Cat Food and Mad Cow Disease

"Betsy" -0 wrote in message ...
One buys premium cat food with recognizable ingredients, or else one cooks
for ones cat. I've been trying to educate friends and family and whoever
will listen for YEARS that mystery meats in pet food are bad news, Steve
Crane & Hills to the contrary!

Jean,
Education is a two way street. The term "mystery" meat is simply
silly. Pet foods contain what you the consumer demand to have in the
food. Thus if you want chicken in the food, that's what you get.
Personally I don't care what meat protein a consumer desires, they are
all pretty similar in nutrient composition (lamb excepted). On the
other hand the decision to use any particular ingredient is quite
silly and of little value to the pet. It is the nutrients that the
ingredient provide that are of critical importance. When a consumer
makes a decision based on ingredients they can potentially get into
trouble. Making such a decision is about on par with doing third grade
math - simple addition and subtraction. Making decisions based on the
*nutrients* provided in the food is stepping up to the next level of
nutrition - about on par with high school calculus and trig. As long
as a consumer is content with third grade elementary nutrition, and
there are no disease issues to contend with, choosing a food based on
ingredients works just fine. Unfortunately such choices can prove
potentially disastrous. Placing a geriatric kitty of a food with "good
sounding" ingredients and phosphorus levels above 1.5%, sodium levels
above 1% and low levels of N-3 fatty acids could prove lethal.

So it seems almost like we might just as well not worry about it
beyond avoiding the most obvious culprits--unless we can ensure
exactly what is in our foods?

--
Jean B.

Probably. I mean, I'm not worried sick about it or anything but I do have a
slight concern as to whether this whole thing is going to become widespread. I
never feed my cats beef type food anyway; we jsut sort of decided not to when
mad cow broke out in England a few years ago but I'm sure they get some beef
by-products or stock in some of their foods. Just as I assume that I also do
even though I'm vegetarian.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

So it seems almost like we might just as well not worry about it
beyond avoiding the most obvious culprits--unless we can ensure
exactly what is in our foods?

--
Jean B.

Probably. I mean, I'm not worried sick about it or anything but I do have a
slight concern as to whether this whole thing is going to become widespread. I
never feed my cats beef type food anyway; we jsut sort of decided not to when
mad cow broke out in England a few years ago but I'm sure they get some beef
by-products or stock in some of their foods. Just as I assume that I also do
even though I'm vegetarian.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human." (Loren Eisely)

From: er (Hagar)

In article
(GAUBSTER2) wrote:

From: frlpwr

Betsy wrote:

One buys premium cat food with recognizable ingredients,

Exactly right. What little regulation there is for pet foods
is mostly
involved with labelling. If the contents are beef, chicken,
fish,
whatever, the label must say so. It is the mysterious "meat
by-products" that can legally contain the flesh or rendered
flesh of any
mammals, including mink, marine mammals, zoo animals and, as
shown by
some well documented instances in the past, euthanized pets.

As for "well documented"
instances, I'll have to disagree w/ you strongly on that one.

The fact that you disagree isn't exactly PROOF of Betsy's
statement, but it's certainly a good indication that she's
correct.

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

Gaubster doesn't do research. He's a troll that just makes inflammatory
remarks.
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

From: er (Hagar)

In article
(GAUBSTER2) wrote:

From: frlpwr

Betsy wrote:

One buys premium cat food with recognizable ingredients,

Exactly right. What little regulation there is for pet foods
is mostly
involved with labelling. If the contents are beef, chicken,
fish,
whatever, the label must say so. It is the mysterious "meat
by-products" that can legally contain the flesh or rendered
flesh of any
mammals, including mink, marine mammals, zoo animals and, as
shown by
some well documented instances in the past, euthanized pets.

As for "well documented"
instances, I'll have to disagree w/ you strongly on that one.

The fact that you disagree isn't exactly PROOF of Betsy's
statement, but it's certainly a good indication that she's
correct.

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

Gaubster doesn't do research. He's a troll that just makes inflammatory
remarks.
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

Subject: Cat Food and Mad Cow Disease
From: er (Hagar)

As for "well documented"
instances, I'll have to disagree w/ you strongly on that one.

The fact that you disagree isn't exactly PROOF of Betsy's
statement, but it's certainly a good indication that she's
correct.

That is so illogical, I can't believe you would even type such drivel. That's
the equivilent of Betsy stating that the sun will rise tomorrow in the west. I
state that I disagree and you come in and state that she must be right because
I disagree? You must be embarrased!

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

I asked a direct question and you can't answer it. If it happens all the time
and is so common as to be a "problem", then you should have no problem rattling
off a whole bunch of foods that contain dead dogs and cats. Since there are
none, however, that is exactly the response I thought I would get from you!

You can start he http://www.belfield.com/article3.html but
since it contains statements you disagree with, you presumably
won't be able to read it.


That's all you got?? LOL I'll ask you AGAIN....which pet foods have dead dogs
and cats in them? If you can't provide that information, it'll be apparent to
everybody reading this that you are either a troll or quite mad.

Subject: Cat Food and Mad Cow Disease
From: er (Hagar)

As for "well documented"
instances, I'll have to disagree w/ you strongly on that one.

The fact that you disagree isn't exactly PROOF of Betsy's
statement, but it's certainly a good indication that she's
correct.

That is so illogical, I can't believe you would even type such drivel. That's
the equivilent of Betsy stating that the sun will rise tomorrow in the west. I
state that I disagree and you come in and state that she must be right because
I disagree? You must be embarrased!

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

I asked a direct question and you can't answer it. If it happens all the time
and is so common as to be a "problem", then you should have no problem rattling
off a whole bunch of foods that contain dead dogs and cats. Since there are
none, however, that is exactly the response I thought I would get from you!

You can start he http://www.belfield.com/article3.html but
since it contains statements you disagree with, you presumably
won't be able to read it.


That's all you got?? LOL I'll ask you AGAIN....which pet foods have dead dogs
and cats in them? If you can't provide that information, it'll be apparent to
everybody reading this that you are either a troll or quite mad.

From: olitter (PawsForThought)

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

Gaubster doesn't do research. He's a troll that just makes inflammatory
remarks.
________

All right, Lauren, let's see you try to answer this. Instead of being a troll
yourself, perhaps you would like to answer the question. Which pet foods have
dead dogs and cats in them? You can't answer that question either as you have
no proof. Instead of repeating what other people say, you might want to find
out on your own. And looking up conspiracy theories on the internet doesn't
count!

FYI, I don't make inflammatory remarks. I'd like to see you provide some
proof. It's probably a waste of time to even ask that of you since you've
proven yourself to be a liar in the past. Just because doesn't agree w/ you
when you are caught lying (as you have in the past) doesn't mean they are
"inflammatory" or a "troll". But I can see why you would want to paint
somebody like that.

From: olitter (PawsForThought)

Please provide a
name of a food that had dead dogs and/or cats in it. I dare
you!

Do your own research.
We have.

Gaubster doesn't do research. He's a troll that just makes inflammatory
remarks.
________

All right, Lauren, let's see you try to answer this. Instead of being a troll
yourself, perhaps you would like to answer the question. Which pet foods have
dead dogs and cats in them? You can't answer that question either as you have
no proof. Instead of repeating what other people say, you might want to find
out on your own. And looking up conspiracy theories on the internet doesn't
count!

FYI, I don't make inflammatory remarks. I'd like to see you provide some
proof. It's probably a waste of time to even ask that of you since you've
proven yourself to be a liar in the past. Just because doesn't agree w/ you
when you are caught lying (as you have in the past) doesn't mean they are
"inflammatory" or a "troll". But I can see why you would want to paint
somebody like that.

Steve Crane wrote:

"Jean B." wrote in message ...

So I wonder how one can avoid such foods, since all of the
credible commercial foods contain byproducts? The chicken etc.
still contains animal byproducts. I guess, then, that one just
assumes that the likelihood of any particular cat getting TSE is
extremely small, just as the chance of our getting it is small.
Still, it is not a comforting thought. It seems easier for me, as
a human, to avoid possibly contaminated foods than it is to
protect my feline friends.

Jean,
Just to make sure there is no confusion here. A pet food labelled
to contain "chicken by products" does NOT contain beef or other meat
meals, it contains CHICKEN by-products and is therefore of no concern.
The term by-products will always have a classification noun to
accompany it in North America. (This is not true is Europe where pet
foods may be labelled simply "meat".) For example chicken
by-products, lamb by-products, or pork by-products etc. It can be
generic under the legal definition "meat-by-products", which can
include any mammalian source of meat protein. If your pet food
contains the ingredient "chicken by-product" - it contains by-products
of chicken, (usually internal organs, backs and necks) not by-products
from beef or any other mammal.

Yes, I do understand that....
--
Jean B.