Pet Food Ingredients - D The 4-D's

D


The 4-D's


None of them good. 

Dead, Dying, Disabled, Diseased.

Firstly let me start by point out - The FDA is aware of the use of 4-D animals in pet food

Isn't that just fabulous. 

Food and Drug Adulteration. - not a real name


Dead - Not by slaughter

Of course the animals are dead - it's an integral part of the pet food making process. 

It's rather sad to think of a healthy animal being sent off to slaughter..but that is how it is suppose to be done. 
The animals need to be healthy.

If the animal is dead prior to slaughter then what did it die from?

Old age? highly doubt it... people that would keep their farm animals into old age would probably not sell them off to the scavengers looking for cheap meat.

Accident? Well that is possible I guess. Cow wondered onto the road and got hit by a car. Chicken attempted to cross the road....


The pet food industry is not going to go door to door seeking out accident victims. 

They buy in bulk. It saves money and time. 

How does one find dead animals in bulk?

Dig up Marineland property ?

Pretend I didn't say that.. 


Think... where does one find a plethora of dead animals? Other than slaughter houses. 

Maybe a Zoo? Possible.

What about a farm? They have lots of Cattle just mooing around. 

Shelters? They sadly have many animals that have been euthanized. 

Labs?  They use so many animals for experimenting - they tend to have a high mortality rate. 

All of the above are highly possible suppliers.

What you have to also need to think about - so much fun to think about things like this..really...fun like a nail to the head would be. 

- What did the animals die from? We already covered old age & crossing the road, that leaves us with things like - Natural causes - Sudden Death 

Anyone else find it a bit disturbing that some of these things are basically caused by people not paying attention or giving a damn about the health and safety of farm animals?

I think that leaves us with evil humans - Violence.. I would prefer not to link that, because then I would have to find a decent source ..and I really would rather not have that imagery in my head.


I forgot about the lab animals.. who the hell knows what those poor things have had put into them during their horrific lives.

1D - Dead = not fit for human consumption 
                  not fit for use in pet foods

......unless the companies don't get caught.....


Dying - What are these poor animals dying from? 

They were dying so we killed them. 
I guess that is more humane than allowing them to suffer. 
Then we sold them to scavengers. 

You sold them to someone who was going to use these animals in pet foods?

Absolutely not! I sold them to someone who was going to use all of the animal in an ethical way. No waste. Circle of life.. gave me 20 bucks a carcass. I asked for 30 but he said he had to take off 10 due to the missing parts. 

Missing parts?

They have been out there for a few days now - critters got to them. 


Okay so I made up that conversation... but it is very possible for these dead animals to have been dead for a few days prior to being snatched up by the scavenger people. ( They may be termed as Salvage people)


We all know what starts appearing on something dead..we have seen it on TV.. it grosses us out. Maggots. Even the word icks me out. 

Dead and Dying animals could be listed together, the dying end up dead.. the dead use to be dying...
That's just my theory. 

***************

That brings us to..

Disabled

The thought of it makes me rather sad.. I don't know if they mean it in the same way.. but all I can picture is that poor dog with wheels for back legs.


Figuring out what this means was a bit more difficult than first expected.

I am still not 100% sure, but this is what I have managed to understand with my limited information . 

Disabled animals are those who have sustained an injury after they have been cleared to be used for food - cleared for slaughter.

Now they are no longer suitable or 'fit for human consumption'

This is rather odd to me.

I wonder if the world is just super creepy and mean -or does an injury raise the levels of certain chemicals in the body?

More research needed. 

At least it isn't about corn...


I have to say I have no clue if I am even remotley correct about the disabled label of the 4D's

I was redirected by the FDA to their Animal & Veterinary page. 

From there I went to Animal Foods & Feeds, then to Pet Food. 

I will email again to see if they can speak in something other than links to various pages that do not help.

I will add the information if I get another response.


Now for the last D

Diseased 


Think Mad Cow. 

 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Now think Mad Cat.

No, that can't be the name. One would never know the cat was sick!
Or everyone would think their cat was sick.

 Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy

BSE contaminated pet food was linked to FSE in the UK

Alberta was not able to link it - does not get them off the hook, if you had to check..you were using it!

Mad Cow disease in humans is called  - just in case you wondered

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 

 Other disease can be seen on these links

Cow

Sheep

Pig 

Meat 

Poultry

Fish

Fish - Salmon

Lets just say that one could spend a large amount of time just looking up diseases.

One may need to find something cute, furry & alive to look at after.

So that is the 4D's...

I do not feel any more educated after this. 

Let me just say that it all goes back to those unnamed meat sources. 

Animal By-Products & Meat By-Products. 

You can also include unnamed By-Product Meals.

For those of you that feed Raw - know your distributor!

 4D's are not only being bought up by the big pet food companies. 

 Inquire, learn, educate yourself. 

Be your pets voice - even if they would normally just say feed me.