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Urban legends about pets are some of the most tenacious and reaction-provoking, prominent among them a long-held belief that pet food (particularly the cheapest brands) is made, in part, from the rendered euthanized remains of cats and dogs themselves: The origins of that belief are difficult to pin down. Like many rumors it tends to spike in popularity at seemingly random intervals, but one of its earliest and more prominent versions appeared around 1997 on a web page that has since vanished (although its text remains the basis for many versions of the rumor): Slate referenced the claim in a 2013& article, suggesting it could possibly be true due to a lack of stringent oversight of pet food manufacturers: Much of the evidence offered to corroborate the presence of dead pets in pet food can be traced back to a photograph of indeterminate origin (which is graphic) and an undated video news report from Seattle television station KING. In that video, former Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) president Hersh Pendell also states that it's impossible to tell exactly what's in rendered meat (but doesn't say it necessarily includes dog or cat carcasses): The mention of the term animal shelters as one source of material for rendering plants again suggests the possibility that cats and dogs are being rendered, but many shelters also take in a variety of other species (including ones more typically consumed by humans and their pets), such as chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, and various farm animals. Some versions of the rumor stem from legitimate instances in which pet food has been recalled over the presence of pentobarbital (a drug whose uses include the euthanization of companion animals), a situation which occurred in February 2017. However, that particular mishap (which resulted in the death of at least one dog) was attributed to contaminated beef and not to the presence of rendered dogs or cats in pet food. A risk assessment issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 28 February 2002 addressed reports that pentobarbital might be losing its effectiveness as an anesthetizing agent for dogs and other animals because they were being exposed to it through its presence in pet foods: The FDA assessment noted that pentobarbital is routinely used to euthanize animals [so] the most likely way it could get into dog food would be in rendered animal products and that [pentobarbital] seems to be able to survive the rendering process, leading that agency to posit that euthanized companion animals could be posing a contamination risk if they were being rendered into pet foods. However, although the FDA in their investigation of pet foods found [that] some samples contained pentobarbital, they found no evidence of cat or dog DNA in those samples and suggested the more likely source of pentobarbital in pet foods was rendered cattle or horses: In February 2018, the J.M. Smucker Co. withdrew shipments of several brands of dog foods amid reports that the product was tainted with pentobarbital. How the drug might have entered the pet food supply chain was unknown, but the company said they were focusing on a single supplier of a minor ingredient used at one manufacturing facility. Although advances in DNA testing have made it much easier to detect the possible presence of material derived from euthanized dogs or cats in pet foods, we have turned no reports documenting anyone's finding that to be the case. Despite two decades of sustained interest in this rumor, as far as we know the most affirmative conclusion reached by those who have investigated this claim is that we can't prove this isn't happening.
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