Shamelesly stolen from the internet: "Hey! It says chicken on the back on my bag of pet food. Why would I give my pet the chicken I eat? Great question! What you consider to be chicken may not be the same chicken that is found in your pet food. In the English Dictionary, the definition for chicken (for human consumption) mentions that: “Chickens farmed for meat are called broiler chickens. Chickens will naturally live for 6 or more years, but broiler chickens typically take less than 6 weeks to reach slaughter size. A free range or organic meat chicken will usually be slaughtered at about 14 weeks of age.” Paraphrasing Pet Advocate Susan Thixton: The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is the organization responsible for developing existing pet food ingredient definitions aka “The Pet Food Dictionary”. Pet food consumers depend on these definitions to properly define what can or cannot be included in their pet food choice. AAFCO officially defines chicken as a combination of flesh and skin and could include bone. The HUGE concern regarding AAFCO and the official definition of chicken (and all poultry) is that the ingredient can be sourced from 4D (dead, dying, diseased, disabled) animals rejected for use in human food – including euthanized poultry. Therefore Chicken & Chicken Meal labeling do NOT require sourcing from slaughtered animals on chicken farms. Either 4D or and spoiled supermarket meats can be used. Why does the chicken for dogs in the photo look like powder? Well when the renderer sells it to the manufacturer, he must heat it, drain it, re-bake it and then pound it into a powder removing the moisture so it does not develop mold. From there, the manufacturer must take this powder and cook it a second time in order to make their kibble. With all that cooking, is it still the chicken you think it is? If you haven’t done it already, try adding a piece of fresh, local chicken to your pet’s dish from time to time. We are sure they’ll appreciate the freshness! The next time you want to compare pet grade chicken to human grade chicken, remember that what is in the human dictionary and what is in the pet labeling dictionary defining chicken are two different things."
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 01:48:28 +0000
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