Widespread Contamination and Rampant Recalls of Pet Food

The FDA/Center for Veterinary Medicine reports on dog food recalls after euthanasia drug pentobarbital and other contaminants were found in Dog Food. Other toxins such as spoiled or moldy grains, cancerous material cut from slaughterhouse animals, tissue high in hormone or pesticide residues also found in pet food. Several major companies have recalled more than 5000 pet food products that were contaminated by melamine and cyanuric acid.

Also See: Healthy Pet Foods

Is Your Pet Food Contaminated with Euthanasia Drugs and Other Toxins?

Never before has the pet-food industry been rocked by widespread contamination and rampant recalls. In all, more than 5,600 products by dozens of pet food makers have been recalled, from chain supermarket brands to prescription-only foods.

This is a staggering number of products, and is unprecedented in this business. Thousands of deaths are due to the contamination, and many thousands more have suffered illnesses. We shudder to think of the long-term impacts of the compromised liver and kidney function and how this will affect thousands of companion animals in America.

Leading experts believe that the severe reactions experienced by some cats and dogs were the result of an interaction of chemicals, between the melamine and a list of other culprits, including pentobarbital and cyuranic acid. Thousands of Cats and dogs suffered kidney failure, and many died after eating the affected pet food.

In February 2002, the Food and Drug Administration/Center for Veterinary Medicine reports on the Risk from Pentobarbital in Dog Food. Because in addition to producing anesthesia, pentobarbital is routinely used to euthanize animals, the most likely way it could get into dog food would be in rendered animal products. Rendered products come from a process that converts animal tissues to feed ingredients.

Pentobarbital seems to be able to survive the rendering process. If animals are euthanized with pentobarbital and subsequently rendered, pentobarbital could be present in the rendered feed ingredients.

Related: View the FDA list of pet food recalls

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer John Eckhouse went even further with an expose entitled "How Dogs and Cats Get Recycled into Pet Food." Eckhouse wrote: "Each year, millions of dead American dogs and cats are processed along with billions of pounds of other animal materials by companies known as renderers. The finished product... tallow and meat meal... serve as raw materials for thousands of items that include cosmetics and pet food.

Rendering plants process decomposing animal carcasses, large roadkill and euthanised dogs and cats into a dry protein product that is sold to the pet food industry. One small plant in Quebec, Ontario, renders 10 tons (22,000 pounds) of dogs and cats per week. The Quebec Ministry of Agriculture states that "the fur is not removed from dogs and cats" and that "dead animals are cooked together with viscera, bones and fat at 115° C (235° F) for 20 minutes".

Some of these dead pets - those euthanized by veterinarians - already contain pentobarbital before treatment with the denaturing process. According to University of Minnesota researchers, the sodium pentobarbital used to euthanise pets "survives rendering without undergoing degradation". Fat stabilisers are introduced into the finished rendered product to prevent rancidity.

Common chemical stabilisers include BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) - both known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction - and ethoxyquin, a suspected carcinogen. Many semi-moist dog foods contain propylene glycol - first cousin to the anti-freeze agent, ethylene glycol, that destroys red blood-cells. Lead frequently shows up in pet foods, even those made from livestock meat and bone meal. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, titled "Lead in Animal Foods", found that a nine-pound cat fed on commercial pet food ingests more lead than the amount considered potentially toxic for children.

"Vegetable protein", the mainstay of dry dog foods, includes ground yellow corn, wheat shorts and middlings, soybean meal, rice husks, peanut meal and peanut shells (identified as "cellulose" on pet food labels). These often are little more than the sweepings from milling room floors. Stripped of their oil, germ and bran, these "proteins" are deficient in essential fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants. "Animal protein" in commercial pet foods can include diseased meat, roadkill, contaminated material from slaughterhouses, fecal matter, rendered cats and dogs and poultry feathers. The major source of animal protein comes from dead-stock removal operations that supply so-called "4-D" animals - dead, diseased, dying or disabled - to "receiving plants" for hide, fat and meat removal. The meat (after being doused with charcoal and marked "unfit for human consumption") may then be sold for pet food.

Feed your Pet Safe and Nutritious Food

Look for quality healthy kibbles for dogs and cats made in the USA with totally safe and natural ingredients. Your companion animal deserves the very best and their veterinarian-formulated products include only human-quality ingredients, to ensure the health and well-being of cats and dogs. These healthy pet food contain no wheat, corn, potentially harmful chemical additives, artificial colors or flavors. Their holistic foods are made with an exclusive “fast-cook” process, to lock in natural flavors and nutrition, in order to help build a strong foundation for a long and healthy life for your pet. Choose a food that reflects your love for your companion animal.

Dr. Don E. Lundholm, D.V.M. - We are seeing disease conditions in animals that we did not see years ago. Many of these may be traced to less than optimum nutrition and diet as the source..."

Practices Used by Some Pet Food Manufacturer:

POOR PROTEIN SOURCES
Soybean Meal, Wheat, Corn Glutens, Corn Meal, Whole Corn, Crushed Corn and Ground Corn are commonly used for their protein content in many pet foods. These ingredients are generally poor sources of protein vs. meat.

CHEMICAL PRESERVATIVES
BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin are found in many pet foods. Scientific studies have proven that these chemicals can be harmful. In fact, they have been shown to promote liver disease and other medical problems.

FOOD COLORING
Food colorings are still commonly used in pet foods today despite the fact that they are not necessary and some have been linked to medical problems.

BY-PRODUCTS
By-products can vary ... they can consist of the internal parts of animals such as necks, heads, undeveloped eggs, feet, intestines, lungs, spleen and liver.

Pet Food Recall

Condemned parts and animals rejected for human consumption can be rerouted into commercial pet foods. These condemned parts are referred to as the 4 D's: dead, dying, diseased or decayed. We believe this is one of the most despicable practices in the pet food manufacturing industry.

Pet Food is the only food industry allowed to lie to consumers. The only food industry given FDA permission to violate federal food safety law. Buyer Beware is the documented truth about what millions of pet parents are unknowingly feeding their pets. " While pet food advertising bombards us with the images of plump fresh meats, brightly colored vegetables, and beautiful grains in their products, Susan talks about ethoxyquin, recalls, rendering, and deceptive advertising. And she’s got the facts to back up her writings. Something, as you will learn from reading this book, the pet food industry is not required to have. It is high time that the pet food industry’s secrets were brought to light.

In her groundbreaking book, Buyer Beware, author Susan Thixton, reveals the widespread corruption and greed endemic of the industry. That pet food is the lucrative answer to the disposal of billions of tons of waste from the manufacturers of products for humans. The companies that profit from the diversion of waste material are some of the largest conglomerates in the nation. They enjoy the benefits of operating in an industry lacking meaningful oversight to create the pet food brands that dominate the world market today.

The primary ingredient in many dry commercial pet foods is not protein but cereal. Corn and wheat are the most common grains used but, as with the meat sources, the nutritious parts of the grain are generally present only in trace amounts. The corn gluten meal or wheat middlings added to pet foods are the leftovers after the grain has been processed for human use, containing little nutritional value. Or they may be grain that is too moldy for humans to eat, so it's incorporated into pet food.

Mycotoxins, potentially deadly fungal toxins that multiply in moldy grains, have been found in pet foods in recent years. In 1995, Nature's Recipe recalled tons of their dog food after dogs became ill from eating it. The food was found to contain vomitoxin, a mycotoxin. Harmful chemicals and preservatives are added to both wet and dry food. For example, sodium nitrite, a coloring agent and preservative and potential carcinogen, is a common additive. Other preservatives include ethoxyquin (an insecticide that has been linked to liver cancer) and BHA and BHT, chemicals also suspected of causing cancer. The average dog can consume as much as 26 pounds of preservatives every year from eating commercial dog foods.

Shocking Facts About Pet Food

"Ann Martin's investigation into the commercial pet food industry has become a classic. This is the book I often recommend when people ask me what's wrong with (most) commercial dog and cat foods. However, I can't recommend this book without pointing out some of the errors in the second part of the book, the part that focuses on feeding a homemade diet. First of all, it needs to be said that while cooking the meat can indeed destroy bacteria and parasites (as well as destroying valuable enzymes and changing the meat's molecular structure), cooking does *not* destroy the antibiotics, pesticides, artificial growth hormones, etc., as Martin claims. The only way to avoid these harmful substances is to stop supporting factory farming and buy ethically raised, organic meats.

Yes, such meat is more expensive, but personally I'd rather pay more and know that I'm not supporting the needless torture of animals and the destruction of the environment. At this point you may wonder why we feed our dogs meat at all. Well, the humans in our house are indeed longtime vegetarians, but dogs are carnivores and while they can survive on a properly supplemented vegetarian diet, such a species inappropriate diet is far from ideal. Our family's GWPs have been thriving on a diet based on raw meats and bones for thirty years now. While it's been my experience that raw diets are indeed preferable for most dogs, there are certainly cases where cooked diets are more appropriate. Some dogs -- usually due to certain medical conditions -- simply do not do well on a raw food diet, and in such cases a home cooked diet is the best option.

Are Soybeans Making your Pet Sick?

A quick scan of supermarket dog and cat food labels indicates that about half of the commercial dry pet foods have soy as the main protein source, with soy appearing as the first ingredient after corn or (in some very high protein products such as kitten food) as the first ingredient.

Avoid Soybeans

This article is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Dr. Sue Ann Bowling is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Institute.

 Pity the poor cheetahs! These speedy spotted cats managed to survive one population crisis, which left them the most inbred wild animal known. Then human inroads on their habitat and hunting for their fur shoved them toward a second population crisis, which seemed headed off by captive breeding. Now it appears that the zoo diet in North America is simultaneously killing them off with liver disease and preventing them from breeding effectively.

In 1985, 29 American zoo cheetahs died and only 18 were born, and 7 of the 18 died before adulthood. Only about 10% of North American adult female cheetahs have been producing live cubs in the last 5 years, compared with 60 to 80 % in other countries.

Since North American cheetahs mostly eat a commercial feline diet based on horsemeat and soy, while the cheetahs living and breeding more successfully elsewhere are being fed whole carcasses, a group of researchers in Ohio decided to look at the zoo cheetah's food. They found that the soybean part of the diet (the same textured soy protein and soy flakes used increasingly as a meat extender in human diets) contained natural plant estrogens, chemicals akin to mammalian female hormones and having some of the same effects. When these chemicals were injected into immature female mice, they caused damage to the mice's uteruses.

Experiments were carried out at the zoo as well as in the lab. When four cheetahs in the Cincinnati Zoo were switched to a diet based on chicken meat without soy, their liver function improved. Right now we don't know whether they will breed again or whether permanent damage has occurred.

What does this mean in terms of other soy consumers? Cheetahs are likely to be exceptionally sensitive to problems of any kind because they are so inbred. On the other hand, soy made up a relatively small percentage of the cheetahs' diet, and apparently all cats are rather poor at getting rid of extra estrogens. Our pets might face some problems.

A quick scan of supermarket dog and cat food labels indicates that about half of the commercial dry pet foods have soy as the main protein source, with soy appearing as the first ingredient after corn or (in some very high protein products such as kitten food) as the first ingredient. As a dog breeder I would hesitate to maintain my breeding stock on a commercial diet that used soy as the primary protein source, or listed soy as one of the top three ingredients. But other questions need to be answered, as well.

How about the human consumption of soy?

At the present time, our western diets don't contain all that much soy, though what they do contain is often in the form of textured soy protein, which has over twice the estrogen content of soy flakes. This in itself indicates that the method of preparing soy may affect the estrogen content of the final food. Oriental diets have used soy for far longer than have Western ones. Do traditional Oriental methods of preparing soybeans for consumption remove some of the plant estrogens? I asked one of the researchers, and he replied that tofu has far less plant estrogens per unit weight than does textured soy protein. No measurements had yet been made, however, based on the ratio of estrogens to protein.

Agriculturists and plant breeders need to look at soybean estrogens, too. Do drought, temperature, soil fertility or day length affect their concentration? Do different varieties of soybeans differ in how much of these substances the beans contain? Can low-estrogen varieties be developed? The cheetah study has raised more questions than it has answered -- not an uncommon result of scientific research!

Let Thy Food be Thy Medicine

Following is an excerpt from chapter 8 "Let Food be Thy Medicine" from 'Shock to the System' by Catherine O’Driscoll

After Oliver and Prudence died, and my other dogs were suffering from animal and pet health disorders such as thyroid disease, arthritis, allergies and autoimmune disease, I read an article in an Australian dog magazine about raw meaty bones for dogs. It was as though a light bulb went on in my head: I had been starving my dogs to death with a complete dry dog food that wasn’t sustaining life. I immediately switched my dogs to the raw meaty bone diet, and my dogs thrived. Our vet bills dropped by 65% and, when we surveyed CHC members who had switched their dogs to the RMB diet on our advice, they reported an 85% drop in veterinary visits. People wrote to us to tell us how healthy their dogs were on raw food – glossier coats, more vitality, skin problems clearing up, lovely clean teeth, clean breath, and in some cases, medication was no longer required.

We were so enamored by the positive changes in our dog's health, that we invested a great deal of time and money in promoting raw food diets for dogs. That diet is now used by thousands of delighted animal guardians around the world. I believe this to be true: the vast majority of carnivores thrive on the food that Nature has designed over millions of years to sustain life. That is, prey animals like rabbits, rats, deer, mice, lambs, hens, and so on, uncooked. Dogs, being scavengers, also thrive on eggs, berries, fruit and the food that they might find in the prey’s stomach, such as grains and vegetable matter. You should see Edward on walks around the country estate we live on. He picks raspberries from the bushes and jumps to pick apples from the trees. He also enjoys catching and eating rabbits.

One day, something happened to modify my view. My friend Sally Cronk came to visit for a week, bringing her German Shepherd Etta with her. Etta hadn’t eaten raw meaty bones before, but Sally was keen for her to try the natural diet. So Etta had raw chicken wings alongside my own dogs. When Etta got home, Sally had to take her to the vets, where she stayed for several days on a drip. The reason, it transpired after some deduction, was that Etta could not tolerate the energy – the life force – in raw food. Countless generations of breeding and artificial food had modified the dog so that she could not tolerate real food.

Then, when my own Sophie reached the age of 15, she started to develop diarrhoea. I tried everything to help her: homoeopathic remedies, antibiotics, herbs – all to no avail. I happen to be extremely fortunate in that I have a friend who is a medical intuitive who is also very knowledgeable about canine health. In desperation, I telephoned her on Sophie’s behalf, only to be told that Sophie could no longer, at her great age, tolerate the energy in raw meaty bones. I was advised to switch Sophie to a tinned senior dog food and, after a while, I could revert to real food, but this time cooking it for Sophie. Gosh darnit, but my friend was right.

Principles were thrown to the wind, and the tinned food halted Sophie’s diarrhea. After a while I was able to cook her chicken, white fish and vegetables, and she lived to a good age of 17. Then I read about a dog in the media who made it to 21. Unbelievably to me, this dog had been a vegetarian since she had been rescued as a puppy! Her owner phoned me one day so I was able to ask questions: the dog wasn’t vaccinated every year, but her owner was a serious vegetarian who studied the protein requirements of her canines and gave them the nutrients they needed by adding vegetable protein sources to the diet.

Another lady came to me with her aggressive dog. The dog was eating a dry food and I wondered whether this might be the source of the problem (since some of the commercial processed foods can provoke aggression in dogs). After much deduction, it transpired that this dog actually did very well on the dry food. Her owner had tried raw, but the result had been huge digestive upset. The difficulty, it transpired, was that the dog wasn’t sure of her place in the family, and she was behaving aggressively to balance-out her owner’s overly meek behavior. So once again I will repeat: most dogs thrive on a natural raw diet, with some rare exceptions.

Quite a few years ago I was invited to attend and speak at a holistic dog camp run by a wonderful woman called Wendy Volhard. Wendy’s knowledge and understanding of canine dietary requirements is awesome. Her knowledge is backed by around forty years of science: she has consistently advised her followers to take blood samples for analysis from their dogs, enabling them to ascertain whether the diet is producing health or ill-health before unwanted consequences arise.

Most importantly, Wendy advocates muscle testing so that owners can work out the specific dietary requirements of their animals. And so do I. Some dogs, it transpires, fare better with lamb than beef, others better with chicken than lamb, and so on. Just like humans, dogs are not all uniform in their requirements. No individual, of whatever species, is anything other than unique.

Take a simple example: some humans (and individuals of any species) need more food than others. We know this because some lucky blighters can eat anything they like and stay slim. Others who try to get away with eating the same amount pile the weight on. Rob and I are a prime example (sob). We walk the dogs together, so our exercise levels are pretty similar. Rob is like his mother and I, sadly, am like my mother. Genetically, Rob is skinny, and I am not.

Our dogs, Edward, Dannie and Gwinnie, also have differing dietary requirements. Gwinnie is prone to putting on weight – she gets less to eat than the boys, much to her disappointment. She also fares better on white meats and good amounts of vegetable matter. Dannie tests positive for high purine foods, like beef and liver. Edward, bless him, at the age of nine, needs to avoid high purine foods. Edward’s limbs ache in the evenings, showing symptoms somewhat like gout. Gout is caused by an excess of uric acid in the body. Uric acid results from the breakdown of purines. The excess can be caused by either an over-production of uric acid by the body or the under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys. Also, the ingestion of foods high in purines can raise uric acid levels in the blood and precipitate gout attacks in some ‘people’.

According to the American Medical Association, purine-containing foods include anchovies, sardines in oil, fish roe, herring, yeast, organ meat, beans, peas, mushrooms, spinach, asparagus, and cauliflower. Foods that may be beneficial to people with gout, however, include dark berries, white meats, fatty acids, salmon, and white fish. A herbal blend containing garlic, artichoke, turmeric, milk thistle and yucca can help lower uric acid levels in the body. Aloe vera and vitamin C can also reduce inflammatory reactions in the body. Basically, Edward needs more vegetables and fruits than Dannie does, and supplements that Dannie doesn’t need. This is reflected by the fact that Edward helps himself to fruit in the environment, and Dannie doesn’t. When I eat an apple, Edward wants some; Dannie isn’t interested.

This isn’t to say, of course, that we should always follow our, or our animals’, likes and dislikes when it comes to food. I just love chocolate and puddings, but these aren’t necessarily foods. They are designed to excite the palate – different function. We can also be addicted to the foods we are allergic to. This is why I believe we all need to find a diagnostic tool to help us work out the best diet for ourselves, and for our animals. Then, once we have established the best diet, we need a rudimentary understanding of using foods as medicine (since they can’t legislate food away from us, even though they might try to rob us of our right to use vitamins, minerals and herbs therapeutically).

I am not going to tell you in this book how to dowse or muscle test. The reason for this is that I don’t believe you can learn it on a page. You need to find someone to teach you, in person. Actually, I’m offering you a precious gift: the chance to go and meet interesting and knowledgeable people who are a little further along the road than you. You’ll get direct proof that dowsing and muscle testing is more than airy fairy unscientific nonsense. You’ll find it works. In a year or a few months, you will be where they are now: you’ll be your own expert. Go to your local health shop and ask them to recommend someone who is a Kinesiologist or a dowser. Ask around. You will find them near you. Enroll on a course or have a few one-to-one sessions. We do, incidentally, teach both muscle testing and dowsing during our Foundation in Canine Health care course.

There are also many books on animal nutrition which you can read. These are given in the recommended reading list. I would, however, like to illustrate some broad concepts for you to consider. It is, if you like, the skeleton over which you can add the meat.

The Vigilante Guardian

Sadly, it is often those who care most for their pets who, through ignorance, can do the most harm. By closely identifying with their dog or cat, pet owners tend to imagine that what is good for them will also be good for their pet. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Dogs and cats are anatomically very different to humans. Their intestinal tract, for example is only about half as long as a human's, and food is therefore processed and assimilated very differently. Whereas large amounts of red meat can cause cancer in humans, a lack of raw red meat in an animal's diet can lead to serious health problems.

Animals require the enzymes, amino acids and other nutrients in the raw meat in order to stay healthy. Many skin and coat problems are a direct result of a lack of raw animal fat in the diet, fat which humans often believe is bad for their pet. Animals need at least 30% raw fat, and their systems are not designed to handle cooked meat or cooked fat. Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed-grade animal fat over the last 15 years. Often held in 50-gallon drums for weeks or months in extreme temperatures, this grease is usually kelp outside with no regard for its safety or further use.

The rancid grease is then picked up by fat blenders who mix the animal and vegetable fats together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to prevent further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies. Rancid, heavily preserved fats are extremely difficult to digest and can lead to a host of animal health problems, including digestive upsets, diarrhea, gas, and bad breath. In the wild, a panther or jackal does not barbecue, grill or smoke its prey. It definitely does not walk to the local supermarket to buy dry food either.

Yet most pet owners recoil at the thought of feeding raw meat to their dog or cat, concerned about bacteria or parasites. However, dogs and cats don't get salmonella poisoning because their digestive system is so acidic (or at least it should be) that it kills everything. This is why a dog can bury a bone and dig it up two weeks later and eat the rotting meat. Humans on the other hand, can pick up parasites more easily because their digestive tract is nowhere near as acidic as that of a carnivore.

The meat contained in canned pet food is cooked, devoid of 'real' nutrients and usually contains many potentially harmful preservatives, colorings and additives. Dry and processed canned food also lack the natural teeth cleaning properties of fresh raw meat. Without the natural cleansing action of the meat on the teeth, unhealthy bacteria builds up in the mouth, causing infection and foul smelling breath. The high salt content in some pet foods can cause animals to become unnaturally high strung and nervous.

The best type of food you can feed your dog or cat is food you make yourself. It is the most natural, most nutritionally balanced, most easily digested and of much higher quality than canned or dry food. Many commercially produced pet foods contain preservatives such as BHA, BHT, or even MSG which can cause birth defects, liver and kidneys problems, baldness and brain defects. They may also be carcinogenic and what is really scary is that humans eat these preservatives also in such foods as breakfast cereals.

The salt content of many pet foods can be as high as 1000 times more salt than what your pet needs in one day. The excess salt can cause high blood pressure and heart disease in animals. Epilepsy is now more common in dogs than in humans. Semi-moist pet food usually contain as much as 25% sugar which can come in many forms such as sucrose, corn syrup, beet pulp, and caramel to name a few. Other foods can contain up to 10% propylene glycol. Both sugar and propylene glycol are linked to obesity, allergies, tooth decay and other problems like forms cancer.

Propylene glycol sister ethylene glycol is used in the making of anti-freeze and to think it's in the food we feed our pets. Once again, our foods like common salad dressings contain propylene glycol also (just read the label). A relatively new ingredient in pet food is ethoxyquin which has been implicated with thyroid problems, hair loss and reproductive disorders. A component of ethoxyquin - quinoline - is regarded by some in the scientific community as the ultimate carcinogen. Ethoxyquin is made by Monsanto, the same company that makes the lawn pesticide known as Roundup, the Bovine Growth Hormone and Monsanto also makes the chemicals sprayed onto new carpets.

Ethoxyquin which was originally created as a rubber hardener has also been used as a pesticide and at one point was deemed 'harmful and deleterious', but in 1958, Monsanto had its lobbyists influence politicians. The result was Monsanto had the laws changed. Monsanto must have had good lobbyists because in order to get the laws changed, it took an Act of Congress known as 'The Food Additive Amendment of 1958'. This amendment was passed making the words in the law say that exthoxyquin was safe even though studies showed its toxicity! The real scary part about ethoxyquin is that it is undetectable and so even though a label may not read it has ethoxyquin, it could be there.

Homemade pet food is not only free of such harmful additives, but has the added benefit of containing natural remedies for common ailments. Garlic for example, contains sulfur which acts as a natural flea and tick repellent. The acidity of raw meat creates an environment in which mucous in which worms thrive disappear. Since the worms cannot survive in a healthy body, homemade pet food has the added advantage of increasing the animal's vitality and subsequently reducing veterinarian bills for the owner.

How you care for your pet's coat can be just as important as the diet. Any shampoo that is intended for external use only or is meant to kill fleas, should be avoided. If the label reads 'domestic' and has a guarantee on the label, it means it is a pesticide for home use and is therefore still a poison. These shampoos are absorbed through the skin and can damage the liver and kidneys; weaken the immune system, and will ultimately not even kill fleas. Only a strong immune system will keep your pet free of fleas. Fleas, like many parasites build up resistance to insecticide shampoos. So, the application of such products can only be harmful to your pet.

Providing natural and simple health care to your pets brings numerous benefits to both humans and pets. Those who do not feel they have time to prepare homemade food will be happy to know that it really only takes a few minutes a day and a week's worth of food can be made and frozen. Sadly, most people wait until their pet is sick before they take action. It's so easy to see your pet as being healthy on the outside, but if only we could see the inside. So get informed today because after all, your pet is a living being and your pet depends on you to take care of him or her!!!

Editor's Paw Note: The Vigilante Guardian by Jesse Dallas was first published in the June, 1995 edition of the Vancouver magazine called 'Shared Vision' and had an absolutely phenomenal reception. The information, although written 2 years ago, is still pertinent in 1997 and we hope you have enjoyed it as much as all those who read it in 1995.

Domesticated animals (including ferrets and rodents) suffer from minerals and vitamin deficiency. Our soil, plants, and especially commercial foods are woefully deficient in key nutrients. Scientists theorize that mineral deficiency subjects us, and our animals, to more diseases, aging, sickness and destruction of our physical well-being than any other factor in personal health. Domesticated ferrets, like our domesticated dogs and cats, are prone to suffer from minerals and trace mineral deficiency which makes them prone to diseases. A good source of naturally occurring trace minerals and vitamins for ferrets and other pets are:

• Dr. Jerry Tennant, M.D. - says that marine phytoplankton contains almost everything one needs to sustain life and to restore health by providing the raw materials to make new cells that function normally. Marine phytoplankton has been called "the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet". Containing a wide range of trace elements, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, enzymes and cellular materials, marine phytoplankton promotes and maintains optimum health by boosting and supporting all systems within the body.
• Seaweed (kelp) and edible Sea Vegetables have been acknowledged as a detoxifyer, a balanced nourishment and a miraculous healing plant. Ocean / Sea algae are the richest natural source of minerals, trace minerals and rear earth elements.
• Fulvic acid with humic minerals consist of an immense arsenal and array of naturally occurring powerful phytochemicals, biochemicals, supercharged antioxidants, free-radical scavengers, super oxide dismutases, nutrients, enzymes, hormones, amino acids, antibiotics, antivirals, and antifungals
• Bee Pollen contains all the essential components of life. The percentage of rejuvenating elements in bee pollen remarkably exceeds those present in brewer's yeast and wheat germ. Bee pollen corrects the deficient or unbalanced nutrition, common in the customs of our present-day civilization of consuming incomplete foods.