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What goes in pet food and animal feed

Posted by IsoM on January 21, 2003, at 17:33:38

Rather than something light hearted, I'm including a somewhat editted article I gathered. I editted for brevity, not to bias what's written. Here it is below. It's pretty sickening. I know many will already be aware of this but thought some would be interested. Just remember ladies, the next time you put on lipstick what's in it. And the next time we light a candle or wash our hands.
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ANIMAL WASTE AS FOOD MEAL

"As the American Journal of Veterinary Research explains, this recycled meat and bone meal is used as a source of protein and other nutrients in the diets of poultry and swine and in pet foods, with lesser amounts used in the feed of cattle and sheep. Animal fat is also used in animal feeds as an energy source." Every day, hundreds of rendering plants across the United States truck millions of tons of this "food enhancer" to poultry ranches, cattle feed-lots, dairy and hog farms, fish-feed plants, and pet-food manufacturers where it ‘s mixed with other ingredients to feed the billions of animals that meat-eating humans, in turn, will eat.

"Rendering plants have different specialties. The labeling designation of a particular "run" of product is defined by the predominance of a specific animal. Some product-label names are: meat meal, meat by-products, poultry meal, poultry by-products, fish meal, fish oil, yellow grease, tallow, beef fat and chicken fat. (My Note: This means that something labeled chicken by-product could also have pets, road kill, etc if the main ingredients were chickens.)

"The dead animals (termed the ‘raw’) are accompanied by a whole menu of unwanted ingredients. Because animals are frequently shoved into the grinding pit with flea collars still attached, then organophosphate-containing insecticides get into the mix as well. The insecticide Dursban (My Note: It’s banned in Canada, but I don’t know if it is in the States) arrives in the form of cattle insecticide patches. Pharmaceuticals leak from antibiotics in livestock,various drugs given to animals that didn’t recover from their illness, and euthanasia drugs given to pets are also included. Heavy metals accumulate from a variety of sources: pet ID tags, surgical pins and needles.

Plastic winds up going into the pit. Unsold supermarket meats, chicken, and fish arrive in Styrofoam trays and plastic shrink-wrap. No one has time for the tedious chore of unwrapping thousands of rejected meat-packs. More plastic goes into the pits with the arrival of cattle ID tags, plastic insecticide patches and the green plastic bags containing dead pets from veterinarians. Skyrocketing labor costs are one of the economic factors forcing the corporate flesh-peddlers to cheat. It is far too costly for plant personnel to cut off flea collars or unwrap spoiled T-bone steaks. Every week, millions of packages of plastic-wrapped meat go through the rendering process and become one of the unwanted ingredients in animal feed.”

A March 1997 New York Times News Service report defines rendering as “the seldom-discussed practice of boiling down and making feed meal and other products out of slaughterhouse and restaurant scraps, dead farm animals, road kill and -- distasteful as it may seem -- cats and dogs euthanized in some animal shelters and veterinarian practices.”

“Renderers in the United States pick up 100 million pounds of waste material every day -- a witch's brew of feet, heads, stomachs, intestines, hooves, spinal cords, tails, grease, feathers and bones. One half of every cow, butchered and one third of every pig are not consumed by humans. An estimated 6,000,000 - 7,000,000 dogs and cats are killed in animal shelters each year, said Jeff Frace, a spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City. Many of them will go to rendering plants and not incinerators.

“For example, the city of Los Angeles sends 200 tons of euthanized cats and dogs to West Coast Rendering, in Los Angeles, every month, according to Chuck Ellis, a spokesman for Los Angeles Sanitation Department. Pet food companies try not to buy meat and bone meal from renderers who grind up cats and dogs, said Doug Anderson, president of Darling International Inc., a large rendering company in Dallas. ‘We do not accept companion animals,’ he said. ‘But there are still a number of smaller plants that render anything.’

“At least 250 rendering plants operate in the United States, said Bruce Blanton, executive director of the 130-member National Renderers Association in Alexandria, Va. While there are still a few small operations on the outskirts of some cities, he said, modern rendering plants are large and centralized, and the industry's revenues amount to $2.4 billion a year.

“After trucks deliver the wastes to the plants, it’s ground to a mash. Then the material is minced further, fed into a vessel where it is steam-cooked to 250 degrees or more, and then the stew is cooked for 20 to 90 minutes, Blanton said. In the resulting mash, heavier material drops to the bottom and the lighter stuff floats to the top. Fat is siphoned off the top, filtered and sent through centrifuges to further refine it, Blanton said. Chemical manufacturers turn much of it into fatty acids for lubricants, lipstick, cement, polish, inks and waxes. Other fractions, including gelatinous layers, tallow and grease, go into thousands of products, including soaps, candles, pharmaceuticals, homeopathic medicines and gummy candies. The heavier protein material on the bottom goes through a separate process, Blanton said. It is dried, squeezed to remove more fat and dried again. The resulting powder is the major ingredient in pet and animal feed. It is a cannibalistic practice that has proved highly profitable.” (My Note: This is the source of gelatin. Gelatin is used to make capsules for supplements and meds; for Jell-o, and for a host of other human food products.)


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poster:IsoM thread:35640
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030120/msgs/35640.html