Pet Food discussions...the first of many I am sure!

I think Marion Nestle coined it best when she titled her book “Pet Food Politics”.   Just like regular politics, a discussion on pet food will often turn heated with both sides tossing swear words back and forth and each trying to “out reference” the other with citations from a variety of journals.  Then, toss in a couple hundred anecdotal stories per side and you end up with a very messy and volatile debate.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time debating the merits of “BARF” diets vs. commercial diets or what brand of food offers the best nutrition because honestly, I think that choice is best left up to the individual owner and their pet.   The “best” dog food in the world won’t help a dog who doesn’t accept it and there are many dogs eating a variety of foods who are healthy, sound and will remain so on their respective diets.

One thing that many people forget about as they strive to bash one food over another is that many of the “big” pet food companies were instrumental in helping us understand how important pet food nutrition is to the health of our furry friends.  One has only to read the story of Dr. Mark Morris and his dedication to finding a food for the seeing-eye dog “Buddy” to appreciate how much companies like Hill’s, Iams and Purina have helped.  Our pets are living longer because of the dedication these companies have had to providing a better level of nutrition.

Is our system perfect?  No...there are lots of things that need to be fixed and reworked.  But, I don't think anyone can deny that the majority of pets in this country eat a product that is safe, balanced and provides them with everything they need to live long and healthy lives.  Some of them could eat a better brand, but that's a whole different topic!

I feed premium commercial diets to my pets and will likely do so into the foreseeable future.  I don’t criticize people who feed raw or “BARF type of diets, but I also try to warn pet owners of potential dangers of preparing foods at home.  The only things that will get me up on a soapbox is when individuals spout incorrect information about foods or when people try to equate the “bargain brands” of pet food with premium diets.

I do want to clear up a few fallacies that I have run across in my many years of working within the pet industry and the veterinary industry.  I thought posting one or two of these in each blog would offer us plenty of discussion material for a lengthy time!  

A reader commented that they wanted to know about the rumor of euthanized pets being used as pet food.

Without hesitation I can say that this rumor is false.  The whole rumor started in the 1990s when the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) received reports of pentobarbital, a drug commonly used for anesthetizing and euthanizing animals, losing its effectiveness as an anesthetic agent.  The theory was that dogs were being exposed to pentobarbital in food and the exposure made them less responsive to the drug.  After designing a sophisticated study to detect minute quantities of the drug, CVM determined that the amounts found in pet foods were too low to cause any problems for pets.  Furthermore, and this is the key point, the CVM developed a test to look for DNA of dogs and cats in the protein of the food.  There found a complete absence of dog and cat DNA and concluded that the pentobarbital came from euthanized horses or cattle.  The test was sensitive enough to find 5 lbs of remains in 50 tons of finished food!  

So, I hope that puts this urban legend to rest.  This is one that I never truly understood because any company crass enough to do this would find themselves in a public relations nightmare!  But, like so many things on the Internet, people start believing it and, just like a virus, it spreads and infects others.


So...tell me, what other pet food rumors are you interested in learning about?