I spoke with the AP reporter today who is working on the story. The thing I pointed out is that the company identified in China in the CNN story has already said (in the April 2 AP story) that they sold to OTHER EXPORTERS. They even named one. I wrote this other exporter and they said they needed to know who at Xuzhou Anying sold the products to them at their company. Since I wasn’t the one who had that conversation I forwarded this onto the AP reporters in DC and in Shanghai who did the story.
Now ponder on this. Would we even be having this discussion in public if Joy here (on pet connection) didn’t dig up Xuzhou Anying’s name buried in an FDA database?
The FDA hasn’t revealed who else is buying and selling this wheat gluten. Just like the didn’t reveal the US distributor until the AP did.
Maybe the FDA wants to be more forthcoming, but they are being held back by industry agreements.
The USDA cut a deal with the people at ConAgra that made info about who bought food propriety. That is why when BSE was found in a cow it got into the human food supply and into a vietnamese restaurant in Truckee. The concern was first for the companies and later for the health of the consumers. If they are playing those games with humans of course they would do the same for pets.
Another person commented that fruits and vegetables are grown in "night soil" in China -- night soil being human excement. Can anyone confirm if this is true?
Apparently CNN is going to do an update tonight on this story and show that footage of the facility in China that supplied the food. It's supposed to be on sometime this hour on that Anderson Cooper show (which I had never watched until last night, and only because of this story).
One thing that I think is really scary is this: if you look at the lot numbers of the wheat gluten that ChemNutra distributed (listed in their press release), you will see that there are large gaps. That means that the lot numbers not imported by ChemNutra have gone somewhere else -- who knows where? More pet food manufacturers? Or to human food manufacturers? I hope the FDA is trying to track this down.
Segment on now!
re “night soil” — I am too tired to search for a link/”proof”, but I have heard the same thing. Not necessarily that ALL fruits and veggies are grown in night soil, but “some” is more than I care to eat. ;-)