no animal by- product feed- help please!

[Beekissed]

Antibiotics do have a half life, that is true. But, since these animals are fed these preventative antibiotics~as in feed lot feeding~each day, they don't really have time to leave the system properly.

Yes, they do feed chicken feathers as the animal by-product. These chicken feathers are from commercially raised birds and they do retain any chemicals that they eat in their feathers...just as we do in our own hair. These feathers also contain all the disease or fecal matter those chickens had on or in their feathers....who in the world wants to feed disease and chemicals from commercially raised flocks to their backyard chickens?

Further more, the same chickens these feathers come from are being fed soy proteins that enhance reproductive gland performance and this too is carried into their feathers and other offal. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, IMO.....either way you are receiving the benefits of the soy proteins.

When choosing between the evils of soy proteins and possibly diseased chicken feathers or pork parts, the choice is clear to me....

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

One only need watch the Mike Rowe "Dirty Jobs" documentary where they render dead farm animals - I grew up on the farm - I totally "get" that animals die and are rendered but I had no clue of what the process was until I saw that Mike Rowe rendition. Trust me - if watching that hour long doc does not change your mind, you are completely out of touch with reality. When I saw that days old rotting flesh dead animals were hoisted up and "fed" whole, hooves first to the tip of the nose, through a massive chipper and the other side moved into million gallon vats for a cooking process that rendered out the tallow, the oils, the blood and the final remaining "dried" matter ground up into a fine powder to be added back into animal feeds as an "animal by-product", I was totally changed.

This description is not enhanced or exaggerated. It is exactly what I saw - it is exactly why I do not want to feed my animals a feed with "animal by-products" in it. You have no idea what that really means or where the by-product is coming from. It was revolting and disgusting. I'm happy to feed Purina Layena which is animal by product free.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

And for what it's worth, animal by-products used in pet food is way different to me than food production animals. I eat eggs, I eat chicken, I eat beef and pork. Pasture raised, grass fed, antibiotic and hormone free is sounding more appealing every day - even if I have to admit that I eat far less meat now as an adult than I ever did before watching the Dirty Jobs show.

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

If you girls free range their feed is fine. They will eat other things for animal protiens and fats: Slugs, worms, bugs. OR you could have my big red who likes to go after chipmunks! LOL

 

[Wolfwoman]

Hens_And_Chicks if you suddenly died what do you think your chickens would eat besides the 'fresh' stuff that's outside? Probably your dead, rotting body if they could get to it. Not only are chickens omnivores, they are what is called an 'opportunistic feeder' meaning, they'll eat and BE OK with most anything their beaks can land on.

It's bad enough that we have sanitized, desensitized and anti-bacterialized OURSELVES to the point where most people get sick just thinking about a cold, but do we have to do it to our chickens an pets too?

 

[Beekissed]

WW, I think she is just trying to avoid obvious sources of contamination....as do I. If you KNOW that the animal by-products aren't just bugs, worms or even your own chicken's offal from processing but are from someone else's possibly diseased animals, why wouldn't you take that extra step to insure it didn't enter your own food system?

I don't do any kind of boisecurity here, as I count on my animal's naturally acquired immune systems to suffice....but to voluntarily FEED them CAFO left overs? If I won't eat the animals these systems produce, why would I then feed it to the animals that I will be eating? Makes no sense to do so.

There is a vast difference between my chickens eating things produced on my place than meat produced on other places....I drive past those places each day and the smell of rotten flesh is a constant reminder that those places are not healthy, innocent farms where chickens are safe to eat.

 

[True Grit]

I want to correct a misconception regarding bovine brain and spinal cord. These are considered "Specified Risk Material" or SRMs and are by law NOT INCLUDED in bovine meat and bone meal. Any bovine animal that has symptoms or is non ambulatory for non obvious reasons like a broken leg must be reported and tested for BSE(mad cow). There have only been 2 animals in the US that tested postive for mad cow and those were imported. The US slaughters 30 million head per year and those two were found in about 2003 so since then 210,000,000 cattle have been slaughtered and we have detected no BSE and had no cases of new variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease in the US that was attributable to US beef. Beef meat and bone meal in cattle feed has been banned for 14 years and there is no proof that the prion can pass through another species and cause a disease in humans. Veg or non-veg feed up to you but the facts above are true.

 

[JetBlack]

From a moral standpoint, I prefer animal products in my chicken feed.

Every part of the animal gets used. If we got rid of the demand for the parts that go in the chicken feed, where would they go? Landfill? Waste? The ocean?

I feel the animal parts are good for the chickens and feeding it to them is an excellent way to use them efficiently.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Where are you getting this information at? Because that is so untrue...

I haven't heard about any place using a "Growth Hormone" on animals intended for a food sores and if I am not mistaking most if not all antibiotics have a with draw date of 10 to 30 days.

So that you know most if not all fish that is processed to make Fish Meal are farm raised fish...

Chris

I agree with Chris. There are Federal regulations that must be followed to make a sell a commercial animal feed. After the big Mad Cow scare a few years back, there were a number of changes to the laws regulating livestock feed. I am virtually certain that bovine CNS tissue is NOT allowed in any animal feed, that chicken feathers are usually disallowed (less certrain on this). I know for a fact that feeding growth hormones to chickens, be they for laying or for meat is forbidden. Any feed intended for a herbivore species cannot contain any animal protein. Since chickens are omnivores, their feed is not included in this ban.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
This is a blatent falsehood that feeds the fears of people who don't have any idea how cattle in feedlots are treated and fed. They ARE NOT fed antibiotics on a daily basis.

The following is a link to an article written by Ryan Andrews who I understand is a vegetarian or vegan, I'm not sure which. It is an article he wrote after visiting a large cattle feeding operation in Colorado. Maybe if you refuse to believe those of us who are engaged in agriculture and the raising of cattle you'll believe one of your own.
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cattle-feedlot-visit