Posted on 10/23/2013 3:23:39 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
Federal health officials are warning pet owners to be cautious about feeding their dogs jerky treats as they continue to investigate a treat-related illnesses that has left nearly 600 dogs dead and sickened more than 3,000 others.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued an alert to consumers about the illnesses and deaths tied to jerky treats from China. Officials say the exact cause of the illnesses remains unknown.
"This is one of the most elusive and mysterious outbreaks we've encountered," Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in a statement. "Our beloved four-legged companions deserve our best effort, and we are giving it."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“too bad we have given them the keys to our lives. I remember the toxic toys.. first the kids then our pets.. what’s next?”
Many of the active pharmaceutical, nutritional, and cosmetic ingredients are made in China and imported into the USA.
When it comes to pet supplies from China you would be better off feeding your dog the container the treats come in rather than the treats themselves.
Mysterious outbreak? There’s no mystery about it. If it’s made in China it’s poison.
I make our dogs food, I call it Dogloaf, and her treats. I make everything once a month and freeze it. Not that hard. I even have a recipe for homemade Greenies that she loves.
Thanks for posting the verse. Right after I posted I had to do some errands.
With some people, yes. Some of the ways people feed their kids are horribly unhealthy. Some of the worst are those who want to give their kids "healthy" vegetarian or vegan diets, which can permanently impair brain development.
Dead or a possibly a little bit malnourished? I know which I would pick.
It isn’t an either/or situation.
Don’t know about the folks you hang with, but without exception, those people I know that go to the trouble of making their own dog and/or baby food have done more than ample research into the nutritional needs of their 2 or 4 legged consumer.
I doubt those that line up in the drive through lanes of fast food restaurants have done the same due diligence. But that is only my assumption.
Most of the people I hang with have a PhD, although a few have an MS. We’re all pretty knowledgeable about scientific matters.
Ironically, most of the people I see who are obsessed with nutrition are not scientists, and their knowledge is... well, to be blunt, most of it falls into the realm of pseudoscience. It is my observation that the majority of nutrition information available out there is just plain wrong. I do not doubt that many of the people making their own dog/cat/baby food read quite extensively on the subject—it’s just that they don’t have good sources for their information.
Pet food manufacturers are required to test their foods empirically, by feeding them for several months to animals whose health status is assessed by a veterinarian before and after the feeding study. Unless people use recipes that have been tested in a similar manner, they cannot really know they are feeding foods containing all of the needed nutrients. Cats, for example, can go blind if their food lacks a specific amino acid (taurine)—how many people can test whether a food contains adequate taurine in their kitchens?
Despite the plethora of bad nutrition information that exists, I think that most people do have some instinctive sense about what we should and shouldn’t eat or feed our babies, but we don’t have that same instinct about our animals. So it really is a challenge to make sure they get the proper food. A dog or cat can’t tell you if their diet is making them feel bad.
As for China, follow this rule: if you wouldn't think of eating something from China, why would you even consider giving it to your dog?
What are the jerky treat names that are the problem?
I have two dog food cookbooks at home that discuss the best foods for different breeds, and the nutritional aspects of each meat or vegetable.
I am very tempted to start getting back into making food for my dog, at least to supplement what he already gets. I'm going to start by making my own treats in place of store-bought treats.
-PP
we don’t have that same instinct about our animals. So it really is a challenge to make sure they get the proper food.
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This is the source of our extremely low grade disagreement.
The properly motivated have access to a plethora of resources from which to choose. It is not a challenge to find good information at all, if one is willing to put in the effort. A good place to start? Your vet. I am blessed with a great one.
Actually, part of the problem *is* the challenge of finding good information. Most of the nutritional information out there is complete trash. I find that nutrition is an area where quackery and emotionalism run high, and science takes a back seat. That is true whether you are talking about human or pet nutrition. I have often observed that, ironically, people who are the most motivated to want to consume a "healthy" diet or feed one to their pets are the ones who fall the hardest for the pseudoscience. They may put a lot of effort into finding information, but it is usually information that matches their biases, not information that is based in solid science.
I have also observed that vets can fall for pseudoscience.
thanks. i had no idea Purina made their treats in China or used imported ingredients from China.
They’re packaging is slick because it states is “manufactured” in the USA. Yea, but the crappy wheat, or whatever is used is shipped from China.
You are welcome.
I’m no longer sure of what you’re getting at.
There’s lot of pseudoscience out there. Check.
Low information types can fall for pseudoscience. Check.
Some of those falling for pseudoscience are vets. Check.
You are not low information. Check.
I am responding to your previous statement, "The properly motivated have access to a plethora of resources from which to choose. It is not a challenge to find good information at all, if one is willing to put in the effort."
What I am getting at is that the people who take the most effort to eat "healthy" or feed their pets more "healthy" are also the most likely to prepare food based on pseudoscience, which ultimately results in less nutritious food than the empirically tested foods that come from cans.
I have seen no correlation between the amount of time such a person spends researching "healthy" food, and the actual nutritional content of such food. I have yet to pick up any magazine or see a website where the articles on nutrition contain fully accurate information. (That is, unless the magazine or website is published by a medical organization.) Given the scarcity of reliable information, and the fact that most people do not know how to access actual medical information, I do not have much confidence that home prepared pet foods are nutritionally balanced.
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