The Killing Of Our Pets

In July 2007 amidst all the pet food recalls that were coming out, I wrote a blog post about what was going on as I understood it.

The FDA had received over 18000 phone calls concerning sick or dead pets, over half being attributed to their dog or cat food. Well known and expensive brands like Iams and Eukenuba, amongst others were being recalled because the dog and cat foods had actually been manufactured in China with contaminated ingredients. According to the reports here the contaminate was Melamine.

Evidently what happens is the Chinese use Melamine to fool the tests for how much protein is in a particular product. This is the same ingredient that was used that caused all the illnesses and deaths of infants in China recently. Melamine is an industrial chemical made from coal commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. It's no wonder pets and babies were sick and dying! Come to find out, believe it or not, according to our scientists Melamine in small doses is not that harmful and they were baffled as to why it was causing such a problem. In July of 2007, the Chinese executed the head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu for corruption and deriliction of duty over this. Now the Chief of China's Food And Quality Agency had been forced to resign as they arrested 19 people suspected of tainting China's dairy products, and that was just the beginning. (For more info on all the arrests, etc. see my blog.)

Sept. 12, Mars Petcare voluntarily recalled any food distributed from their plant in Everson, PA and temporarily closed down the facility until they locate the nature and source of Salmonella Schwarzengrund. Salmonella was randomly linked to two people who got quite ill after they handled contaminated food. The brands this included were:

Country Acres, Retriever, Doggy Bag, Members Mark, Natural, Ol' Roy, Special Kitty, Paws & Claws, Pedigree, Wegman's, Pet Pride, PMI Nutrition and Red Flannel.

I immediately thought the Chinese were at it again until I read the whole story. As I was doing research I came upon another little story that I didn't remember ever hearing about. As I mentioned above, our scientists were baffled because they were saying the Melamine was not at a harmful level. According to articles I found on the internet, there appears to be an ongoing battle with Menu Foods because there seems to have been ancetometaphin (like Tylenol) and cyanuric acid found in their foods as well. According to a current lawsuit, it was these ingredients or these ingredients reacting with melamine that caused the deaths of over a quarter of a million pets.

The class action lawsuit against Menu Foods et al has grown to over 6000 cases and they expect that number to grow by quite a few by the time the deadline hits in Nov. of this year. The gentleman responsible for this action has evidently also filed suit against the FDA. You can see his website here. It's really quite interesting, especially if you have pets that could quite easily be affected by this kind of deception.

Update: Oct. 18, 2008
New Consumer Reports article on more acetemataphine found in cat food. Read it here

I love my little critters (pictured here) as I'm sure you do also. All I've been able to think is that I'm glad I was introduced to Nutripet years ago. A lot of people have taken to cooking their own dog or cat food, but Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine warns against doing this as they may not get the all the nutrients they need. NUTRIPET Dry Dog and Cat Foods contain antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, and beta carotene to support your pet's healthy immune system."Added DHA*, found in mother's milk, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids* have been found to improve your pet's well-being. NUTRIPET Dry Dog and Cat Foods also contain a unique blend of fruits and vegetables to naturally round out your pet's diet. If you would like to know how you can get Nutripet natural food for your animals, please feel free to contact me. My email address is in my profile. Nutripet is not found in grocery stores.

* Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO dog food or cat food nutrient profiles.

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