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Sustainability or Excuse to use Waste?

The new buzz word in pet food is ‘sustainability’. There has even been a ‘Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition’ formed. Is sustainability a real issue in pet food manufacturing or is sustainability the buzz to camouflage the use of horrible wastes in pet food?

The new buzz word in pet food is ‘sustainability’. There has even been a ‘Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition’ formed. Is sustainability a real issue in pet food manufacturing or is sustainability the buzz to camouflage the use of horrible wastes in pet food?

The Washington Post asks:

How much does your dog impact the environment? A whole lot, according to sustainable-living gurus Brenda and Robert Vale. In their 2009 book “Time To Eat the Dog,” a medium-size dog’s environmental impact is about double that of an average sport utility vehicle.”

Our dogs are doing us a favor by eating the unwanted byproducts of our own food system. If we deny ourselves this benefit, we will have to raise cattle, sheep and pigs for the sole purpose of feeding them to dogs. That would make dogs into a luxury item that would be difficult to justify from an environmental perspective.

The Guardian tells consumers:

Two German Shepherds use more resources just for their annual food needs than the average Bangladeshi uses each year in total. But our pet population consumes a huge amount of resources which, in our climate constrained reality, are no longer available. With a human population of 7.2 billion and a dog and cat population now in the hundreds of millions (it’s estimated at 179m in the US alone), the Earth cannot sustain these populations – especially as a growing percentage of pets live their lives as ravenous consumers.

Veterinarian Dr. Tony Buffington goes so far to question if it is ethical to feed people food to pets. He states:

“Feed a puppy or Feed a child?”

“I recognize that marketing is not about evidence, and that pet owners are free to be convinced to buy and feed anything, regardless of the evidence for or against it. If people choose to believe that grain causes food allergy even though it doesn’t (any more than lactose causes milk intolerance), or that pets perform better when fed some imagined “ancestral” diet, even though their ancestors only lived for months vs. the many years of life that most contemporary pets enjoy, I respect their right to do so. It’s a matter of personal preference. But I cannot accept the notion, promoted by some pet food marketer, that animals should be eating “human-grade” foods.”

This veterinarian even goes so far as endorse 4D meats (meats from dying, diseased, disabled or deceased animals), stating “all of our ancestors, animal and human, ate “4D” meat, without benefit of modern food-safety processes to minimize the risk of harm to those consuming it.” He implies that since this classification of meats was good enough for our ancestors – why isn’t it 4D good enough for our pets?

And now we have the Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition. From the Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition website:

We value inclusive collaboration with manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, brands and retailers that leverages existing sustainability knowledge and experience as well as innovating solutions for sustainability issues facing the pet industry.

We value genuine sustainability improvement that favors implementation and action-oriented participation by member companies.

We collaborate to accelerate sustainability in the pet industry by encouraging the implementation of best-practices, by providing tools and resources for advancement and by promoting continual and authentic improvement for the benefit of our environment, communities and businesses.

Some of the information provided on the organization’s website seems beneficial, but my concern is that this organization would become a front for the continued use of dangerous wastes in pet food. I spoke with this organization and addressed my concerns with them. I was assured this was not the case, but I didn’t receive any real understanding of what the organization was about or any true confirmation the organization would take a stance against the use of 4D animals or other dangerous wastes in pet food.

My suggestion to pet food sustainability would be to provide pet food consumers assurances that meats and vegetable ingredients have passed USDA inspection. I believe most pet food consumers would be fine with by-product ingredients in their pet foods if we were provided the assurance the ingredients are disease free, have not been decomposing for a week out in the hot sun before inclusion in a pet food, and don’t contain denaturing agents or other dangerous chemicals. You want consumers to accept by-products – assure us they are safe. All food ingredients – human food or animal food – should be sourced from healthy, quality sources and held/transported in clean, appropriate manners.

I suggest to Dr. Buffington (quoted above) – since you are such a proponent of 4D meats – perhaps you can consume these meats yourself…say, for 30 days? Dr. Buffington – please make sure your affairs are in order before you attempt this, because you are probably going to get very, very ill…you might even die.

This won’t ever happen. Because there are federal laws that prohibit the consumption of 4D meats. There are such significant dangers to the consumption of diseased meats or consumption of meats from animals that have died other than by slaughter that federal laws were established stating any “food” would be adulterated (and illegal) should it contain any part of a diseased animal or an animal that has died other than by slaughter. That ‘food’ also means pet food. Federal laws prohibit meats from 4D animals to be used in any food – human or animal food.

But sadly – no authority enforces these laws with animal foods.

Sustainability in pet food could lead to good things, but sustainability Dr. Buffington’s way is just an excuse to dump more waste into pet food. The problem for pet food consumers is that much/most of the pet food industry is not transparent enough for us to know which sustainability they are talking about.

 

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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7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Gitta

    June 30, 2014 at 1:27 pm

    Well, I can see Dr. Buffington’s point: as a vet he benefits from pets’ ill health due to poor diet. I don’t think Dr. B. needs to eat 4D meat as our ancestors did. If he would just agree to live without a refrigerator he could test his hypothesis quite easily. If he was truly convicted he would not treat any pet that are not being fed according to his views. If he does, what does that say about his convictions? He would keep them alive so they can continue to eat up precious resources. What about the resources that go into developing technology and drugs for veterinary use for pets? If he has a clinic for pets – how big is the footprint of his clinic?

    To all those who eagerly, and perhaps not without merit, jump on the pet-footprint bandwagon: how much do you contribute to the enormous problem of electronic waste because you need to upgrade your cell phone and tablets as soon as a new model becomes available? How many rare metals do you gobble up in your quest for the latest gadget? What is the cost to the environment and humans because of it?

    Did you ever stop before you went to see a doctor if treating you, prolonging your life is in the best interest of the planet? As Dr. B. pointed out, ancestors didn’t live as long. They didn’t use up enormous resources to stay alive. Compare that to a Bangladeshi. If the earth cannot sustain such a large human population, then why do we keep advancing western medicine at literally all costs?

    How big is the footprint of one book? From start to finish? Electricity to run the PC, logging, turning trees into paper, ink, machines, fuel to ship the books and on and on.

    I’d be much more impressed if those critics would take a more critical look at their own footprint before they climb on that high horse.

  2. Mary Anne Kennard

    June 30, 2014 at 1:35 pm

    This is crazy! I am not going to feed my best friend dead & diseased anything! Why bother having a pet if you are not going to take care of it? You’re just poisoning the poor thing! I guess I am going to have to start cooking for my dogs, even though I hate cooking for myself! HaHa! I have been diligent in feeding my dogs the best food I can find, which is still questionable, but if they are all going to be garbage there aren’t any other choices. Just because they’re “dogs” doesn’t mean we have to care for them like they are. I hate it when people say ‘ oh it’s just a dog, etc’. It infuriates me especially when you consider the fact that animals are often better friends than people!

  3. Lynn Lassen

    June 30, 2014 at 2:12 pm

    What? feed a dog OR feed a child? Guess what … I feed my kids and my dogs the best I can which is as organic and raw as I can. Maybe some birth control would be in order! Spay and neuter! If the Western world wants to take on the responsibility for everyone else lets start there. What do you think?

  4. Pat P.

    June 30, 2014 at 2:39 pm

    There is no justification for feeding 4-D animals or toxic chemicals to any living creature, when the possibility of killing them is huge! The garbage that is in most pet foods IS killing them, even if not all do so upon immediate consumption. The vast amount of cases of cancer, UTI’s, CKD, and, probably, others, did not exist before the introduction of the so-called adequately nutritional foods by the pet food industry.
    Dr. Buffington–You need to switch professions–something where ethics and hypocrisy isn’t important–perhaps, a politician.
    As Susan mentioned, if wastes were shown not to be harmful to our pets, we might not be as concerned. Unfortunately, they are not. Even the FDA agrees that pets should not be fed 4-D animals, and they don’t really care about our pets, as evidenced by their lack of enforcement of this law.
    The incredible and criminal amount of waste of good human food by every restaurant, institution and individual, on a daily basis, could, probably, feed all of our pets for their lifetimes, in addition to a lot of homeless people! I am fairly certain that Dr. Buffington produces his share of that waste.
    The benefits that our pets provide with their companionship, including life-saving ones, cannot be overestimated!

  5. Eucritta

    June 30, 2014 at 3:26 pm

    This sort of anti-pet nonsense has been around for a very long time. Albert Payson Terhune wrote about it in the context of WWI; I first encountered it personally as a child in the 60s, from my parents’ radical left-wing friends, but also – sadly – in mainstream girl’s animal stories. We’ve all of us undoubtedly read cruder versions of it frequently in news websites’ comments sections, where any story on animal welfare or rights is apt to provoke the shame-and-blame brigade.

    It’s also never really been about animals. That’s just the excuse. Often, it’s used as a means to shut down discussions, by those to whom any mention of animal welfare or rights is an anathema. It’s also cover for those who enjoy causing distress. According to Terhune, during WWI it was an especially poisonous and pointless expression of jingoistic fanaticism. In those girl’s books, it was a means of reinforcing traditional morality and gender roles. Among my family’s and my acquaintance, it arose from a misguided belief that – in defense of the environment, or wildlife, or human health, or social justice – it’s better to do something ineffective and cruel than nothing at all.

    This time ’round … all that’s changed are the buzzwords.

    Personally, I say – if these people are genuinely concerned about ‘sustainability’ – a term which I consider inadequately defined – they’d be far better off supporting local farms and alternative energy than taking spiteful aim at other people’s pets.

  6. Ellie

    July 18, 2014 at 1:34 pm

    Historically pest have been fed “leftovers” and the less desirable cuts of meat but even in the somewhat harsher climate for pets pre-WWII most people did not feed domestic pets rotting discarded waste products. I believe the rats and other vermin were waiting in line for the trash.
    It is quite common in some of the ecology minded groups to promote vegetarian lifestyles in order to eliminate more of the livestock from the face of the earth that they feel are helping to mess up the atmosphere and causing climate change. Some of the more radical sects feel the human element needs to be drastically reduced as well. The earth being much more important than the people who live on it.
    It is getting quite frightening to read some of the callus ideas that are coming from these groups.

  7. Dr. Oscar Chavez

    July 27, 2014 at 9:21 am

    Dr. Buffington – as a veterinarian you should be ashamed to support this argument. Ethical? Really?? This is desperate. Where does it end? Is veterinary medicine ethical? There are a lot of sick people in this world and the cost of a vet education is the same as an MD education. Should we close vet schools and mandate they become human schools? Are veterinary specialties (of which you are supposed to be one) ethical? That’s advanced education (and expense) in the field of medicine that does not directly benefit humans – so is that ethical? Or – should we just keep vet med in the context of food production animals? I mean – small animals and pet are just expensive luxuries right? Are pets ethical? Why stop there? Should MRI’s be used in vet med when they are needed in human med? Should medications be used in vet med, when sometimes there are human shortages? They’re just animals is what you are saying, right? Emotions?? This entire argument attempts to build a case on sustainability and plays on the environmental impact emotion. Well, where does that end? Pet food routinely uses low quality supplements and minerals in their pre-mix blends that contribute to environmental toxicity. Lead laced minerals, aflatoxins, contaminated feed are all allowed at levels that are higher (or less controlled) than what is allowed for the production of human food. What does that result in? Build up of lead and toxins in our livestock (meat), environment (livestock feces, pet feces, etc), and the poisoning of plant workers in production plants that have to handle this low quality crap. The reality is that raising the production of pet food to human standards IMPROVES the environmental impact and is more ethical to humans from the point of view of safe handling and production. Finally – if you’re going to go down this route, are you suggesting we close gourmet restaurants? Are they ethical? How about people that home cook? Should they sign a contract at the grocery store that assures the food will only be fed to a human? Should we have a government food distribution system? I think they have a name for these political ideas and they are not usually accepted in America. Sorry to be so blunt Dr. Buffington, but this is a horrible argument.

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