What Is Inside Your Pet Dinner? (Part 1)

For many of us, commercial dog or cat food is the solution to our pet’s appetite. It is simple, tasty, easy, and answers the question of what to feed them. But is it the best option or the safest?

A problem in the industry is that the products are motivated by cost. Naturally, if a food is higher quality, it will be used in a better petfood, while the lesser quality items will end up in the less costly products.

Because of this, the ingredients in cat and dog will more than likely be inferior to ‘people’ meals. Additionally, the regulations for labeling and contents are not enforced the same way as with person’s foods, which may incline some to be somewhat lax in how they label.

All-meat diets are costly, so to reduce costs, filler and extender are used. As seen in March of 2007, impure filler resulted in deaths. The culprit was wheat gluten, which was used to enhance and extend the pet food.

Other extenders include byproducts, a broad term that covers a large variety of parts, and which may hide a number of serious problems.

With preparing animals for our eating, the better pieces are removed first. What’s left is usable, but is often not labeled as such, instead being grouped under the term ‘by-products’. This term can include feet, fat trimmings, blood, unborn babies, bones, ligaments, intestines, heads, livers, lungs, spleens, and various other parts.

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