Consider This Before Feeding Merrick

[garypen]

My cats love the Merrick canned food. But, if they are going to avoid these simple questions, then I may have to try one of the Evangers manufactured foods again, even though the cats didn't like Evangers or Felidae. (and I thought they looked like crap, plus very inconsistent in appearance and volume.)

Quite frankly, I may even resort to CalNat wet, even tho made by Menu. I hate the thought of my money going to those s. But, if Natura is to be trusted, they have increased their oversight, and will be opening their own plant at some point. I certainly can't trust ANI-made products, and the cats don't seem to like Evangers-made products. And, if Merrick is filled potentially dangerous meat sources, I will have no choice. (Home-cooking ain't gonna happen, unless all store-bought pet food turns out to be poison.)

[Cindy Nevarez]

Evangers no longer puts in Vit K as of Aug. 'o6. All labels are not changed yet.

[bixlo]

I got a reply today!


Hello,

I apologize for the delayed response, as you can imagine, due to the recent Pet Food recalls, we have been inundated with e-mails, phone calls and voice messages.  By the way, none of our products are affected by these recalls.

We do not use wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate, we use the whole grain rice. We do have vegetables and fish in our foods. You can view all the ingredients at www.merrickpetcare.com; under entrees, just click on the flavor and the ingredients are listed below the picture.

We buy our Lamb and Venison from New Zealand and Australia, everything else comes from USDA sourced facilities, we do not buy anything from China and we manufacture everything in Hereford, TX.

I will forward another email with information about the rendering plant.

Thank you,
Toni
Merrick Pet Care

[bixlo]

and about the rendering plant (please note, I have immediately sent back a reply
asking about having heard that the rendering plant is not only in the same city but is located right next to the manufacturing facilities - waiting for a reply.  But I must say, I do believe (or want to) believe what she told me.  The dogs and cats LOVE the Merrick wet.

Well, here it is folks:


I can assure you that we only use Human grade ingredients in our Merrick 5 Star products (and always have) and we 100% do not use any rendered meats or by-products in any pet food products that we manufacture.  Merrick offers the largest line of natural holistic dog cans in the industry (18 canned varieties).   

Merrick Pet Care does not own a rendering facility.  There is a Merrick family member who is an investor in an outside rendering facility; however, the facility is not located in the same city as our manufacturing facilities.  It is totally illegal for any dog food company to use rendered materials in their products.  The main purpose of the rendering facility is to remove the hides from the cows and then sell them to leather manufacturing companies.

Merrick Pet Care is the only award winner that has won three consecutive years in a row Best Pet Foods of The Year from the Glycemic Research Institute.  These diets are made to help diabetic, older and overweight dogs. 

We absolutely 100% strictly adhere to our corporate philosophy as stated above and no rendered parts are used in our premium products.  Please keep in mind that our line consists of various protein sources other than beef such as chicken, turkey, duck, quail, lamb, trout, venison and buffalo.

If I can be of further assistance let me know.

Sincerely,
Toni
Merrick Pet Care

[bixlo]

Evangers no longer puts in Vit K as of Aug. 'o6. All labels are not changed yet.

That's good news.  Might be a good backup for the cats.  Dogs are already enjoying a combo of Merrick and Evangers wet.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Wow! I kinda figured that was the problem. Evangers has been inundated with calls too...but they always answer the phone, and talk to you about whatever concerns you have. I guess when you are as big as Merricks though....things change a bit.

[garypen]

Thanks Bix!!! I'm relieved. My cats love their stuff. And, it certainly looks good on paper, and in the can.

Of course, there is no guarantee that they are completely honest in their reply. But, without any proof otherwise, I'll continue to feed their canned stuff to my cats.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Very good.

I don't know what she means by "it's totally illegal" because we all know it's not, however, maybe she means that since their stuff is human-grade and USDA and all...that it's illegal for them.

BTW, thank you so much for getting this info.

[bixlo]

As soon as I get a follow up about the rendering plant location I will post.

For now, my Merrick cans are going nowhere but my babies stomachs.  If you look at the stuff you know it can't be junk.  I mean, the dogfood has entire chicken thighs in it.

My only concern is....those 3 million chickens that were fed the tainted food - could they be ending up in pet food as well?  They say it's low risk to humans (BS if you ask me.. they just don't know!) but we DO KNOW the effect it has on cats and dogs.  So that would be my only concern at this point.

[Cindy Nevarez]

The address on my Merrick's tendon chews is Amarillo.

Also, the chickens were used by Foster Farms (the one I bought for my dogs' raw stuff), Pilgrim's Pride (won't touch that company w/ a 10 foot pole), and Smith's I think?

I don't think any of these sell organic chicken...so.....I don't know draw your own conclusions.

[garypen]

Another clue that Merrick uses "human-grade" chicken is that they had a recal of canned chicken wings for dogs. The problem was that the "kosher" tags were left on the wings by the supplier. They weren't apparent, and went unnoticed by Merrick at first.

Maybe not a good sign of Merrick's QA of incoming ingredients. But, a good sign that they aren't using rendered or sub-grade chicken.

[bixlo]

Great point, Garypen.

[PhoebeP]

The address on my Merrick's tendon chews is Amarillo.....

According to Yahoo Maps, Hereford is less than 50 miles outside of Amarillo. For Texas, that's a stone's throw. Maybe the administrative address is in Amarillo?

......
* From an article in Pecos Enterprise as a quote from Garth Merrick that seems to imply you use these parts in your food, but do not disclose it as by-product on your labels: Merrick uses the things that are not fit for human consumption. "So we do the tails and ears the noses and the chins and the hooves and different bones," says Garth Merrick, president of the company. "It's all processed in such a way that is totally sanitary and safe for anything that would eat it. We're in the middle of cattle country, of course, so it's our hope to continue to utilize everything but the moo."
.......

This makes me a bit uneasy, too.  Are we certain, though, that these aren't references to the Merrick treats and chews for dogs? Just searching through those items on their website shows that Texas Toothpicks are cow tails, Moozles are beef snouts, Snozzles are pork snouts, Lamb Chews are lamb ears, Doggie Wishbones are beef Achilles tendons, etc. http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/dog_treats.php

I wouldn't chew on any of those treats, but my dog loves them and she's always been so picky. Where do treats such as these usually come from? Is there an example to which we can compare Merrick's processing of these items?

[garypen]

Are we certain, though, that these aren't references to the Merrick treats and chews for dogs? Just searching through those items on their website shows that Texas Toothpicks are cow tails, Moozles are beef snouts, Snozzles are pork snouts, Lamb Chews are lamb ears, Doggie Wishbones are beef Achilles tendons, etc. http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/dog_treats.php

I was thinking the same thing. Most of the dog treats are indeed made up of the throwaway parts of the cow, pig, sheep, etc.

While I don't trust any company 100%, and especially a company from Texas, I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt based on their statements, and whatever facts we do know.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Yeah, and they say that these dog treats are from USDA beef. I'm thinking that since the beef IS USDA, but they don't use these parts in human food of course, so they are just using them in this other way...for dogs...since it's allowable to do so.