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If poor quality control, shoddy food safety standards, and the overwhelming potential for contamination isn’t reason enough to avoid feeding your dog a food made or sourced in China, hopefully this will finally convince you.
This week, police in the Xi’an province of China seized about 20,000 kilograms (that’s over 22 tons!) of fake beef from a local manufacturing plant. The “beef” was actually made from pork, a lower quality, cheaper meat, that had been treated with chemicals – including paraffin wax (candles, anyone?) and industrial salts, to give it the appearance of real beef.
To date, 6 different workshops that were creating the fake beef have been located and shut down, but not before at least 1,500 kilos (that’s 3,000 pounds) of the stuff had been sold and served at local markets.
And, who knows how much of that has ended up in our dog’s food.
Pork is generally not recommended as a main protein source for dogs due to the fatty nature and the risk for pancreatitis and/or trichinosis (intestinal roundworms) if not properly processed.
Meat-related crimes are nothing new in China. Medical Daily reported that authorities have arrested 904 people for “meat-related offenses” in the past three months. Included in these arrests was one ring of meat crooks who made over 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) by selling rat, fox, and mink meat at markets.
One of those arrested used at least 10 tons of rat, fox, and mink meat, treated it with gelatin, carmine, and nitrate, then sold it as lamb to unsuspecting consumers and manufacturers.
Beef and Lamb are both major meat ingredients in dog foods, trailing behind chicken as the most popular meat ingredient.
Please, folks, check your pet food label, find out where it’s made. Call the manufacturer and find out where their ingredients are sourced. If they aren’t completely transparent and forthcoming, find a manufacturer that is. Your dog’s life could depend on it.
hdkrazee
says:Well, look at the recent reports of HORSE MEAT in OUR meats from over seas! I say, “Made in America, ONLY” for me and mine!
Chris
says:Oh, Dustin… I get the irony, and my family is veg, but we are not arrogant enough to believe we can tool up a veg diet for our dogs.
Dustin
says:Vegetarian diets…Dogs who are fed veggie only diets without meat are super healthy. Many good dog owners create their own dog food using various veggie and other ingredients. I know many dog owners who do this. You can find ingredients online. Dogs don’t need meat to be healthy and more often than not, the meat for dog food is super low quality nastiness from sick animals or from animals like horses ground up to mimic beef. This happens frequently.
Also, there is the horribly sad irony of killing other animals to feed your animal.
Esp. When dogs are better off not eating it.
Jean Cervi
says:Many of the U.S. manufacturers, even those labeled as top quality and/or natural food sourced and produced here are still getting their vitamins and minerals from China. So far, I’ve only found that Wysong, Fromm, Merrick and Pet Guard skip the China connection. Don’t believe that they can’t get those ingredients here or from Europe or Canada. The other thing they try to get you to believe is that the factories in China are closely monitored. Believe that and I have a bridge I’d like to sell you! The bottom line is that it’s cheaper and your pet’s safety is not their priority. A ‘natural’ label doesn’t mean what you might think.
Kim Martine
says:Orijen (from Canada) also sources locally.
erica
says:Shit.. I won’t even eat the meat at Chinese (or any other Asian) restaurants for fear it’s rats or cats! The Chinese are pathetic wastes of space. AND they can’t drive. I don’t even want them in our country1
anne wendt
says:wow, hate much?
Frank De Amaral
says:Yikes Erica! A little racist perhaps!
Robin
says:Erica, my guess is that First Natives don’t want you in this country either. It’s really sad that you can’t focus on the real issue of ensuring the quality and safety of dog food without such derogatory and racist remarks.
Brenda
says:My husband read all labels for our 2 Maltese and for our human food if it does not say made in the USA it does not go into our shopping cart or our home
Jesse
says:Brenda, you must also check where it is “Sourced” as well. Another hassle, but apparently it can say “USA” but be sourced elsewhere.
And, it’s not just food you should worry about. What about all of the other things that might be in your dog’s favorite chew toy for example. Look for companies that are not only based in the US but actually manufacture the products they sell here. You might be surprised at what you’ll find out if you look at the tags on many popular “natural” and “organic” pet toys and products. A great deal of them are made overseas regardless of where the company is actually based.
Dot
says:When will the dog and cat food manufacturers finally realize it is their best interest to correctly label their products. Those that do have the guts to state such things and state that all ingredients come from USA with NO GMO or other death ingredients and so state I see making a large bundle of money from consumers.
Wendy
says:Unfortunately, when USA consumers DEMAND it by NOT buying products labeled incorrectly, or when said American consumers stop buying cheap crap formulated dog food for their pets. I’ve made it a hobby of reading labels and NOT feeding crap to my dogs/cats. Wish most of the American populace would follow suit, we could get some real change then.