Have you ever scanned the ingredients in a commercial dog food and thought, "How can this be healthy?" Unfortunately, if your dog eats ordinary, processed dog food, your dog is probably eats things that are a whole lot worse than what you might find him chewing on in your backyard each and every day.
Most dog foods available in stores today are so highly processed and full of preservatives and chemicals, that they aren't any better for our dogs than Twinkies (TM) are for humans.
They contain cheap ingredients, unhealthy fillers, unhealthy preservatives or poisonous chemicals. Many dog foods advertised as "preservative-free" do, in fact, contain preservatives. Manufacturers don't have to list preservatives that they themselves did not add.
Many preservatives make their way into dog food at the rendering plants before the meat is even sent to the manufacturer. An analysis of several dog foods labeled "chemical free" or "all natural ingredients" found synthetic antioxidants in all samples.
Although you won't see it on the label, since it is often added at the rendering plant and not by the manufacturer, ethoxyquin (EQ) is used to preserve most dry dog food. EQ is the most powerful of all preservatives and may be the most toxic.
Rendering plant workers that have been exposed to it denoted side effects similar to those of Agent Orange:
* A dramatic rise in liver or kidney damage
* Cancerous skin lesions
* Hair loss
* Blindness
* Leukemia
* Fetal abnormalities
* Chronic diarrhea
In animals, EQ has been linked to:
* Immune deficiency syndrome
* Spleen, stomach, and liver cancers
* And a host of allergies
The "animal" or "meat by-products" are biodegradable wastes that we don't want for ourselves. These are parts that Americans rarely consume as they are not intended for human consumption. These parts come from animal carcasses, and include, but are not limited to, animal heads, skin, organs, lungs, bones, teeth, blood, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, stomachs, intestines and feces.
Their origins include catering waste (all waste food from restaurants, catering facilities, central kitchens, slaughterhouses and household kitchens). It might also contain parts from sick or dying animals that can come from slaughterhouses or euthanized animals from animal shelters.
The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a dog food plant every month.
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About the Author
June Parker was born and raised in Hawaii, but is currently living in upstate New York where she writes freelance for a variety of publications. June has been a student and advocate of alternative medicine, herbal healing, Hawaiian lomi lomi massage and organic gardening for over forty years. Are You Poisoning Your Dog?
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