SpexCertiPrep, a laboratory standards company, just released a poster-type abstract of a soon to be published paper titled"Trace Metal Analysis of Commercial Pet Food for Toxic Metals by ICP and ICP-MS."  You're not going to believe what was found in some pet foods.  This is certainly one of the most shocking pieces of pet food information I've ever received.  

Before I get to the terrible news, No - we do not know what foods were tested, nor will we know once the paper completes peer review and is published (expected to be early 2011).  The pet food names will not be published from this study - ever.  I don't like it either, so don't shoot the messenger.  And don't be angry at the testing facility (SpexCertiPrep).  This is standard procedure.  This company did us a HUGE favor by testing pet food in the first place; their findings will (should) shake the foundation of commercial pet food.  To anyone that can't understand (you don't have to like it, but you do need to understand) that this is how things are done, I'll be glad to accept a $1 million donation from you and supervise the testing of hundreds of brands of dog foods and cat foods and make the results public (the $1 million wouldn't cover legal fees when the pet food names and test results would be made public - add at least another $3 million for legal costs).  Until this happens, be grateful we have this information and lets nudge a Veterinary School to acquire a government grant to do further testing and scream from our rooftops at our Representatives in Congress.  Again, please don't shoot the messenger.  

My sincere thank you to Ralph Obernauf, President of Spex CertiPrep to providing this information to Pet Owners prior to the official publication of the paper AND for testing pet food.  Thanks as well to Patricia Atkins, Lazlo Ernyei and William Driscoll, partners in this pet food testing.  Without your testing, and without your providing this information to the public (and to TruthaboutPetFood.com), we would still be in the dark as to what some commercial pet foods actually contain.  Here's hoping your testing results will force the safety of pet food to be closely examined by regulatory authorities.  

The abstract states the dilemma of pet owners very clearly.  "The quality of many of the ingredients used for pet food is often considered to be inferior or unfit for human consumption.  "Premium" brands claim to have superior ingredients and quality.  Claims of the quality of premium ingredients do not offer data as to the potential toxicity of elements which may be found in those ingredients.  The purpose of our study was to examine pet foods from various sources to determine if they contained potentially toxic elements and if high quality ingredients equated to less toxic elements present in the food."  

"This study is not a comprehensive study of all potential contaminants found in pet foods.  The random samples tested were deemed to be snapshots of the overall levels of toxic elements that could be consumed by pets."  Fifty-nine pet food samples were donated by Spex CertiPrep and SamplePrep employees all purchased from local New Jersey supermarkets, chain stores, budget stores and pet supply stores.  Prices of pet foods tested ranged from $0.02 cents per ounce to $0.42 cents per ounce.  Thirty-one dry food samples were tested; 18 dry dog food and 13 dry cat food.  Twenty-seven wet pet food samples were tested; 13 wet dog food and 14 wet cat food.

Both wet and dry pet foods, each sample, were ground to a even consistency.  Canned human foods, tuna, sardines, and chicken, were ground and tested as well for comparison.  Below is each element discovered in pet foods, the average part per billion (ppb) found in pet foods tested and ppb of human food tested.  A toxicity risk of each element was taken fromWikipedia.org.

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In my opinion, if you are not feeding your dog a homecooked or raw diet, you are doing him or her a disservice by shortening his or her life. Please start to read and educate yourself on this topic. See our Feeding your Dog Forum and start your research. Google Feeding dogs and learn.

Lynne Fowler