Are Horses Used For Dog Food? (Answered!)

There has been a lot of conversations in the news in recent years about the use of horse meat in consumer products.

We keep hearing the same story, of a major manufacturer “discovering” that they there is quantities of horse meat present in their products.

We’ve talked a lot about human food, so what about our pet food?

I’m sure my dog wouldn’t necessarily mind if there was horse in his kibble, but nonetheless I feel like I want to know what I’m buying.

So, I decided to look into it.

Are horses used for dog food?

In the United States, there has not been a slaughterhouse that dealt in horse meat since 2011. Traces of horse meat can still make their way into pet food through other means, but the Equine Protection Network prevents the use of horsemeat in dog food. In some places, it is more common practice to use horse.

So it can depend on where you are, but in the United States, the simplest answer is no, horses are not used for dog food.

The manufacturing process can be long and the meat that is used can travel a long way, and sometimes there is cross contamination there.

But for the most part, horse is not used in dog food.

Which dog food companies use horse meat?

There are no major pet food providers which openly list horse meat as an ingredient.

The idea of using horse meat, at least in most western countries, is pretty taboo whether it’s for human food or dog food.

So, you won’t find a big bag of horse flavored dog food.

That said, as I mentioned, controversy surrounding quantities of horse meat in consumer products has been a matter of debate in recent years.

Pet food suppliers have not been free of these troubles.

Nestlé, owner of the pet food brand Purina, was embroiled in a scandal when it was found that many of their products contained quantities of horse meat.

This was back in 2013, and obviously steps have been taken to ensure this does not happen again, but the fact is food manufacturing regulations are rarely airtight.

So, there are no pet food companies which openly use horse meat, and even fewer of them which would do so openly.

In the west, horse meat just isn’t used in consumer products unless a mistake has been made.

Are horses killed for dog food?

In the present day, not really.

Food and meat practices around the world are all very different, so it’s next to impossible to say that horse meat is never used in dog food.

There are probably places around the world where the practice is still common—indeed, many countries consider horse meat a delicacy for humans, too.

That said, when it comes to pet foods that we might buy in the west, one thing to note is whether or not a certain pet food lists what is in it.

Dog food, for instance, is often made of chicken, turkey, or beef.

However, the pet food may also list a certain quantity of ‘meat meal’ or even ‘bone meal’.

‘Meal’ is essentially the scraps and bits from meat processing plants which are sent to other plants to be ground into things like pet and livestock feed.

As a consumer, you cannot possibly know everything that was in this ‘meal’.

It will mostly just be bits of cow, pig and lamb bone, but there can always be other bits in there.

So, it is not common practice to kill horses for dog food, but it is common practice to mash up the remains of many animals to make certain kinds of dog food.

Is horse meat any good for dogs, then?

We don’t like to see it in our own food for a few reasons, but dogs have quite different diets to us.

Is horse meat good for dogs?

Horse meat certainly won’t cause your dog any harm as long as it has been sourced from a healthy animal.

Horse meat in terms of its health benefits really is not much different from more commonly consumed animals like pigs and cows.

Your dog will be less fussy about horse meat than we would, and most likely would it enjoy it as much as any other meat.

That said, it’s not especially good for your dog in any way that other, more common types of meat are not.

Just stick to chicken!

It is by no means common practice, then, but it is also not as completely outside the realms of possibility as we might imagine.

Certainly, the regulations surrounding pet food are less strict than for our own consumption, but in the United States at least there just aren’t horse slaughterhouses in the country to provide the meat.

That’s not to say it can’t get in, but it is far from common.