Rhonda wrote:
sniperoo


Because of persistent rumors that rendered by-products contain dead dogs
and cats, the FDA conducted a study looking for pentobarbital, the most
common euthanasia drug, in pet foods. They found it. Ingredients that
were most commonly associated with the presence of pentobarbital were
meat-and-bone-meal and animal fat. However, they also used very
sensitive tests to look for canine and feline DNA, which were not found.

Doesn't mean much. There are a number of ways the DNA might not show
up: If dogs and cats are a minimal additive, as compared to cow or
beef; if the product is heated at high enough temps the DNA is
denatured resulting in false negatives; since there are tons of other
enzymes floating around in the mix, the DNA is probably chewed beyond
the point where it could be found using PCR which is probably what
they used; and the experiments may be poorly designed.

I would be interested to see what positive controls they used in the
experiments. Basically, they would need to add dog and/or cat bodies
to processing-sized vats of other meats in different concentrations
until the DNA could be detected, and then, IF the amount detected was
small enough to be significant and easily detected, they could
extrapolate whether or not production vats are likely to have
contained dogs and/or cats based on their sampling results. To do
this experiment properly, it would be extremely expensive. Knowing
the FDA as I do, I find it highly unlikely that they did anything more
than take multiple samples and test it for dog and cat DNA at *some*
level, which may or may not be relevant.

Sorry if this doesn't make complete sense - I am surfing on a killer
migraine today...
-L.