Why are people so grossed out at pet food containing...pets?
It is impossible to maintain the environment and bury all the pets that die. The pet industry operates at a tremendous cost to the environment already. If the same amount of people pooh appeared on lawns all over the US and in trash cans to go to land fills without being processed correctly, people would be more uncomfortable and articles would be all over news sites.
But this, somehow it just does not bother us, all that pooh everywhere - kids falling in it, babies playing with it, mailmen sliding on it...but pet remains being processed, cooked, sterilized and turned into something useful that provides food for animals...it does? Really? How very odd. We refuse to clean up about 95% of our pet pooh, because feces everywhere 'doesn't hurt anything', but a dead animal, processed and sterilized according to a pet food product, is...icky?
The amount of animal feces and what they do to land and water quality and waste treatment is mind boggling.
Dead pets? There isn't enough ground available to bury them all. And animal feeds would be about 3X more expensive if such ready sources were not available.
The pet and animal product 'chain' is already somewhat regulated. I would be happy were it regulated more. I'd like to see diseased and medicated animals cremated completely to carbon, and processed pet products that go in feeds, consisting only of animals without certain residues that would persist and affect the quality of the products. As for diseases and such, I think even prion diseases would be destroyed by the current processing.
The remains should be processed properly. Animal products can be processed correctly, for the right amount of time and temperature, to provide safe products. Processing plants can be clean and well run.
The animals should be put down humanely, without pain, in a quiet environment. I would prefer animals were put down at home. Transporting a sick, confused, old animal can be traumatic. Old animals are usually creatures of habit. I cringe seeing old animals at the livestock auctions, and I hope most pets get better treatment.
I have other objections to some of the cheap pet feeds. I have an abiding feeling of discomfort when I see bright pink or orange dog pooh. I think some of these feeds contain a lot of dyes, preservatives and cheap ingredients from foreign sources that could easily be contaminated with chemicals or infectious agents. But some of the cheap dog foods are rather good quality. I won't paint them all with a broad brush.
I'm more ambivalent about the 'quality ingredients' issue. I think there is some FIERCE marketing in the pet food industry, most of it based on no science or junk science, and Barnum and Bailey's principle. The key is - people believe it. 'What I feed my dog' has always been a little bit more about 'What I think YOU should feed YOUR dog', but thanks to recent marketing, the battle has had the volume turned up to a fever pitch and anyone who isn't a 'believer' is a heretic and an animal abuser.
According to least cost formulation, the source of a protein or fat is not as important as meeting a certain percentage of protein in the feed. Most animal feeds are formulated according to least cost formulation, and the exact type of the ingredients changes from time to time. Processed protein could come from chicken meal, lamb meal or other products. Pet owners may have favorites and believe fervently one is better than the other (today pet owners also have very, VERY strong feelings about specific grains as ingredients, again, marketing very successful there as well), but the thinking on the part of the manufacturer is probably a little different.
I stick with companies that have a more consistent formulation, and have ingredients I like. I stick with companies that I know the label and the product have something in common. But I don't buy the most costly or the newest all-the-rage food, and when someone starts 'evangelizing' me about the subject, I run as fast as I can to a space in the universe that they don't occupy.
