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Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall
SF Gate ^ | April 3, 2007 | Christie Keith

Posted on 04/03/2007 4:34:03 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn

The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying after eating canned and pouched foods manufactured by Menu. The foods were recalled -- among them some of the country's best-known and biggest-selling brands -- and while it was certainly a sad story, and maybe even a bit of a wake-up call about some aspects of pet food manufacturing, that was about it.

At first, that was it for me, too. But I'm a contributing editor for a nationally syndicated pet feature, Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, and all of us there have close ties to the veterinary profession

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Food; Health/Medicine; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: dogfood; doggieping; fda; menufoods; recall
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To: Arizona Carolyn
A lot of pet owners listen to their vets and have no idea that wheat gluten isn't a healthy ingredient for their pet food.

I learned the hard way for my cat. Wheat gluten can be one of the causes of Feline Diabetes. Why do the pet food companies try to feed veggies and wheat/ rice to obligate carnivores like cats? Because it's cheaper than using more protein and it sounds more appealing to human taste (who wouldn't want to eat a "Vegetable Medley" instead of mice?) Because two of my cats are diabetic, we now feed them all raw.

Also our vets are being taught nutrition based on studies paid for by the pet food companies. Some of their text books on nutrition have been written and provided by companies like Hills. Things are being run by the pet food companies and they have no restrictions.

I found out today that my vet has been called to testify before congress on 4/12. Durbin is calling for this so I don't hold out much hope for any changes but hey, who knows.

121 posted on 04/03/2007 9:49:27 PM PDT by CAluvdubya (DUNCAN HUNTER '08)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

I see a story today that people are making their own pet food. We have better kitchen gadgets today then years ago and I’m sure if there was a baby food scare people would be able to strain carrots easier then any other time in history.


122 posted on 04/03/2007 9:58:04 PM PDT by Duke Nukum (Linux: More of a cult then an OS. Mac: Beyond a Cult. A joyless Jihad.)
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To: Arizona Carolyn; Obadiah

That paragraph was a slam at Rosie, Mainstream Media, the FDA, Menu Foods, and anyone who is NOT doing their level best to get to the bottom of the pet food poisoning scandal, all of whom could find out that there are THOUSANDS of pet deaths related to his, not just the “16” that is being reported.

Her point in using Rosie’s comments as an example was to say that those who are responsible for perpetuating the “16” deaths fallacy are causing the deaths of even more pets because people don’t realize the severity of the issue. When Rosie compares 16 pet deaths to 19 human deaths, it perpetuates ROSIE’s political agenda AND minimizes the reality of THOUSANDS of pet deaths. Rosie never would have (or could have) used the pet deaths as a comparison to human deaths if the true number of pet deaths had been made public... it wouldn’t have had the same effect if Rosie had said “19 Americans have died in the same timeframe as 3000 pets.”

But again, the point was to point out how irresponsible it is to keep perpetuating the drastically low number of only “16” pet deaths.


123 posted on 04/03/2007 9:59:55 PM PDT by BagCamAddict
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To: girlangler

No offense taken girlangler. Like I said, I’ve loved and lost pets too and if one of my pets had been one of those sickened I would be very upset.

Those of us who haven’t suffered a loss of a beloved pet probably can step back a bit and be a little more patient while things come to fruition.

I have some concerns about the PC road being taken with China. I do not believe that our present government will be willing to upset trade relations with China. This could indeed become more than just a dog food issue.

What was interesting with my own dog group was that while there was alot of anger at the dog food companies only a couple of people seemed upset that we were not growing our own wheat and that we were importing foodstuffs from countries who have lesser food safety standards than we do.

For the most part the China factor was ignored. While not a poll by any means I thought the silence was interesting.

I will be curious to see how the press handles the China issue from here on. Any predictions?


124 posted on 04/03/2007 10:08:00 PM PDT by conservativegranny
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To: Shyla

Your guys are great. Do you have to have a special permit to keep them? Did you use Alpha style training to show you were pack boss and for their socialization?


125 posted on 04/03/2007 11:06:28 PM PDT by lastchance
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To: avg_freeper

Everybody knows that Bush doesn’t care about black Labs.


126 posted on 04/04/2007 3:02:54 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The Drive-By Media is attempting to Cronkite the Iraq war.)
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To: conservativegranny

I suspect the press will ignore the China issue. And that angle should be examined closely. And I doubt the government will do anything about it.

About a year and a half ago there was a hepitius outbreak here, turns out it was green onions from Mexico. Then there was the e coli deaths. Now this.

I will be scrutinizing what I buy/eat from now on.

Fox News is reporting the contaminated wheat gluten was not part of that sold for human consumption, but I would like to know where the gluton that is comes from.


127 posted on 04/04/2007 3:36:22 AM PDT by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

I greatly appreciate your posting this- we need all the information we can get.

We had to put our 14 year old girl-dog to sleep two months ago ( don’t think it was related to this, but you wonder... ) and got a puppy from animal control thereafter...

...and damned if I ( we ) know exactly what to do- except, as one commentator said here a while back, “I won’t believe anything the pet food companies say until I see the CEO’s, live, on television, eating their own products for us...”

Thank you. I mean that.


128 posted on 04/04/2007 4:03:30 AM PDT by backhoe (Just a Merry-Hearted Keyboard PirateBoy, plunderin’ his way across the WWW…)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Thank you very much for the ping AC -


129 posted on 04/04/2007 4:33:38 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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To: Duke Nukum
I don’t see a big, bloated bureaucracy as the answer to this.

Nor do I. But there is no doubt that protecting the food supply is something that government should do.

130 posted on 04/04/2007 4:45:36 AM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Eva
You can buy the liver treats at sitstay.com

Mine should be coming today or tomorrow along with two natural dog foods one from Prairie at that site and the other from Kumpi.com.

Check them both out........I will never buy dog food in the store again. I can imagine they will all be in a big hurt and rightfully so. I cannot even imagine how they can buy product from China of all places without testing it first.

And.......from the article.......people may not be far behind...then Rosie will be happy. She is despicable as a human being. Her ugliness shows on her face...Trump is right.

*************

Thanks AZC for the article. Please add me to that ping list you’ve got.

" That alert, issued on Friday, the same day that the FDA held its last press conference about the recall, identified the Chinese company that is the source of the contaminated gluten — gluten that is now known to be sold not only for use in animal feed, but in human food products, too. (The Chinese company is now denying that they are responsible, although they are investigating it.)

Although the FDA said on Friday it has no reason to think the contaminated gluten found its way into the human food supply, Sundlof told reporters that it couldn’t be ruled out. He also assured us that they would notify the public as soon as they had any more information — except, of course, that they did have more information and didn’t give it to us, publishing it instead as an obscure import alert, found by chance by a concerned pet owner, which was then spread to the larger media.

131 posted on 04/04/2007 4:53:09 AM PDT by WestCoastGal (Dale Jr~ 5-31-07 ~ MIDNIGHT GIT-R-DONE --- Member of the F-I-R-M)
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To: mtnwmn

What are you saying? Wow..some of you are unbelievable.
You must be a fan of Rosie huh??


132 posted on 04/04/2007 5:47:55 AM PDT by Fawn (http://www.hartzvictims.org/)
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To: Caramelgal

I mentioned before. My vet told me never to let pets eat off of ceramic dishes made from China. They use lead in them. SHe had a cat with severe lead poisoning from eating off the cheap dishes. China just doesn’t have the standards we do.


133 posted on 04/04/2007 5:52:34 AM PDT by Fawn (http://www.hartzvictims.org/)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Why? I don’t know a thing about gluten. I think of flour actually. Why are you so gluten free? What do you mean?


134 posted on 04/04/2007 5:54:16 AM PDT by Fawn (http://www.hartzvictims.org/)
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To: avg_freeper

***The gratuitous psycho Rosie O’Donnell/Bush killing soldiers bit thrown in at the end gets it the AP seal of approval.***

Just what you expect from the S.F.Gate. IT’S ALL BUSH’S FAULT, and Rosie O’Donut is there to tell us about it.

Oh, by the way, how come there wasn’t a pet FDA during Clinton’s 8 years in the White House?


135 posted on 04/04/2007 6:24:02 AM PDT by kitkat (The first step down to hell is to deny the existence of evil.)
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To: arbee4bush

***It’s just that I think that the ones that yell the loudest blaming the govt are usually the ones that want MORE govt control over our lives.***

Ohhhhhhh, that’s so good, I just had to repeat it.


136 posted on 04/04/2007 6:33:26 AM PDT by kitkat (The first step down to hell is to deny the existence of evil.)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

I nothing else, this might serve to encourage people to buy American products, made in America by American people with American-grown ingredients.

I feel bad for the pet owners who must be devastated, but I also believe things happen for a reason. There is always something good to come out of a tragic situation.


137 posted on 04/04/2007 7:10:01 AM PDT by Monkey Face (If you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.)
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To: Jeff Chandler
Everybody knows that Bush doesn’t care about black Labs.

Mmmm hmmmm. < g >

138 posted on 04/04/2007 8:09:42 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: cripplecreek

I’m thinking similarly. I am far more concerned about people food, even though the pet food contamination was, and is, a terrible tragedy.


139 posted on 04/04/2007 9:47:01 AM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: Arizona Carolyn
I'm not a vet, but
these popular companies
say on their websites

their food's still okay.
(Most of their front pages link
to detailed info.)


Fancy Feast is OK!     |     Sheba is OK!     |     Purina Friskies is OK!     |     Meow Mix is OK!

140 posted on 04/04/2007 10:26:43 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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