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JBS, World’s Largest Pet Food Ingredient Supplier, Caught Using Child Labor
In a Dickensian-like drama, JBS, the world’s largest meat producer and animal feed and pet food ingredient supplier, has been caught using child labor to clean and sanitize their slaughterhouses in the U.S. Children as young as 13, dressed in hard hats, raincoats, waterproof overalls, and rubber boots to protect them from blood splatter, animal waste, and cleaning products –…
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A Hippie’s Guide to Shopping For Sustainable Pet Food
I grew up in a hippy commune in Northern California, where living in sustainability and harmony with nature was a way of life. But, back then, I could have cared less about being self-sufficient because all I wanted was a blow dryer and a curling iron, two things I couldn’t have because we didn’t have electricity. And, yes, I lived…
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Mars Petcare’s Sustainable Seafood Pet Food Campaign Sounds Great Until You Do a Little Digging
For over a decade, Mars Petcare, the largest pet food maker in the world, has been promising they would introduce a certified sustainably sourced fish-based pet food, but today, Mars does not have a single product that meets that description in the US. Twelve years earlier, Mars announced they were the “first pet company to make a commitment to sustainable…
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Pet Food Industry Lobbyists Lost Their Battle With the Passage of the Landmark Climate Change Act
For the first time in history, the United States passed the first Act that addresses climate change, a bill the pet food industry fought every step of the way, one they said would put farmers out of business, hurt livestock, and raise the price of pet food. President Biden signed a bill on Tuesday that takes significant steps toward fulfilling…
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The Pet Food Institute Is Fighting to Remove Incentives That Fight Climate Change
The Senate passed a historic climate bill this week at a time when scientists warn that nations have only a few remaining years to make deep enough cuts in carbon dioxide to avoid planetary catastrophe. The bill, The Inflation Reduction Act, aims to substantially expand federal support for alternative and sustainable fuels like renewable diesel production. In a statement, President…
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How a Pile Up of Dead Cows Led to the Discovery of What’s In Pet Food. And It’s Much Worse Than You Think.
“Fresno County declares emergency as cow carcasses pile up. Plant to temporarily close” and “Merced County declares an emergency, as cattle carcasses pile up from rendering plant issue.” It’s just the sort of headlines I dread. Even though I know what the rendering industry does – which is recycling dead livestock, animal by-products, expired meat and used cooking oil –…
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Death Drug Found in One of the U.S.’s Largest Pet Food Ingredient Makers; Euthanized Animals to Blame
Valley Proteins, based in Winchester Virginia, one of the largest privately-owned rendering businesses in the United States – a company that processes slaughterhouse waste, rancid restaurant grease, and the occasional horse into animal feed and pet food – was sent a deeply disturbing Warning Letter published last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the letter –…
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From Stable to Table: Horses Turned into Pet Food & Their Bones Sold as Dog Chews. In America. Right Now.
There have only been a few times in my career as a pet food safety advocate where I stood paralyzed – frozen in horror – when I witnessed something so terrible it was beyond my comprehension that such brutality against animals could exist. It was during the testimony of a whistleblower who recounted his experience at a place called Bravo…
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Dolphin-Safe Cat Food? Think Again. Lawsuit Accuses Nestle-Purina of Using Suppliers Whose Fishing Practices Endanger Marine Mammals.
Three separate class action lawsuits filed last week accuse Nestle-Purina PetCare Co., StarKist Co., and Bumble Bee Foods of fraudulently labeling their products as “Dolphin Safe,” while use suppliers whose fishing practices endanger marine mammals. The Nestle-Purina lawsuit, filed on May 13, 2019, in California federal courts, claims the company labels its Fancy Feast brand of cat food as “Dolphin…
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FDA Pulls the Plug on Policy Guides Which Allowed 4D Meat in Pet Food, But Admits it Might Still Get a Pass
The FDA made the historic announcement yesterday that they are withdrawing three of their most loathsome Compliance Policy Guides (CPGs), including the ones that allowed pet food manufacturers to use diseased animal tissue in pet food and animal feed with impunity for decades. The agency is pulling the plug on the three policies which allowed for 4D (dead, dying, diseased…
