Why Would I want BHT in my Dog Food?

BHT or BHA is a preservative used in commercial pet foods and it basically preserves the animal fat content quite plainly so it does not rot in the dog food bag or can. It is also called Thoxyquin which does not sound very appetizing to people.  The history of Ethoxyquin dates back to the fifties where it was used to kill weeds as a herbicide and it was a chemical used to make rubber more stable.

As a preservative it keeps old food preserved longer and that has to do more with shelf  life and not your dog’s health. BHA is more for the manufacturers to sell it to grocery stores so it can sit on the shelf longer than other foods.

What does Ethoxyquin do for your dog? Well it can kill it. People who work in the rubber business and were exposed to Ethoxyquin contracted skin cancer, blindness, leukemia, diarrhea and liver damage.  In animals it can kill their immune system which is their only defense against diseases.  It causes kidney cancers and makes stomach tumors or colon tumors and the Department of Agriculture lists it as a pesticide. Yes you will find BHA in poor cheap dog food at Walmart.

This is a chemical preservative that your dog is ingesting at every meal for years and years. Your dog will consume pounds of Ethoxyquin in its food approximately 27 pounds in its life time. Doesn’t sound very healthy does it?

You wonder why pet owners buy this food at all but most do because it is cheap. It is cheap in its ingredients but is it safe?  It all depends on how long you want your dog to live? Dogs can live 25-30 years but today the average life span of a dog is 13-14 years.  The best advice is to buy only certified organic food for your dog, and ensure that it does not contain BHA, or corn, or wheat or by products.  Pet foods are not supposed to contain chemicals that kill your dog. They are not supposed to contain harmful ingredients that damage your dog’s kidneys.

The only way to buy dog food today is with a magnifying glass as you read the ingredients.  These days I know where the organic food is and its not at Pets Mart, at least the fake organic food is but not the real stuff. If you find your local independent health food store -you will find organic dog foods.

Ingredients of Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition: even after the recall of 2007 this food is not fit for dog consumption.

Ground Yellow Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Soybean Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Wheat Middlings, Animal Fat Preserved With Bha and Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Brewers Rice, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Color Added Red # 40, Y …  (excerpt from : walmart.com).

There were no product reviews on this item for sale at Walmart. Usually when you buy a product on line you get to see other people’s reviews which states how they liked it, what it did for them, how they used it and how much they liked it. But in this case, we did not find any reviews for Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition. As Wikipedia explains:

To date, the US FDA has only found a verifiable connection between ethoxyquin and buildup of protoporphyrin IX in the liver, as well as elevations in liver-related enzymes in some animals. It has been shown to cause mortality in fish.

Websites on BHA:  http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/Ethoxyquin.htm

Wikipedia Reference on Ethoxyquin:  Wiki

Even more information on BHA or Ethoxyquin: CBC Report.

TAGS:  BHA, life span of a dog, Pets Mart, Ethoxyquin, chemical preservatives, Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, animal fat preserved with BHA, Bha, Red Dye # 40, Walmart Pet food, walmart, wikipedia, dog food, pet food. FDA, doghealth1, commercial pet food, food, pet, eyzymes, pets food, dog’s food.

South Korea researchers in the Asia Pacific rim confirm two beagles cloned from just fat stem cells were born in healthy condition. These dog healthy beagle babies are called Magic and Stem and were produced by RNL BIO a biopharmaceutical that specializes in stem cell based therapy using Somatic cells are any cells formed in the body and can be made from internal organs, skin, bone, blood, connective tissue and in this case fat tissues can be used.

There is no basis in using just embryonic cells as some religious groups in the past have been trying to prevent this research under the Bush administration. Those days are long gone as science goes down a brighter, successful and more promising future to cure all diseases to man and animals.

Dog Cloning uses Somatic Cells:

The word from Latin meaning “ the body” and the body cells or a dog or a cat are stem cells.

The beauty of using stem cells or somatic cells is that these contain a full set of chromosomes where as the regular reproductive cells only carry ½ of the chromosomes, which makes Somatic Cells more powerful and acceptable for transplants. Rather than relying just on sperm and egg which are gametocytes – somatic cells can be the key to complete disease eradication and cures for: cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, liver failure, spinal cord injury, paralysis, Alzheimer and all major killers of people and pets.

Dog cancer can be cured completely if only this type of research if funded here and abroad. If not here, research will be conducted elsewhere as in Korea and many other countries that are seeing the results of the power of stem cell transplants and research.

Wouldn’t you want to cure your dog of cancer or diabetes, or any other disease like arthritis and hip dysphasia? I certainly would do everything in my power to save my dog and as these treatments become more popular we will all be able to afford them.

Last week we spoke about a couple from Florida that cloned their beloved dog Lancelot and just days ago received their puppy from stem cells. They were willing to pay $ 150,000.00 to clone their dog and that is a very high price. This is not to say that when the pharmaceuticals if they had any sense would pursue stem cell transplants instead of drugs that have harmful side effects we would see an end to diseases in our life time.

See my other articles at: http://doghealth1.com/2009/01/south-florida-couple-clone-their-dog-lancelot/

http://doghealth1.com/2009/01/finally-stem-cells-for-dogs-and-people/

http://doghealth1.com/2008/06/rainiers-story/

http://doghealth1.com/2008/06/stem-cells-saves-boys-eyesight/