(FDA
says "41 brands of dog food contain anesthetizing
agent")
It's not listed on the bag, but there's something in pet food
that might be making your dog sick. The Food and Drug
Administration and the Center for Veterinary Medicine found
that the same poison used to euthanize animals turned up in
many top-selling brands. Kibbles 'n Bits, Pro Plan, Dad's
and 41 other brands tested positive for pentobarbital.
Veterinarians use it to euthanize sick pets. Slaughter houses
use it to kill diseased farm animals. The FDA says after the
animals are put down, their carcasses are sent to meat
processing plants and then sold to dog food makers. What we
don't know is if this poison can build up over time and damage
a dog's organs.
So
the FDA created this list of brands containing trace amounts
of the poison. Dr. Borys Pakush says poisons in general can
build up in a dog's system and often attack the liver,
kidney's and the central nervous system. But he doesn't know
if trace amounts of pentobarbital will shorten a dog's life
and we may never know. "I couldn't tell you today
specifically if I dealt with a case of liver disease, is it
associated with pentobarbital unless I tried to do high tech
testing of the liver, which, who can afford to do that?"
he says.
The FDA started studying the poison several years ago because
veterinarians kept asking why it took more penibarbitol to
euthanize pets. The vets say the animals seemed to be building
a resistance to the drug. But the FDA says the trace amounts
they found in the food are harmless. Although just released,
these tests were conducted nearly two years ago. The FDA can't
say whether the same brands on the shelf today have
pentobarbital in them. For that information, you will need to
call your dog food company's consumer information line. Some
dog food companies are taking extra steps now to keep
pentobarbital out of their products.
To view PDF document of the FDA's findings,
Click
Here
