By Sandy Murphey

The ingredients in pet food have been of interest to me for several years, because of membership in Susan Thixton’s site TruthAboutPetFood. It has become a passion, since I’ve realized how much more there is to know, and share. I spend time each day researching and posting on various sites about it.

Raw food diet for cats. Photo by Hotash — This photo is just for illustrative purposes.

My interest peaked a few months ago when my kitty, Mitzy, became constipated. I was feeding her a high quality wet and dry food. I tried adding various forms of fiber to her food, but nothing was working. The vet put her on Lactulose, which I was giving to her daily. She also said that Mitzy might have a “mechanical problem”. Fortunately, we didn’t pursue this line of thinking….

The vet also pushed for me to buy Hill’s WD canned, and Royal Canin High Response. I was trying to wean Mitzy from dry food, and told the vet I didn’t want it. But she insisted, and actually carried it out to the car!

I was curious about these expensive “prescription” foods, and began to research the ingredients. I referred to the “Ingredient Analysis” by Dr. Lisa Newman, and was shocked to find that these ingredients were of poor quality, and found in the cheapest pet foods. All you have to do is look them up online, and click on ingredients.

I also found many reports of pets getting ill from these foods. At the time of my research, there were over 200 reports on the Consumer Affairs site. Of course, this isn’t the place to list pet food complaints. But people don’t know this. In the meantime, the FDA can say they haven’t received any complaints. These brands have never been recalled, to my knowledge. These companies are huge, and have a lot of influence.

I returned the bag to the vet, and changed vets. There’s much more to this story, which involved drug reactions, but I’ll post that another time.

Reading the tiny print on labels on cans or bags is nearly impossible. I discovered that the best way to read labels is online, where you can actually read it.

But reading labels isn’t enough, unless you know what the ingredients mean. It’s not going to say “dead dogs and cats”, but instead will show these ingredients as meat “by-produts. There will be no mention of the drugs that were in these euthanized animals, that may be affecting your pet.

The FDA is on a crusade to test “only” raw pet food, for salmonella, when the facts are that there’s more danger of salmonella from ground meats sold for human consumption. And most of the pet food (dry and wet) recalls are based on salmonella! It’s pretty obvious that there’s a vendetta against raw pet food. We can only guess why.

Most of us know that whenever we handle raw meats,it’s important to wash our hands, to avoid salmonella poisoning.

I want to share that since I’ve started feeding Mitzy raw cat food, her constipation is no longer a problem. The change was immediate, after her first meal. I had no idea that it would continue to be the solution, after all the things I tried. One vet told me to give her Lactulose 4 times a day, but I refused to do this. I wanted to get to the root of the problem, not cover it up.

Since feed grade, pet grade or inedible ingredient pet foods are allowed by FDA to be made from (not all inclusive): Meat sourced from diseased, dead, or dying animals; chemical or pesticide contaminated vegetables, grains, fruits, that’s probably not going to change.

But to not allow those companies who use human grade ingredients to state that on the label is highly suspicious to me. Do we believe that the FDA is protecting our pets? I see no evidence of that.

I urge you to sign this petition, so there’s some degree of pressure from consumers. This is the only thing that has a chance of changing this situation.

Your pet’s lives are at stake. Do something while you still can.

Sandy