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We’ve all seen it on TV and printed in magazines. Advertisements for commercially manufactured, highly processed cans and bags of unhealthy pet food.
Such ads have become a fixture in our media, an integral aspect of our culture for decades. They always seem to depict the happiest, most contented people, along with the healthiest looking, most beautiful, vibrant, clear-eyed, glossy coated, friendly, lovable and adorable cats and dogs imaginable.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
These advertisements, while seemingly innocuous, are actually extremely sophisticated in terms of the ways in which they’re designed to appeal very powerfully to our subconscious nature, so as to coerce us into purchasing the products they’re pushing.
They often anthropomorphize animals, causing us to identify with our pets even more closely than we already do. The ads sometimes also strive to convince us that the kinds of foods that are appealing to and/or perhaps healthy for us are also good for our animal friends to eat.
The Ploy of “Delicious” Pet Food
Many pet food ads also make a big point of focusing on how delectable their products are, driving home the point of how much our pets absolutely love and crave the taste of them. Since these ads are obviously not meant for the animals themselves to watch, it’s almost as if the advertisers are trying to make our human mouths water with the kinds of graphic descriptions they use to convince us of just how incredibly yummy and delicious these pet foods really are!
Besides the irresistible flavor of the products they’re promoting, these ads also often describe the ingredients pet foods contain as being utterly wholesome, exceptionally nutritious, and totally geared toward promoting the good health of our pets.
Pet food commercials often give us a very warm, fuzzy, comforting feeling. They can be very effective at engendering in us a sense of safety and security as if to convince us wholeheartedly that the products they’re selling are a really good, solid, nourishing foundation upon which the health of our pets can be built. These ads can make us feel that if we buy the products they’re selling and feed them to our pets, that by doing so we’re taking the best care possible of our beloved furry friends. The ads lead us to believe that by feeding our animals their particular brand of products, we’re making the best choice possible to ensure the good health and longevity of our precious, beloved animal companions.
Pet Food Is All About Branding
We get ‘branded’ when we get sold on a brand and plunk down our hard earned money to buy that particular one.
And yet despite how effectively these pet food ads evoke such feelings in us — feelings of being so safe and secure, so good about ourselves, and so comforted in the notion that the products they’re convincing us to buy are such a good healthy choice for our pets to eat on a daily basis – the real and startlingly contradictory truth underlying the pet food industry at large is a subject about which the vast majority of people remain quite blissfully unaware.
Most people have no idea that virtually all of what goes into those cans and bags of pet food are vast amounts of waste products – many of which are pretty darn nasty – that are left over from the manufacture of food for human consumption.
Another significant portion of the ingredients used in the manufacture of commercial pet food is derived from genetically modified grain crops, particularly soy and corn, which are virtually always heavily sprayed with toxic petrochemical pesticides and herbicides, and grown in depleted soils treated with synthetic fertilizers.
I believe the term “junk pet food,” which is the phrase I use to describe commercially manufactured pet food, was coined by Australian veterinarian Dr. Tom Lonsdale. He’s the author of two books about raw feeding for pets, entitled Work Wonders and Raw Meaty Bones.
The reason I call it junk is because after doing a great deal of research and digging very deeply into this subject, it has become abundantly evident to me that the majority of these pet food products are of extremely – nay, shockingly – poor quality. In fact when it comes to providing the kind of nourishment our carnivorous companions truly require to thrive, the vast majority of these pet foods fail miserably, and many, in my opinion, are downright dreadful.
That many pets can even survive at all on a lifelong diet of such abysmal junk food is truly a remarkable yet tragic testament to their incredible resilience and adaptability.
We who are interested in learning about, purchasing and preparing the most nutrient dense, wholesome foods possible for ourselves and our families, are all too well aware of what a profoundly deleterious effect the consumption of poor quality, highly processed junk food can have on our human health.
Pet Food Leads to Chronic Pet Ill Health
Well, the same is true for our furry friends. And the epidemic of chronic ill health in the form of debilitating ailments such as periodontal disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. etc. in the junk pet food-fed domestic pet population is surely a telling parallel.
So just what are the dirty secrets of the junk pet food industry? The most disturbing, nitty-gritty details, which are beyond the scope of this piece, can be found by reading several online resources that are linked at the end of this post.
To provide an overview here, what’s most important to know is that the bulk of ingredients used in most commercial pet foods come from places called rendering plants. Rendering plants are facilities designed to process a wide variety of leftover waste products, a number of which are quite unspeakable, and most of which are derived from the production of food for human consumption.
Here’s a partial list of items that are routinely sent to, and processed by, rendering plants. Even the cheapest homemade dog food or cat chow would be light years better than this!
- Slaughterhouse wastes, including almost all portions of animals that are not generally considered to be fit for human consumption, such as heads, hides, spines, hooves and diseased body parts
- Diseased, disabled, dying or dead livestock deemed unfit for human consumption, aka 4D animals
- Expired meats from grocery stores, including their plastic and styrofoam packaging
- rancid, overcooked oils drained from fryolators, and filthy grease from grease traps from fast food and other restaurants
- The bodies of domestic cats and dogs that have been euthanized, sometimes right along with flea and tick collars still attached around their necks
- Road kill, YES ROAD KILL!
Rendering plants take the above sorts of items and throw them all into a giant auger to pulverize them.
The resulting ‘soup’ is cooked at extremely high temperatures, surely at least in part to kill off all the potentially harmful bacteria, pathogens and parasites that may be lingering on dead, rotting flesh. However this very high heat also destroys much of whatever nutritional value the stuff may have ever had to begin with. Then the fat is rendered off, and what’s left is made into various products that are known by the euphemistic terms we’re used to seeing on pet food ingredients lists.
If you haven’t already, I would strongly encourage everyone reading this post who is concerned about the health of our pets to start reading pet food labels.
Here’s a partial list of suspect ingredients that come from rendering plants:
- meat by-products
- chicken by-product meal
- meat meal
- meat and bone meal
- animal digest
- animal fat (often treated with things like BHA and/or citric acid)
Also, notice how many junk pet food ingredients listed on the label are grain based, such as corn, soy, wheat, rice, sorghum or barley etc.
As you begin to notice how many grain based ingredients are contained in these products, please bear in mind that dogs and cats are carnivorous animals whose bodies were never designed to consume grains in any appreciable quantities.
For those of you interested in learning the details, below are links to several relevant web pages and articles that delve even more deeply into this troubling subject:
http://www.rawfedcats.org/toxic.htm
http://www.homevet.com/index.php/diet-discussion/item/315-an-excerpt-from-the-book-food-pets-die-for
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-ultimate-recycling-the-rendering-industry
Sources and More Information
Yes feed as close to nature as you can ! Just put down a handful of kibble and an oxtail or chicken back(raw if course) and see which one your dog will grab!!!! And I have a very large Newfie and it don’t take much raw food at all to keep him happy and satisfied . And much much less poop in the yard ! And I feel so good knowing he’s eating so good. I get a lot of free scraps and cheap chicken …..and also cheap oxtails. I just wish I lived near a butcher. But we do have moose and elk and mule deer in the fall . I was at a meat shop the other day searching for bargain and free meat and they told me a young lady with sled dogs comes in and get’s their older meat and scraps !
I bought a grinder and supplements that are recommended and make my own cat food. The supplements aren’t optional, they must be added to the raw meat, bones, and organs that you grind up for the cats. I buy whole pastured Amish chicken that is antibiotic free. I buy ground up rabbit online. I have 3 cats, all healthy, playfull happy creatures. The money spent now will be saved in the future. NO VET BILLS for ailments from commercial food. I make enough to feed 3 cats for 2-3 weeks and store in freezer bags. When I go on vacation or away for a couple days, I get them commercial freeze dried raw food that can be left out just like kibble. It works for us. 🙂 Check into this. Lots of good info online and some good books that you can get at the library as well. NO GRAINS and no fruit or veggies are needed for the cat food. You must use the organs and the supplements, however. Expensive start-up and a little work but I’d rather do this than the stress of a sick cat and a vet bill.
Please consider that the FORM of the food we feed our carnivorous pets is just as important as the kind of food we choose to feed them.
And although feeding a homemade ground raw diet is definitely better than feeding commercial cooked/processed pet foods, the truth is that no adult carnivorous mammal on the planet was ever designed to eat a steady diet of mushy ground raw food.
For this reason, and because feeding raw meaty bones (RMBs) and hunks of unground raw meat are so beneficial for a carnivore’s oral health, I advocate feeding our pets WHOLE raw foods – not porridge-like ground raw.
For more information on this subject, please see this section of my website:
http://www.rawfedcats.org/nogrinders.htm
In trying to keep my remark short I forgot to mention that I do give my cats “chunks” of raw meat mixed into the ground diet and I don’t grind it real fine. They are still changing over since I fed them the commercial frozen raw for about a year and gave them kibble whenever I was gone a couple of days. They started off leaving the ‘chunks’ in the bowl but are now eating those. I expect to be feeding whole prey style before the end of summer! I do grind up the turkey. Kinda big for cats! Thanks for pointing that out. I agree that our indoor pets should eat as they would in the wild. I will check out your links as well. Never too much information. It’s nice to see so many people feeding their pets this way. A co-worker is appauled by this. She said her dog got a raw chicken off the kitchen counter, she called the vet and he forced the dog to vomit. She thinks I am nuts because the vet told her the dog would get very very sick from eating raw meat and bones. I’ve forwarded her this email. Probably won’t help. The sick thing is, she shares everything she eats with that dog…including donuts. OMG!
I have long called it Pedigree Scum. That’s all it is, and people still wonder why their pets get sick. Tragic.
I’ve read all of the posts on here. I’ve never heard of this, but I’m willing to give it a try. I’ve noticed that a lot of you give your dogs chicken with the bones. I thought chicken bones were NOT good for dogs. Is it ok to give them raw chicken bones?
Hi Jackie,
You’ve probably never heard of it because no one makes any money when you stop buying crap-in-a-bag and start feeding raw. In reality, raw feeding follows what dogs have been eating for thousands of years. Kibble has been around for less than 120 years. That is why I find it so funny when people will say that feeding raw is a “fad.”
Cooked bones can splinter, causing intestinal perforations and blockages. Raw bones break down differently and pass easily through the system once they are crunched up by the dog’s teeth. Bones are a necessary part of the diet and should always be given raw and with some meat on the bone. The only bones you should not feed are the leg bones of large ungulates (cows, horses, elk, deer, moose, etc.). And if you have a gulper, make sure you give something large enough that the dog cannot swallow it in one bite. A large meaty bone will make them want to sit and chew. It is very satisfying to dogs to be able to do this, as it provides a great jaw workout and cleans their teeth too!
Go to the website http://www.rawfed.com. It is a great website with a ton of good information to get you started.
I’m glad Jackie responded to this point about bones because I just learned this fact too by reading a book on Homeopathy for animals. Dogs NEED to chew on bones because that’s where they naturally get the calcium they need for their own strong bones. This is why it’s common for many older dogs to have hip problems and be on medication. And raw chicken bones are not supposed to cause problems. I am always almost amused when people send up the red flags about food borne illnesses and raw food! First of all, there are thousands of cases every year in people and animals from all sources… it’s just that the raw food gets pointed out in the papers more than other recalled sources. Secondly, feeding an optimum healthy diet strengthens the immune system of people and pets so that if they are exposed to something like salmonella, they pass it and have no real harm done at all. We have e. coli living in our guts! I don’t think people get that. We’re so afraid of bacteria these days.
If you watch a dog or cat that is fed outdoors they don’t leave their food in the bowl if it is whole. They drag it into the yard where it gets covered in grass & dirt and just keep happily munching away! LOL
LOL, that drives my husband nuts! He cannot understand why, when we feed them on the back deck, they insist on dragging it out to the yard to happily crunch it down. My pit bull will eat it on the deck, usually, but the lab HAS to eat it in the dirt. When fed on the driveway, both of them go to the dirt.
Amen, Stephanie! I couldn’t have said it better myself. 🙂
Can you tell me why you shouldn’t feed a dog the leg bones of a large ungulte? I give mine the hind leg bones of moose and they seem to get along fine with them. They just chew on them from time to time. I mean I still have the leg bone of a moose in my yard from a year ago. Marley just chews on it once in a while……I’m curious to know why he should not have them? Thanks ever so much! 🙂
I guess I should have been more clear on that! The leg bones of large ungulates cannot be broken down and digested by our canine companions, so it should not be counted as part of their bone requirement in their diet. They can also break teeth on such a large, dense bone.
That said, a large ungulate bone with a good amount of meat on it is fine for larger dogs to rip the meat off and gnaw on the bone somewhat while it is still fresh. Most people I know that feed such items will take the bone away once the meat is all off of it and the bone dries out to avoid the teeth breakage. I have even been known to give my two dogs a deer leg once in a while just for fun. I do take it away after a couple of days.
Sorry for the confusion!
I should add that if you notice the dog trying to actually crack the bone, it is time to take it away. They can not only break teeth, but break a jaw as well. Not worth it!
Stephanie’s spot on again!
🙂
The bigger, weight bearing bones (especially femurs) of large ungulates are so dense they’re actually harder than a dog’s teeth!
Best to avoid the risk of tooth damage by not ever giving these large, hard, dense bones to your dog.
I’ve fed my dog a raw, carnivorous diet for the past year and I’m never going back. Commercial dog food is junk.
Thank you Sarah for doing this series! I used to spend a fortune on a premium brand of grain-free kibble (Evo) for my two Boston Terriers, but once we started eating real food, I began to wonder what the truly ideal diet for my pups was. I discovered Tom Lonsdale’s books on feeding raw meaty bones, and it made SO much sense! Thankfully they are still young and not much damage was done yet by the kibble…they turn 3 in a few days and have been eating raw for about 7 or 8 months now. I never have to brush their teeth anymore and they are in such vibrant health. I hope they stay this way and don’t suffer years of slow degeneration of health once they get older. They absolutely love dinner time! About once a month we go to the supermarket and load up on whole chickens and roasts. Then we come home and cut everything into single serve hunks and freeze in ziplock plastic containers. At dinner time I send them to their crate and throw them a chunk of roast or half a chicken back each or a chicken thigh/leg each or whatever it is. They LOVE eating whereas before they just munched on brown rocks with no enthusiasm whatsoever. I wish I could feed them pastured/grass-fed, but they eat more meat than me and my hubby and it would be absolutely cost prohibitive. I can get ground up grass-fed organs from my beef farmer for $4 a pound so I like to freeze this in chunks and give to them as treats. But I grew up on supermarket meat and while it’s not ideal, it’s the best I can do and FAR better than even the best brand of kibble…oh and the price difference is negligible since we spent so much on the Evo kibble to begin with. Just thought I’d share my experience. At the time I switched them, I couldn’t find an real food bloggers who endorsed Tom Lonsdales methods, but I just knew in my heart it was the best thing.
Switched to raw almost 2 years ago, 3 dogs and 4 cats. Will never EVER feed kibble or canned again.
I agree! I switched to the commercial raw and recently bought a grinder to make everything myself. I was happy to find raw freeze dried for the weekend I am out of town. There is NO kibble in my house and never will be again. 3 very happy cats!
From my own experience I could definitely say, that raw meat diet for cats is the only way to go. Even though i don’t have cat, but I used to work for a lady who had few of them. For many years she fed her cats with store bought caned stuff. Even though she tried to buy just very specific brands who claimed to be better in nutrition, few of her cats were still overweight with grease coats, dandruff. Then one day in one of the cat trade shows she met people from Wysong company (they are big advocates for the raw meet diet). Next day she made a switch. Her choice was raw ground turkey breast with supplements (from Wysong company). It didn’t take a long time to see drastic change in cats: they lost weight, coats looked wonderful and they had more energy.
I know that for us raw meat might seam disgusting, but when you think about it, not that long ago the main diet for cats was small rodents and occasional bird.
I never thought about this before. We just got a kitten a month ago. Thanks for posting!
Of all the things on the list of what goes into this toxic petfood, ironically, I found the roadkill to be the least offensive. It’s the only thing on the list that’s chemical free! And it’s organic too! Well, as long as the animal didn’t get into GMO corn field before it was killed, or got infected in some other way by industrial agri-business. I was completely shocked to read about the flea collars, the Styrofoam packaging and plastic wrappers.