ok...first let's get back to the fundamentals. It's obvious you are so trolling you don't even realize it. FUD would really apply to you in this situation as you are acting panicked and keep repeating yourself.
1) the FDA and it's relationship to pet food. Again this is going to be all FUD to you as you don't seem to acknowledge food manufacturing history AT ALL. The FDA has some very significant clauses in regards to food for pets. Some of it is so flawed that a few companies want their pet foods tested at human consumption levels.
2) Financial reasons of farmers and human food manufacturers to find a source for items unfit for human consumption. Yes, people want as much profit as possible. I doubt you believe that as it's going to be just more FUD (after all man is here to help man, even give up his last penny for a stranger on the street)....so Farmers, Manufacturers and the FDA went into some long talks and negotiations.
3) AAFCO. This is the organization that is behind pet and livestock feed. Big player in the labeling business, however; it's really not an enforcer so there is a lot of pushing the rules.
Some of the rules:
o Unless water is the only other ingredient you cannot use 100%.
o the 70/95% rule. (70% dehydrated/95% with natural water weight). This is a newer label as long ago the 100% meat diets were found not to work well at all for pets. However they are making a comeback...what most are missing though is the products are usually also labeled as supplemental diets.
o "with" rule. For a product to be labeled "blah blah blah" with chicken...there only has to be 3% (by weight) of chicken inside it. This is based on non-water weight.
o Guaranteed Analysis. For the most part this is no better than getting how much protein, fat and carbs are in a food. In human food almost everyone knows this would be more or less worthless. Some add in the important stuff like mineral content and if the product has enough taurine (which for cats if lacking has been PROVEN to cause major issues).
Again all this is more or less voluntary as no one is enforcing it. Human food is more enforced with recently one major company forced to remove it's fruit juice content claim off it's labels.
Now the serious shit:
Potential Contaminants. Yep...no FUD about it. You can legally even ADD these things to a pet food and not bat an eye when inspectors come through your door.
o Slaughtered animals which includes those that died due to disease, injury (including road kill) and those that have been euthanized (yes, your dog could be eating other dogs) can be used as whole meat or meat by-products or flavoring. Keep in mind these animals don’t arrive in a UPS box overnighted to each manufacturer…nor have many been kept on ‘ice’. You’d expect both E.coli and salmonella.
Ok as a layman you are thinking…heat kills this stuff..they are going to cook it all up. However; there is an item produced by bacteria which are endotoxins. These get into the meat and stay there. Heat doesn’t remove them. In human foods these levels have to be checked, in pet foods not at all. Two drugs, namely Penicillin and pentobarbital also pass into the processed meats.
A side note to the cooking process is a little item called Acrylamide. It causes cancer in humans. In pets too, but hey…it’s ok. You know what the kicker is…a little reaction that makes this stuff also makes the food taste better at the expense of nutrients. This is a bad thing in human food…however; it’s actually tried for in many pet foods.
o Grains and meals that failed the ‘human consumption tests’. When farmers have grains and meal that get mold they get mycotoxins. Once they are identified they cannot use the product for people…however; they can sell it cheap to pet food companies.
o Pesticides and fertilizers. These two items must be carefully tested for in human foods. Both can increase yields of crops dramatically, but it comes at a price as many cannot be cleaned/cooked out. In products for animal foods, there is no limit to what can be in the food.
Now like you said, how come we don’t hear about these problems. Well it’s easy because they are not major news and most like you only know what happens in the world if it is major news.
Being I am a little more into animal causes due to my education and that I don’t just read the front page or cover articles for my news/knowledge I can share some milestones more or less.
Prior to the 90’s it was a free-for-all. One of the benefits of our litigation happy lawyers were some good things (even though most championing these were just looking for that 30-40% fee of the damages).
Now to the recalls. Keep in mind when one’s dog or cat dies many don’t get autopsies done. They assume shit happens. When one’s kid or loved one dies, they do more groundwork. A lot of food related deaths just go by the wayside…it’s only when they are more prevalent that things start to get questioned.
1995:Nature’s Recipe. pets were vomiting and losing their appetite due to a vomitoxin from fungus in the wheat used.
1999: Doane. 25 dogs die. An aflatoxin was discovered in the food from the corn used and the rest was recalled.
2000: Iams. No deaths, but a voluntary recall was done due to DL-Methionine
2003: Petcurean, voluntary when a significant group of dogs on their food began suffering from liver disease.
2005: Diamond. 100 dogs died. Aflatoxin in corn again.
2005: Various. cat and dog treats were recalled due to Salmonella contamination.
2006: Simmons. Used cans of questionable manufacturer and flakes of enamel were found through out the food.
2006: Merrick. metal found in some samples of dog food.
2006. Royal Canin. Overdose of Vitamin D that caused calcium deficiency and kidney disease. This was major news. A lot of dogs and cats died.
2007: Wild Kitty Frozen raw cat diet. The FDA found Salmonella in the food. This was reported but no recall. There were no reported deaths, however; it’s highly likely there were and this was such a niche market food…never known.
2007: Menu. This was the one that at best everyone knows about. Menu makes the food for over 100 brands including Iams, Eukanuba, Hills, Purina and WalMart (which has a high recall rate for the foods it chooses, WalMart shops price only). It’s the most lethal in history. Thousands of pets, mostly cats; were dying of various conditions mostly renal failure. Originally a poison called aminopterin was thought to be the cause since early tests showed it. However; good old melamine made it’s first appearance. However, get this…it wasn’t a by-product of manufacturing as originally thought. It was purposely added by the food manufacturers as it boosted PROTEIN content. Shit son! No FUD about it. They also found cyanuric acid…which boosts the problem This lead to more exploratory work and it was found livestock meant for human consumption was being fed these melamine-bloated diets as well. Thousands and thousands of farm animals were destroyed. Pretty much every meat producer from chickens to pigs were affected.
This recall is still going on BTW. There could be foods still for sale that are out there.