Will food ever be safe? (pet food recall expanded)

St. Pete Times ^ | April 28, 2007 | IVAN PENN

[dawn53]

What's a pet owner to do? You check the recall list and the product you feed your pet isn't there.

So you keep using the same pet food.

But then, as it has several times already, including late this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces an expansion of the recall list. With almost 5, 600 products listed, you search again. And your brand has been added.

[blam]

"It's a shock, " she said. "We don't know actually what we're up against."

That is the state of things presently.

[blam]

"I cook chicken and rice for my pets."

My four dogs get five pounds of baked chicken daily (bones too) and have for the last 10, 9, 8, 7 years. See my doggies by clicking on my name.

[mom4kittys]

I wish we were hearing about this more in the media. I want to know more about this free trade/fair trade issue—especially with China.

[Ditter]

What about the long bones splintering? I thought chicken long bones were a no-no for dogs.

[MaryFromMichigan]

And the hits just keep on comin'...
About 45 state residents ate pork from hogs that consumed animal feed laced with melamine from China.

[blam]

"What about the long bones splintering? I thought chicken long bones were a no-no for dogs."

I've read that too but not until about five years after I began doing it. It's ten years now with no obvious problems.

[muggs]

Yes, my little kitty is eating Amish chicken breasts everyday. Pretty good for a stray cat that lived in a dumpster for a couple of years until I could coax her inside.

[blam]

What is the latest on rice protein? I see that the dry food I give my dogs, Purina One, contains rice protein but, Purina One hasn't appeared on any of the lists.

Any recommendations?

[mom4kittys]

Arizona Carolyn is the expert on nutrition. She suggests raw diet, which is not feasible for some people OR grain free. Innova and Natures’s Logic have grain free foods.

[blam]

I double Checked the ingredients of Purina One it's not rice protein, it's brewers rice.

"Ingredients:
Lamb (natural source of glucosamine), brewers rice, oat meal, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain corn, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), non-fat yogurt, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, animal digest, potassium chloride, malted barley flour, salt, choline chloride, brewers dried yeast, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

[blam]

"Arizona Carolyn is the expert on nutrition. She suggests raw diet, which is not feasible for some people OR grain free. Innova and Natures’s Logic have grain free foods."

I cook my chicken because of bacteria/virus concerns. There are Bird Flu viruses lurking out there somewhere...I bake my chicken (20 pound batches) at 350 degrees F for two hours.

[acoulterfan]

Go to ITCHMO.COM !

[mel]

Lovely dogs

[mel]

It is odd how some animals can go from barely making it to living like a king or queen like my dog and your cat. I just wish all little innocent creatures could be treated decently

[bannie]

It won’t be safe until we quit allowing other nations (China) to send us stuff without our own inspectors checking it.

In fact, it won’t be safe until we quit buying foodstuff from our un-anounced enemies (China).

[sweetiepiezer]

Thanks for the ping.

Pet petition to sign, if you like.

http://www.petpetition.org/

[mom4kittys]

Thank you!

[3D-JOY]

Each thread makes me more<<<>>>!! I guess I have to find a way to check the brown rice...I cook it for the dog, but don't eat it (love white, though. Maybe I am doing the dog no favors????)

[mom4kittys]

People that know a whole lot about nutrition say that dogs and cats don’t need rice or grains because they are carnivores.

[3D-JOY]

YES, I agree, but that would be an expensive and not complete nutrition with today’s water supply...etc.