The Despicable State of Pet Food
You know what’s appetizing? Diseased chickens.
It’s gross, but sadly that’s exactly what’s inside many of the pet food bags found on store shelves. It’s crazy to think that we’ve gotten to this place. Our pet “food” more closely resembles livestock feed than anything else.
Meet Susan:
Our guest this week is Susan Thixton. You probably haven’t heard her name before (unless you're passionate about pet health), but she’s working hard behind the scenes to make sure your pets are getting the nutrients they need. She’s the founder of The Truth About Pet Food and can often be found advocating for regulations in the pet food industry. We talk with Susan about what is actually found in pet food and how to pick a food with your pet’s best health in mind.
Some Topics We Discuss:
What is the biggest concern about the pet food industry? (6:06)
What should we be looking for on a pet food label to know it’s high quality? (7:55)
What chemicals/toxins should we be aware of beyond low quality protein sources? (13:07)
Where can pet owners learn more about their pet’s food and health? (23:00)
Some Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Most pet food that you see at the store is not food. It’s feed. (6:44)
The FDA permits pet food companies to use diseased animals without any disclosure of the quality of the meat. (8:10)
Human grade food gives you the assurance that your pet is not eating toxic food. (12:02)
Some pet food companies include expired foods from the grocery stores in their products. (15:01)
There’s a 50% cancer rate in dogs. (20:31)
Products + Resources:
Get Social With Susan
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland: Hey everyone. Happy New Year and welcome back to The Holistic Navigator podcast, a show where we talk about the body's capacity for self healing if it's given the proper nutrients and care it deserves. Thank you so much for tuning in today. My name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show and here with me in the studio as always is your host Ed Jones. Today we're talking about pets, specifically a focus on the horrendous state[00:01:00] of the dog food industry. Our guest today is Susan Thixton and though you might not know her name you and your pets have likely benefited from her efforts. Susan works hard often behind the scenes to help implement regulations to help keep your pets healthy. She's the founder and contributor to the website truthaboutpetfood.com that educates pet owners all over the world how to choose safe and healthy pet foods, treats, and toys today we're talking with season about exactly what's inside the pet food found in most stores and the dire need for change in this industry. Let's go ahead and get into our first episode of the new year and get things started. Allow me to introduce your host. Mr. Ed Jones.
Ed Jones: Thank you Brian very much. And again, welcome to the Holistic Navigator and you know we've done about 94 chapters at this point. My passion is to educate and enlighten people on information that really sometimes it's not very easily [00:02:00] accessible. And one area that has really been I think overwhelmed by just conventional talk is the area of pets and pet food. We are in a world that you know money and power seems to certainly allow companies to do a lot of things that those of us who know better would wonder how they sleep at night, but that's just the way it is. So what I'm always love to see is passionate individuals who will brave their way on and work tirelessly to help us to learn the truth. And today. I've got a wonderful lady Susan Thixton stand and she has a website truthaboutpetfood.com. Welcome to the Holistic Navigator, Susan.
Susan Thixton: Oh, thank you for having me. [00:03:00]
Ed Jones: You know, I have a resident expert that is part of my team member. Her name is Stacey and I really believe she was born on this Earth to pursue pet health and nutrition and the truth encompassing all of that. She spends endless hours looking and reading and researching and speaking to people who are what I really consider special individuals. Those who have looked behind the closed doors and have on their own with their own experience, their own passion, put together and learn the truth about why are we experiencing so much disease in our precious pets? and I will say that I have done two other podcasts on pet health because I'm very passionate myself. One of which was CBD for pets. That was a wonderfully [00:04:00] informative podcast on the dosing of CBD for pets that have you know, pretty serious health conditions. The other was with a gentleman named Phivo from Australia and he's a amazing gentleman. The name of that was the problem with pet food and that really intrigued me even more when I talked to him. And I'd learn I know a lot more about human nutrition than I do the pet but I will say no I said this on I think one of those other podcasts. I had a golden retriever about 12 years ago, and her name was Angel. And we got her as a puppy and this was 12 or 14 years ago. It despite the fact I have spent almost 40 years pursuing nutrition and holistic and all the things encompassing humans, I still fed my dog junkie dog food, one of which was 12-14 years ago. We really had a hard time determining [00:05:00] the toxic nature of what I was purchasing along with almost everyone else. Well my precious Angel one day started itching terribly and I wasn't a person to go to the vet often as I also am with physicians. But it got out of control. So I took Angel to the vet and 30 minutes later. He came out and said lymphoma probably and she may have two months to live. Well, it devastated me. I had never expected that news and she was about 6 years old at the time. Well, that's sparked me after she passed that sparked me to continue my internal conversation. Why did this dog die at middle age? When I thought I did everything right and looking into it I realized very quickly and I don't have self blame for this. We do the best we can with the information we have. But it was the dog food most likely that created [00:06:00] that. Perhaps some of the chemicals around the environment but mainly the dog food so Susan I know that I looked at your website talking about which is truthaboutpetfood.com. You are an encyclopedia about what is really going on with corporations in pet food. And what can we do to step out of that toxic road that everyone's going down?
Susan Thixton: It's a long road. In most pet foods, the biggest thing, I think that pet owners can understand try to understand is that most pet foods even though they're labeled as food dog food, cat food. Most of them are not food. They are feed like cattle feed, chicken feed they are. Are regulated the same as cattle feed or chicken [00:07:00] feed. They use the same ingredients as cattle feed and chicken feed. Feed, to me, is sold in 50 pound bags, not meant to be brought into the home, you know stored in barns, and fed on the ground. Feed is a product that the livestock industry gives animals just to sustain life up to slaughter of that animal for human food. Feed is not food. There's a dramatic difference. The only pet foods that are truly food are the ones that on the label, ignore any website claims, are ones on the label that state human grade. Those are food [00:08:00] the manufacturing facilities abide by the same regulations as human food. The ingredients are the same as in human food, but all others go down a totally different path. All pet food ingredients are very different than what is in human food. And the perfect example is chicken. You'll see many pet food labels that say made with real chicken. You know, and so the consumer unknowingly thinks well, that's the same as the chicken in my food. But in pets food it's not. Pet food regulations allow condemned chicken. Literally condemned, a diseased animal, to be processed and to pet food with [00:09:00] no warning or disclosure to the pet owner.
Ed Jones: Really?
Susan Thixton: We challenged this. We've in fact challenge this twice to with FDA and last year in April of last year. The Second Challenge FDA was in 20 16 October of 2016 and the FDA finally responded to our Challenge in April of last year saying they will continue in. This is almost a direct quote. They will continue to allow pet foods to source ingredients from diseased animals and animals that have died other than by slaughter.
Ed Jones: I had no I had no idea that that was actually going on. So
Susan Thixton: Yeah, and it's endorsed by the FDA.
Ed Jones: Mmm.
Susan Thixton: It's just unforgivable in my [00:10:00] book. No consumer would knowingly and intentionally go buy a product that is basically garbage. It’s waste. But this is what the FDA allows. And some of these products include an image of a roasted chicken or a grilled steak on the label when the ingredients themselves are nothing similar to what is presented as marketing, misleading to the consumer on that bag or can.
Ed Jones: That is an eye-opening statement. I know that you said If the product says human grade, so obviously we want to enlighten people how do you make better choices? I will say that the Holistic Navigator is sponsored by Nutrition World, [00:11:00] which offers pet sales online and also in the retail establishment at nutritionw.com/shop. You can type in pet food. And all of those are on the level that you would be very pleased with I know. But let's just take the consumer who's you know, living in Timbuktu and he has to get their food or will get their food from a local vendor. I know when I go in the big box stores, I'm highly disappointed because it the amount that I know about it is far greater than other people but I have no level knowledge like you do. But it confuses me because the packages are pretty and the packages have the right words and the right statements to pull me in. And that you know natural means nothing as a word. So you're saying first off look for human grade. Would that be a good point?
Susan Thixton: Yes that that I only give my own pets. I've got two dogs in five cats [00:12:00] my own petting zoo. And they only get human grade products only. So it's not that feed grade pet foods are guaranteed to contain these nasty ingredients. But the point is that there's no guarantee. They don't. Human grade on the label ignore website claims because websites can lie. No regulatory authority oversees and scrutinizes pet food websites, but on the label they do. So that is it it least a guarantee to the consumer that these ingredients are actually food and they meet the same legal [00:13:00] requirements as human food.
Ed Jones: Well, that's a vitally important to know. Then of course secondly, and I know that you also want to pursue other ingredients that actually may not be the protein source but the amount of chemicals and preservatives and toxic nature of the package of all those 42 ingredients you may read on a pet food container mean those are of concern to aren't they, Susan?
Susan Thixton: Absolutely. It's mind boggling. Ed, I attend consumer voice pet food regulatory meetings. And before covid they were two meetings a year and they are at different locations around the country. And at a meeting in I don't know how many years ago several years [00:14:00] ago. There was a supplement that was in discussion and it was later approved and it was a zinc supplement for animal feeds. And the amount of lead allowed in this one single little supplement was concerningly high. Three different veterinarians stood up and posed their concern over this ingredient. It was shared with me by a scientist that this particular zinc ingredient is used to clean the algae off of roofs of houses in Florida. But it they're using it as a feed ingredient and I brought that to the committee's attention and they approved it anyway. It didn't matter at another [00:15:01] AAFCO stands for Association of American Feed Control Officials. They are a private organization which the FDA gives authority to write law. Very interesting scenario that a private organization is allowed to write law. And in fact, the laws that they write are then copyright protected and are not public information. If you want to read the laws and the legal definitions of ingredients, you have to buy this information for $120 dollars a year from this organization. But at another one of their meetings, the ingredient in discussion was expired foods from grocery stores. And the example that they gave was [00:16:01] expired yogurt in the little six-pack of yogurt cups. Expired foods from groceries are not sent to the landfill. There are special dumpsters you can drive around behind any grocery store and you'll see these special dumpsters. They look just like a regular dumpster. But this material is picked up by rendering facilities that then grind and cook all that material, plastic and all, and that material is mostly fed to livestock animals. Well a veterinarian stood up and said wait a minute. I don't want my daughter to be drinking milk that contains basically plastic in it. And the entire room booed her.
Ed Jones: Really?
Susan Thixton: Booed her because they want cheap [00:17:01] feed ingredients. You can drive behind about any restaurant and you'll find a smaller little it looks like garbage big garbage container, but it's small and they put expired grease in those bins. It's not expired. It's used grease when the restaurant changes out the grease that they fried chicken or proper inch fries in all that used grease then goes in this container. And again, that's it's out in the sun, becoming more and more rancid as time goes on, it's picked up intermittently and then recycled back into both pet food and livestock feed.
Ed Jones: That is sickening to hear your description of that. And for those people who have studied nutrition, human nutrition, one of the most [00:18:01] toxic compounds that we ever consume is fats that are made from a whole host of vegetable fats. But the absolute most toxic part of that is when it's already been heated one single time. These oils that you're speaking of could have been in that fryer for weeks heating daily over and over with foods. This destroys the health of a human body and it does more to animals than it actually does us because generally they're smaller. They metabolize it differently. And you know, you're painting a picture that is actually more grim than I seemingly even knew. And I want to say really quickly and I talk about the medical profession for humans most of my podcasts, and I'm always I think pretty kind to them because I say, they actually don't have a toolbox to address the topics at hand, which [00:19:01] is functional medicine, nutrition, looking into the people's chemistry not from a point of treating a symptom or throwing a drug at it but actually trying to foster an innate healing of people who are struggling. They simply don't have the training. So it's not that they're bad people. It's a broken system that is not encouraging the kind of conversation that you and I have. And I know the veterinarian industry is absolutely no different. They are very highly trained in a very narrow scope of there's a drug that's good for everything and if we can't do that we can do surgery or we can do this or give this. And that's not how you foster a super healthy body. And the fact that Plastics are actually just thrown into these pet foods without any concern. I've done many podcasts about the toxicity of plastics and how they’re endocrine disruptors, they actually go in the molecule [00:20:01] and instead of the hormone working or some other chemistry in the body. They block it. They actually go to the receptor site they fill it in and so when this hormone comes through or this other brain chemical or whatever, it can't get the key in the door because it's already filled with something plastic. So, you know, it makes me sometimes amazed that our animals even live as long as they do. Doesn't it you?
Susan Thixton: Absolutely. Well, I mean there's a reason why there's a 50% cancer rate in dogs.
Ed Jones:Is that what it is 50%?
Susan Thixton: Yeah, it's fifty percent. So it's probably higher than that by now that was a couple of years ago. It's with your discussion on doctors and veterinarians. With vets, they have an even more difficult time than human doctors. Should a human doctor want to dive in and learn what is [00:21:01] allowed in in human food, what ingredients mean what is required at a slaughter facility, things like that, all of that is public information a human doctor granted. It's time-consuming and rather tedious if you're reading law, but all of it is public information. On the pet food animal food side, none of it is public information. The meetings are very expensive to attend there like five hundred and fifty dollars just to walk in the door, the rule book and ingredient definitions are a hundred and twenty dollars a year. We have recruited several veterinarians to attend these pet food regulatory meetings, and we're growing in numbers. So it's good that we can get veterinarians there [00:22:02] because they help spread the word. You know that all these things plus they provide comment to the regulatory officials for the most part they dismiss us but we keep trying. It's okay. We just show up and we keep trying so that's all we can do at least at this point.
Ed Jones: Absolutely and I know without people like yourself or and I will have to say myself. We are planting seeds that we have no idea what tree May grow from that from a month two years down the road, but the the truth is if we don't plant the seeds nothing's going to grow there. And your passion for helping people to be educated about pet food is awesome work. I think it's an amazing life work and I know your website is extremely informative tell listeners again the website and what they would learn if they go on to [00:23:02] your website?
Susan Thixton: The website is truthaboutpetfood.com and there's a little bit of everything on the website. I focus more on regulations. I'm a big believer in law should be enforced in pet food. When I first learned that it was not that law the FDA gives this giant loophole to avoiding legal pet foods, I was just horrified and so I focus a lot on laws, but that is empowering for pet owners to know what our regulatory authorities where they stand on. You know it, we assume that all these products are legal and are safe [00:24:02] and that's not necessarily true. So I think it's good for pet owners even though it's maybe not the most popular topic in the world regulations and law. I believe it's very important for pet owners to know where they stand where their regulatory authorities stand and then that gives them the ability to speak very informed on this topic perhaps to their congressmen, to their State Department of Agriculture, to the FDA. And go hey, wait a minute. You're not, you're not abiding by law. That's your job. My tax dollars are paying your salary and you are supposed to enforce all not pick and choose which laws you will enforce. So yeah,
Ed Jones: That's wonderful. Your activism is amazing. And I know they'll be people who will pick up that torch and run with it to a point. But [00:25:02] of course many people are so covered up in their own life. So at you know in close using here, let's that's perhaps the people are listening. Okay, they have pets. They have to shop at a regular Big Box store or grocery store again. They're going to look for products that have the word human grade. That doesn't guarantee. Everything's clean. Does it?
Susan Thixton: No, because mistakes still happen in human food too. Absolutely. It is just a guarantee that there's no feed grade ingredients in there. You know that that is the difference. It will be significantly more expensive, but I can assure you that human grade pet foods are less expensive than serious health consequences that your pet will suffer. [00:26:02] But if and if they can't afford a hundred percent human grade pet food gives some. You know, if you can only give a tablespoon or a product and only give a tablespoon per meal of human grade food. Some is better than none.
Ed Jones: I love that. I love that because it you know, we can get into this all-or-nothing thinking and then we get overwhelmed because we're not perfect and just starting the process with even a few tablespoons is a wonderful advice. And I will have to say because I've been dealing in supplements for 42 years the supplements in the pet food big box stores are laughable to me. There are using I can tell from the limited label because it's not transparent. I demand transparency on everything that that we always try to offer or supply to people because it's a scary [00:27:02] world and there's sneakiness going on behind the scenes on all levels. But the supplements in regular pet food stores are I wouldn't give them, I would never take them myself and if I'm not going to take something myself, I certainly wouldn't want to give it to my precious pet.
Susan Thixton: Again, those supplements are feed grade.
Ed Jones: Yep.
Susan Thixton: So you might have a copper supplement added to a food, you know calcium supplement added to a food. Those are feed grade versions of copper and calcium. In a human grade pet food, those supplements are human grade human edible. And they are held to a higher level of manufacturing safety. They make mistakes but they are held to that higher level. [00:28:02]
Ed Jones: The first plateau we have to get to is at least two that to place where it is being inspected. It's food grade not feed grade. I love that. I've never heard the word feed grade describe the way that you did and it makes such sense because we know that I mean people buy a lot of products that go into bodies because of price. And if you can market something that is, you know dirt cheap you're going to have a big crowd who's going to want the product because again, they're not informed and sometimes people simply can't pay any more. But you know, I keep always going back to my Angel dog and the fact that I learned a hard lesson. And I want other people to learn the same thing before it's too late because we can decrease cancer rates in pets. I am convinced with the right foods, the right holistic means, and again, I did a I've done several podcast on Roundup that is so toxic to pets. They walk in the yard. They're getting this. [00:29:02] This product is actually an antibiotic and they're getting high levels of Roundup and it's causing very severe symptoms in some animals. So there's a whole other conversation that can go on to what do we do to help protect our pets long-term health? And I am convinced we can do things and that's where on the Holistic Navigator again I get up every morning to try to empower people by talking to people like Susan. You have just been amazingly enlightened me on several these topics. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we close to the listeners?
Susan Thixton: Well, I just wanted to share that I had a similar experience as you with a dog of mine which got me on this path. Mine was about almost 30 years ago now and I ran at the time a dog obedience school and a boarding kennel and this dog was my soulmate. She [00:30:02] was my business partner. We worked together every day. She was my best friend. And almost overnight she got a tumor on her pelvic bone. And luckily my vet back then knew more about food back then than most vets even still do today and I take her in and he said it's bone cancer. You've got a couple weeks to tell her goodbye and it was probably caused from a chemical preservative in her food.
Ed Jones: Hmm.
Susan Thixton: And at that point I had no idea what a chemical preservative was. He explained it was used to extend the shelf life. I didn't know what shelf-life was; this was the leading pet food at the time and that day when I came home from the vet I made my first phone call. This is even before the internet. So I had to find the phone number call information [00:31:02] and get the phone number for this pet food company. And I called them and asked them the only thing I was brave enough at the time to ask them was how long was the shelf life. And they very proudly told me that this dog food would stay fresh for 25 years.
Ed Jones: What?
Susan Thixton: That preservative was ethoxyquin. It's still used today. It is still used today.
Ed Jones: What a moving story. I mean that's like the people who you know took the McDonald's and set it on the windowsill and 10 years later is still sitting there. We're doing it to our own food too and that's even with human food. Human grade. So that is what a turning point when I'm sure the light went off and you were like damn no wonder [00:32:02] we can't have healthy pets.
Susan Thixton: Yeah, that moment changed my life. It just it crushed me because I was I felt responsible for her cancer. You know it was unknowing. I didn't do it intentionally, but it forever changed me and sent me on this path. I feel like she that particular dog is with me every day. When I do this work because she sort of gave her life to send me in this direction.
Ed Jones: I love that and I would say and echo that about my angel to I probably without the the hardship of the heartbreak of Angel dying. I would have been the same focus on human nutrition, but that's what sparked me to delve into this pet thing. And I'm fortunate now to have a platform to be able to share it and to hopefully help others before it is [00:33:02] too late. And again and I don't mean to be unkind to veterinarians. They can save the pets life sometimes in emergencies. They're wonderfully trained, very focused people, but don't expect 90-plus percent of your vets to have this kind of conversation because they're probably going to pooh-pooh. It won't they?
Susan Thixton: Yeah. Yeah, but I can back everything up. I can direct them right to FDA’s own words. I can give them the evidence if they have doubt. That's also what I do on my website is give pet owners the links to this information of FDA’s own words so that they then can take that to their vet or to their pet store and go wait a minute. Here's FDA’s own words.
Ed Jones: I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah that way, you know, it's not just Susan and Ed talking on a podcast. You actually have the background information [00:34:02] to have them go in. Because you know, most people don't have that so they go in they say, well, you know, I read that this preservatives are not good for our pets and you know, they're going to out talk most patients because we're not as well informed. So thank you Susan for putting all of this together for so many people and I know that it's going to filter down into the right places. We're going to share this podcast with a lot of people who are, you know want to know but just don't have the resources to know. You know, it's a lot easier actually to research things on human health nutritionally than it is on pet health because the powers to be have kind of overwhelmed the system and it all looks pretty and safe and nice. So again, thank you Susan for all you're doing. Her website is truthaboutpetfood.com. And again nutritionw.com is the sponsor and there's also pet food on there too that certainly meets the needs and specs that [00:35:02] I demand too. So this is the end of this podcast and I always want to be so thankful for people taking their time listening. I do say this often I separate into two classes of people: Learners and non Learners. In today's times with the way that there's so much smoke screen about what's going on with our food, pet and human, it is vital that we have the flashlight to look through some of this and Susan has enlightened us with that today. So join us next time for another informative Holistic Navigator. Thank you everyone.
Brian Strickland: The information on this podcast in the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or any one of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The Holistic Navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or listener of these materials. The Holistic Navigator is not a doctor or doesn't claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.