It's Killing Bald Eagles...but The FDA Says It's Safe For Pets!

By Susan Thixton

What you are about to read is something that is very startling - and have probably never heard of before. As shocking as it might be, it is something that you should know before you feed your pet it’s next meal.

A very disturbing fact of pet food comes from FDA testing. The FDA has determined that pentobarbital, the drug that is used to euthanize animals - is commonly found in many popular pet foods. You did read that correctly. Pentobarbital, a euthanizing drug, is in some popular pet foods and treats and according to the FDA is safe for pets to consume.

A few years ago the FDA released a report of a two year study - finding pentobarbital common to many pet foods and providing results of an 8 week study to determine if it could be harmful to U.S. pets. Their findings - again from an eight week study - was that it was safe for our pets to consume pentobarbital in pet food.

My first concern is that this testing was only done for 8 weeks. No consideration was given to pets that are consuming this euthanizing drug in their food for a lifetime. Unfortunately, the concerns don’t stop there.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency recently reported that pentobarbital is responsible for the deaths of “over 140 Bald and Golden Eagles in recent years - as well as numerous other wildlife and dogs.” The reason the wildlife was exposed to pentobarbital - as stated in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency report, is from access to euthanized carcasses of farm animals and small animals in land fills. Poisoning of eagles or other wild birds, even if accidental, violates Federal law.

The FDA has made changes requiring pentobarbital labeling provide information of environmental hazard - the product is toxic to wildlife. New labeling requirements also added “Do not use in animals intended for food.” Yet pentobarbital is still legal to be included in a pet food.

Pets are consuming pentobarbital as you read this. Even though the FDA’s new labeling clearly states the drug should not be used in animals intended for food - pentobarbital is still found in common pet food ingredients. And not that I have already given you enough to be concerned over, the next worry is how pentobarbital could be found in pet food. Rumor has been for many years that pentobarbital is from euthanized dogs and cats from animal shelters all across the U.S. being rendered - cooked - and end ingredients of the rendering process are put back into pet food. Pet Food manufacturers adamantly deny these claims stating the species source is from euthanized cattle and horses. The FDA has done testing trying to clinically prove the species source - pets or livestock - no clinical proof has ever been provided to the pet owning public.

The possibility of euthanized dogs and cats being cooked and put into pet food is horrendous. We might not ever learn the species source of the drug. The FDA does provide us with the information that the common pet food ingredient ‘Animal Fat’ is the ingredient that is most likely to contain pentobarbital. Please carefully look at the ingredients in your pets food and treats for the ingredient ‘Animal Fat’. Since no testing has ever been done on long term effects of consuming pentobarbital, and we know consuming the drug is killing wildlife - this is a risk too serious to ignore.

Before you feed your pet one more meal, please see Susan Thixton's website and learn many more secrets of the pet food industry. Also please sign up for the free Truth About Pet Food newsletter.

pet food, dog food, cat food

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