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Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food Ann N. Martin See book keywords and concepts

I have also requested that the labeling of these pet foods show the exact ingredients contained in the product, including road kill, condemned material from slaughterhouses, and euthanized dogs and cats. Both government bodies have basically advised me that the pet food industry is self-regulated and therefore they have no input. In March 1999, the FTC issued a notice to rescind the Guides for the Dog and Cat Food Industry, which had empowered this organization to guard againsr false advertising by pet food companies. In October 1999, the FTC announced that Section 241 had been rescinded.

Meat is not rendered but comes directly from slaughterhouses. Meat meal: AAFCO defines "meat meal" as the rendered product from mammal tissue exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, hide, trimmings, manure, stomach, and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. (The rumen is the first stomach, also called the cud, of a cud-chewing animal.

Independent plants obtain animal by-product materials, "including grease, blood, feathers, offal, and the entire animal carcasses, from the following sources: butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food chains, poultry processors, slaughterhouses, farms, ranches, feed-lots, and animal shelters."7 All of the large rendering plants, including Darling International, Sacramento Rendering, West Coast Rendering, Baker Commodities Inc., Modesto Tallow, Carolina By-Products, Griffin Industries Inc., Rothsay, and Valley Proteins are independent Tenderers.

Because I have researched all aspects of the meat industry, including conditions at some slaughterhouses, I always cook the meat for my guys. In cooking rhe meat, some of the healthy enzymes are destroyed, but so are the harmful bacteria and parasites. Many pet owners have asked me about a raw meat and bone diet versus a cooked diet for cats and dogs. In my second book, Protect Your Pet: More Shocking Facts, I share the findings from my extensive research. I conclude that this is not a safe diet to feed companion animals, and there is no sound scientific information to confirm this assertion.

In fact many of the ingredients are potentially harmful and composed of the dregs from slaughterhouses and the rendering business. Even some of the "premium foods" promoted by pet food companies are really not any different than their standard line—other than being more expensive. So, how do you determine if a particular pet food is nutritious or not? Ultimately, the best defense is to feed your animal companions human grade food, either homecooked, or made by pet food companies that use human grade foods.

Moser warns that the United States's method of relying on the inspectors in slaughterhouses to detect BSE is unreliable at best. "If a vet is not well educated in spotting signs of BSE, they [meat inspectors] can easily miss them."26 A Flawed Detection System in the United States Given all that I have learned about BSE, its symptoms, and the devastating effect it can have on the cattle industry, I have to ask myself: Does anyone really think if a farmer or veterinarian actually observed cattle displaying odd behavior that they would report this to the proper authorities? I think not.

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating Jeffrey M. Smith See book keywords and concepts

Some treated cows are so lean and wasted by the end of their lives, they offered litde value to slaughterhouses that normally convert the cows' carcasses into meat. The slaughterhouses also complained that the cows' tissue at the injection site was killed, sometimes leaving a swollen mound. It would have to be cut out of the meat before it went on the market.8 The stolen data also revealed that rbGH cows had more difficulty getting pregnant. While 95 percent of untreated cows became pregnant during the eight-month trial, only 52 percent of the treated cows did.

Grocery Warning: How to recognize and avoid the groceries that cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other common diseases Mike Adams See book keywords and concepts

Animal protein was an inexpensive feed additive that promoted growth, and slaughterhouses produced huge volumes of waste that needed to go somewhere. At the time, American cattle were eating about 2 billion pounds of animal protein every year-mainly the remains of other cattle. About three-quarters of all American cattle were being fed animal protein, and dairy cattle were the most likely to eat it in significant amounts. They were also the most likely to wind up as fast food hamburgers one day.

Mad cow madness: USDA lies and the coming collapse of the U.S. beef industry Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Why wouldn't you want more slaughterhouses having greater safety practices in this country? Again, the answer is because you don't want these companies discovering just how much mad cow disease there really is around here. The USDA, one of the great misguided agencies of modern government, has given us the Food Guide Pyramid that offers us nutritionally worthless advice, heavily influenced by private industry, especially the dairy industry, and now the agency claims to be protecting us from mad cow disease (but really is just protecting the cattle industry).

Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet Jeremy P. Tarcher See book keywords and concepts

Our nation's slaughterhouses have been called more dangerous and debilitating now than at any time since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, in 1906.16); • And, next to these faces, the few people who've come to control the meatpacking industry—a concentration so tight that now four corporations control over four-fifths of the beef slaughterhouses in the U.S.17 just one, IBP, kills 40 percent of America's feedlot cattle.18 So around that small, small steak, I see the chemicals, the fat, and the germs; the drugs and the resources.

What's In Your Milk?: An Exposé of Industry and Government Cover-Up on the Dangers of the Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk You're Drinking Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Needle damage to the cow's carcass creates problems for slaughterhouses as federal meat inspectors hold up carcasses showing needle marks for several days, pending further teats for illegal drug residues. Almost comically, Monsanto's research farm employees appeared at times like the "Keystone Cops," trying to administer twice-monthly bGH injections. Many bGH needles broke off in the cows, as the animals flinched while receiving injections. ¦ Mastitis problems are higher in bGH-treated cows.

Health and Nutrition Secrets Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

According to USDA rules, slaughterhouses can use meat from cancer-afflicted cattle as long as the tumors are thrown away. The problem with this practice is that the cancer-causing virus is disseminated throughout the animal. While cooking may partially destroy the organisms, people who like their steaks rare are really taking chances. While there is no proof that these cancer-causing viruses can cause cancer in humans, there is compelling circumstantial evidence.

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating Jeffrey M. Smith See book keywords and concepts

Some treated cows are so lean and wasted by the end of their lives, they offered litde value to slaughterhouses that normally convert the cows' carcasses into meat. The slaughterhouses also complained that the cows' tissue at the injection site was killed, sometimes leaving a swollen mound. It would have to be cut out of the meat before it went on the market.8 The stolen data also revealed that rbGH cows had more difficulty getting pregnant. While 95 percent of untreated cows became pregnant during the eight-month trial, only 52 percent of the treated cows did.

Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

Whether the effects of its intentions were deliberate or not, the 1906 Congress established an oversight system that permitted the industry to rely on (and, therefore, blame) USDA inspectors for the most fundamental decisions about plant operations. slaughterhouses and processing plants were to open when the inspector said they could and close when the inspector left for the day. If the inspector said that meat was safe, it was—and the producers and packers did not need to do anything else to ensure the safety of their products.

Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet Jeremy P. Tarcher See book keywords and concepts

And, next to these faces, the few people who've come to control the meatpacking industry—a concentration so tight that now four corporations control over four-fifths of the beef slaughterhouses in the U.S.17 just one, IBP, kills 40 percent of America's feedlot cattle.18 So around that small, small steak, I see the chemicals, the fat, and the germs; the drugs and the resources. I see the workers in debilitating jobs, the old-time farmers going out of business, and the corporations making a killing. I have no temptation to eat. My fork never budges.

Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

They set testing standards to reduce pathogens, limit antibiotics in animal feed, prevent infections in transported animals, test for microbes at slaughterhouses and supermarkets, and provide incentives to the industry to comply with safety rules. Our government could also take such actions. That it does not is a result of an entrenched political system that allows federal regulators to avoid enforcing their own rules, and food companies to deny responsibility and blame each other, the regulators, or the public whenever outbreaks occur.

Even more remarkable, investigators once traced back the origin of a single lot of hamburger at one processing plant to slaughterhouses in six different states and to an almost unimaginable 443 individual animals.23 It is difficult to imagine a system better equipped to promote the spread of disease—and to obscure the source of illnesses or outbreaks. Single-source outbreaks, however, also illustrate the vulnerability of a centralized food supply. In the most dramatic instance, a Salmonella outbreak in 1994 affected more than 220,000 people in 41 states.

Despite these and other safety concerns, nobody in Congress or the administration wants to take on the cattlemen, leaving food safety advocates in the USDA without much in the way of political support for controlling pathogens on farms and feedlots, let alone in slaughterhouses, packing plants, or grocery stores. THE TESTING GAP: "NONINTACT" BEEF, 1999 Chapter 2. described how, as a result of the Jack in the Box outbreak, the USDA identified ground beef contaminated with E.

Instead, they thought the USDA should pay more attention to practices in slaughterhouses and retail stores. A Nebraska Chamber of Commerce official defended Hudson Foods: "There's always somebody out there trying to downgrade the meat industry. . . . I'm sure the people—veggies, is that what they call them—I bet they're rejoicing right now.

The Healing Miracle of Coconut Oil Bruce Fife and Jon J. Kabara See book keywords and concepts

It easily becomes contaminated in slaughterhouses and warehouses where sanitary conditions are often deplorable. Because of the prevalence of contamination in meat, we are continually advised to cook all meat thoroughly before eating. Even a tiny speck of blood on a cutting board or knife can transfer the bacteria to raw foods, leading to illness or even death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that in the United States up to three-quarters of all cases of food poisoning are directly linked to ground beef.

The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases Philip Yam See book keywords and concepts

In any case, slaughterhouses now mostly rely on nonpenetrating captive bolts, which the Scientific Steering Committee considers to present no more of a contamination risk than kosher and halal slaughtering. These Jewish and Islamic practices call for exsan-guination without stunning and probably offer the safest slaughtering method in terms of preventing brain tissue from reaching other areas of the cow.18 Strong regulations should contain the BSE outbreak—at least in principle. But the practice of those rules is sometimes spotty.

In July 2002, the French food safety agency reported that in about to percent of the cattle carcasses about to become human food, slaughterhouses had left risky material such as spinal cord, tonsils, and thymus. Some pieces were as long as 8 inches. (A newly instituted vacuum system, rather than manual cutting, should strip carcasses more cleanly.) Although crises pass, mad cow disease has left lingering aftereffects when it comes to economics. The height of Germany's outbreak took place in early 2001, which naturally drove people from a favorite meat to alternatives like chicken and fish.

They constructed a mathematical model—essentially a statistically weighted flow chart starting with infectivity sources and advancing to cattle exposure, then to slaughterhouses, and finally to feed. As a variable, they also included noncompliance with the regulations—in January 2001, the FDA found that 16 percent of American Tenderers and 20 percent of feed mills that are licensed (because they handle animal medicines as well) did not properly label their feed. Packaging on mammalian protein must indicate that the feed cannot go to ruminants. Unlicensed mills fared worse?

In the 1940s and 1950s, however, mink ranchers formulated their own rations, making trips to fish processing plants and slaughterhouses. They blended their own cereal mixtures and often incorporated meat-and-bone meal. Mink kits begin eating feed at four to five weeks of age, while still nursing for the next week or two. Disaster struck one mink farm in Wisconsin in 1947, when all of the adult animals began showing signs of a progressive neurological disease—including aggressiveness, incoordination, and self-mutilation?that ultimately proved fatal.

These diabetics say they can better detect signs of insulin shock with the bovine product.) The slaughterhouses remove the necessary organs and ship them frozen to pharmaceutical firms, which put the material through several purification steps to get the desired product. The question is whether these products harbor enough of the BSE prions to become a danger to human health. Prion proteins are concentrated in the brain, spinal cord, and the lymphoreticular system.

One ban introduced in the European Union beginning in 2001 was a prohibition of penetrative stunning methods in slaughterhouses. Before cows are bled to death, they are knocked unconscious by a "captive bolt" fired at their skulls (the bolt retracts into the gun, hence the term "captive"). Some guns drive the bolts so powerfully—they travel about 100 meters per second, or about 220 miles per hour?that they can blast through the skull; other types of guns even inject air into the skull to literally scramble the brains.

Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition Paul Pitchford See book keywords and concepts

Also, the slaughterhouses often dump animal blood and parts into major waterways. In recent years the Missouri River has been so clogged in stretches with hair and balls of fat that it is difficult to paddle a canoe across. Thus, in the United States, the purity and supply of water is seriously undermined by agriculture as a result of excessive meat eating. When people eat a higher percentage of vegetarian food, far less water is wasted since fewer crops need to be grown.

Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meal Industry Gail A. Eisnitz See book keywords and concepts

My investigation so far had focused on slaughterhouses, but cruelty to farm animals—and the conditions that lead to the proliferation of pathogens and meat contamination—start the day and place the animals are born. There'd been a lot of news coverage lately about the devastating environmental impacts of huge mega-hog farms, the odors, and the deadly microbe pfiesteria that is killing fish and causing open sores and memory loss in fishermen as massive quantities of hog manure seep into waterways.

A Physician's Guide To Natural Health Products That Work James A. Howenstine, MD See book keywords and concepts

Irradiation will encourage even worse hygienic conditions in our slaughterhouses, where currently significant percentages of the meat from the cattle, pork and chickens have positive cultures for pathogenic bacteria. Some irradiation plants may begin using caesium 137 which was left over from the production of nuclear weapons. This radioactive material is dangerous and unstable. In 1988 a leak of caesium 137 near Atlanta cost thirty million dollars to clean up.

These proteins were obtained form diseased cows (downer cows), live stock that died of old age, disease or accidents, wasted inedible meat from slaughterhouses and supermarkets, deceased zoo animals, euthanized pets and road kill. This rendering of disposable animal remains has grown into a 3 billion dollar industry. The bad decision to turn cows into cannibals has been compounded by another bad decision to feed diseased contaminated protein to cows.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.