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Press ReleaseD.E.L.T.A. Rescue: You're Eating Cats and Dogs for Thanksgiving!Board of Supervisors Requests State Department of Food and Agriculture Investigate Rendering IssueGLENDALE, Calif., Nov. 22, 2004 -- As millions of Americans feast this Thanksgiving, they have no idea what their turkey ate before ending up in the supermarket.It is unimaginable to consider that our holiday main course may have been fed the bodies of dead pets, but according to actor and animal welfare activist Leo Grillo, rendered animals end up in the feed lots of the nation's livestock and poultry industry. Rendering is the gruesome practice of "cooking" the bodies of euthanized pets from animal shelters, veterinary offices, horses, other livestock, and "road kill" to produce animal protein meal and "yellow grease". These products are then either sent to Asia (where they are used as feed for farm salmon, eel or shrimp returning to the US for human consumption) or used as a dietary supplement in the poultry and livestock facilities across the country. And the chemicals used to euthanize the animals, the drugs used to treat the animals if they were sick, may ultimately find their way back into the human food chain too. "Don't forget the diseases those poor animals died from, the cancers ... the bacteria and toxins in their decomposing bodies ... and we wonder why we have so much cancer," said Grillo. "What we as consumers don't understand is that the food we eat, from hamburgers, to fish and shrimp, to milk and cheese; contain the bodies of our dead pets and the chemicals, drugs and diseases that they took with them." Grillo's personal crusade against the practice of pet rendering began in 2002, when his favorite horse, "Peaches," passed away. Her body was sent to D&D Services (aka West Coast Rendering) in Vernon, California to be cremated and returned to him. When her remains were returned however, less than 1/4 of her expected ashes were in the container. D.E.L.T.A. Rescue's research into the operations of D&D led Grillo to conclude that his beloved companion had instead been "rendered" into fat and protein meal, entering the human food chain. There are over 350 rendering plants in this country. The remains of millions of animals are sent to rendering plants every year. In Los Angeles County alone, the bodies of over 80,000 animals a year end up on the floor of West Coast Rendering. In the spring of 2004, Grillo took his fight public by informing the media, politicians and D.E.L.T.A. Rescue's supporters about pet rendering and calling them to action. The effect was a huge public outcry which resulted in the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors launching its own investigation of the pet rendering process. During the Board's October 26th meeting, Supervisor Michael Antonovich submitted a motion, recommending the Board send a letter to the State Department of Food and Agriculture, "requesting a full investigation of D&D Rending Company regarding allegations that the Company is processing animal carcasses in agricultural food that is eventually fed to animals used for human consumption...." Grillo said, "The thought of Peaches, little pieces of her, being fed to turkeys that we are eating on Thanksgiving Day, has fueled me to tell the whole country about this problem." About D.E.L.T.A. Rescue Celebrating its 25th anniversary the Los Angeles based, D.E.L.T.A. Rescue is the largest no-kill, care-for-life animal sanctuary in the world. Founder Leo Grillo has personally rescued the more than 1,500 dogs and cats currently residing at the nearly 100-acre facility. Contact: Elizabeth Kollar 310-545-8987 cell: 505-401-9203 |
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