In 2006, if by chance you read the Iredell County (North Carolina) Planning Board website, you could have learned about a “proposed expansion” request from “LeaWay Company (Steve Lea)”.
The zoning document provided the request from LeaWay Company to add a “rendering facility” on the Statesville, NC property. The document also states the “Existing Land Use” was “Meat Products Processing Facility (pet food).”
And then if you bothered to keep reading the 5-page legal notice, you would have learned (bold added):
“The applicant seeks permission to add a rendering facility to their existing meat-processing operation which has been in business since 1979 at this location. Lea-Way Company picks up deceased cattle from area farms and provides a means for sanitary disposal; the existing plant processes useable materials into pet food products but it must ship out the unusable parts to outside renderers.”
“LeaWay currently has a monthly average of just over 2 million pounds of material going through their facility. Of this total, approximately 66,000 – 70,000 lbs. (3%) constitute unuseable cattle ruminants that are currently being shipped to outside renderers for processing.”
A pet food that “provides a means for sanitary disposal” of “deceased cattle”? You would want to know which company this is…right?
So, if by chance a pet owner found this legal document disclosing Lea-Way Company makes pet food from deceased cattle from area farms, how would they know which pet food brand is made by this company?
To our knowledge, only one other public document has ever disclosed which brand of pet food is manufactured by Lea-Way Company, and confirmed the quality of ingredients (the source of ingredients) in this pet food (as was disclosed in the 2006 zoning document).
A pet owner would have had to – by chance – read a 2020 FDA Warning Letter to Lea-Way Farms to would learn the pet food name; “dba (doing business as) Blue Ridge Beef”. From the Warning Letter, the pet owner would be provided with confirmation of the inferior quality of ingredients in this pet food (bold added):
“Your firm utilizes tissues from animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter in the manufacturing of pet food without first determining whether the animals suffered any type of illness, injury, and/or whether any medications may have been administered to the animals prior to your pick up from the supplier and subsequent use in manufacturing, such that tissues from the animals would be unsuitable for manufacturing and processing into your pet food.”
That is a lot of ‘by chance’ for a pet owner to learn significantly pertinent information about a pet food. What if a pet owner did not – by chance – happen to read these two documents?
The Blue Ridge Beef pet food website – just like every other pet food using ‘tissues from animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter’ (“a means for sanitary disposal”) – gives no information about the ingredient quality. In fact, the Blue Ridge Beef pet food website –similar to every other pet food website – tells pet owners their food is “Natural” and “100% pure”.
How can pet owners not be told?
There are legally required disclosures for real estate, lending, insurance, used cars, and on and on and on. All of these required disclosures are in place to protect the consumer.
But in pet food – there is NO required disclosure of ingredients sourced from animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter. There is no consumer protection.
Why? Because the FDA does not require pet food manufacturers to tell you.
We have submitted official requests to FDA (Citizen Petition) two previous times asking the agency to stop allowing ingredients sourced from non-slaughtered animals in pet food – both times the agency denied our requests. In July 2022, we submitted another Citizen Petition to FDA citing current law that requires disclosure of these types of ingredients. Even though the FDA is required to provide a response within 120 days – more than a year later we still wait for their response.
Send the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine an email – telling them consumer protection disclosures to quality of ingredients must be required information on pet food labels and websites. No pet owner should gamble with their pet’s life on ‘by chance’ finding evidence their pet’s food is made from diseased animals that died other than by slaughter.
Email FDA at: AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Heather
August 28, 2023 at 2:58 pm
And they sell RAW FOOD! This is terrible!
jan b-b
August 28, 2023 at 3:29 pm
happy to say I’ve never fed BRB!!! my cats tried one small sample at a catshow once…………….that was enough for them lol. I’ve found a small farm which raises turkeys and grinds thighs………that’s what I’ve used for years. Cats like it, we like it, it makes great food for the kitties and wonderful burgers for the people!
Nora
August 28, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Wait Blue Ridge is a raw food provider?!!! Another reason why I cut up my own raw food for my dogs.
Jill C.
August 28, 2023 at 3:42 pm
The fact they want to add a rendering plant to their property makes this even worse as the “unusable” portions will be “rendered” into meat meals etc and put back into their foods. Just gross
Sandy M.
August 28, 2023 at 9:17 pm
I definitely will send the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine an email as Susan suggests. Susan’s excellent article also has the Blue Ridge website link. When you click on that link and then click on the “where to buy” section, there is a list of places that sell Blue Ridge. The retail contact information is also there. I will also send an e-mail to those locations that are in my state, so they are informed as well.
Janet Johnson
August 29, 2023 at 9:23 pm
This is just disgusting! For good reason I worry constantly what is going on with the food I feed my dogs and cats. Thankfully, at least, I’ve never fed them this! Thanks for making aware.
Sheila Black
September 1, 2023 at 2:42 pm
I am in Canada.My mistrust/disgust of the pet food industry resulted in me learning to feed my 8 and 9 year old cats a homemade raw raw diet. That was eight years ago,they are in good health. It has been very much well worth the effort it took to learn how to feed a balanced raw diet to cats, and the time needed to make twice monthly raw preps.
Kim Boss
February 15, 2024 at 12:26 am
Lea Way is no different than any other pet food company. This is how ALL commercial pet food is made.This is how our country disposes of the animal parts not for human consumption. It also includes all the euthanized pets in our country that are not cremated. Animals from Humane Society’s, County pound, Veterinary offices, road kill, dead cattle from farms.In addition all the spoiled meat from grocery stores. There is no one at the rendering facilities removing styrofoam/ plastic wrap from the meat, collars(including flea collars) are not removed, patches on cattle(hormone,insect repellent,whatever…) are left on. It all goes in to the Pet Food. I read a statement from the FDA that said they allow cattle with tumors, growths to go into the Pet Food. I wrote a letter to the FDA and got know response. I basically said they are supposed to protect the public. People consider their pets as family so how can you protect what people eat and then turn your back and not protect our beloved pets. And to make it worse the FDA doesn’t make it mandatory for Pet Food companies to give full disclosure about the ingredients. The FDA is protecting the pet food manufactures and you know why? Because Purina alone(this is old data too) makes over 13 BILLION per year. The pet food industry has their own people sitting on every regulatory board to keep everything as it is and in their favor. So basically the FDA is powerless. 13 Billion wins over everything every time. Pet Food labels are not truthful in any way. They aren’t truthful about it even being beef, chicken or whatever.Rendering plants put it all together. They don’t just run a beef load or a chicken load. Whatever comes out of the rendering plants is delivered to ALL the pet food manufactures. It’s the base of ALL the Pet foods. Then they make it their own unique product by shaping it and adding whatever to it. They all spray on their synthetic vitamins and minerals( which adds the only nutritional value) to the product right before sealing the bag.Most of the public will not even believe this. They can’t believe the FDA would allow this. Everyone needs a wake up call. I’ve tried to educate anyone that will listen and most people don’t want to hear it, don’t believe it. So sad for our pets.