Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Book review: Foods Pets Die For

I just started reading this book about pet food. I had no idea the things that go into pet food. Mostly "rendered" companion animals, meaning animals that have been euthanized, which can be toxic to the animals. Evidently that is what is done with road kill, euthanized animals (including the ones no one wants at animal shelters), zoo animals, etc. Evidently they don't bother taking off the collars either. All of it goes into the bin including poop and bedding from the livestock industry.

Oh, and the livestock industry participates by selling off its meat that is unfit for human consumption. Considering all the stuff that goes into hot dogs, that must be pretty disgusting. And, they have to differentiate the stuff that is animal food versus human food. This process is called "denaturing" and includes covering the food with charcoal, carbonic acid, fuel oil, or citronella.

The book also includes several recipes for homemade dog and cat food. I haven't done much cooking for my animals before but it may be worth it.

Besides, have you ever stopped to consider how much pet food costs? For a decent dry cat or dog food, it is about $1/pound. Canned food is more expensive. I'm sure that I can find some substitutes that would cost less than a dollar a pound and still be quality food.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Amy Dear~~ What a disgusting subject. I'm trying to think of something good to write... can't do it.

Hope you're doing well. Obviously you're keeping busy. Give Guy a big hug for me.

Mr. H. said...

That's really awful, it makes me glad that we are making our own dog food. I still need to work on the cats food though. I added that book to my Amazon list.