What's in your pet's food?

39 Billion dollars. That is the number the pet food industry was able to drum up for 2006.*
What is more staggering, are the ingredients in your pets food and treats. The FDA loosely regulates what goes into pet food and how it is marketed. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm

A large truck pulls into an industrial complex and deposits its payload. The inventory of the truck is loaded on to a conveyer belt rumbling its way to a piece of machinery with teeth, tines, spikes, and cogs. On the other end a giant vat, eagerly awaiting the ingredients spilling out of the chaos. What I’m describing is a rendering plant used to receive euthanized dogs and cats from our shelters, sick, lame farm animals and road kill scraped from our rural roads. The vat fills and the contents boiled (rendered) to a soup. This animal soup is then used in our dog and cat food, chicken, cow, and horse feed, cosmetics, candles etc...
I can't even begin to tell you the toxins and poisons that are ingested from the pesticides, flea collars, and heavy metals.

To make matters worse, it’s not just our pets who are ingesting this but humans as well. We have many choices in the dog food that we purchase and you shouldn't let marketing cloud your mind. Just because the packaging is attractive and the commercials are cute, doesn't mean that the food is wholesome and healthy. I'm not saying that you have to run out and purchase the most expensive dog food, but get the best you can with what you have. More times than not, foods with dyes and fillers are the culprits for doggie allergies. So do your homework, read the ingredients on the package, and choose a dog/cat food that is as healthy as possible.

* According to WikiAnswers www.wiki.answers.com