Unfit for Human Consumption

How utterly fascinating... the things we do not know. In the years following the massive pet food recalls, a major shift of focus began to happen, major scrutiny of the pet food industry. And yet, there is still so much left in the shadows for the origin of the feeds we use daily for our dogs and cats. Many have begun to only feed "human grade" products, believing that those products go under a greater review than food products not intended for human consumption. Case in point - Nebraska By-Products and their contribution to Happy Hounds dog food. The following are snippets from this article. Be sure the click the link, you'll see a fantastic image of a man handling a box that clearly states "unfit for human consumption".

Nebraska By-Products removes dead stock from farms and ranches and processes it. It’s a vital and important business to the livestock industry, but has importance to other businesses, too... The dead stock received is rendered into two products: tallow and rendered tankage that is processed into meat and bone meal for use in the animal feed industry. One of the most important issues for a rendering facility is the promptness of retrieving the fallen animal. Deterioration leads to lower product value...

In 1997, the company created its own red meat product bearing the Happy Hound label for greyhounds and farms in Kansas and Florida, then began expanding its distribution into Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arizona and Iowa.

“We’re recycling dead animals into useful products,” Fagot said. “We get the beef from farmers, ranchers and feedlots.”

Two years ago, Happy Hound dog food became available in Montana, Wyoming and Alaska for sled dogs. Some of the product is used by sled dogs that race in the Iditarod...

“This is not the kind of dog food a person would feed a family pet,” Fagot said. “It’s higher in fat for cold temperatures. It’s raw red meat, 100 percent beef. It’s more for energy than as a food source.”

Nebraska By-Products processes much the same as a slaughterhouse. “They work with live animals. We work with dead stock.”

...Another byproduct is the hides. They’re removed from the animal and sold to tanneries in China, Vietnam, Mexico and Korea.

“We are the original recyclers,” Fagot said.