Tuesday, May 14, 2013

What's Really In Your Dog Food??

Salmonella? Aflatoxin? Pieces of plastic? Traces of Chinese antibiotics? Mold?
     All of the above - and more -  have prompted dog food/treat recalls recently.

But only economy brands are involved, right?
     Nooo, even the pricey brands have problems.

Well the food I use is manufactured in the US so it's safe, isn't it?
     Not necessarily. "Manufacturing" simply involves combining and packaging the ingredients; it says nothing about the source of those ingredients.

So where do the ingredients come from?
     All over the world, including third world nations where "sanitation" means dumping the chamber pot out the window before it overflows onto the floor.

     I am currently involved in a "discussion" with the producer of several well-known brands of food re: a recall, and I can't tell you how angry I am. I have to wonder about the impact of small companies being bought out by conglomerates on the quality of the product. I don't remember ever seeing this frequency of recalls in the past; have procedures for contamination detection greatly improved, or are we feeding our beloved dogs toxic crap?

      There is a site, dogfoodadvisor.com, which not only does a good job of rating dog food, but also offers an email alert program to notify subscribers whenever there is a recall. I never would have known what was going on with the food I was using if I had not signed up for that (free) program. Check it out, it's a real eye-opener.