Press release from Wild Justice:
Dog food being sold in the UK has been found to contain high levels of toxic lead.
- Over three quarters of samples from three raw Pheasant-based dog foods tested for lead exceeded the maximum level recommended for animal feed.
- The use of lead shot in shooting means pet owners are unwittingly feeding their dogs levels of lead that may harm their health.
- Wild Justice’s Chris Packham says ”That people might be unwittingly poisoning their beloved companion animals is outrageous. It’s clearly a failure of our regulatory systems when products like raw Pheasant-based dog foods can be sold containing such high lead levels. No animals should be exposed to these levels of lead in their food. Wild Justice is taking legal advice on these shocking findings.”
Dog owners are unwittingly feeding their beloved companions food that contains levels of lead that may harm their health, according to new research published in the journal Ambio. Researchers analysed samples from raw, air-dried and wet dog food products purchased in the UK that contained Pheasant meat. They found that about three quarters of samples from raw Pheasant-based dog food packs exceeded the EU maximum lead levels permitted in animal feed. Across three different products being sold in the UK, lead levels were found to be an average of 245, 135 and 49 times above the maximum permitted levels. Every sample of raw dog food containing Pheasant exceeded the permitted lead threshold in the meat of domestic stock destined for human consumption.
Consumption of lead is detrimental to human health, being especially harmful to developing brains and the nervous system. Other animals are affected in similar ways; lead ingestion can affect the gut, nervous system, heart, kidneys and blood of companion animals.
Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges are released in their millions into the British Countryside each year to serve as targets for recreational shooting. Some go into the human food chain, and others end up in products such as dog and cat food. Lead shot is the type of ammunition normally used for shooting Pheasants, partridges and grouse. When shot into an animal the small lead pellets leave behind tiny lead fragments dispersed through the animal’s flesh. These tiny fragments cannot readily be removed, leading to lead contamination of the meat.
Smaller lead particles are thought to be more readily dissolved and absorbed through the gut than larger particles. The study highlights the potentially increased risk of lead absorption by dogs, due to the mechanical mincing processes often used to prepare dog food which may break up lead shot into smaller pieces.
Chris Packham, Co-Director of Wild Justice said “That people might be unwittingly poisoning their beloved companion animals is outrageous. It’s clearly a failure of our regulatory systems when products like raw Pheasant-based dog foods can be sold containing such high lead levels. No animals should be exposed to these levels of lead in their food, under the guise of being healthy, when they in fact contain levels of lead that would be illegal to feed to cows or chickens or indeed, if it was in your own beefburgers or pork sausages.
Like us, our dogs are vulnerable to toxic lead and we must ask; would you feed your dog something deemed too toxic to eat yourself? These results show the repercussions of lead ammunition use by the shooting industry reach wider than just those who eat game out of free choice. Wild Justice is taking legal advice on these shocking findings.”
Similar recent analysis, also funded by Wild Justice, looked at game meat being sold by British supermarkets for human consumption. This research found elevated lead levels in Pheasant, Partridge and Venison products, which were significantly higher than the legal limit set for other meats from livestock. Whilst increased lead levels might also have been anticipated in dog food products, the concentrations found were surprisingly high.
“We were already aware that lead concentrations in pheasant meat sold for human consumption are often far higher than would be permitted in other meats like chicken, beef or pork” said lead author Professor Debbie Pain of Cambridge’s Zoology Department. “However, we were surprised to find that lead concentrations in raw pheasant dog food products were so much higher”.
Raw meat diets for pets are on the increase in the UK, and products containing raw pheasant are widely available online. Over a third of fifty raw pet food suppliers checked by researchers offered pheasant-based products. Of these, 71% warned consumers that the product may contain shot. Wild Justice are encouraging pet owners who purchase products containing raw pheasant to ask retailers about the sourcing of their pheasant, and any use of lead shot.
You can read more about Wild Justice’s investigations into lead in game meat at www.wildjustice.org.uk/blog
ENDS
The peer-reviewed scientific study is available here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I wouldn’t dream of feeding any manufactured food to my dog with the crap they put in. No wonder so many dogs seem to have cancer issues these days.
I make my own using organic products.
It just gets worse:-(
I wonder if this will trigger the public to respond, because my experience of revelations about dangerous levels of lead in meat supposedly fit for human consumption had limited reaction (I guess because the vast majority do not buy ‘game’ food? Or, because the BBC continues to gaslight the issue?)
Once again, it is the Food Standards Agency which continues to ignore ‘game’ meat when legislating on the dangers of lead in food.
From https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/pet-food
“Pet food
We are responsible for animal feed legislation which covers the manufacture of feed for non-food producing animals including pet food and pet treats….
Pet food of animal origin
Pet food which is made up from material of animal origin can be used by the pet food industry. It is made up by parts of animals which are surplus to human consumption needs or are not normally consumed by people in the UK…
Material of animal origin comes from animals which are inspected and passed as fit for human consumption prior to slaughter. The material must be free of transmissible disease, which therefore excludes material from dying, diseased or disable animals…
Additives in pet food
Pet food is subject to similar controls for authorised additives and levels of undesirable substances as apply to feed for farmed livestock. When setting the maximum permitted levels for undesirable substances for pets, the key part of the risk assessment is generally the extent to which the animal can tolerate them.”
This clearly implies that the highly contaminated game meat included in the pet food tested for lead levels was legally considered “passed as fit for human consumption prior to slaughter”!
Searching for legislation/official advice about “undesirable substances as apply to feed for farmed livestock” I came across an FSA leaflet ‘Help Stop On-Farm lead Poisoning”, which details 2,500 animals restricted from the food chain following lead poisonings. No mention of lead shot or game food: they concerned consuming lead batteries (!) and grazing near lead mines.
See
Click to access leadpoison0209.pdf
and
Click to access geochemical-lead-contamination-of-cattle-sheep-and-free-range-chickens-on-uk-farms_0.pdf
In the (latest?) UK Government’s Animal & Plant Health Agency Quarterly Report, Chemical Food Safety
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chemical-food-safety-reports/chemical-food-safety-quarterly-report-april-to-june-2022
every single animal lead poisoning incident is attributed to consuming lead batteries!
So, across Government and Industry, lead contamination in food from lead shot in game is being carefully and systematically ‘gaslighted’.
It seems that ONLY Wild Justice the University of Cambridge are prepared to expose the truth on this issue!
I found broken links on that 0209 leaflet about lead poisoning, though my browser has been troublesome lately. Also it mentions ‘lead soil heaps’, which I think should be ‘spoil’ in mining areas. I do wonder whether there might be high lead levels in soil near to motorways from former leaded fuel.
I’ve eaten lead shot game all my life and you for get all the lead pipes and gutters that drinking water has passed through before being drunk.it has very little effect on people and dogs. This is just scare mongering .what does it have to do with shooting all the attacks .cats kill 60 million birds a year but you never hear them being moaned about. Cars kill wild life by the million.new house building devastate the natural environment. Come on ? ?
You drink water out of lead gutters???!! That probably explains a lot!
The use of lead pipes to transport drinking water has been banned since the 1970’s because of the danger lead presents to health.
This danger of lead has been covered numerous times on this blog, and I am not going to repeat all that has previously been said on this topic.
This isn’t scaremongering, but something which needs exposing and bringing to the public’s attention.
The pet food industry should not be manufacturing or selling products which have potential negative health consequences for dogs or any other pets.
Most pet owners care about their animals and would be alarmed it they thought they were feeding them toxic food.
Thank goodness we have organisations like Wild Justice which expose matters such as this, and are prepared to challenge the appalling human behaviour which is behind so much suffering animals endure.
Hopefully the RSPCA will pick up on this and add another voice to ban potentially toxic products from the pet food market.
“I’ve eaten lead shot game all my life and…”
…it is beginning to show? Worrying.
“you for get all the lead pipes and gutters that drinking water has passed through before being drunk”
Lead pipes for water are illegal. Didn’t you know that? Are you aware of all the other lead products which are banned? Do you know what really small amounts of lead does to your kidneys, brain and nervous system? Higher levels cause seizures…
“what does it have to do with shooting all the attacks”
See what I mean?
“cats kill 60 million birds a year… Cars kill wild life by the million… etc”
I doubt that, but the weight of approximately 65 million alien game birds released into our countryside every year is roughly equal to the total weight of all our other native wild bird species put together. The food they eat deprives our native species. They even eat some of our native species. The carrion they create unbalances our ecosystem. And you can’t eat them and retain the ability to write sensible English.
Plus, the industry which does this commits crimes on a regular basis.
Skylark – if you look up ‘Devonshire Colic’ you’ll find out that lead poisoning was identified in the 1760s. Its effect were known well before then.
Lead pipes were replaced, lead was removed from petrol and paint for reasons other than scare mongering. The adverse health effects were known.