Your Pet's Dog Food Could Be Dangerous

If your family includes some furry friends, here's a warning you need to know. An ingredient in your dog's food could make them sick or worse.

A drug used to put animals to sleep, has been found in several major brands of food. So how is it getting in there and why isn't it on the label?

Besides sleeping, eating is 13 year old Winston's favorite pastime. That's just fine with Maria Wimer, who tries to buy only the best for the Queensland Heeler.

Maria Wimer, dog owner, says, "He's part of the family so you know you gotta make sure he's taken care of like everybody else."

With plenty of dog foods on the market, Wimer has plenty of choices. But there's something she and others like her may unknowingly be feeding their pets, a potentially deadly chemical not listed in the ingredients.

A recently released FDA study shows many of the top brands of dry dog food contain trace amounts of pentobarbital, a drug used to euthanize cats and dogs..

The FDA says the small amounts of the drug they found present in dozens of dog foods are harmless. But not all veterinarian agree.

Dr. Tamara Hebler runs a veterinarian clinic in Escondido. She says food containing pentobarbital may not be dangerous to dogs in a single dose, but she says over the long term, it's not good.

Dr. Tamara Hebler says, "You can definitely be slowly causing chronic degenerative disease to happen much, much faster.

"The study was for a very short period of time, how much of that is representative for a lifetime of feeding, and feeding only the same food."

None of the 43 brands and product lines of dry dog food randomly selected by the FDA that tested positive for pentobarbital warned of it's presence.

The drug was found in national brands like Ken L Ration, Kibbles and Bits, Kibbles and Bits Puppy, Nutro, Walmarts "Ole Roy", Trailblazer, ... and many more.

The FDA report suggests pentobarbital could be making it's way into the food through cattle or horses that were euthanized with the drug - their remains then grinded up and mixed in with dog food.

Dr. Hebler says the fact that the FDA report did not answer that question with certainty, raises concern about their conclusion regarding the health dangers.

Dr. Hebler, says, "Anytime there's holes in the study as far as it not being conclusive, and then they draw a conclusion, then you really have to worry about the science behind it."

The Pet Food Institute represents 97 percent of all pet food makers in the U.S. A spokesman for the Institute released a statement:

"We are in the business of making quality products that keep dogs and cats healthy. If there was something in there that was a danger, we'd do everything we could to make sure that it's removed."


Here's a link to a chart of dog foods compiled by the FDA http://www.wkyc.com/news/...dchart.doc

Thanks for the post, applekisses. I'm passing this link along to dog owners that I know.

You're welcome...it made me so mad when I heard about it!

Thank you for that! I have 3 dogs and we've always tried to stay on top of what dog foods were healthy for them. I'm going to look into the brand we've been using.

Man o man...That is what I feed my two dogs Kibbles and Bits and also my cats eat the kit and kaboodle's.The dry one with the morsel middles !!!