PETS | PET CARE | DOGS | CATS | BIRDS

 SITE MAP | CONTACT US
PETS DOGS CATS
HOME  |  DOGS  |  CATS  |  HORSES  |  BIRDS  |  SMALL PETS  |  PETS RESOURCES  |  PETS BLOG  |  MOST BEAUTIFUL PETS
Search:
 

Home | Dogs | Dog Health


Dog Food Recall - Keeping Them Safe

By: KCoffey

Recipes for homemade dog foods are popping up all over. More and more pet owners are deciding to make their own homemade dog foods. The pet food recall list is growing by the week. The food that you are feeding your beloved dog that is safe today, may not be tomorrow. Pet owners are in a panic trying to keep their best friend safe…and rightfully so.

The recent pet food recall has left many of us asking about the safety as well as the quality of our pets’ food. Can the suppliers and manufacturers of pet foods be trusted or has that trust been broken?

Chinese suppliers of animal feed have admitted that for years they have been spiking shipments to pet food companies in the US to make it appear as though the food was a high protein quality product. Before Melamine, there was Urea, another Nitrogen-based chemical that was used until it started making animals sick, then it was quietly discontinued.

Guarding against contaminated products being imported has become quite a problem. According to the Commerce Department, the pet food industry now imports 7 times the amount of animal feed it did in 2000. Wheat gluten and rice protein come in the form of a powder and chemicals like melamine can easily be mixed in (whether intentional or unintentional) and not be detected by the FDA because they are not on its battery of tests.

The FDA oversees a trillion dollars worth of products annually, this includes about half of all imports. The agency regulates about 25% of every dollar that is spent by American consumers annually, so it is impossible for the agency to inspect more than a fraction of all imports. About 99% of all food imports are not inspected.

This massive pet food recall has not only brought to light safety issues with our dog food supply but also quality issues. Little was known about Wheat gluten and rice protein until the recent pet food recall. Now they are everyday words. People have been researching to find out just what they are…and the results are eye-opening.

The Secrets of the Pet Food industry are coming to light. The chunky bits that we thought were meat in our beloved dog’s food we find out are actually wheat gluten, a totally meatless product. Rice Protein is another meatless additive to increase the protein levels in the pet foods. Which leads us to ask just how much meat are our carnivores getting.

A healthy dog’s diet consists of 40% meat, 30% protein and 30% starch. It appears that the majority of the pet food products on the market today consist mostly of cheap cereal fillers. Even many of the so called “premium brands” were not immune from the pet food recalls as they also contained wheat gluten and rice protein.

The meat-by-products that are used in these commercial recipes are animal scraps that the FDA has deemed “unfit for human consumption” these include heads, feet, intestines, lungs, spleens, ligaments, and other scary parts. Even when the recipe consists of meat, for the most part, it is scrap meat like backs and necks.

Several companies that got their pet food from one of the manufacturers have said that the rice protein that was included in the recipes for their dog food was without their knowledge or consent (the manufacturer has denied this). How do we know who’s telling the truth? Many of us were under the assumption that all of the ingredients for the recipe had to be listed on the package. What else are in the commercial dog food recipes that we don’t know about?

Lawmakers are hurrying to change things but everyone knows that takes time. So in the mean time what should you do? The choice is one that every one of us is going to have to make. You can take your chances; you can turn to an even higher priced organic or natural pet food; or you can turn to your own kitchen and use recipes for homemade dog foods. After all, how difficult can it be to feed your best friend a well balance diet? We manage to do it for our children everyday.

Article Source: http://www.simplepetcare.com/pet-articles

For more information about the ongoing pet food recall: petfoodrecall-dogs.blogspot.com/ KCoffey is the owner of www.pipelinebooks.com ,an ebook store filled with ways to improve your life. Whether you are wanting to learn to speak Spanish, train your cat to use the toilet, cure your insomnia or cook a meal like Olive Garden…there’s an ebook for you!

Please Rate this Article

 

# of Ratings = 1 | Rating = 5/5

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Dog Health Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Dogs | Dog Health
Sign Up for a free account or learn more.
Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
FREE pet cartoon animations
Puppy names, dog names
Free pets
SITES OF INTEREST | LINK TO US | | PET CARE

Powered by Article Dashboard