More Education for Me so I assume others need to read it too.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I start by saying I feel like an idiot, I should have know better and yes Karen, it is all about education. I know about treats from China.  I know that there are preservatives that are terrible for our doodles but I do not know enough about them to read the labels which is why I depend on you and your expertise to disseminate them for the rest of us.

I don't know why but I was surprised with Milk Bones. Maybe because I wanted to think that I could have some as back up when I ran out of my home baked cookies and not feel guilty giving them the high caloric (125 in 1 large MB) cookie. Guess the guilt was 2 fold - calories and preservatives. Back to baking my own today and tossing out the MBs we have left and no treats will ever be purchased off the shelves again for us. 

This is from an article 2 years old and I assume the 'recipe' hasn't changed.  

So what’s the deal with all these other chemical preservatives?  Sodium Metabisulfite (the preservative in Milk-Bones) is harmful if ingested or inhaled (as in sniffed).  It reacts with WATER and acids (like those in your dog’s stomach) to release toxic sulfur dioxide gas. It can cause life-threatening asthmatic reactions after ingestion as well as gastrointestinal, circulatory and central nervous system problems.   The people who handle this stuff are required to wear hazmat suits and respirators.  And believe it or not, there’s more written about the harmful effects and cancer-causing properties of BHA and BHT than sodium metabisulfite.  BHT is actually banned in England. And BHA is thought by the National Institutes of Health to cause stomach cancer.

Here is the link for the entire article which I suggest you to read. 

http://goodnessgracioustreats.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/where%E2%80%...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks, F.

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

And so I now spend most of my spare time baking what I hope are safe, healthy treats for my fur kids.  No salt or baking

soda either, and I thought a tiny bit was safe, and maybe 1/4 teaspoonful to a 3 cup batch of dog treats is, but I don't use it any more.          

[Jennifer and Jack]

Well I do browse all the pet food isles in the food store because I am sneaky and I have printed out all the warnings on treats from China and I place the papers on the treats themselves or poke a hole through the paper and hang it in front of the treats if they are hanging up.....

I have no problem doing this because no one would knowing feed their dog poison....so I print my coupons and my warning pages and go to the store armed..

If the store doesn't care what they sell, I don't care what they think... Never once has an employee said something to me.....i don't think they care, they don't have a vested Interest in it.

Pet smart is harder to do....but I still do it..