Puppies in Dog Food

There's a story that appeared on Good Morning America today, about a puppy, dropped off with his littermates outside an Oklahoma shelter, who survived euthanization.  The puppy is sure to find a good home now, though that doesn't help his dead siblings.  I won't get into all of the other issues that this story brings up, but I was initially struck by one thing, and I wanted to talk about.

When I first heard the story, my initial reaction was, "All the rest of those puppies died, and now they'll become dog food."  Because that's what happens all too often to euthanized pets.  Read this article from the FDA back in 2002.  While they state that dogs and cats would suffer "no adverse affects" from sodium pentobarbital (a euthanasia drug) in pet foods, I think it misses the bigger picture.  Why are euthanized cats and dogs in pet food at all?  Why are we feeding our pets rendered food?  The pet food industry denies that dogs and cats are used in rendered products, but that begs the question of how the sodium pentobarbital ends up in the food in the first place.  And when a big batch of rendered crud is delivered to the food processing plant, how are the manufacturers to know what's really in it? 

Over the weekend, at the dog show, Jim spoke with a pet parent whose husband is a trucker and has hauled shipments of euthanized animals to rendering plants.  Needless to say, this woman avoids pet foods without human-grade ingredients.  And everyone else should too.

I prefer raw, but I do feed processed foods to my animals as well.  Raw isn't for everyone, but I firmly believe no one should be buying products with rendered ingredients.  If only we could spread the message and inform everyone we know, maybe more pet parents would feed healthier, safer foods.