Pentobarbital residues found in dog food. Further research is not necessary.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_3_36/ai_87105434

"Pentobarbital is an anesthetizing drug used for dogs and other animals, such as horses and cattle. Because it is also widely used for humane euthanasia of dogs, cats and other animals, the most likely way that pentobarbital could get into dog food would be in rendered animal products. Rendered products come from a process that converts animal tissues to feed ingredients.

"During the 1990s, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) received reports from veterinarians that pentobarbital seemed to be losing its effectiveness for anesthesia in dogs. Based on these reports, the center decided to investigate the theory that the dogs were exposed to pentobarbital through dog food, and that this exposure was making them less responsive to pentobarbital when it was used as a drug.

"CVM developed and used a sophisticated process to detect and quantify minute amounts of pentobarbital in dog food. Upon finding pentobarbital residues in some samples of dry dog food, CVM scientists conducted further tests that led them to conclude that dogs eating dry dog food are unlikely to have any adverse health effects from the low levels of pentobarbital found in the dog food samples tested."

SNIP

"After finding that the low levels of pentobarbital that dogs might receive through food are unlikely to cause them any adverse health effects, FDA officials did not think that further research into the issue was necessary. CVM officials say they plan to publish the study findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

"CVM's studies and a summary report of the results are available at www.fda.gov/cvm/efoi/efoi.html."


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11599994&dopt=Abstract

"Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Laurel, Maryland 20708, USA. dheller@cvm.fda.gov

"A procedure has been developed and validated for measuring the concentration of pentobarbital residues in dry, extruded animal feed in the range of 3-200 ng/g (ppb) with an estimated limit of quantitation of 2 ppb. The method was developed for surveillance purposes: to measure the concentration of euthanizing agent which might be present in feeds incorporating rendered products which themselves might include some fraction of euthanized animals."

SNIP

That's why it's important to research what's really in your pet's food. I buy Abady. They promote their products as "no 4 D," meaning no animals that have died from disease or being disabled in their food. I can't remember the other two D's. I think one of them is "dead," meaning the animal is found that way and sent to the rendering plant without explanation of what killed it.

When you think about the high numbers of pets who die with cancer, then they're euthanized, then they're sent to rendering plants and make their way into pet food. Ugh. You'd be surprised the number of people who don't bury their pets, they just ask the vet to "dispose" of them.

Abady can be found in your area by googling "Abady" and then following whatever links. Their web site, itself, isn't extensive but does have some info about the quality of their food. By the way, it's costly, but my dog actually eats less of it.

them cannibals.

Is this implying that dogs and cats are being made into pet food? Is that really true?

"CVM scientists also developed a test to detect dog and cat DNA in the protein of dog food. Since pentobarbital is used to euthanize dogs and cats at animal shelters, finding pentobarbital in rendered feed ingredients could suggest that pets were rendered and used in pet food. Test results indicated a complete absence of protein material that would have been derived from euthanized dogs or cats. As a result of their study, CVM scientists assume the source of the pentobarbital in dog food is cattle or horses euthanized and then rendered.

I was upset by the possibility. I kept thinking of my boyhood dog. When my father took him to the vet and had him euthanized he left the remains with the vet. I found the thought that he may have been fed to other pets to be surprisingly distressing. This was a long time ago and it wouldn't really matter in the scheme of things, and I pride myself on being logical and pragmatic, but this bugged the hell out of me for some reason.