I have read many articles whether they be fact or paranoia stating that the meat by products found in pet food is often cancerous organs of animals from human food facilities that are illegal to use for human consumption, or road kill, or even dead dogs and cats. Could a big company like fancy feast get away with this? I stay away from big name brands and only use holistic, natural food free of any bad ingredients but I’m concerned about this issue and why it’s happening and what is really in pet food.
AAFCO’s definition of "animal byproducts": the non rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. They place no requirements on the type of animal, health of the animal, etc. They are usually sourced from slaughterhouses. Basically, it’s just about anything from any sort of animal that isn’t meat.
There is a list of pet food ingredients, and their AAFCO definitions, here: http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html You’ll note that most of the non-specific ingredients (like Meat, Meat Meal, Meat and Bone meal, Animal Digest, Animal Fat, etc.) place NO requirements as far as the quality of the animal, species of the animal, health of the animal, etc. Some ingredients, like Animal Fat, are sourced from rendering plants. That’s where dead animals are sent when they’re not sale-able for any other purposes. They may have dropped dead in the field for unknown reasons, went down at the slaughterhouse due to ill-health, be roadkill picked up by the county road crews, euthanized shelter animals, euthanized horses, etc.
Yes, they can "get away" with it- because it’s legal, and most people could care less what they’re feeding their pet. Big pet food companies make more money when they use cheap ingredients. So they do. Most of them care about their bottom line, not the health of the pets their products feed.
