Drugs used to kill animals are winding up in pet food. Earlier this
month we reported how euthanized dogs and cats from local animal
shelters are taken to the same rendering plant that produces raw
materials for pet foods.
It's a sad secret kept by most animal shelters run by local governments
the dogs and cats they put to death go to one place, a rendering plant
in Millstadt, Illinois where their bodies are boiled down into raw
materials that could be winding up in pet food.
For years the Food and Drug Administration claimed that drugs like
sodium pentobarbital, which is used to kill the animals, did not survive
the rendering process. Now the FDA has proof that it does.
Tests on a variety of brands of dog foods, that it kept hidden from the
public since 1998, show "several retail feeds were confirmed for the
presence of pentobarbital" which could have only come from euthanized
animals. What made the FDA test in the first place?
"We had reports from veterinarians that dogs had died after eating foods
that may contain pentobarbital," says Don Aird with the Food and Drug
Administration.
While the FDA report reveals what foods were tested, the names of the
foods that tested positive for pentobarbital are being kept secret. The
FDA does say that the foods tested all contained products such as meat
and bone meal and animal fat, all of which could come in part from
rendered animals.
It begs the question, if there's an ingredient in pet food that is not
listed on the label but that could be dangerous and in fact can be
fatal, shouldn't pet owners know what foods did indeed test positive for
this?
"We'll be releasing all that in January. The problem is just because its
there doesn't mean it's dangerous," says Aird.
As a result people will be feeding this to their pets for the next two
months, possibly with dangerous levels of pentobarbital in the food.
Aird calls the animal deaths from pet food a "rare event."
Pet food companies involved in the test all refer questions to the Pet
Food Institute which flatly denies the pentobarbital in the food is a
problem, and says "no one knows precisely sure where it is coming from."
The Pet Food Institute earlier denied that rendered dogs and cats were
used in the production of some pet foods, however our investigation
indicated it was happening on a regular basis.
Indeed pentobarbital is also used to euthanize sick or injured cows and
horses, which are also rendered and used in some pet food.
Those who tested the foods also say the levels of pentobarbital are low
but acknowledge they don't know what levels are dangerous. The dogs that
supposedly died ate the food over long periods of time. Also
veterinarians who've put dogs down due to illness report having to use
higher levels of pentobarbital to euthinize those animals indicating
they already had some in their system.
What would the FDA do if this was found in people food?
"If it was in people food we would immediately have a recall," says
Aird.
