The Latest on the Pet Food Recall

The pet food recall just keeps growing larger, making it tough to stay on top of what is and isn't dangerous for your dogs or cats. For a regularly updated list, check the ASPCA's website. There's lots of great information, including a page on "what to tell children" about the food problems (the link is named "Visit ASPCA Animaland," about halfway down on the right hand column, illustrated with a cute cartoon of a blue dog and brown cat).

How Far Has the Contamination Spread?

When I started this blog, it was a place to let people know that assisted living facilities often fail to live up to their promises, especially when it comes to dealing with Alzheimer's patients. I know this because my sister and I lost our father due to negligence on the part of two different assisted living facilities. He became so severely dehydrated that when he went to the emergency room, the doctor there said she had never seen anyone in his condition who was not in a coma. So much for assisting him with living.

Dad recovered a bit in the hospital and went to a nursing home. But the dehydration had made swallowing difficult, so his diet consisted of "thickened" foods, products made specifically for people who can't swallow well on their own. In checking the ingredient list on some of these foods, I found a number of different products that made me think: Where are these ingredients from? If they came from abroad, did the FDA inspect the shipment? (Actually, that's highly unlikely, since only 1 container out of 100 is actually examined and that's when the container holds actual food. When it comes to ingredients, the inspection rate is even lower.)

Dad died from kidney failure, the same thing that has killed thousands of pets who ate tainted food recently. There don't seem to be any glutens in the thickened foods, but there are plenty of other ingredients that could have been bought in China on the cheap and been contaminated with who-knows-what. I could be way off base, but the tainted food scandal is far more widespread than the FDA wants you to think, so who wouldn't be wondering whether anything is safe anymore?

Pet Food for People who Love Their Pets

For anyone who is concerned about contaminated pet food, check out the offerings at Flint River Ranch. This what my dogs and cats eat, and everyone is fine . There's plenty of information at the website on the ingredients, how to make the switch to a new food, and a lot more. If you want to talk to a real person, try their toll-free number. Another nice thing: the food comes to your house via UPS, so you don't even need to drive anywhere, a major advantage here in LA. (Just fyi, I am not receiving any free food or goodies for mentioning Flint River. We just like the food and company's transparency about where the ingredients come from.)
PS: Photo of Pup with chewable versions of Bush, Rove and Rumsfeld is courtesy of www.politicalpettoys.com. Yum!

Food Safety? What Food Safety?

Many thanks to "Anonymous" for the link to a recent Sacramento Union piece on tainted food. Some excellent points in this article. First, as Anonymous points out, the contamination was intentional. That's right -- the melamine was added to the wheat gluten (and very likely other ingredients, as well) on purpose. Why? To make it appear to have a higher protein content so the manufacturers could charge more.

Second, finding out whether or not foods you or your family eat contain any of these tainted ingredients is going to be difficult, if not impossible, as the columnist who wrote this piece found. His quest for straight answers produced results that would be hilarious under other circumstances.

Third, here's how Menu Foods, the company that produced the pet foods -- and which, by the way, is based in Canada, reportedly to avoid paying corporate income taxes -- responded to reports of sickened and dead pets.

"... Menu Foods told the FDA that they began receiving reports of dogs and cats being sickened and dying on Feb. 20. They claim to have started testing their products a week later on Feb. 27. Menu fed suspect food to “40-50” dogs and cats. 7 of the animals died. In what he calls a “horrible coincidence” Menu Foods Chief Financial Officer, Mark Weins, sold 45 percent of his stock in the company on Feb. 26 and 27. The first public announcement and initial recall was made on March 16."

How shabby is that?? First, they wait a FULL WEEK to even begin testing the food. Then they test it on "40 to 50" animals, with seven dying, and still don't tell the public until March 16?? Plus, the "horrible coincidence" of the company's CFO dumping nearly half of his stock in the company -- does he seriously think anyone is going to believe that was a coincidence? Please.

This is nothing short of an atrocity. But it's the last few paragraphs that should make everyone's hair stand on end.

"A Final Footnote

On April 12, the FDA highlighted the largely honor-system style enforcement of U.S. food safety by announcing that contaminated pet food still appeared on hundreds of store shelves.

Two of Menu Foods’ largest customers are household names and manufacture hundreds of products including, probably, a large percentage of the items in your grocery cart. They are Proctor & Gamble and Swiss-based international conglomerate Nestle.

Nestle announced on April 12, 2007 the acquisition of Gerber Products. Gerber represents 79 percent of the US baby food market."