Free Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard H. Pitcairn, Susan Hubble Pitcairn Page A

“For years,” reported the New York Times in 2004, “calves have been fed cow’s blood instead of milk, and cattle feed has been allowed to contain composted wastes from chicken coops, including feathers, spilled feed and even feces.” These rendered animal materials are especially likely to be fed to dairy cows because intensive milk production requires more protein and fat in the diet. According to Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, most of the meat and bone meal produced in the 240 plants in the United States and Canada, which process about 50 billion pounds of animal remains a year, is used in feed supplements for animals. As he was quoted in the Times article, 43 percent goes to poultry, 23 percent to pet food, 13 percent to swine, 10 percent to cattle, and 11 percent to other uses, such as feed for farmed fish.
    Though Europe tests 25 percent of their cattle for this disease and Japan 100 percent, in the United States only five or six in a million cattle are tested. Even so, Mad Cow Disease was found in Canada in May 2003 (7 percent of the beef consumed by Americans comes from Canada) and in cattle in Washington state in early 2004. We can see the possibility of this becoming a significant problem in our future, and there is no indication that the feeding of animal tissue to cattle and sheep will be curtailed. Even if it is, cooking meat does not kill the disease. The only way to avoid this with any certainty is to not eat meat—not a choice for obligate carnivores like cats. It might be prudent to avoid beef and lamb, which are the major sources right now, though this restricts the choices considerably. We don’t know whether chickens, turkeys, or farmed fish will be susceptible to this disease. They are fed the same kind of material that has spread it in livestock, so the risk is certainly there. There are also many other animals that have developed similar diseases, such as antelope, mink, and ostrich.
    I think the best defense against such diseases is a healthy body, which is an additional reason for feeding your animals the most natural and nutritious diet in the first place.
    Storage
    We have tried to formulate the recipes in this book for convenient quantities of meats, as purchased in pounds. If you’re feeding a large dog or several animals, you will probably use up all the meat you buy before it spoils. But if you have one small animal, you will need to take a different tack: Either divide the meat into recipe-size portions and freeze them for future preparation, or make up the whole recipe at once and freeze any part of the mixture that your pet won’t eat in the next two to three days. This will also reduce the time spent in preparing your pet’s diet.
    Undoubtedly, freezing the meat destroys some of its fresh qualities, but defrosted raw meat is still better than cooked meat and far superior to the meat by-products in commercial food.
    You will probably need to freeze extra meat more often for cats than for dogs. Because dogs are natural scavengers, they can tolerate, and even relish, meat that is too gamy for human consumption. Cats, however, are truer carnivores. That’s why they are very selective about the freshness of their meat and will readily let you know when their daily fare has aged beyond its time.
    Tip: Reuse your soft plastic dairy and deli containers to freeze extra portions when you make up a recipe. Thaw each container in the refrigerator 24 hours before you want to serve it. If the food is not completely thawed, simply add a little hot water and use a fork to break it up in the serving bowl. Hot water also increases the palatability of any food just removed from the refrigerator. Try to use up frozen meat within three to four months.
    If you are going to use the microwave to heat up the food or to thaw it, then remove it first from plastic containers and don’t cover it with plastic wrap. Studies have shown that microwave heating of food releases toxic