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Rendering

Rendering is the process by which raw materials (dead animals and animal byproducts) are converted into a long list of ingredients for industrial and consumer goods.

Sources for raw materials include

  • meat slaughtering and processing plants

  • ranches

  • factory farms

  • feedlots

  • animal shelters

  • veterinary clinics

  • restaurants

  • research laboratories

  • road kill

  • pest control companies

These materials in turn are exported or sold to domestic manufactures of a wide range of industrial and consumer goods including

  • livestock feed

  • pet food and treats

  • soaps

  • pharmaceuticals

  • lubricants

  • plastics

  • shampoo

  • lotion

  • rubber

  • candy

  • lard

  • candles

The National Renderers Association estimated that there are 250-260 rendering plants in North America alone. The 18 billion pounds of ingredients that renderers produce each year have been valued at more than $3 billion of which $870 million is exported.

The Rendering Process
Raw materials (meat byproducts and dead animals) are ground and placed in cookers, which evaporate moisture and free fat from protein and bone.

A series of conveyers, presses and a centrifuge continue the process of separating fats from solids. The finished fat (tallow, lard, yellow grease) goes into separate tanks, and the solid protein (meat and bone meal, poultry meal) is pressed into cake for processing into feed.

Rendering and Pet Over Population
Rendering is not only the result of the farm animal and restaurant industries; it is clearly the consequence of the companion animal overpopulation crisis. Millions of dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters across the county each year. In cities across the North America healthy companion animals are being euthanized and “disposed of” in rendering facilities. These dogs and cats not only endure a lonely shelter life but also suffer the horrible indignity of being rendered.

So long as animals are raised for food and unwanted companion animals exist rendering will continue.

You Can Help

  • Go Vegan - stop supporting the rendering industry by cutting out animal products.

  • Spay and neuter your pets.

  • Adopt from a shelter, never buy from a pet store.

  • Never buy from a breeder; 20-25% of shelter animals are purebreds.

  • Support mandatory spay-neuter laws and differential-licensing laws (which increase license fees for animals that have not been fixed).

  • Educate family and friends about the rendering industry and problems of pet overpopulation.


Source: Animal Rendering: Economics and Policy, Geoffrey Becker, CRS Report for Congress 2004.