Recently the discovery of Mad Cow Disease
cases in Washington State led to the USDA announcing a series
of sweeping changes
in its Mad Cow Disease prevention policies. One of the biggest
changes is a ban on older cows and downer cattle (an industry
term for dairy cows with diseases or injuries that prevent
them from walking), and a ban on certain parts including head,
spinal column, and small intestines (high-risk Mad Cow carriers).
This is good news for humans. But what about pets? On December
30, Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman announced downer
cattle will no longer be used for human food consumption, however
they may continue to be used for pet food consumption. Why?
The answer is simple. If these cows and parts were banned from
pet food in addition to human food, the cow farmers wouldn’t
have anyone to sell them to -- regardless of cat and dog
health problems that might occur.
It’s a well-known fact that downer and diseased cattle
considered unfit for human consumption are routinely used in
cat and dog foods. In addition to this latest enforced difference
between human-quality and pet food ingredients, USDA regulations
allow
pet food meat to be already dead, dying, or diseased, which
not only can include farm animals, but also roadkill and euthanized
animals. Many of these plants take parts unfit for human consumption
including tongues, cheeks, offal . . . and brain and spinal
cord material.
Now that downer cattle will be banned for
use in the human food supply, the market for these meats will
shift
almost entirely
on the cat and dog food industry where there are no laws requiring
Mad Cow testing. Ann Martin, author of “Foods Pets Die
For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food” (New Sage Press,
Troutdale, OR, 2003) says that there are no legal safeguards
to ensure that pet foods aren’t contaminated. At this
time it is not entirely clear how animals would be affected
by eating contaminated meat. Mad Cow Disease has been proven
to infect other animals besides humans. Cats can develop a
variant of the disease, Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy, which
is deadly. And though pet food manufacturers say that dogs
are immune and insist that there is no apparent danger, other
nations have already taken steps by banning the importation
of American pet foods containing any kind of meat.
Of course not all pet food manufacturers use these questionable
meat sources in their food. There are many natural
dog food manufacturers that use human-quality meats in their foods.
However, recent
regulations have caused many states to not allow cat and dog
food manufacturers to acknowledge that their ingredients are
human-quality.
As
a result, consumers are unable to determine the source of the
meats used in pet foods by looking at the bag. If you’re
using kibble, the best way to determine if the pet food you’re
buying uses human-quality meat sources or not is to simply
call the manufacturer and ask. And of course you add your own
meat to our Sojos natural pet food mixes,
so you can control the type and quality of the meat you want
to feed your companion
animals.
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Sojourner Farms. All rights reserved.
