Simple things you can do to ensure your pet is safe.

Guest post by Dr. Sandra Cottingham, co-author of LEAD BABIES

We love our pets, and we would do anything to keep them happy, healthy and safe. High quality, organic pet food is an excellent place to start. Also, with lead exposure being such a pervasive and serious health concern, some extra awareness goes a long way while looking out for our four-legged friends.

The term lead babies refers to a generation of individuals who were permanently damaged neurologically by lead, while still in the womb or during the first two years of life prior to the blood-brain barrier forming. These children have grown up and passed along their own life-long accumulations of lead to their offspring. For women, lead stored in bones and soft tissues leeches out during pregnancy and breastfeeding and is transferred directly to the fetus. For men, lead can alter the DNA structure of sperm, or damage the sperm itself resulting in babies born with physical and mental disabilities.

But babies, children and adults are not the only lead babies. Pets, due to their relative size, remain as vulnerable as children to the damaging effects of lead. There are three key categories of lead sources that need to be systematically investigated. The first one is water.

You have encountered individuals who take care and effort to filter the water they and their children drink. Pets, large and small, need the same consideration. Avoid giving a pet untested tap water, and never fill a water bowl from an ordinary outside hose.

Pets that drink from the toilet bowl or lap up the droplets of water left in the bathtub or shower are at risk for lead exposure as well. And the source may not be the water; it can be lead leaching from the ceramic or other materials. Before you embark on a behavior modification program for your toilet water drinker, check every water source your pet has access to, indoors and out. Trying to eliminate access to any lead contaminated water, adding a filter to the faucet and buying a certified lead-free hose along with blocking access to bathroom, keeping the toilet seat down, and shutting the shower door are simple but effective solutions that could dramatically protect a pet’s long-term health.

Another key lead source is surfaces – paint, dust, furniture finishes, and exposed soil, sand and dirt.

I have known of a number of cats and dogs over the years that loved to lick the walls. This was mysterious to the owners and often quite comical. But once your realize that lead has a sweet taste, it is neither a mystery, nor amusing. Pets lick paint and eat paint chips for the same reason children do – it tastes good! Many of those same pets had hearing loss and kidney problems – two symptoms of lead exposure in humans. If you have a wall licker, it is easy to check your paint with an inexpensive home test kit being sure to check all of the layers of paint, not just the last one applied. If you have paint that contains lead, research your lead abatement options, and do train your pet not to lick the walls or floor.

If you have furniture that your cat or dogs licks or teethes on, use the test kit to determine if there is lead in the finish – very common both in new items and older pieces and antiques.

For many households, pets are a main transporter of lead from the garden and sandbox to inside the home. Animals with fluffy coats trap and carry more lead than short-haired, but both can increase the risk for the family as well as the pet. Pets lick their paws frequently, ingesting trace amounts of lead. And what falls off onto the floor or carpet becomes airborne again through dusting and vacuuming. The solution is easy. Outdoors, cover all exposed soil and sand with ground cover plants. A simple rubber doormat under the bare patch beneath a swing set eliminates contact with bare dirt. Indoors, dust with a damp cloth and use a closed system vacuum with a HEPA filter – never a bag.

The last major lead source category is commonly talked about but often not acted upon until the damage is done. This category involves anything that you buy or receive that you carry in your front door: toys, food, cleaning products, housewares, clothing, etc.

Once again, if your pet comes in contact with it, and it is made of something other than natural unfinished wood or natural fibre cloth, test it for lead! Vinyls, painted items, ceramics and metal should be checked as a high priority with your pet’s food and water dish, collar and tags and pet toys at the top of your testing list.

There was a time when tiny, trace amounts of lead were of little concern. But evidence provided by time and research has proven otherwise. The amount of lead that it takes to permanently damage the brain of an unborn child is about the same as three granules of table sugar. We know that lead causes ADHD, learning disabilities, low IQ and behavior problems in humans. Though less studied and measured, the neurological functioning of exposed animals is similarly compromised. We now know that lead is the major cause of infertility and miscarriage, as well as a cause of diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and a long list of autoimmune diseases from arthritis to Multiple Sclerosis. Pets, because of their relative size and the unmanaged nature of their contact with their environment, are as vulnerable to the effects of lead exposure as babies and toddlers.

Like children, our pets depend on us to protect them. Guard your pet’s health. In addition to providing them with high quality, organic pet food, make an effort to eliminate their exposure to lead.

Visit www.enoughlead.com for some free resources to help you and your family identify and remove lead exposure sources in your home.

Dr. Cottingham’s book, LEAD BABIES, How heavy metals are causing our children’s autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, low IQ and behavior problems is an empowering and comprehensive guide to understanding and responding to your family’s specific lead exposure risks.

Contact Dr. Cottingham with questions or comments @ http://bit.ly/cHpage2

Onesta Organics' Raw Dehydrated Pet Food Products

Dehydration is often used to remove water from pet food ingredients. The temperature used for dehydration determines whether the ingredients and consequently the food can still be considered as raw.

Baking is one form of dehydration, as by definition, baking removes the water from the ingredients used in the pet food. However, the temperatures used for baking destroy most nutrients.

Dehydration at temperatures which are low enough to leave most nutrients unaltered is used for truly raw dehydrated pet food products.

Some pet food companies call their dog food or cat food products dehydrated raw, although they are using ingredients, such as meats or meat meals, that have been cooked. They get away with it because they dehydrate the ingredient-water mix that contains the previously cooked ingredients, and because no unbiased third-party checks if their claims actually reflect the reality of their manufacturing processes.

In contrast, organic certification –as we at Onesta Organics understand it– requires, among many other things, the complete disclosure of processing methodsincluding disclosing the temperatures to which ingredients have been exposed to.

In the U.S., arsenic-based additives (in particular, Roxarsone) are frequently included in chicken feed to promote growth, kill parasites, and improve the appearance the meat. In Europe the use of arsenic is strictly prohibited as a feed additive.

It has been shown that most chicken products (including muscle meat, liver, and whole chicken) sold in the U.S. contain detectable arsenic levels. Notably, arsenic was more than twice as prevalent in conventional chicken as it was in a variety of premium brands. It is estimated that at least 70 percent of chickens raised in the U.S. are being fed arsenic-laced feed.

Consumer Reports found no detectable arsenic in USDA certified organic chicken samples. Birds that are certified organic can’t legally be fed food that contains arsenic, and even a few conventional poultry producers (e.g., Tyson Foods) have voluntarily abandoned the use of arsenic-containing feeds.

Since arsenic does not degrade, it tends to accumulate in the body, and when it is excreted, it accumulates in our soil and water. Long-term exposure to arsenic can cause cancer and a number of other diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, paralysis, and neurological disorders.

Although the levels of arsenic found in chicken meat may be comparatively low in a single serving, cumulative exposures to arsenic is, of course, a major issue.

Arsenic feed additives affect not only the health of your pet, they also contribute to the contamination of critical agricultural soils and our water supply.

What you can do:

Apart from supporting efforts to ban arsenic feed additives, you can choose USDA certified organic pet foods, products that, according to regulations and through strict enforcement, cannot include ingredients from arsenic-fed chicken.

Our friend John’s best friend, Tasha, crossed over the rainbow bridge on May 2, 2010. She was an amazingly loving girl. We were honored to have met her, and she’ll always be in our thoughts. It’s playtime now, sweet girl.

Sewage sludge contains all sorts of household and industrial toxins which are flushed down the toilet or private and industrial drains. How could this possibly impact the quality of your ‘natural’ pet food?

Just to remind you: the term ‘natural’ isn’t regulated and the best way to actually get a natural pet food when you want one is to buy a certified organic pet food, which among other things, wouldn’t contain sewage sludge-grown crops or animal ingredients. Verification by an independent party, an organic certification agency, is your guarantee that this is the case.

Non-certified organic pet foods contain so-called ‘conventional’ (i.e., non-certified organic) ingredients. Conventional agriculture routinely uses sewage sludge (also called ‘biosolids’) as ‘fertilizer.’ Every year more than half of the roughly 7 million metric tons of the biosolids produced in the United States are applied as fertilizer to farm fields.

The large amount of human waste processed in sewage plants means that sewage sludge contains high concentrations of phosphates and nitrates, which are desirable components of fertilizers. However, this sludge also contains highly toxic materials such as fluorides, industrial solvents, heavy metals, hormones, antibiotics, and even radioactive waste which may accumulate in the plants that are grown on sludge-fertilized farmland, as well as in the animals that are fed sludge-treated crops.

WHAT TOXINS ARE CONTAINED IN SEWAGE SLUDGE?
Here are just some of the many toxins that were detected by the EPA in sewage sludge from 74 randomly selected publicly owned water treatment/sewage sludge plants in 35 states (Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey Report, 2009).

For understandable reasons, the EPA study had to limit the analysis to relatively few toxins; it is likely that sewage sludge contains many more toxins that have not been included in the EPA study.

‘Class B biosolids,’ which are the principal type of biosolids applied to land, also contain a variety of enteric pathogens (e.g., E.coli, salmonella). These were also not included in the recent EPA study.

At the end of this page you can find information on some of these toxins (marked in the text with numbers in parenthesis) and the health problems with which they are known to be associated.

1. Metals
Twenty seven of the 28 metals analyzed were found in every sewage sludge sample. The most prevalent were barium(1), beryllium(2), manganese(3), molybdenum(4), and silver(5). The other metals included: aluminum, antimony, arsenic, boron, cadmium, cobalt, lead, mercury, selenium, thallium, tin, vanadium, yttrium, and zinc.

Remember that elemental metals often are very toxic while they are life-sustaining in the forms in which they occur naturally in foods.

2. “Organics”
Of the six organics analyzed, four were found in at least 72 samples, one was found in 63 samples, and one was found in 39 samples. The most prevalent ‘organics’ are: pyrene(1), fluoranthene(2), 4-Chloroaniline(3).

3. Polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs)
PBDEs are a particular class of flame retardant chemicals used in plastics, foams, fabrics and other materials. All 7 of the flame retardants studied except one (BDE-138) were essentially found in every sample; BDE-138 was found in 54 out of 84 samples.

4. Pharmaceuticals
Of the 72 pharmaceuticals analyzed, three (i.e., ciprofloxacin, diphenhydramine, and triclocarban) were found in all 84 samples and nine were found in at least 80 of the samples. However, 15 pharmaceuticals were not found in any sample and 29 were found in fewer than three samples.

Among the detected pharmaceuticals are antibiotics, antibiotic derivatives, and disinfectants: azithromycin(1), ciprofloxacin(2), doxycyclin(3), erythromycin-4(4), tetracycline(5), 4-epipetracycline(6), miconazole(7), ofloxacin(8), trilocarban(9), triclosan(10), the antihistamine medicine diphenhydramine(11), anticonvulsant, mood stabilizing drugs or antidepressants: fluoxetine(12), carbamazepine(13), and the heart burn medicine cimetidine(14).

5. Steroids and hormones
Of the 25 steroids and hormones that were analyzed, three steroids (i.e., campesterol, cholestanol, and coprostanol) were found in all 84 samples and six steroids were found in at least 80 of the samples. One hormone (i.e., 17-a-ethynyl estradiol) was not found in any sample and five hormones were found in fewer than six samples.

Detected were widely used phytosterols (1): Beta Stigmastanol, Campesterol, and Stigmasterol, Cholesterol (2), markers of human fecal matter contamination: the cholesterol derivatives coprostanol and epicoprostanol (a coprostanol isomer formed during treatment of wastewater ), hormones with androgenic activities: testosterone, androsterone, androstenedione (a direct precursor to testosterone), estrogenic hormones natural and synthetic estrogens: estriol, estrone,17-α-estradiol, 17-β-estradiol, β-estradiol-3-benzoate, 17-α-ethynyl estradiol(3*), equine estrogens (‘Premarin’): 17α-dihydroequilin, equilenin, equilin, progestins: norethindrone and norgestrel(4), progestogens: progesterone(5).

CONCLUSION
This necessarily restricted EPA analysis of toxins contained in sewage sludge shows that a number of known toxins are present in the ‘biosolids’ used in conventional agriculture. Among these are a veritable cornucopia of antibiotics, hormones, and toxic metals, many of which have the ability to accumulate in plants, animals, and humans.

Any ‘natural pet food claim’ that isn’t associated with certified organic pet foods, can therefore not withstand real life scrutiny. These natural pet food claims are often associated with ‘free of hormones’ and ‘free of antibiotics’ statements. The results of this EPA study demonstrate clearly that these natural claims are largely meaningless.

Certified organic pet foods simply cannot contain ingredients that were grown with hormones or antibiotics, whether they are applied intentionally or indirectly through the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer. Therefore, only certified organic pet foods can, in good conscience and backed by solid science, be considered as natural pet foods.

………………………..
APPENDIX
1. Metals
(1) Kidney disease, cancer, increased mortality, decreased birth weight, hypokalemia – tachycardia, hyper- or hypotension, muscle weakness, paralysis.

(5) Natural or synthetic progestogens.

If your pet’s food isn’t certified organic,* it most likely contains toxins from sewage sludge that has been used to fertilize the crops grown for ‘conventional’ (i.e., non-certified organic) ingredients or that were fed to the non-organically raised animals used as ingredients.
* [Certified organic pet foods have to be produced without ingredients that were grown with or raised on sewage sludge-treated feed.]

Hm… so what exactly is sewage sludge? It doesn’t sound good for sure…
Here is what Sludgenews says about it:

“Sewage is the mix of water and whatever wastes from domestic and industrial life are flushed into the sewer. To retrieve the precious water, the sewage is then “treated,” that is, “cleaned,” in what are called “treatment plants.” The ideal of the treatment plant is to take out of the sewer water all the “wastes” that sewering put into it. The water is “cleaned” in the degree to which the pollutants which had turned the water into sewage are removed by treatment-primary, secondary, or tertiary-and concentrated in the sludge.
We must note that, though the aim of sewage treatment is to produce clean water, it is never to produce “clean” sludge. Indeed, the “dirtier” the sludge-the more complete its concentration of the noxious wastes-the more the treatment has done its job. If there are industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones, nano particles, prions, hospital wastes including antibiotic-resistant bacteria-and there will be all of these-you want them to end up in the sludge. Every waste produced in our society that can be got rid of down toilets and drains and that can also be got out of the sewage by a given treatment process will be in the sludge.

Sludge is thus inevitably a noxious brew of vastly various and incompatible materials unpredictable in themselves and in the toxicity of their amalgamation, incalculably but certainly wildly dangerous to life.

But the land “application” of sewage sludge represents a clear lose-lose-for people and for the environment-on a scale staggering to contemplate. It will pollute the whole chain of life for which soil is the base.”

What can you do about this?
The first and easiest thing is to inform yourself more about sewage sludge and how it applies to agriculture and the food you and your pet eat. The second step is to avoid adding to the toxicity of the sewage water. The third step is to choose certified organic food products, for yourself and your pet so that neither of you falls victims to hidden toxins in your food. This will also support (certified) organic agriculture and (pet) food manufacturers, which in turn will help put an end to the abundant use of toxic sewage sludge in conventional agriculture. The fourth step is to urge your legislators to prohibit the use of sewage sludge in agriculture and to prevent toxins entering sewage systems to begin with.

As another Green America-approved business friend pointed out: “Non-certified organic products shouldn’t just be called ‘conventional’ products – they’re supposed to be called ‘toxic’ products.” He’s right.

The important thing is to be educated. One needs to understand that many pet foods that aren’t certified organic but marketed as ‘natural’ are more likely pet foods that are laced with many more toxins than pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or GMOs.

More than 500,000 kg of approximately 600 different pesticide chemicals are applied annually in the US, while approximately 2.5 million tons are used throughout the world (Pimentel 1996).

The World Health Organization reported in 1992 that about three million pesticide poisonings occur in humans annually and result in 220,000 deaths worldwide.

Our pets are more vulnerable to pesticide poisoning than their human companions since they are in closer and direct contact to pesticide-treated areas such as the grass in the dog park, and because they keep licking themselves clean.

Lawns
A study published in 1991 found that dogs whose owners’ lawns were treated with the herbicide 2,4-D at least times per year, were twice as likely to develop canine malignant lymphoma than dogs whose owners did not use this herbicide. Exposure to herbicide-treated lawns and gardens also increases the risk of bladder cancer by more than four times in dogs.
Good ways to help prevent pesticide poisoning in your pet is to keep pesticides off your property and to routinely wash your pet’s paws after he spent time outside.

Insect repellants
Many pets are treated with flea and tick repellents. Research studies link hyperthyroidism in cats to flea powders or sprays and lawn pesticides. A World Health Organization study linked allethrin, a common ingredient in home mosquito and other home insect repellant products, to liver disease in dogs. Chronic exposure to abamectin, a commonly insecticide used on fire ants was shown to affect the nervous system of dogs, including lethargy and tremors.
A great way to avoid pesticide poisoning of your pet is to give natural pest control measures a good shot before using synthetic ones in your home or on your pet.

Pet food
Pesticides accumulate in our pets’ bodies also if they eat foods that have been treated with synthetic pesticides (i.e., the non-certified organic pet foods) or fish which have accumulated these toxins in their lives. Pesticide contamination in pet foods has been shown to increase the risk of hyperthyroidism in cats.
The safest way to avoid feeding your pet pesticides along with her food, is to choose certified organic pet foods, which per law have to be grown and processed without toxic chemicals.

Pesticide in water and fish
Pesticides that are applied to agricultural or landscaping areas often wash off through irrigation or rain into our waterways such as rivers, lakes, and oceans. After fish take up the pesticides from the water through their gills, guts, and skin (which also covers the scales), these toxins are stored predominantly in the fish’s fatty tissue. The older the fish gets, the more toxins, including pesticides, accumulate in its fatty tissue.

Omega-3 in fish
Omega-3s offers excellent health benefits; however, if they are derived from fish, they come from the fish’s fatty tissues which accumulate pesticides to a great extent. Problems occur when pet guardians who want to improve their pets’ health naturally, choose omega-3 rich fish-based foods (e.g., those containing fish meal) for their pets which consequently can unknowingly ingest high amounts of pesticides.

Pesticides ingested and accumulated through eating fish can cause significant health problems. Organochlorines are known endocrine disrupters which interrupt normal hormone processes which are essential for every biological process. Organochlorines, even at very low concentrations, interfere with reproduction, growth and development.
To avoid pesticide poisoning when feeding omega-3 rich foods, select foods that are prepared from small fish, give fish oils which have been shown to contain fewer organochlorines, and consider feeding your pet also other omega-3 rich foods such as flax seeds.

If you suspect your pet has been poisoned contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435.

Learn more about pesticide toxicity on the Beyond Pesticides website (www.beyondpesticides.org).

… It is almost shameful that we nowadays use, or if you are a real natural pet food manufacturer, have to use, the term ‘natural’ to describe pet foods. Pet food should be natural without having to make a big deal out of it. However, time is always changing! And so are advertising claims and marketing needs…

What do they mean if they say their pet food is ‘natural’?
In most cases they mean that no (obvious) synthetic chemicals are used as ingredients, such as synthetic preservatives or artificial colors. Is this good enough to call it natural? Not necessarily.

If a pet food manufacturer includes ‘refined’ ingredients such as ‘rice’ instead of whole rice, or ‘quinoa flour’ instead of ‘whole quinoa flour’, or ‘honey’ instead of ‘raw honey’, the food already isn’t natural any more because it contains food fragments instead of the entire whole food. Nutrients in whole foods act in synergy, that means they enhance, buffer and balance each others actions. Nutirents in most food fragments loose this natural synergy between nutrients which can lead to health problems such as insulin resistance, gluten insensitivity, and their associated disease symptoms.

If a pet food manufacturer uses isolated minerals and vitamins to supplement their foods so that they fulfill AAFCO requirements for a ‘balanced’ or ‘complete diet’, these foods also are no longer ‘natural’.

Why would that be?
Because the vitamin and mineral supplements used for pet foods aren’t really natural (i.e., whole food-based) but synthetic. For example, most vitamin E supplements (even the ‘natural’ versions and those marketed as ‘100% natural’) are derived from genetically engineered soybeans. Genetic engineering of ingredients simply isn’t natural; and as increasing numbers of studies show, this technology renders foods unhealthy.
Synthetic supplements can also contain harmful contaminations that accumulate during the chemical manufacturing processes. Furthermore, synthetic supplements, unlike naturally occurring nutrients, are also often not bioavailable, have unpredictable biological actions, or they can accumulate in the body to unhealthy levels. But nobody seems to like to talk much about this.

If a pet food contains conventional instead of certified organic ingredients, these ingredients can be loaded with artificial and toxic chemicals such as pesticides, can be irradiated, genetically engineered, or all of the above. Even if you omit synthetic preservatives from such foods, these foods are a far cry from ‘natural’.

So, what would I call a ‘natural pet food’?
In my view, both as a biologist and pet food manufacturer, ‘natural pet foods’ are certified organic, unrefined, minimally processed and whole food-based.

The French authors Vendômois, Roullier, Cellier and Séralini studied how the health of rats was effected when their diet contained three varieties of genetically modified corn (published in International Journal of Biological Sciences, 2009; 5(7):706-726). They found “a clear negative impact on the function of the kidneys and livers in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days.”

All three GM (genetically modified) corn varieties contain novel pesticide residues that is present in food and feed made from this corn.

The authors summarize their results: “Our analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs. Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn. In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.”

”Natural” (i.e., non-GM) corn is a great food source for several pet species, but only certified organic corn is verifyably GM-free. Considering the data presented in above study, it is worthwhile to look for organic corn if you want to add it to your pet”s diet.

Sadly, most all US corn is genetically engineered. However, if you see signs of organic certification (either a certified organic claim or the USDA organic seal) on a product, you can be assured that it wasn”t genetically engineered (in addition that it wasn”t doused in pesticides).

FDA”s Pet Health and Safety Widget was launched this week as part of “an ongoing effort to provide timely, user-friendly, public health information.” It provides up-to-date releases from the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine on how to report a pet food complaint, and gives other current information such as on adverse drug reactions, recall information, disaster preparedness for pet owners, and many other pet health- and safety-related topics.

Go here to download this widget to your own website and share.