Are Fluffy and Fido wolfing down Jaws?
Could be.
Actually, it’s a one in three chance that the pet food you are giving to your dog or cat includes protein from endangered sharks, according to a new Yale study.
The study, published in February in Frontiers in Marine Science, used DNA barcoding to find that almost a third of pet food samples bought in Singapore contained shark meat.
But the shark-in-pet-food problem bites way beyond Singapore. Similar studies in America show our pet food labels often deceive us.
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The most recent line of evidence, from a team at Yale-NUS College, found DNA in pet food had “a considerable prevalence of ingredient mislabeling.”
The researchers call for global standards for pet food labels to prevent overexploitation of endangered sharks.
“Shark populations are overfished throughout the world, with declines of more than 70% in the last 50 years documented,” said study authors Ben Wainwright and Ian French, of Yale-NUS College. “This is indicative of the current lack of regard in which we hold our oceans,”
Ingredient lists on pet food typically include ambiguous terms such as “fish,” “ocean fish,” or “white bait.” But the researchers found many of those products contained DNA of endangered or threatened shark species.
Sharks are vital to healthy marine ecosystems. As top predators, they help balance the food web. Shifting the distribution of what sharks typically eat changes how other species feed. So the loss of sharks has in turn resulted in a decline in seagrass and coral reefs, the Yale researchers say, as the herd of “grazer” species that sharks once thinned out has thrived.
Meanwhile, the growing shark-fin and meat trade has further imperiled shark populations for decades.
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About 100 million sharks are killed yearly. Overfishing is the biggest threat, the researchers say, coupled with lack of effective monitoring and management of fishing practices.
Shark meat winds up in many everyday products, including pet foods and cosmetics. Some body care and beauty products use shark-derived squalene (as opposed to plant-derived squalene).
A 2019 study found shark in 78 pet food samples collected in the United States.
“Given the results of a previous study performed in the U.S., we wanted to see if endangered sharks are also sold in Asian pet food,” the Yale authors explained.
They used DNA barcoding to examine 45 different pet food products from 16 different brands in Singapore.
“None of the products purchased listed shark as an ingredient, using only generic catch-all terms such as ‘fish,’ ‘ocean fish,’ ‘white bait’ or ‘white fish’ to describe their contents,” the study’s authors said.
Of the 144 samples taken, 31% had shark DNA. The most common were blue sharks, silky sharks and the whitetip reef sharks.
The silky shark and the whitetip reef shark are listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The silky shark also is listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), meaning its trade must be controlled to prevent overconsumption.
The study brings more evidence of overfishing of sharks, the authors said.
“The majority of pet owners are likely lovers of nature, and we think most would be alarmed to discover that they could be unknowingly contributing to the overfishing of shark populations,” the authors wrote.
They urge better transparency on ingredient labels and avoiding vague, catch-all terms on ingredient lists to enable consumers to make informed choices. They also want global standards for pet food labels.
Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or [email protected]. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer
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