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Caryl Hall - Speaknup
For the Love of Pets

I love animals. In all honesty, my order of preference is animals - 1 and humans - 2.

Our three AKC champion Tibetan Terriers are my loving babies. Not to be outdone by the canines, we also have a house full of cats. Two are our indoor sweeties and three are the neighborhood strays who decided to adopt us.

It’s interesting to be adopted by a stray. Despite being captured and neutered, they still stick around and learn how to get along with us, our dogs and the other felines in our family. Despite letting them back outside when they wanted to escape, they’ve learned to use the “doggy door” and come right back in.

It was my choice not to have human children. Call me odd, but I so love the four-legged furry companions who bring nothing but joy over the testy, misbehaved, me-oriented human children that others produce.

For those of you who also love your pets, how much thought do you put into the food you feed them? Maybe it’s time for a little shock therapy on this subject.

It was eight years ago that we adopted our first TT, Benny, who had just made Champion at the age of 9 months. Shortly after, Piper Maru was born and our show ring activities started six months later.

Being new to the breed, we took the advice from all the TT breeders we met with regard to feeding. They all recommended a “good quality” commercial brand of dry food.

We acquired Bear at the request of his breeder that we make him a champion too. Just prior to his second birthday, Bear became a “horn dog” and he and Piper became intimate (they did it once while we were sleeping!).

As diligent “grandparents”, we put puppy packets together and carefully interviewed potential new homes for the puppies. We provided information on care and feeding and recommended the same brand of food our three were eating.

It was a couple of years later, and another unplanned litter, that I came across some information about what we are feeding our pets. One of our puppy families said their girl was not eating well, and they mentioned another brand that was recommended to them. My investigation began.

Well, I was horrified at what I read. Then I was sickened and that became anger and even fury. I substantiated the information I had found with a lot of other articles and discussions with others who had also done the research. We are killing our pets with the food we give them.

Read at your own risk the following excerpts from the book, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food by Ann N. Martin.

“Pet Food Industry magazine states that a pet food manufacturer might reject rendered material for various reasons, including the presence of foreign material (metals, hair, plastic, rubber, glass), off odor, excessive feathers, hair or hog bristles, bone chunks, mold, chemical analysis out of specification, added blood, leather, or calcium carbonate, heavy metals, pesticide contamination, improper grind or bulk density, and insect infestation.

Please note that this article states that the manufacturer might reject this material, not that it does reject this material.

If the label on the pet food you purchase states that the product contains meat meal, or meat and bone meal, it is possible that it is comprised of all the materials listed above.”

It gets worse.

“If a pet food lists “meat by-products” on the label, remember that this is the material that usually comes from the slaughterhouse industry or dead stock removal operations, classified as condemned or contaminated, unfit for human consumption. Meat meal, meat and bone meal, digests, and tankage (specifically animal tissue including bones and exclusive of hair, hoofs, horns, and contents of digestive tract) are composed of rendered material. The label need not state what the composition of this material is, as each batch rendered would consist of a different material. These are the sources of protein that we are feeding our companion animals.”

“After processing, the food is practically devoid of any nutritional value. To make up for what is lacking, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and supplements are dumped into the mix. If the minerals added are unchelated (chelated means minerals will more readily combine with proteins for better absorption), they will pass through the body virtually unused. Most are added as a premix, and if there is a mistake made in the premix, it can throw off the entire balance.

Veterinarians Marty Goldstein and Robert Goldstein have stated that the wrong calcium/magnesium ratio can cause neuromuscular problems. As an example, when I had the commercial pet food tested by Mann Laboratories for my court case, most of the minerals showed excess levels.”

So what should we be feeding our pets? Some owners have switched to organic pet food, others make their own pet food.

I won’t endorse any brand here, but I do urge you to keep this in mind: if the package does not say “human grade”, if you wouldn’t eat it, please do not feed it to your pets.

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