hide the fact that their product contains a lot of corn. Manufacturers will use different terms for the same product to get out of showing a product, corn for instance, is the highest ingredient. Manufacturers will put corn-meal, and other names for corn throughout the ingredients...tricky and deceptive. I was horrified to read that euthanized pets, road kill, diseased farm animals, dead zoo animals, etc are sent to "rendering" plants and processed for pet food. Collars, tags, flea collars, plastic bags and all. I thought they were sent to land fills. Nope. Turns out that euthanized animals contain the barbituate pentobarbital and if the animal is not buried very deep or cremated any animals (birds, etc) will die eating them. A story of a man that buried his pet 10' in the ground was later dug up by a mamma bear and her two cubs. They were found dead and tests said pentobarbital poisoning. Veterinarians have started conducting their own studies as to why pentobarbital is not working like is used to. What they learned was pets are eating this product in small doses are becoming resistant to it. Per the author of this book, many pet food manufacturers deny using euthanized dogs and cats in pet food; however, undercover agents have learned this is not true. When some were finally forced to prove their ingredients did not contain dog or cat DNA it could not be proved because when cooked at 275 DNA is lost. But, evidence of pentobarbital was there and it came from euthanized animals. Currently, most of the large manufacturers no longer deny they have no dogs or cats in their products but state they make every effort not to. Except people are still tracking large trucks of pet bodies all the way to rendering plants that are usually located very near large pet food plants. Trucks are seen leaving rendering plants to pet food plants on a regular basis. Also, diseased cows and other animals with liver disease, etc are slaughtered for pet food. Shavings from chicken pens, feces from chickens--including pine shavings--hogs, cows and other animals are used for pet food. Manufacturers also add--massive quantities--of synthetic vitamins. They tend to overspread it and if not mixed well one batch can contain harmful amounts of synthetic Vit K (which is a known cancer causing ingredient) or D, or zinc that can kill or make pets very sick. The March 2007 pet massive pet food recall was a big eye-opener for me. I remember when the news first announced a problem with one brand, then another, then another: turned out to be 195 brands. Why? Because they all got a portion of their contents from the same place. Whether it was Science Diet or Ole Roy, the basic ingredients were the same, just the packaging and price varied. A private lab ran tests to find out what was in the food that the pet food companies continued to state they didn't know. What was found: rat poison. Most veterinarians are not trained in pet nutrition and are just as guilty as some of our medical doctors of learning about drugs from the very companies that sell them. Veterinarians and veterinarian schools are "bought" into promoting high-cost "healthy" pet foods that are no more healthy than the cheapest dog food at the local discount store. A few veterinarians are trained in pet nutrition. They've had to seek this training OUTSIDE of vet school, though. Right now the large pet food manufacturers are buying their way into veterinarian offices by sponsoring veterinary schools, etc. I was horrified to read the animal research that many of the major pet food manufacturers conduct--in secret--on animals all in the name of pet food. No way! Proctor and Gamble are one of the worst. Undercover agents found horrific evidence that just made me sick. The author explains how the pet food industry turns its wheels to produce pet food. She provides where she got her information and when companies did not respond to her. She has had to invoke the Freedom of Information Act on many--repeatedly--to receive evasive responses in over a year's time or none at all. The large pet food manufacturers have refused to allow people inside their plants stating "trade secrets." The author does list several organic pet food companies that she considers to be okay--for now. For now? Because these companies change ownership quickly. One that may be okay now, may get bought by Hills or another and keep the same label. Be aware. She recommends contacting a manufacturer of organic pet food and asking them: 1) Do you manufacture all your product in your plant? This is crucial because most of the large scale pet food manufacturers import ingredients from CHINA and then that ingredients doesn't have to be included on the package. She includes a few website to subscribe to for updates, recalls, etc. 2) Do you experiment on animals? The author stresses that the best pet food for our pets is our food. She includes a list of foods and suggested feeding times and a list of foods NOT to feed animals: grapes, raisins, chocolate, avocados, etc. Basically, if we eat healthy food, our pets can most likely eat it too. The author gives her pets a bowl of oatmeal in the morning with small amount of fruit or cooked meat. She doesn't recommend giving pork to dogs because it causes stomach upset. She recommends cooking all meat because it decreases bacteria even though kills some of the good protein pets need. She feeds her pets cut-up apple chunks, celery, etc for snacks. There are several recipes for dogs and cats in the back that are very simple. Dog cookies, etc. She repeats information in the book--a lot--but I assume it is for people not reading the entire book, but chapters here and there. For the most part, she says pet food manufacturing launched a large scare campaign to scare us into NOT feeding our pets human food. NOT TRUE. Dogs were actually meant to live into their 20's. Yet because of their diets, they rarely come close to that.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-01-17 00:00:00 Joseph Cullen Ann N. Martin exposes a number of problems that she has uncovered in the pet food industry. She gathered information by making a number of calls and collecting "facts". The problem with her conclusions, however, is that they are circumstantial. For example,a phone call that is not returned, does not mean that there are unsavory practices going on, simply that heads of companies do not necessarily have the time to indulge a conspiracy theorist. Martin makes many claims about certain ingredients contained in foods which simply do not occur. One argument says that rendered pets (collars included) are used in pet foods. According to regulations, this practice is not allowed - all ingredients have specific definitions when listed on the ingredient panels (and that definition includes what components can and cannot be a part of that description). Because of these regulations, a number of the situations she describes simply cannot occur. Another complaint of Martin's is the use of pets in studies and experiments. While these practices may seem unsavory, the fact is, it is necessary. Controlled experiments are the only way that scientists and nutritionists can gain information on nutrient requirements for dogs and cats. Without these studies, we would not know how to properly formulated foods for them, which may help others live long healthy lives. Throughout experiments animals are treated humanely, their needs are taken care of, they have regular veterinary care, and tests avoid pain and discomfort to the animal. All of these points are forgotten or ignored in her book. Martin does include in her book useful information about nutrients and how they contribute to the overall health of the pet. She also includes several recipes that an owner can prepare for his or her pet; however, there is no information about the nutrient component of the foods. There is no evidence that any of the recipes were formulated by a veterinary nutritionist; and, many of them are deficient in nutrients needed by pets. Martin herself, is simply known for her distaste of commercial pet foods. While she is a known writer on the topic, her background, at least from the "About the Author" section of her book does not include any formal training in the area of nutrition, let alone pet nutrition. She has a B.A. in business, not even in biology, biochemistry, microbiology, or any other scientific area that may pertain to pets or pet industry.