Willow on death row-severely emaciated and ridden with fleas

HOLISTIC PROTOCOLS SAVE LIVES!

TIMETABLE: Please note that as we develop and document our herbal and homeopathic protocols for our rescued animals, we will be publishing them in a timely fashion on this Web page. These protocols will be making history in the animal care industry, and must be scrupulously documented and overseen by a licensed veterinary specialist. So please stay tuned and check our site regularly.

Our most recent case history is about Willow, the purebred German shepherd scheduled for euthanasia only because she was underweight and flea-ridden. Then, read about Lucas, the yellow labbie who suffered from seven months of untreated coccydia and hookworm; his recovery was longer and much more involved and he is still in long-term treatment due to his severe abuse. But he will be adopted soon!

CASE STUDY – “Willow,” purebred German shepherd female, slated for euthanasia for “humane reasons” 10-19-09 because she was extremely emaciated and covered with fleabite dermatitis. Pulled within one hour of scheduled euthanasia and brought to boarding facility by volunteer Tammi Krugel. Rescued by PAWS Institute Rescue and transported to Madison, WI. Developed life-threatening pneumonia in foster home due to her extremely weakened condition.

October-November 2009

HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES SAVED HER LIFE

We have a dramatic, life-and-death story for you similar to the case study of Lucas. We spotted “Willow” on the Ohio postings 10-19-2009. Willow, a gorgeous purebred German Shepherd with beautiful markings, was slated to be euthanized for “humane reasons” only because she was extremely emaciated (39 pounds where her ideal weight is about 70) and ridden with fleabite dermatitis. We could overhear volunteers Tammi and Anita talking to the warden, literally pleading for Willow’s life as the warden prepared to send her down the hall to the gas chamber. The warden relented, and Tammi quickly whisked Willow to safety at Madaca Kennels, about 40 miles away.

The state of Willow’s health was so dire that we knew we must get her out of Madaca immediately, because this was simply a boarding kennel and there was no money for vetting of any sort. Transport arrangements were immediately put into place, but unfortunately, no other drivers could be recruited at such short notice so our director, Emily Smith, set out for Ohio herself on October 24, 2009. She made the 800-mile journey in record time, because she feared that Willow would not last through the week.

DAY ONE:

Emily writes:

“My first view of Willow was of a raggedy-looking, extremely thin but beautiful German shepherd stuffed into a tiny kennel on the bottom row with another kennel on top of her. She had to be coaxed out, because she was so weak and debilitated, but she appeared really glad to see me. She gave me a couple of friendly licks but had to be lifted into my car. I was horrified at her condition; she had sores over her entire back quarters: both flanks, both legs, and her underbelly had sores that were scabbed and still bleeding from the torment she must have been suffering. Fleabite dermatitis is, indeed, tortuous to the dog because of the extreme itching, and Willow could not stay still due to biting and scratching wherever she could reach. Willow was an excellent car rider despite the agony of her skin condition, and she really tried to be a good companion to me as we raced to the motel to get her settled in.

“Once at the motel, I got Willow settled on one of the queen-sized beds which she seemed to highly appreciate. Her previous environments must have been contributing to her condition, because she was absolutely filthy and wet and seemed unable to get warm. Of course she was cold, because half her fur was gone. But this sweet girl went willingly outside whenever I took her, and openly showed her gratitude for being saved, sick as she was. Her expressive brown eyes reflected a deep gratitude that everyone who has ever saved a homeless dog will recognize: there is nothing that compares.

DAY TWO:

“Willow was so debilitated from starvation that she could not eat much; all she could eat were some crackers and some hot dogs that were purchased at gas stations along the way back to Madison.

DAY THREE:

“Once in Madison, Willow was ensconced in my bedroom on a luxurious sleeping bag and her treatment was begun. I knew of the tremendous success of Pet Alive’s “Skin & Coat” capsules, and was very excited to start Willow on them. Willow still was unable to eat more than a few bites at a time, and I began hand-feeding her.

DAY FOUR:

“It now had been four days and she was still losing weight. I continued hand feeding her with crackers, peanut butter, and some cooked hamburger, but it was very slow going. To my horror, the fourth night Willow seemed to develop some type of upper-respiratory infection, because she began sneezing and wheezing. I feared the onset of pneumonia as Willow’s breathing became increasingly labored that night.

DAY FIVE:

“I rushed her to the vet first thing that morning, and was told that it was indeed pneumonia and Willow’s temperature was up to 104. We really feared for her life at this point, and the vet sent me home with some antibiotics and I felt sure she was sending Willow home to die. Dr. Caldwell had a very sad look in her eyes as she handed me the packet of antibiotics and the antipyretic. Willow’s history of starvation and subsequent run-down condition had caused her immune system to become so compromised that life-threatening pneumonia was a natural, tragic outcome.

DAY SIX:

“By the sixth day, Willow’s temperature was down to normal but her breathing was no better. I wondered exactly what the antibiotics were supposed to do, because they were not working. Every time Willow tried to lie down she couldn’t breathe, and I assisted her to sit up over the next 24 hours, praying that this ‘antibiotic’ would kick in. Well, it never did. At this point, Willow was so very weak that I was getting ready to say goodbye to this sweet girl. I thought, ‘She was so far gone even when I rescued her that there’s no way she will pull through this.’

“I got angry. Why, in God’s name, does this beautiful dog have to be ‘sent home to die’ by a trained veterinarian who had nothing else to give her after eight years of training in traditional veterinary medicine? I frantically searched my traditional veterinary resources on the Internet, and in fact, there was little or nothing to offer about curing advanced pneumonia in canines. But something clicked in my brain at that moment. I absolutely refused to let this girl die without trying everything I could think of, and remembered how much faith I have always had in alternative medicine and how miraculously we saved the life of Lucas from advanced GI disease.

“I quickly searched through the Pet Alive brochure and the product description of ‘Respo-K’ literally jumped off the page at me. This was a product that helped support breathing for the minor symptoms of kennel cough and upper respiratory infections in canines, but it didn’t mention anything about pneumonia. Why could it not support and help with the life-threatening buildup of liquid secretions in the lungs that is symptomatic of pneumonia? I called the PetAlive company at 9:00 p.m.(they are open 24-7, seven days a week) and ordered a bottle of this Respo-K homeopathic remedy as the last resort to save Willow’s life. They promised overnight emergency shipment of the product to me, and I was awake all night, praying that if Willow could just hang on one more night, we could try for a miracle the next day.

“At approximately 10:00 a.m. the next morning, I heard the most beautiful sound I had ever heard – the sound of a UPS truck pulling up to my door. I grabbed the package, ripped open the packing, and immediately gave Willow the first dosage of Respo-K. These homeopathic tablets were very tiny, no bigger than cookie crumbs, so I could easily hide them in a liverwurst treat and get Willow to swallow them.

“What happened next was something I will not forget as long as I live. Willow, who had been struggling and gasping for breath because of the accumulated fluid in her lungs for the last two days, sat up, looked around, and took a deep breath. Then she took another one. She sort of looked at me quizzically as if to say, “What happened?”

DEAR READER, WITHIN SIX MINUTES OF ADMINISTERING THIS HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY, WILLOW WAS ABLE TO BREATHE WITHOUT DIFFICULTY AND THE LIFE-THREATENING FLUID BUILDUP IN HER LUNGS DRIED UP.If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it—it’s as if she stopped, pulled out the one foot she had in her grave, and said, ‘I’m not ready to go yet, Mom!’

"As I have stated above, there is little or no information available to the layperson on curing canine pneumonia. I suspect that there is actually little in the way of successful recovery from advanced pneumonia anywhere in allopathic veterinary medicine. Again, the vets will usually give an antibiotic and send the dog home to either die or pull through – they give less than a 10% chance of living through the advanced stage that had afflicted Willow. But I continued to administer these miraculous little pills – at the recommended times and at the recommended dosages – and Willow’s breathing remained stable and she was able to start to truly recover. As I lovingly observed her demeanor with the support of full, deep breaths, I wished I had a video camera to record this miracle. When she picked up a stuffed toy and began ‘killing’ it, I rejoiced.

DAY SEVEN:

“I continued the round-the-clock dosing of Respo-K every three hours, and I knew Willow was getting better because she started to develop interest in food again. She wouldn’t eat plain dry kibble (she probably had me trained), but ate a whole bowl of rice/cooked chicken with gusto. I continued administering the Skin & Coat along with the emergency protocol for pneumonia. Skin & Coat has an added benefit of helping the immune system, and I began giving Willow additional, advanced immune support called “Liver & Immune Support,” also by PetAlive. Even though this is a product that has no visible, dramatic effects and therefore is under-utilized by most practitioners, I felt Liver & Immune Support was the key to getting Willow back on her feet again now that her life-threatening symptoms had abated.

“The emergency treatment of Willow’s pneumonia necessitated my focus on those symptoms, of course, but I noticed she had not been scratching and biting at her hindquarters AT ALL. The Skin & Coat we know to be miraculously quick acting, and by day seven, all Willow’s skin was completely healed of scabs and sores and the fur was rapidly growing back on her legs and flanks. Less than seven days!

DAYS EIGHT – TWELVE:

“Protocols continued with Skin & Coat, Respo-K, and Liver & Immune Support. Willow now had her full appetite back, and was devouring up to six cups of combined dry/supplemented food each day! We were giving her high-grade Wellness brand with grain. Thankfully, her digestive system remained relatively intact, and she has had normal elimination throughout this ordeal. Thank God for small favors. Her weight continued to improve, and by the end of day twelve, Willow weighed in at 51 pounds, a 12-pound gain since rescue. But she still had quite a ways to go to reach her ideal weight.

DAYS THIRTEEN-TWENTY:

“Willow had gained tremendously in her energy level and playfulness. It turns out she was quite the Alpha female, and began giving my two GSDs a good run for the money. I limited her play to moderate level, but I know she felt well enough to do much more. She continued to eat up to six cups of food a day, and absolutely gobbled it up. She was extremely obedient to me and eager to please: I taught her sit, down, stay, shake, and wait. She obviously never had any training, but somehow she self-trained in housebreaking because she has had NO accidents in the house – ever. Her fur was almost completely grown in now. What miracles abound with these herbal and homeopathic protocols!

"Her weight on day 20 was up to 55 pounds, and her backbone no longer jutted out painfully along her back. I would say she will look the very best at 70 pounds, because she is a tall girl compared to my two shepherds and will need to bulk up and build her muscle tone. I was feeding more raw meat now as well as liquid egg whites, Omega-3 oils, and digestive enzymes, because Willow’s optimum health was dependent upon her rebuilding muscle mass and overall toning and strengthening her young frame.

I happily began posting on Craigslist to find her forever home, and my very first response was the man who ended up adopting Willow. She is shown next to her awesome new playmate, Max, and I look forward to hearing many happy stories of this miracle we call “Willow.”

With great love for the animals,


Emily Smith, Director

PAWS Institute

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

WHAT'S REALLY IN PET FOODS-API Report

WHAT'S REALLY IN PET FOODS!

An Animal Protection Institute (API) Report

Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, and all the wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need.

These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through the media and advertising. This is what the $11 billion per year U.S. pet food industry wants consumers to believe they are buying when they purchase their products.

This report explores the differences between what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands -- the pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets and discount stores -- but there are many highly respected brands that may be guilty of the same offenses.

What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries. Pet food provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered "unfit for human consumption," and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts.

Three of the five major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational companies: Nestlé (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina products such as Dog Chow, ProPlan, and Purina One), Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature's Recipe), Colgate-Palmolive (Hill's Science Diet Pet Food). Other leading companies include Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba and Iams), Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, Waltham's), and Nutro. From a business standpoint, multinational companies owning pet food manufacturing companies is an ideal relationship. The multinationals have increased bulk-purchasing power; those that make human food products have a captive market in which to capitalize on their waste products, and pet food divisions have a more reliable capital base and, in many cases, a convenient source of ingredients.

There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this country. And while many of the foods on the market are similar, not all of the pet food manufacturing companies use poor quality or potentially dangerous ingredients.

Ingredients

Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determine whether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of quality. It would be impossible for a company that sells a generic brand of dog food at $9.95 for a 40-lb. bag to use quality protein and grain in its food. The cost of purchasing quality ingredients would be much higher than the selling price.

The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food, animal feed, and other products. These "other parts" are known as "by-products," "meat-and-bone-meal," or similar names on pet food labels.

The Pet Food Institute -- the trade association of pet food manufacturers -- acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foods as additional income for processors and farmers: "The growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet owners with better foods for their pets, but also created profitable additional markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the meat packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food for human consumption."1

Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nourishment for our animals. The nutritional quality of meat and poultry by-products, meals, and digests can vary from batch to batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers, two professors with the Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, "There is virtually no information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. These ingredients are generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a wide variation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional adequacy of pet foods based on the current Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles') do not give assurances of nutritional adequacy and will not until ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability values are incorporated."2

Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone meal are common ingredients in pet foods. The term "meal" means that these materials are not used fresh, but have been rendered. What is rendering? Rendering, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting." Homemade chicken soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms over the top when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process. Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid materials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial contaminants, but may alter or destroy some of the natural enzymes and proteins found in the raw ingredients. Meat and poultry by-products, while not rendered, vary widely in composition and quality.

What can the feeding of such products do to your companion animal? Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. The cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers -- such as rendering, extruding (a heat-and-pressure system used to "puff" dry foods into nuggets or kibbles), and baking -- do not necessarily destroy the hormones used to fatten livestock or increase milk production, or drugs such as antibiotics or the barbiturates used to euthanize animals.

Animal and Poultry Fat

You may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a new bag of pet food -- what is the source of that delightful smell? It is most often rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans.

Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick up this used grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies and other end users.

These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of these sprayed fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog or a cat to eat something she would normally turn up her nose at.

Wheat, Soy, Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein

The amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over the last decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry, cereal and grain products now replace a considerable proportion of the meat that was used in the first commercial pet foods. The availability of nutrients in these products is dependent upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of carbohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient value the animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of the nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. The availability of nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats is poor. The nutrients in potatoes and corn are far less available than those in rice. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used for filler or fiber, and have no significant nutritional value.

Two of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly dry foods, are almost always some form of grain products. Pedigree Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. 9 Lives Crunchy Meals for cats lists Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first three ingredients. Since cats are true carnivores -- they must eat meat to fulfill certain physiological needs -- one may wonder why we are feeding a corn-based product to them. The answer is that corn is a much cheaper "energy source" than meat.

In 1995, Nature's Recipe pulled thousands of tons of dog food off the shelf after consumers complained that their dogs were vomiting and losing their appetite. Nature's Recipe's loss amounted to $20 million. The problem was a fungus that produced vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin," a toxic substance produced by mold) contaminating the wheat. In 1999, another fungal toxin triggered the recall of dry dog food made by Doane Pet Care at one of its plants, including Ol' Roy (Wal-Mart's brand) and 53 other brands. This time, the toxin killed 25 dogs.

Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have diarrhea, vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more dangerous mycotoxins can cause weight loss, liver damage, lameness, and even death as in the Doane case. The Nature's Recipe incident prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to intervene. Dina Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of vomitoxin in Nature's Recipe wasn't much of a threat to the human population because "the grain that would go into pet food is not a high quality grain."3

Soy is another common ingredient that is sometimes used as a protein and energy source in pet food. Manufacturers also use it to add bulk so that when an animal eats a product containing soy he will feel more sated. While soy has been linked to gas in some dogs, other dogs do quite well with it. Vegetarian dog foods use soy as a protein source.

Additives and Preservatives

Many chemicals are added to commercial pet foods to improve the taste, stability, characteristics, or appearance of the food. Additives provide no nutritional value. Additives include emulsifiers to prevent water and fat from separating, antioxidants to prevent fat from turning rancid, and artificial colors and flavors to make the product more attractive to consumers and more palatable to their companion animals.

Adding chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago with spices, natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the last 40 years, however, the number of food additives has greatly increased.

All commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay fresh and appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a preserving process itself, so canned foods contain less preservatives than dry foods. Some preservatives are added to ingredients or raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be added by the manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to ensure that dry foods have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping and prolonged storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved with either synthetic or "natural" preservatives. Synthetic preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For these antioxidants, there is little information documenting their toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic use in pet foods that may be eaten every day for the life of the animal.

Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are permitted at relatively low levels. The use of these chemicals in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied, and long-term buildup of these agents may ultimately be harmful. Due to questionable data in the original study on its safety, ethoxyquin's manufacturer, Monsanto, was required to perform a new, more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996. Even though Monsanto found no significant toxicity associated with its own product, in July 1997, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine requested that manufacturers voluntarily reduce the maximum level for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per million.

While some pet food critics and veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin is a major cause of disease, skin problems, and infertility in dogs, others claim it is the safest, strongest, most stable preservative available for pet food. Ethoxyquin is approved for use in human food for preserving spices, such as cayenne and chili powder, at a level of 100 ppm -- but it would be very difficult to consume as much chili powder every day as a dog would eat dry food. Ethoxyquin has never been tested for safety in cats.

Some manufacturers have responded to consumer concern, and are now using "natural" preservatives such as Vitamin C (ascorbate), Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), and oils of rosemary, clove, or other spices, to preserve the fats in their products. Other ingredients, however, may be individually preserved. Most fish meal, and some prepared vitamin-mineral mixtures, contain chemical preservatives. This means that your companion animal may be eating food containing several types of preservatives. Federal law requires preservatives to be disclosed on the label; however, pet food companies only recently started to comply with this law.

Additives in Processed Pet Foods

Anticaking agents

Antimicrobial agents Lubricants

Antioxidants Nonnutritive sweeteners

Coloring agents Nutritive sweeteners

Curing agents Oxidizing and reducing agents

Drying agents pH control agents

Emulsifiers Processing aids

Firming agents Sequestrants

Flavor enhancers Solvents, vehicles

Flavoring agents Stabilizers, thickeners

Flour treating agents Surface active agents

Formulation aids Surface finishing agents

Humectants Synergists

Leavening agents Texturizers

Although the law requires studies of direct toxicity of these additives and preservatives, they have not been tested for their potential synergistic effects on each other once ingested. Some authors have suggested that dangerous interactions occur among some of the common synthetic preservatives.4 Natural preservatives do not provide as long a shelf life as chemical preservatives, but they are safe.

The Manufacturing Process

How Pet Food Is Made

Although feeding trials are no longer required for a food to meet the requirements for labeling a food "complete and balanced," most manufacturers perform palatability studies when developing a new pet food. One set of animals is fed a new food while a "control" group is fed a current formula. The total volume eaten is used as a gauge for the palatability of the food. The larger and more reputable companies do use feeding trials, which are considered to be a much more accurate assessment of the actual nutritional value of the food. They keep large colonies of dogs and cats for this purpose, or use testing laboratories that have their own animals.

Most dry food is made with a machine called an expander or extruder. First, raw materials are blended, sometimes by hand, other times by computer, in accordance with a recipe developed by animal nutritionists. This mixture is fed into an expander and steam or hot water is added. The mixture is subjected to steam, pressure, and high heat as it is extruded through dies that determine the shape of the final product and puffed like popcorn. The food is allowed to dry, and then is usually sprayed with fat, digests, or other compounds to make it more palatable. Although the cooking process may kill bacteria in pet food, the final product can lose its sterility during the subsequent drying, fat coating, and packaging process. A few foods are baked at high temperatures rather than extruded. This produces a dense, crunchy kibble that is palatable without the addition of sprayed on palatability enhancers. Animals can be fed about 25% less of a baked food, by volume (but not by weight), than an extruded food.

Ingredients are similar for wet, dry, and semi-moist foods, although the ratios of protein, fat, and fiber may change. A typical can of ordinary cat food reportedly contains about 45-50% meat or poultry by-products. The main difference between the types of food is the water content. It is impossible to directly compare labels from different kinds of food without a mathematical conversion to "dry matter basis."5 Wet or canned food begins with ground ingredients mixed with additives. If chunks are required, a special extruder forms them. Then the mixture is cooked and canned. The sealed cans are then put into containers resembling pressure cookers and commercial sterilization takes place. Some manufacturers cook the food right in the can.

There are special labeling requirements for pet food, all of which are contained in the annually revised Official Publication of AAFCO.6 The use of the terms "all" or "100%" cannot be used "if the product contains more than one ingredient, not including water sufficient for processing, decharacterizing agents, or trace amounts of preservatives and condiments." Products containing multiple ingredients are covered by AAFCO Regulation PF3(b) and (c). The "95% rule" applies when the ingredient(s) derived from animals, poultry, or fish constitutes at least 95% or more of the total weight of the product (or 70% excluding water for processing).

Because all-meat diets are usually not nutritionally balanced, they fell out of favor for many years. However, due to rising consumer interest in high quality meat products, several companies are now promoting 95% and 100% canned meats as a supplemental feeding option.

The "dinner" product is defined by the 25% Rule, which applies when "an ingredient or a combination of ingredients constitutes at least 25% of the weight of the product" (excluding water sufficient for processing) as long as the ingredient(s) shall constitute at least 10% of the total product weight; and a descriptor that implies other ingredients are included in the product formula is used on the label. Such descriptors include "recipe," "platter," "entree," and "formula." A combination of ingredients included in the product name is permissible when each ingredient comprises at least 3% of the product weight, excluding water for processing, and the ingredient names appear in descending order by weight.

The "with" rule allows an ingredient name to appear on the label, such as "with real chicken," as long as each such ingredient constitutes at least 3% of the food by weight, excluding water for processing.

The "flavor" rule allows a food to be designated as a certain flavor as long as the ingredient(s) are sufficient to "impart a distinctive characteristic" to the food. Thus, a "beef flavor" food may contain a small quantity of digest or other extract of tissues from cattle, without containing any actual beef meat at all.

Contaminants

Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product meals are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be rendered until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate more than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce during their growth and are released when they die. These toxins can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins.

Mycotoxins -- These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as vomitoxin in the Nature's Recipe case, and aflatoxin in Doane's food. Poor farming practices and improper drying and storage of crops can cause mold growth. Ingredients that are most likely to be contaminated with mycotoxins are grains such as wheat and corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.

What Consumers Can Do

* Write or call pet food companies and the Pet Food Institute and express your concerns about commercial pet foods. Demand that manufacturers improve the quality of ingredients in their products.

* Call API with any information about the pet food industry, specific manufacturers, or specific products.

* Print out a copy of this report for your veterinarian to further his or her knowledge about commercial pet food.

* Stop buying commercial pet food. Or if that is not possible, reduce the quantity of commercial pet food and supplement with fresh foods. Purchase one or more of the many books available on pet nutrition and make your own food. Be sure that a veterinarian or a nutritionist has checked the recipes to ensure that they are balanced and complete.

* Check our sample diets you can make yourself.

* Please be aware that API is not a veterinary hospital, clinic, or service. API does not and will not offer any medical advice. If you have concerns about your companion animal's health or nutritional requirements, please consult your veterinarian.

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Compiled and edited by:

The P.A.W.S. Institute ~608.772.3268 ~ pawsrescue911@yahoo.com ~ www.pawsinstitute.org

FOR A LIST OF RECOMMENDED PET FOODS AND OTHER SAFE, NON-TOXIC

PET PRODUCTS, PLEASE CALL US AT THE ABOVE NUMBER OR VISIT

SOME OF THE LINKS ON OUR WEBSITE.

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