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John Eckhouse, of
the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about
the recycling of pets into pet-food in California.
He claimed that pet food companies deny it while a
rendering industry employee claimed it to be
common practice for his company to process dead
pets and sell the products pet food manufacturers.
The Food and Drug Administration, Center for
Veterinary Medicine (FDA/CVM) recognizes a need to
dispose of pets in large numbers and does not
specifically prohibit the rendering of pet
carcasses.
According to
veterinarian Tim Phillips, rendering pets for
pet-food is not harmful to pets consuming such
pet-foods. Emotional reactions overshadow any
rational discussion of this issue. The rendering
industry is well aware of public disapproval of
the practice and only a few process companion
animals. Since the rendering plants only have to
name the main ingredient in a run, the pet food
manufacturer buying the product may not about the
hidden extras - not just pets, but also inedible
items.
In investigations
in the US and Canada, Eckhouse learnt that the
pets are rendered complete with their collars,
tags, flea collars and still inside plastic pet
body-bags. Chemicals from plastic and
organophosphates from flea collars end up in the
mix along with a host of other substances.
Pharmaceuticals leak from antibiotics in diseased
livestock. Heavy metals accumulate from a variety
of sources: pet ID tags and surgical items (e.g.
bone pins). Unsold supermarket meats arrive in Styrofoam
and plastic containers. It is too costly
and time-consuming to remove flea collars or
unwrap spoiled meat. More plastic is added to the
pits with the arrival of cattle ID tags, plastic
insecticide patches and pet body bags from
veterinarians. Plastic contains estrogen-like
substances which may survive rendering and lower
sperm count in male animals.
In the USA, there
are various type of rendering plant. Of these,
only the independent renderers might process dead
pets. Bisplinghoff believed that of 182
independent renderers in the USA (at the time of
the study), only 5-7 processed pets, though this
number omitted small country processors who may
occasionally take a pet from a livestock producer.
Protein blenders purchase dry rendered tankage
from other rendering plants and may unknowingly
buy rendered pets. Small feed companies were not
considered as they do not manufacture companion
animal diets.
American Pet-food
manufacturers are large volume, highly valued
customers. They require a guarantee that their
animal protein suppliers do not process dead pets.
Bispolinghoff believed that renderers supplying
pet food manufacturers would not want to risk this
profitable business. In addition, he considered
that dead pets are not desirable raw material for
rendering and there is little or no economic
incentive for renderers to seek this type of raw
material. However, some renderers process pets
from animal shelters in order to satisfy local
health authorities seeking an economic and
sanitary disposal method. The few American
renderers who handle large volumes of dead pets
are not suppliers to the pet-food industry, they
either export their animal proteins or sell them
to poultry operations. Your own pets might not be
eating dead pets, but the chicken on your plate or
the chicken that laid your breakfast eggs might
well have eaten dead pets.
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