As if multiple toxic heavy metals in all the pet foods or treats that contain fish or seafood ingredients isn't bad enough.....
And we know that it has been discovered that the high heat processing that occurs in the manufacturing of dry kibble actually creates two carcinogens -- acrylamide and heterocyclic amines. These won't be listed in the ingredients of the food of course, because they are created in the process itself and are not ingredients. We know that carcinogens cause cancer.
(And I'm not even mentioning a whole host of other problems with pet food ingredients that I've written about on numerous occasions.)
Now we have a report that just came out by The Ecology Center's Healthy Stuff about the testing they have done on the different toxic chemicals in the coatings of pet can foods. (They also did a larger test on can foods for people.) And as you can imagine, it's not good.
"We know that safer substitutes for BPA and PVC are widely available,” said Lauren Olson, science campaign director with the Ecology Center. “Last year consumer pressure led to Campbell’s and Del Monte making a commitment to phasing out BPA from all their cans. We’re calling on pet food companies to follow their lead and remove these harmful chemicals from their products.”
Their press release states "The Ecology Center will reach out to the major manufacturers of the canned pet food tested asking them to make a commitment to safer substitutes in their can linings." I hope they do. We need to put the consumer pressure on the pet food makers the same way. Your voice and your action is needed. Our pets are being poisoned. This is unacceptable -- whether it's the BPA or PVC in the can linings or the list of heavy metals, GMOs and other toxins (like phenobarbital) in the food itself.
The Ecology Center has created an easy way for you to take action in regards to the toxins found in the can food linings that includes a photo of your pet. Click here to find out how! (
See my example below with our cat Kilo.)
We have to demand better quality foods for our pets!
There seems to be a few pet food manufacturers who are ahead of this issue and now offer or have been offering plastic tubs instead of cans. But what chemicals are in the plastic the tubs are made out of that may leach into the food? We know that different plastics leach different toxic chemicals into foods as well. (I stopped using plastic containers for food storage when I learned this.) Would the (possible) toxins from the plastic tubs of food be less toxic than the chemicals like BPA and PVC in the can linings? One can only hope so! (Until those are tested!)
It's pretty sad that we have to choose between which toxin is worse. And that we have to have everything not only tested, but we have to be sure it's tested by a laboratory that doesn't have any vested interest in the petfood business; but this is where we are. At least now there are more different types of pet food options available like frozen, refrigerated and freeze dried. Kilo still loves his homemade raw food in addition to wet foods.
For some time now I have been warning people not to feed their pets any food or treats that contain seafoods, and for good reason -- they are loaded with heavy metals.You can read the previous articles where I wrote about pet food testing that was done back in May 2017 and Jan 2015.
I also gave 9 reasons to avoid seafood cat foods in April 2016 (as if heavy metals isn't enough). But this isn't just about cat foods. This is about any pet food or treat that contains any seafood ingredient. More and more research and testing is being conducted on pet foods -- not by the pet food companies themselves of course, but by outside sources.
After reading this very disturbing but not surprising article on the subject, just released by Karen Becker, DVM, I was looking at the Clean Label Project's list of product ratings of their scientific testing on 900 pet foods and treats. I was only looking at the section on cat wet foods, but with a little investigating I discovered my suspicions were true. All of the cat wet foods that were tested and showed having less than a 5 star rating on the list (the fewer stars, the more heavy metals in them) had a fish or seafood ingredient in them. All of them. Even the ones labeled beef or chicken and duck! They either had fish in the list of ingredients, some form of seafood, or fish oil or dried kelp.
It's worth mentioning here that when I have gone to a pet supply store to buy wet cat food and read the list of ingredients on different foods, I discovered that the pet food manufacturers are putting fish or other seafood ingredients in many of the foods without mentioning it at all on the front of the label. In fact, it's very misleading. You think you are getting a "chicken" only or a "beef" only food for example, because that's what it states on the front of the can, but if you actually read the list of ingredients, you will find fish in there! And usually it's one of the first 5 ingredients. So if you don't read ingredients, you could very well be feeding your pets seafoods or fish (and therefore heavy metals) without even knowing it.
So what does this mean? Unfortunately it means that you must read the ingredients of every pet food and treat you buy. And if there is any type of fish, fish oil, dried kelp or any other form or derivative of seafood in the list of ingredients, don't buy it! DON'T BUY IT! You will be slowly poisoning your pets with heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and others if you feed these types of foods and treats to your beloved pets. And if you are already feeding them these foods, stop! Please. And if you give your pets any type of supplement like fish oil or dried kelp and it's not certified organic with the seal of The Non-GMO Project Verified, then you can be sure that they contain toxic heavy metals. (USDA Certified Organic has no limits when it comes to heavy metals.) A safer alternative to generic fish oil or salmon oil is (sustainably harvested) krill oil.
I'm with Dr. Becker - the safe amount of any toxin or heavy metal should be 0 ppm.
Please read this article by Dr. Becker:
Busted: 55 Times Worse Than Giving Your Pet Water From Flint, Michigan
Did you know there are some great resources available at your fingertips when it comes to figuring out or deciphering the best quality foods and treats to buy for your pets?
One of these resources is the Cornucopia Institute, founded in 2004. You can read more about this non-profit public interest group here. They research and investigate many things, not just pet foods.
In 2015, they put out a very informative and educational report called Decoding Pet Food, which is a great resource to assist pet owners in finding high quality pet foods. It also explains which ingredients you want to avoid feeding your pets. You can become a more educated and informed pet food consumer by reading their report here.
For instance, do you know what carrageenan is? Did you know that extensive peer-reviewed
and published research indicates that food-grade carrageenan does in fact contain the dangerous carcinogen poligeenan in varying amounts, usually around 5%? "The fact that food-grade carrageenan contains poligeenan
in any amount should be enough to ban its use in both
human and pet food, considering it's well-documented carcinogenic
properties, even at small doses", says the report's author. Poligeenan is widely
used in cancer research to give test animals inflammation
cancer, for testing cancer treatments and anti-inflammatory
drugs. It causes intestinal inflammation with the potential to
lead to cancer, even in small doses.
Also, studies funded by the American Diabetes
Association have linked the consumption of food grade
carrageenan to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
The Cornucopia Institute's research found that more than 70% of can foods contain this ingredient. Is it any wonder that inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD) in cats, the most common cause of vomiting
and diarrhea, has become so commonplace?
Even veterinarians agree that research reveals many references to ‘carrageenan-induced
inflammation’. As one vet was quoted in the report: “Animal studies have repeatedly shown that food-grade
carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and
cancer at lower doses than the average daily intake. Given
the high rates of colon cancer in both dogs and cats, I
highly recommend removing carrageenan from your pet’s
diet.”
The Cornucopia Institute also has an accompanying Pet Food Guide. Is the pet food you buy on this guide? Does it contain carrageenan? Does it contain other ingredients you want to avoid like rendering products or food dyes? Are there foods that don't contain these unwanted ingredients? Yes. Check out their handy guide here.
There is a lot to be concerned about when it comes to pet foods as I have written about at length here -- especially GM (genetically modified) ingredients or better known as GMOs. Sadly, I still find that a lot of people have no idea what GMOs are or that they and their animals are consuming them on a daily basis and what this can do to their health. If you or your pets are consuming GMOs or (non-organic) wheat -- which when you think about it -- is in a lot of foods, you/your pets are consuming glyphosate, otherwise known as RoundUp, i.e. poison for our bodies. Sound crazy? I invite you to do the research for yourself. A good place to start is the most comprehensive source of GMO health information available on the web, which can be found at the Institute for Responsible Technology. A great article listing the top 20 GMO foods and ingredients to avoid -- and why can be found here.
What we put into ours and our pets' bodies is one of the basic keys to well-being. For so long we have had a dis-connect as to the relationship between what we/they consume and our/their state of health. We must be proactive to protect our and our pets' health.
In this recently (2017) published study in the journal Nature, the lead author stated that their findings "are very worrying as they demonstrate for the first time a causative link between an environmentally relevant level of Roundup consumption over the long-term and a serious disease".
This is some very concerning research that affects most pet food consumers (and human food consumers). Even at allowable levels (FDA and EU) this new study links the pesticide glyphosate to fatty liver disease. And should this come as a big surprise considering what glyphosate is and that it is put into our/their food supply?
In September of 2015, Dr. Anthony Samsel analyzed multiple pet foods for glyphosate and provided pet food consumers with the results, as shared in this article by Susan Thixton (TruthAboutPetFood.com): http://truthaboutpetfood.com/more-concerning-news-linked-to-glyphosate/. Also in this article Susan shares some things you can do about it as a pet owner.
As expected, there have been several articles written in response to the Association for Truth in Pet Food's recently published consumer funded pet food test report. It is the first of its kind. And as suspected, the results were not good, and so of course it is going to upset some people and/or groups of people.
I have shared this report with the intention of bringing awareness. What others say or write about this report -- whether it is veterinarians, pet food companies or whomever, does not matter. As Susan Thixton states in a recent reply to all the doubters: this is not a study, it's a test result. This test was done for the pet food consumers who paid to have it done. It's for us -- not you. We want answers. We want the truth. We paid to have it done ourselves because no one else is going to do it.
As Susan points out in her response to these articles, (and she speaks for me as well) it boils down to trust, doesn't it? I trust my common sense, my experience and my pets more than I trust anyone else.
As some of you may know, The Association for Truth in Pet Food, of which I am a member, had a fund raising campaign back in April of 2014. The goal was to raise $10,000 to begin our own independent scientific laboratory testing of cat and dog foods. This is something that has never been done before. History in the making.It is the first consumer funded in-depth examination of pet food. Not only was the $10,000 raised quickly, but it was surpassed and over $15,000 was raised by very determined pet food consumers.
The testing began and now the moment we have been waiting for....the results! What was found "is truly shocking and sad", says Susan Thixton, founder of the association. Personally, I can't even begin to express how I felt as I read the report. There just aren't enough words. Disgusted is one word.
I have written about the dangers of the ingredients in some commercial pet foods and though yes, those are a serious problem -- the test results add insult to injury. It's even worse than I thought. This is a huge wake-up call for not only all who own pets but veterinarians as well. This cannot be ignored or denied any more.
We, the determined pet food consumers, are fed up and are having the foods tested ourselves. And now with our first scientific laboratory results in hand, we -- the pet food consumers, have to speak up and share this information with our representatives in order to change things. We must also share it with all pet food consumers in order to educate.
Pet food consumers provide state governments with an estimated $1 billion dollars in sales tax revenue per year on pet food purchases alone. The question has to be asked...what are pet food consumers getting in return for this revenue?
Please click here to read the results and find out how to contact your representatives. (She makes it easy with an example letter.) There are also links to download an infographic overview, a printed two page overview and the entire 54 page report -- so please share!
Click here to learn how you can be part of the team that changes the future of pet food!
