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Pet Food Ingredients

One Pet Owner’s Rude Awakening

Warning: the images of pet food ingredient raw materials in this post are graphic.

Warning: the images of pet food ingredient raw materials in this post are graphic.

A true story.

Recently I received an email from a very concerned pet owner. By chance she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and saw something that undoubtedly changed her life forever.

‘A’ was out with friends in downtown Denver, Colorado. They were driving to a party at a warehouse in the industrial part of Denver. Below are ‘A’s’ words describing what they found when their cell phone directions led them down a dead end road.

As we reached the end of the road, we were face to face with a huge garage that was filled with mountains and pounds of dead, decaying animals. I thought maybe we had accidentally stumbled upon a factory farm or something hellish. We were all in complete shock as to what we were looking at, I couldn’t move nor drive so we stayed there, and I was able to get pictures and videos of this graveyard. While doing everything in our power to withstand the smell, we stayed and observed what they could possibly be doing with deceased creatures in the most unsanitary place on earth. We watched a man on a walkie talkie moving around by the bodies, he did not have a breathing/safety mask on. Then, a bulldozer began to pick up the bodies and move them around the garage. We couldn’t take our eyes off of the horrifying image of thousands of decaying beings in piles like they never existed. Soon enough, someone noticed us and shut the garage door, then a dump truck behind me began to rev his engine viciously, that was our cue to get out of there as fast as we could.”

Below are the pictures of what ‘A’ and friends saw.

What ‘A’ saw, was future pet food ingredients. What’s pictured could become the pet food ingredient pork meal and pork fat and/or pork by-product meal.

What ‘A’ happened across was Darling Ingredients – a rendering facility. A facility that the FDA and Colorado Department of Agriculture allows to sell adulterated ingredients to pet food with no disclosure to pet owners.

Below is a Google Earth image of Darling Ingredients, 5701 York Street, Denver, Colorado.

Note in the above picture, there are 5 trailers of what appears to be dead animal carcasses/animal parts lined up waiting to be processed. Of additional concern, one of the trailers is leaking…right next to the South Platte River that runs through Denver.

What if this trailer full of dead animal carcasses leaking onto the ground a few feet away from the river contained diseased animals? A disease that could travel and spread in the river? Serious animal diseases such as anthrax and tularemia can both survive in water. What if?

It’s not just this one facility either, there are hundreds of other rendering facilities across the US processing the same diseased and decomposing animal material into pet food ingredients. Trailers leaking just as example above contaminating soil and waterways.

And the worst part – the FDA does not believe YOU (pet owners) should be told if your pet’s food contains ingredients like this.

The FDA intentionally allows these ingredients into pet food even though they violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Food Safety Modernization Act.

And the FDA intentionally decided you don’t need to know if your pet’s food contains this illegal waste.

FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Director Dr. Steven Solomon told us in April 2019 “we do not believe that the use of diseased animals or animals that died otherwise than by slaughter to make animal food poses a safety concern and we intend to continue to exercise enforcement discretion.”

And FDA CVM’s Dr. Solomon stated the agency doesn’t believe pet owners need to know how pet feeds differ from pet foods or human foods. In other words, Dr. Solomon doesn’t believe pet owners need to know if their pet’s food contains illegal ingredients exampled above.

As difficult as they are to look at, please look at the above pictures of the Darling Ingredients rendering facility again. And then PLEASE send emails to your representatives in Congress demanding change. IF FDA is going to allow pet foods to source ingredients from diseased animals and animals that have died other than by slaughter, the pet food label MUST disclose that.

Pet owners can also email the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine at AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov.

My thanks to ‘A’ for sharing her story with us.


Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food


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33 Comments

33 Comments

  1. Tobi

    April 16, 2021 at 5:00 pm

    When I started working at a vets office 19 years ago I first heard about this. Deceased, dying, dead and decayed! 😢😓

    • Ken

      April 19, 2021 at 10:13 am

      FYI “Decayed” is not part of the “4D meat definition: “4D” refers to dying, diseased, disabled and dead livestock.

  2. Sherri

    April 16, 2021 at 5:15 pm

    I think the vast majority of pet owners would be equally as shocked. Most simply look at package pictures, maybe read ingredients, or feed what a vet suggests, without knowing the ugly truth behind all the glossy pic’s and language. This is why I do not participate in the pet food industry, that filthy industry will never be cleaned up and trustworthy. Never. Best thing I ever did was start making my own dog food, I just wish I’d known and started sooner. Thank you Susan for posting ugly stuff like this so more and more people can be aware.

    • Judith K.

      April 17, 2021 at 3:34 pm

      I so agree Sherri. These pictures tell it all!!

  3. Joanne

    April 16, 2021 at 5:23 pm

    I buy Ziwi , human grade, NO CHEMICALS, JUST MEAT AND SOME GREENS. BETTER TO BUY BETTER FOOD THEN BRING YOUR PET TO THE VET WITH CANCER, IBD, OR THYROID FROM ALL THE CHEMICALS IN COMMERCIAL FOODS WHICH ARE OUT FOR PROFIT.

  4. Susan Mazzotti

    April 16, 2021 at 5:33 pm

    Not so unbelievable for those of us who refuse to buy the Purina’s of the world!!!

  5. Linda Perez

    April 16, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    This is so disgusting! I can’t believe they think it’s ok

  6. Lynn Felici-Gallant

    April 16, 2021 at 6:50 pm

    When were these pictures taken? It would be doubly disturbing if this was during a pandemic.

    • Susan Thixton

      April 16, 2021 at 7:05 pm

      The pictures were taken a couple of months ago.

  7. andi

    April 16, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    Wow, Susan… pretty horrifying sight! Sadly, SO MANY COMPANIES in the pet food industry have been operating like this for decades! No matter what company is using the words: “healthy”, “natural”, “holistic”, they could ALL be using ingredients just as bad or WORSE than these in the photos.

    It’s why I have ALWAYS recommended that pet lovers MAKE their own food. It’s the only way their babies will be GUARANTEED to be eating (and becoming) healthy, natural or holistic:)

    Thank YOU for all the amazing and tireless work you do for all of us. You make it a WISER planet!
    Sending LOVE to you and your family!

  8. Mark J Mohapp

    April 16, 2021 at 7:27 pm

    I feed a food made in Italy. Europe enforces their standards but the US does not.

    • Susan Thixton

      April 16, 2021 at 7:48 pm

      To my knowledge, there is no guarantee that pet foods in the EU don’t use rendered diseased or non-slaughtered animals. I don’t know their regulations as well as US regulations, but from speaking with pet owners and veterinarians in EU – I believe the same happens there.

      • Kay H

        April 17, 2021 at 8:49 am

        EU Regulation 1774/2002 stipulates that animal by-products in petfood (confusingly, /all/ animal parts not intended for human consumption are legally “by-products” in the EU) can only be from subcategories a-j of Category 3: only from animals whose carcasses are fit for human consumption (plus fish and eggs). 1774/2002 also lays down the law on inspection and enforcement.

        So I do think EU consumers are better protected than those in the US in this area.

        That‘s not to say petfood is necessarily safe in the EU. Imports aren‘t as tightly regulated as home-produced feed; Chinese raw materials are plentiful and often concerning; the US wields worrying anti-regulatory power in the trade deals it pushes through.

        And even if the ingredients are kosher in that they aren‘t diseased, there‘s nothing to stop EU petfood manufacturers from stuffing their products full of skin, feathers and connective tissue and marketing it as meat, since the EU has no legal definition of “meat” for animal food.

        • Kay H

          April 17, 2021 at 8:57 am

          — sorry, I meant to say “only from /slaughtered/ animals whose carcasses are fit for human consumption”

          — and I also meant to thank Susan for this post! It‘s one thing to be theoretically informed, but these photos really bring home the gruesomely unsanitary, unsafe reality of petfood manufacturing.

        • Susan Thixton

          April 17, 2021 at 9:41 am

          The thing I don’t know – is if the EU enforces those laws. We have laws here in the US, federal and state laws, that declare this material adulterated and illegal. But our regulatory authorities don’t enforce that law. I don’t know if the same happens in EU.

      • Rox

        April 18, 2021 at 11:40 am

        Susan, regarding this. Information I have from a UK horse person is that horses euthanized (read: dangerous drugs) are rendered for pet food. Horses who are diseased and dying are used for pet food. Horse meat is allowed for human consumption in EU and what’s left from the process is used in pet foods in EU even though horses may have dangerous chemicals in their bodies including very toxic parasite-controlling drugs, performance “enhancers”, toxic painkillers (often given to race horses who didn’t make it as race horses and have broken down), etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. Unfortunately the presence of horse meat in pet foods is not disclosed in most cases. It also ends up in human food without disclosure to humans as found by investigators who tested ground meat and processed meat products in UK and EU.

    • Dina B

      March 18, 2022 at 6:00 pm

      That company pictured in the report from A, actually have facilities in Europe too
      https://www.darlingii.com/

  9. Ronald Krikorian

    April 16, 2021 at 9:25 pm

    The FDA could care less about our pets! It’s obvious by the way they govern the pet food industry! It’s all about PROFIT!!!

  10. Karin Yates

    April 16, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    Rendering plants “melt down” any animal carcass, in any condition, from anywhere, including euthanized dogs and cats from shelters. That is precisely why sodium pentobarbital has been found in pet food! (Most likely it’s the “animal fat” in the pet food that is the product skimmed from the top of the melted down corpses. I can’t wait until we feed our pets synthesized meats. But in the mean time, dogs do just fine on a plant-based diet.

  11. Gloria

    April 16, 2021 at 11:36 pm

    This is beyond disgusting! Those in charge of this carnage should be made to eat the stuff that they manufacture. This is why I prefer to feed raw (couldn’t get by with stuff like this in raw food, or could they?) or homemade.

  12. Kathryn M Smith

    April 17, 2021 at 10:16 am

    well, if it doesn’t cause issues for pet food, let’s allow them to put it into food or products for ‘human’ consumption and see what happens…
    a lot of restaurant ‘waste’ also goes into animal feed … may not be dead or diseased, but simply not sold or consumed… breads, fresh/raw veggies that are past the prime for salads; etc.

    the price of thousands of products would immediately be lowered …

    if I ‘can’t’ eat it…. neither should my animals be allowed to consume the same type of product.

    Just say’n …

  13. Penelope Johansen

    April 17, 2021 at 10:48 am

    Did president Biden ever respond to your letter?

    • Susan Thixton

      April 17, 2021 at 10:51 am

      No response thus far. The letter was sent about a month ago.

      • Dina B

        March 18, 2022 at 6:07 pm

        Why not go on his twitter feed where hundreds of thousands are watching, and post the link to the company I provided and the photos, with a caption… solutions that
        sustain life?

        Im mad as hell and about to post myself.

  14. Joy Metcalf

    April 18, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    Twenty-something years ago I was living in Colorado, working in Denver. I remember the smells of Purina’s rendering facility. It was then that I started doing research and changing my dogs’ diets. Now I feed completely raw and get the meat from a Halal butcher down the road. Even when I can’t feed fresh raw, I feed human-grade dehydrated raw.

    Why are we surprised? The Executive Branch (of which the FDA is a part) has thumbed its nose at Congress for decades.

  15. Duncan

    April 18, 2021 at 1:59 pm

    A person just don’t know what to do. As someone who has followed pet foods, I am aware of this specific problem. Homemade dog food is safer but the supply of meat for humans isn’t so great either (although it is better). Taking Maximus off meat altogether probably isn’t such a great idea. Can’t win for losing (but playing roulette with Max’s life just isn’t right).

  16. Ken

    April 19, 2021 at 10:07 am

    I appreciate the concern exhibited here for what are, without a doubt, disturbing pictures. You might be equally shocked to see so called “clean” or un-decayed meat processed before it shows up under plastic wrap in the grocery store. In my opinion, as thinking and feeling beings, we probably have a moral obligation to stop eating animals in the first place. Vat grown meat is showing great promise. It can be raised without all of the filth and disease that slaughtering thinking beings (with inherently “dirty” digestive systems) creates.

    That being said, the process of rendering uses heat to destroy pathogens and recovers protein and fat that would otherwise go into a landfill. It’s not pretty, but it probably is less wasteful and a more sustainable approach for the planet. If you’re worried about what to feed your own dog, fresh/raw frozen is probably the best way to go to avoid any risk of “mystery meat” that may or may not be found in meat meals and powders.

    Not everyone can afford fresh/raw frozen however. There are a lot of dogs enjoying their life right now that are being fed foods made from rendered meat meals. If they could speak, they might tell you it is better than starvation or not existing in the first place. Moral outrage over these ugly pictures is justified on one hand, but the unintended consequences of ending the process of rendering might be much worse.

    • Susan Thixton

      April 19, 2021 at 1:25 pm

      Rendering is a necessary evil – however to use material (rendered or not) sourced from diseased animals or animals that have died other than by slaughter in a pet food is a violation of federal laws. And to sell this material without disclosure to pet owners is another injustice.

      • Dianne & Pets

        April 20, 2021 at 4:50 pm

        And clearly, many toxins are not destroyed in the rendering process. Pentobarbital and mycotoxins to name two.

        • Ken

          April 23, 2021 at 6:28 pm

          Mycotoxins are derived from mold that grows on grain. It is highly unlikely that they would be included in rendered meat sources.

          Phenobarbital is used to treat seizures….unlikely this drug would be widely found in meat animals. If this reference perhaps refers to end-of-life chemicals, they are prohibitively expensive to use on meat animals. People and beloved pets most often are recipients of comparatively expensive drugs at end of life. I’m not aware of any substantive proof, (like the compelling pictures in this article), that Fido, Fifi or Uncle Joe end up in our rendered meats.

          Heat does not destroy radioactivity as well. Hmm….

          • Susan Thixton

            April 24, 2021 at 10:12 am

            The drug Dianne & Pets mentioned was pentobarbital, not phenobarbital. Pentobarbital is used to euthanize animals including some livestock animals. University veterinary centers or research facilities are required to humanely euthanize animals which include livestock and pentobarbital. There has been almost 92 million pounds of pet food recalled since Jan 2017 due to contamination with pentobarbital. FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine Director Dr. Steven Solomon told an industry group (in a speech obtained through Freedom of Information Act Request) that pentobarbital in rendered ingredients is more of a pervasive problem than the agency originally thought.

  17. Dina B

    March 18, 2022 at 5:56 pm

    I got news for you they dont only make ingredients for pet foods but human supplements cosmetics and biofuels ect. I think a better way to deal with this is to expose it on the human side. No one gives 2 shits about animals, but post those images related to a company handling human items and watch the outrage.
    https://www.darlingii.com/

  18. Dina B

    March 18, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    Omg lol whats even sicker is they list their ingredients to the pet food industry as “Fresh Meats” how evil is this world where there are zero protections in place?

    https://www.petfoodindustry.com/directories/347-directory-of-suppliers/listing/12021-darling-ingredients-inc

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