Though we can't possibly list all of the ingredients
            found in every brand of pet food, below are definitions
            for the more common ones. They are listed in alphabetical
            order for ease of use.
            

    Animal Fat Preserved with BHA
        From tissue of animals or poultry extracted in the rendering process.
        Devoid of free fatty acids.
    
    Beef
        Meat unfit for human consumption. This may consist of diseased material
        or meat containing high levels of drugs, heavy metals, or pesticides.
    
    Beet Pulp
        Dried residue from sugar beets. Pure sugar.
    
    Beet Sugar
        The dried residue from the sugar beet.

    Brewer's Dried Yeast
        Dried residue from the brewing industry. Cooked yeast fractions
        that the brewers cannot use.        
           
    Brewer's Rice
        Rice sections that have been discarded from the human food manufacturing
        of wort or beer, which contain pulverized, dried, spent hops. Little,
        if any, nutritional value.
    
    Caramel Color
        No nutrional value.
    
    Cellulose
        A pulp from fibrous plant. Also has been described as sawdust.
            
    Chicken
        Animals deemed unfit for human consumption. These may be chickens that
        have died from disease or have been found to contain excess levels of
        drugs or hormones.
 
    Chicken By-Product Meal
        Ground, rendered parts of the carcasses of poultry. Necks, feet, undeveloped
        eggs, intestines and birds that are condemned for human consumption.
    
    Corn Gluten Meal
        Dried residue from corn after the removal of starch, germ, and bran.
        Little, if any, nutritional value.
    
    Dried Whole Eggs
        This can be broken eggs, rejects from hatchery operations or eggs
        unfit for human consumption.
    
    Ethoxyquin
        A preservative. The major preservative in tires, keeping rubber from
        oxidizing. In pet foods, it keeps the fat from turning rancid so that
        the food remains edible forever. The Animal Protection Institute of
        America observes that Ethoxyquin has been associated with a staggering
        array of medical complications, including neonatal illness and death, 
        skin and hair coat problems, immune disorders, thyroid, pancreas, and
        liver dysfunction, and behavioural disorders. The Farm Chemical
        Handbook lists Ethoxyquin as a pesticide. The Consumers Dictionary
        of Food Additives lists it as "Hazard: Toxic by ingestion."   

    Fish
        Head, fins, tail, skin, bones, and viscera. As this is not the whole fish,
        it does not contain many of the fat-soluble vitamins, minerals, or omega-3
        fatty acids.
    
     Fish Meal
        Dried ground tissue of fish. As this is not the entire fish, it
        does not contain many of the fat-soluble vitamins, omega-3 fatty
        acids or minerals.   
    
    Ground Corn
        Ground or chopped corn. According to AAFCO, must not contain more than
        four percent foreign matter.
  
    Guar Gum
        Mucilage (glue). Used as a stabalizer.
      
    Iron Oxide
        A mineral. Commonly known as "rust."
    
    Liver
        Source of the liver is not stated. Unfit for human consumption, liver
        used in pet food can be diseased and riddled with liver flukes.
    
    Meat
        As defined by AAFCO this is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered
        mammals and is limited to the part of the striate muscle that is
        skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, diaphragm, heart, or
        esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the
        portions of the skin, sinew, nerve, and blood vessels that normally
        accompany the flesh. 

    Meat By-Product
        Nonrendered material. Meat derived from slaughtered mammals. Can
        contain condemned and contaminated material from slaughterhouse
        facilities. Can include, but is not limited to, lungs, brain, spleen,
        kidneys, liver, blood, and bone.
    
    Meat Meal
        Rendered product from animal tissue (need not state what animal). Any 
        mammal may be used, including euthanized cats and dogs, roadkill, and
        circus and zoo animals.

    Poultry By-Product Meal
        Ground, rendered parts of the carcasses of poultry. Necks, feet, undeveloped
        eggs, intestines and birds that are condemned for human consumption.
    
    Poultry Digest
        Material that results from chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis of
        poultry tissue.
    
    Poultry Fat (preserved with BHA)
        Obtained from the tissue of rendered poultry. Contains no added free
        fatty acids.    
 
    Poultry-Hatchery By-Products
        A mixture of egg shells, infertile and unhatched eggs and culled chicks that
        have been cooked, dried and ground, with or without removal of part of the
        fat.
    
    Poultry Liver (Enzymatic) Hydrolysate
        Liver of poultry, unfit for human consumption. It is subjected to
        acid hydrolysis.
    
    Real Meat (usually on the label but not listed in the ingredient list this way)
        See "Meat."
    
    Rice
        Nonspecific as to the form of this rice, i.e., rice flour, rice bran
        rice hulls, chipped or broken rice or rice polishings.
    
    Rice Flour
        Finely powdered material, usually the end process of milling.
        Very low nutrition value.
       
    Spray Dried Whey
        Dried by spraying on the surface of a heated drum. High in lactose.
    
    Wheat Flour
        Together with particles of wheat and bran and the leftover of the 
        milling of the wheat.