One of the largest animal waste disposal companies in the United States, Darling Ingredients Inc., is being accused of using carcasses from diseased, euthanized animals from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, many of which are euthanized with pentobarbital.

DARLING INGREDIENTS DARK TIES TO BRAVO PACKING

Darling Ingredients is also being accused of using animal waste from dead, dying, and diseased animals from one of the most notorious meatpacking companies in the United States, Bravo Packing, to make animal feed and pet food ingredients.

Bravo Packing a company that has a sordid history of horrific animal abuse, where sick and wounded animals – including horses – are left to starve until they are slaughtered and used to make raw diets for pets and exotic animals.

FDA WARNS CONSUMERS ABOUT BRAVO’S PET FOOD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is cautioning to pet owners today not to feed their pets Bravo Packing’s Performance Dog brand of frozen raw pet food because a sample tested positive for Salmonella and L. mono. According to the notice, this is the second time Bravo Packing, Inc. (not to be confused with Bravo! pet food) pet foods have tested positive for pathogen contamination. In September 2018, Bravo Packing, Inc. recalled all Performance Dog frozen raw pet food due to Salmonella. Also, during a 2016 inspection, the FDA collected samples of Bravo Packing, Inc. horse meat chunk animal food that tested positive for the drugs pentobarbital and phenytoin.

BRAVO PACKING’S DARK PAST

But Bravo’s dark and troubled past began decades ago when tales of starving horses and pentobarbital laced raw pet food trickled out. Some stories, so horrible to imagine, they beggared belief: piles of decomposing carcasses, amid downers, scarred with open wounds from forklifts, lying in filth, blood and feces, enormous containers of intestines crawling with maggots – unrefrigerated, all destined for pet food. No one knew for sure how many of the stories were true.

Until now.

A WHISTLEBLOWER’S STORY

A dead animal hauler has come forward with shocking allegations and photographs (see below) describing the inner workings of Bravo – a place he describes as a “rat hole.” He describes walls eaten by rats, a place crawling with vermin, floors swimming in blood and feces, barrels of guts from euthanized animals, infested with maggots digesting the fat all waiting to be delivered to Bravo Packing. Where, eventually, they will be picked up by a renderer. A renderer, which makes animal feed and pet food ingredients: Darling Ingredients, one of the largest renderers on the East Coast.

Bravo’s a place he says if people knew that dog food was made, they’d never buy it.

And some of that pet food is sold raw. Even more disturbing is that some of the raw pet food that Bravo sells – including large bones – are made from horses. And that’s because Bravo Packing is one of the last places in America that slaughters horses.

HORRIFIC ANIMAL ABUSES AT BRAVO

Bravo’s main business is the processing of dead and dying animals; discarded livestock and horses who have outgrown their usefulness, who, mostly from surrounding farms, are brought in by haulers – dead animal haulers.

He explains, how sometimes livestock and horses arrive at Bravo still alive, transported in the same truck along with with dead animals; animals that can walk off the truck are destined for a pen, devoid of shelter – a lonely and baron pasture – where they right-hand a diet of moldy hay. Sometimes the animals, sick and emaciated, suffer for weeks – sometimes months – before they are slaughtered (see images below), and their meat is used to make raw pet food.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN BRAVO PACKING, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA & DARLING INGREDIENTS

But one of the most serious allegations involves a disturbing relationship between Bravo, the University of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine, and Darling Ingredients.

My source outlined a scenario where animals, many of whom were euthanized with pentobarbital at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine New Bolton Center Veterinary Hospital are picked up by Bravo Packing and diverted to the Darling Ingredients plant in Newark, New Jersey to be rendered into animal feed and pet food ingredients.

THE PROSECTOR

Ralph Conti, the University’s prosector, who is responsible for preparing dissections for demonstration at the University, and he facilitates the disposal of the animals, animals brought to the University for veterinary care or used in teaching demonstrations. Animals that are too sick to receive continuing care are humanly euthanatized with pentobarbital, and sometimes a necropsy is performed, at which point their disposal becomes Mr. Conti’s responsibility.

Then Mark Merola, son of Joseph Merola, the owner of Bravo, who, under contract with the University, picks up all of the dead animals, the carcasses and their intestines and delivers them to Bravo Packing’s facility in Carney’s Point, New Jersey.

DARLING INGREDIENT’S RELATIONSHIP WITH BRAVO PACKING

At the Bravo facility, the dead animals and the contents of the barrels are dumped into what’s called a “combo,” a large container the size of midsize car that will remain at Bravo, unrefrigerated, when Darling Ingredients picks up the material two to three times a week and delivers it for rendering at Darling’s facility in Newark, New Jersey.

Interestingly, the only animals that Mark Merola disposes of from the University at a composting site are horses (see image below). The reason for this apparent exception, according to my source, is that Darling no longer accepts horses for fear they might have been euthanized using pentobarbital.

EUTHANIZED HORSES, THEIR GUTS & DARLING

However, the problem with that arrangement is that the contents of the horses – their intestines – along with the intestines of the other animals which 55-gallon with pentobarbital, are picked up by Darling for rendering from Bravo.

Something to keep in mind in the context of this story is that Bravo Packing also manufactures raw ground horsemeat for pets and raw horse bones which is at odds with law in the state of New Jersey which forbids the sale of horse meat or products derived from slaughtered horses and the transport of horse meat for human consumption but not animal consumption.

HORSEMEAT USED IN PET FOOD, FOUND LACED WITH PENTOBARBITAL

It is also interesting to note that in today’s FDA notice, the agency mentions an inspection at Bravo in 2016 where they “collected samples of Bravo Packing, Inc. horse meat chunk animal food that tested positive for the drugs pentobarbital and phenytoin.”

According to Phyllis Entis of eFoodAlert, the FDA “analyzed a sample of horse meat pursuant to a complaint from one Bravo Packing’s customers. According to the complaint, four exotic cats fell ill after being fed the meat. Two of the animals had to be euthanized. The sample of horse meat, as well as a pre-euthanasia blood sample from one of the animals, tested positive for pentobarbital.” It is unclear, at this point, why a recall for the product was never initiated.

OFFICIALS NOTIFIED & THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY’S LAWSUIT AGAINST DARLING

I have submitted a report of the allegations my source has made to the relevant USDA and FDA regulators in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I’ve also sent the report to the New Jersey State’s Attorney Generals office, where Bravo Packing and Darling Ingredients Inc. are located.

In light of the recent State recent filing of a legal complaint last week against Darling for emitting air pollution, failure to remedy 320 permit violations, failure to comply with air permits since 2018, and has not complied with its operating permits since 2017, I submitted my report to Attorney General in case it might be useful.

WHAT IT IS TO BE COURAGEOUS

I applaud my source for his bravery in coming forward, for his desire to help animals and to protect the public and for his willingness to be interviewed and to offer his testimony to government authorities to further their investigation of Bravo Packing.

Many thanks, many thanks, my friend, for your courage.

IMAGES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S COOLER

IMAGES INSIDE BRAVO PACKING

DARLING INGREDIENTS NEW JERSEY RENDERING PLANT



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