What is the correct diet for a vegan pet owner to provide?  Do we err on the side of compassion for our companion animals and contribute to the demise of unknown animals by feeding them to our companions; or do we eschew all animal products and possibly endanger our companions by giving them a deficient
diet?  This is a dilemma, one worthy of scrutiny.  I started researching what it was I was actually feeding to my cat, a rescued cat that once again needed a home and was left with me.  Skitter, my current roommate, is your typical finicky cat – she loves chips but not fish.  And cat food? She abhors it.  I soon learned why.

What is in Your Pet’s Food?

I discovered that in the U.S. alone, the pet food industry generates over $11 billion annually.  It provides a huge market for slaughterhouse refuse such as intestines, udders, esophagi, tongues, beaks, feathers, bones, blood, lungs, ligaments, and may use animal parts that are considered unfit for human consumption. Carcasses of euthanized cat and dogs, some with flea collars containing sodium pentobarbital used for euthanasia, insecticides, diseased livestock, plastic ID tags, rotting supermarket waste complete with styrofoam trays and plastic wrap, cancerous body parts, and hormones are “rendered” in huge vats. Dead stock dealers pick up road kill and sell it to the rendering plants. Restaurant grease and garbage, entrails from dead stock removal, contaminated material from slaughterhouses – all are rendered. Pet food is not a tightly regulated industry; decisions are often made for profitability rather than for animal nutrition. Most pet foods contain by-products of meat, poultry and fish, with little consistency in the amount of nutrients that may be contained.   They may contain synthetic preservatives, which enhance the shelf-life of the product but not of the animals they feed.  Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol and ethoxyquin are some that may be included, despite the fact that the chronic ingestion by our pets may not be safe.  Ethoxyquin is used although is has not been proven safe for pets.  Pet foods are not tested for endotoxins and mycotoxins can result from the poor storage of the grains which dominate most pet foods.

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