I was recently reading a book by the author Howard Lyman. He is a cattle rancher that decided to ‘expose’ practices in the US meat industry. Anyway, I read something pretty disgusting.
Does anyone have any more information about this issue?
Is this really true?
Here is a quote by author Howard Lyman:
’ There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the embracing arms of the renderer. Another staple of the renderers diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets…
the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and roadkill. When the gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder about a quarter of which consists of fecal material. The powder is used as an additive to almost all pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it protein concentrates.EIn 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. ’
Any information (quotes or URLs please) about this topic would be great.
In the Howard Lyman book ‘Mad Cowboy’ (cute title, eh?), he said that most meat processors (renderers) do not follow this new law, because it is not enforced to any degree by the FDA.
**In August 1997, in response to growing concern about the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or Mad Cow disease), the FDA issued a new regulation that bans the feeding of ruminant protein (protein from cud-chewing animals) to ruminants; therefore, to the extent that the regulation is actually enforced, cattle are no longer quite the cannibals that we had made them into. **
They are no longer eating solid parts of other cattle, or sheep, or goats. **They still munch, however, on ground-up dead horses, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as blood and fecal matter of their own species and that of chickens. ** About 75 percent of the ninety million beef cattle in America are routinely given feed that has been genrichedh with rendered animal parts.
The use of animal excrement in feed is common as well, as livestock operators have found it to be an efficient way of disposing of a portion of the 1.6 million tons of livestock wastes generated annually by their industry. In Arkansas, for example, the average farm feeds over fifty tons of chicken litter to cattle every year.
After all, protein is protein. A cow would not be inclined to take a bite out of, for instance, a pig. A cow, however, has no objection to eating that pig when it has been cooked up, ground to powder and mixed with ground corn, soy beans, anchovies, dried milk solids and God alone knows what else. This is just what happens to hogs the packing plant inspectors find unfit for human consumption for one reason or another, usually because the porker is dead in the truck.
I just read the FDA Code of Federal Regulations (21CF589.2000)
that you gave me the link to.
It seems like under the new Code, they can still feed cats and dogs (and other animals) to cows.
The code says:
“Animal proteins [are] prohibited in ruminant feed.
Protein derived from mammalian tissues means
any protein-containing portion of mammalian animals, excluding: Blood and blood products…”
So, the cows could still be eating dog and cat, etc. blood.
Also…
Not pertaining to dogs and cats, but the FDA Code says that the meat industry can still use pig and horse meat in cattle feed:
“any product whose only mammalian protein
consists entirely of porcine or equine protein”
And…
Cats and dogs and other animals can still be fed to ANY animal (ie: pigs, chickens, sheep, etc.) as long as it is not a ruminant. FDA says that a ruminant is:
“cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, deer, elk, and antelopes”
Lastly…
The only “inspection” that the licensed meat renderers have to comply with by this FDA Code is:
“Inspection: records retention. (1) Records… are to be made available for inspection and copying”
So, no FDA people are actually going into these plants to test or inspect. Pretty scarey.
I didn’t mean to say sheep in the first statement.
Please disregard it.
"Cats and dogs and other animals can still be fed to ANY animal (ie: pigs, chickens, sheep, etc.) as long as it is not a ruminant. FDA says that a ruminant is:
‘cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, deer, elk, and antelopes’"
Why would this be a bad thing anyway? Assuming for a moment that animals are not being euthanized specifically in order to feed to farm animals (in other words, the ranchers are getting animals that were euthanized anyway), why should it matter if they are fed to other animals? It may be unsettling, but it’s better than letting the animal rot away in the ground. Ok, putrid animals, I can see having a problem with, but I’m not sure I see a problem otherwise.
“They are no longer eating solid parts of other cattle, or sheep, or goats. They still munch, however, on ground-up dead horses, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as blood and fecal matter of their own species and that of chickens.”
So? Lets be honest here - after they send it through the machines, it doesn’t matter what is was, it is refined protein. All that junk in your intestines is, after all, more or less just the same as the stuff in your body.
They do freeze euthanized animals around here. (Knoxville)
Not only that, Obidiah, but it brings to mind an entirely NEW set of questions.
How well does the ingestor of this disgusting potpourri handle the bacteria? How well do the cows do in FILTERING out the bacteria from all of these euthanised animals? Are we eating steaks that are in fact filled with digested poisons?
Does it mean that in fact, one of the most poisonous foods on the planet is cooked beef liver? The filter through which all of these noxious elements is draw off??
I am thoroughly grossed out now because I ate dog food and dog bones as a kid. Lil’ bonk likes to raid the dog’s bowl. Can we all say ‘Eeeeeeeew’ loud enough?
That your hamburger contains any amount of Fluffy or Rover is unlikely. A packing plant is likely to “tank” several tons of hogs as unfit for human consumption every day. What small animal vet is going to pile up a similar amount of household pet carcasses? It is a matter of economics for the guy with the carcass and the guy who is going to turn the deceased into a feed additive.
Horses are too valuable as human food to deliberately slaughter them as the raw material for a protein supplement. I imagine that the horses that make their way into animal food, including dog and cat food, are the beasts that come off the truck dead or have some pretty obvious problem when they get to the slaughter house. The “pound horses" around here are put on the truck for slaughter houses in Quebec where they are locally consumed or frozen and shipped to Europe.
Here’s a couple more links about the practice: a 1998 Rolling Stone article about the fast food industry describes the practice of feeding cows slaughterhouse waste, abolished in 1997, and feeding them euthanised animals, which continued after that date: http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/rollingstone2.html
Plus an older article from the AFU archive, which references a 1985 study. It speculates on the dangers from drugs used to put the rendered pets to sleep, but decides the amount present in rendered residues would be minimal: http://www.urbanlegends.com/animals/rendering_euthanized_animals.html
Based on the description in the OP, I think the rendering process kills all the bacteria present in the . . . uh, what’s the world I’m looking for? Offal?
This thread definitely rates high on the ick-o-meter.
Hey, don’t knock Scrapple! I don’t care where it comes from as long as it tastes good, just like hot dogs! Besides, at least it’s ground up real good, not like chewing on those hunks of hoof and cartilage you find in most Italian sausages and cheap hamburger patties.
Folks, the prion responsible for Mad Cow disease is not “killed” by regular rendering processes. So if one cow has it, goes into a large vat, gets mixed into a several tons of delicious goo, and sent out to be fed to thousands of other cows, you’re talking about a serious problem. This is how it is believed to have spread in Europe. It is probably also happening in the US but since the FDA is deliberately avoiding looking for it, we don’t know how bad it is.
“Byproducts” of animals in a given category should not be fed to animals in the same category.
