Pet-food recall: Switching a cat’s food, new topics and Sunday open thread

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Pet-food recall: Switching a cat’s food, new topics and Sunday open thread

By Gina Spadafori

April 29, 2007

If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.
If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).
If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

Couple of housekeeping items for a Sunday morning, then the news …

A Web log isn’t a built to maintain discussion on topics. By the nature of the beast, the latest news pushes down the older information, and older comments become difficult to find and to follow. Commenters here have discussed opening topics to break down the pet-food discussion in ways that will let people look at the smaller issues and share information in greater detail. That’s a great idea, but it’s not going to work on a Web log.

That’s more suitable for bulletin board or forum software platform. Itchmo has just the thing set up on his site, so that’s probably the place to go with this project.

Also … I saw a lot of discussion regarding the difficulties in getting cats to change foods. I was glad to see several people step up and warn that you cannot starve cats into switching without putting some of them at grave health risk, so don’t do it! Instead, just so happens that Christie has written an article on helping cats through a food change. It’s on the SFGate.com Web site, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, where Christie’s the Your Whole Pet columnist. Here’s the article link.

In the news, The Sacramento Bee starts off with a front-page piece looking at the FDA’s ability to ensure safe food for us all:

The FDA is charged with assuring the safety of roughly 17 million product shipments each year, about two-thirds of them food. The volume has more than tripled since 1999, while the nation’s inspection force has remained static in size. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the federal government created new food safety measures but has followed through on few of them.

Under agency targets, about 1 percent of import shipments are supposed to get a close look from FDA officials. Such inspections can range from simply reviewing paperwork to actually sending a product to a lab for testing, [Benjamin] England [an attorney who worked at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for 17 years] said.

According to FDA spokesman Mike Herndon, the FDA has 558 import inspectors. England, however, said the number of full-time-equivalent staff positions devoted to work on food imports is likely less than 200.

A bigger problem is the agency’s outdated tracking software, which makes it difficult for inspectors to target likely violators, England said.

The San Jose Mercury-News offers an editorial calling for more oversight:

The pet food crisis is forcing Americans to face a stomach-wrenching fact: The human food supply is little or no better protected than food for our dogs and cats.That’s true even of domestic products, as we learned from the spinach contamination in September, but even more so of imports from countries with lower food safety standards.

Who should be worried? Only those planning to continue eating.

[...]

The least the FDA can do is insist that food suppliers inform American consumers when they are digesting products that contain ingredients from other nations.

The silver lining may be an increased demand for purely American products, which would benefit the U.S. food industry.

American suppliers have their own food contamination issues. But they pale in comparison to problems in China, where poor safety records may lead to a substantial drop in U.S. imports.

Here’s the link.

USA Today in China, where officials still maintain China didn’t do it, and they aren’t going to do it anymore:

BEIJING — Chinese authorities acknowledged for the first time that ingredients exported to make pet food contained a prohibited chemical, stepping up their probe of two Chinese companies’ roles in one of the USA’s largest animal-food recalls.

While pledging cooperation with U.S. authorities investigating the recall, the Chinese government in a statement Thursday also disputed that the chemical — melamine, which is used to make plastic — was responsible for harming pets.

[...]

In a sign of government urgency, Chinese police two days ago sealed the headquarters of Binzhou Futian Bio-Technology, which exported rice protein concentrate to the USA for use in pet food. Paper strips were pasted across the doors of the eight ground-floor rooms the company rents in Wudi County, a five-hour drive southeast of Beijing.

As inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prepare to visit the firms where the ingredients were made, Chinese and American food experts here say China’s vast and fragmented food-processing industry makes inspection difficult and increases the likelihood of future problems.

From the New York Times, via the password-less International Herald Tribune (Note: This article is no longer where it was. If anyone finds where it went, let us know. In the meantime, the article has been saved here over on the Itchmo):

ZHANGQIU, China: American food safety regulators trying to figure out how an industrial chemical called melamine contaminated so much pet food in the United States might come to this heavily polluted city in Shandong Province in the northern part of the country.

Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.

But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.

The melamine powder has been dubbed “fake protein” and is used to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that provides higher nutrition value.

“It just saves money,” says a manager at an animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level.”

Finally, reminding again: Hate speech, racism, calling people “skanks,” and similar uncivil behavior or off-topic posts will be deleted. Play nice or play somewhere else.

Something we missed? Send us your news, or post it here.

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|Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary

Filed under: 2007 food recall,animals: pets,medical,news — Gina Spadafori @ 6:32 am

Comments (253)

253 Comments »

Morning everyone. Got this in an email from Mike (thanks Mike!) and just posted it on my blog. Might want to take get your headache/heartache medicine ready…

Feed sellers in China routinely use protein substitute
http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....php?page=1

For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.
…

… a pair of animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine”

Comment by Kim — April 29, 2007 @ 7:16 am
Greed knows no bounds. Why, would they NOT put it into human foods? the line between animal feed and human food is probably non-existant.

Is the great hush-hush about how much melamine is already in human foods? I can hear notes being passed, the secret phone calls in the Govt.

More maddening is, WHY didn’t this country go and inspect the factories in China BEFORE starting any trade with a backward country like China?

Comment by Gary — April 29, 2007 @ 7:29 am
Comment by Kim — April 29, 2007 @ 7:16 am

I’m speachless.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 7:33 am
I wonder if we had our urine tested, if it would test positive for melamine. I just don’t believe any of them anymore & wonder how long this has REALLY been going on & exactly how much is in OUR food. I guess when people start dropping like flies, they’ll stop importing from foreign countries. This is all just too overwhelming for me.

I don’t know when I will ever feel comfortable giving my dog commercial pet food…..even the high end. I guess the important thing is to find a small company that makes their own dry (I don’t use canned) & pray a lot that they have good QC at their plant.

Again, my thanks to all of you for staying on top of this. I’d be totally in the dark as to what was recalled if it weren’t for people like you.

Still don’t understand why none of these recalls are going public. Do the large pet food companies have the ability to stifle the media??????

Comment by JanC — April 29, 2007 @ 7:39 am
“Asked whether he could create an animal feed and melamine brew, he said yes, he has access to huge supplies of melamine. Using melamine-spiked pet food ingredient was not a problem, he said, even thought the product would be weak in protein.

“Pets are not like pigs or chickens,” he said casually, explaining that cheating them on protein won’t matter. “They don’t need to grow fast.”

The feed seller makes a heftier profit because the substitute melamine scrap is much cheaper than purchasing soy, wheat or corn protein.

“It’s true you can make a lot more profit by putting melamine in,” said a second animal feed seller here in Zhangqiu. “Melamine will cost you about $1.20 per ton for each protein count whereas real protein costs you about $6, so you can see the difference.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....php?page=2

Well, this substantiates what I had been told previously by a reporter.

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 7:41 am
I’ll make it even worse. From yesterday’s FDA release… http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/.....01620.html

“At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued. Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken.”

If melamine is in human foods (and I’m sure it is), the FDA won’t recall it, based on this. NICE.

Comment by Kim — April 29, 2007 @ 7:48 am
It raises a lot of questions for me. Like JanC said, how long, have they been putting it in our foods? I find it hard to believe, it all began in 2006 hah!

Worse yet, what other chemicals have they been putting in? apparently, the lab testing procedure is so narrow, if they don’t test for it, it goes by unnoticed.

I have long been concerned with the unprecedented rise of cancers in people, is there a connection?

We are living in a country run by stupidity and greed.

Comment by Gary — April 29, 2007 @ 7:54 am
It’s a pecticide killing the bees, also a fungus in the bee hives, and the bees have aides.

Comment by Sidney — April 29, 2007 @ 7:55 am
Does Purina raise questions in anyones mind? Huge part of their wet food was contracted to China, numerous reports of pets affected by dry as well as the canned. Yet, very few recalled. Hard to believe that they have remained largely untouched by all this.

Comment by keith — April 29, 2007 @ 8:02 am
Yes, the bees too, a great concern. With less crops coming, does that mean more importing from rogue, backward countries?

Comment by Gary — April 29, 2007 @ 8:03 am
Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 7:41 am

“Pets are not like pigs or chickens,” he said casually, explaining that cheating them on protein won’t matter. “They don’t need to grow fast.”

Ok. Now I have some thoughts. I have a pure bred dog that was bred for show. He has solid blood well known blood lines. AKC requires he not go over 11 1/2 inches. He should be as long as he is tall. He is perfect in every way, except his size. He went over the 11 1/2 inches although he is exactly as tall as he is long. He was raised on a raw diet. We were truly shocked that he went over sized. It could be a fluke, it happens, but this is food for thought so to speak. His parents had a kibble diet (Eukanuba) and some raw. Many owners that I know who own dogs in his line have used Science Diet and Eukanuba. I went 100% raw, until most recently I added some kibble and of course I almost killed him. (no more kibble). Breeder was so shocked she cryed and wanted me to take another (additional) dog of my choosing at any time. Well known trusted breeder with top 10 dogs, as well as his father. I wonder how many dogs are smaller than they would be, or whatever else because of eating commercial foods?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:10 am
Purina is a HUGE concern. FDA cannot make them do a recall, it’s all voluntary. How can they be made to do it?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:12 am
From the New York Times, via the password-less International Herald Tribune

Oh thats nasty. Real nasty. And I’m not joking.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 8:14 am
RE: International Herald Tribune article above: IT’S IN THE FISH FEED, TOO!

“Yet it is clear from visiting this region of northern China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed.”

Comment by petlover — April 29, 2007 @ 8:14 am
Thanks for linking to the post about how difficult it can be to change your cats diet. Luckily the dry cat food I feed Sockie-Pooh isn’t on the recall list, so I am continuing to give him small amounts of it. And check the recall list daily to make sure it hasn’t been added.

I am integrating “people food” into his diet. Some stuff he’ll eat in ‘small’ amounts and some stuff (like chicken) he won’t touch. As he is already under weight, the thing that matters most to me is that he eat SOMETHING.

Comment by Alasandra — April 29, 2007 @ 8:18 am
It’s in chicken feed too. I read it but don’t have the link handy.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:18 am
Comment by Alasandra — April 29, 2007 @ 8:18 am

Sockie-Pooh ?

Now that’s a spoiled kitty. Names can sometimes speak volumes. Sockie-Pooh.
Great to hear you’re healthy !!!!!!!

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:21 am
Alasandra -
Try the King Oscar’s Sardines, in the red packaging, in Spring Water. yummy.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:22 am
I wonder how Bench & Field has managed to stay out of all this fray. Anyone use their products. Know anything about them. Used to use the dog food years ago but didn’t like the hardness of the nuggets for my little dog at the time.

Comment by VJ — April 29, 2007 @ 8:22 am
I used to buy Purina cat food. In late Nov. or early Dec. they included a “free gift” of a pouch of cat treats or food in with their dry food. I cant remember the name but shortly after my cat became ill.

Comment by chrystine — April 29, 2007 @ 8:24 am
I think we’ve uncovered or brought to light, China’s dirty tricks finally, although they’ve been doing it for so long. Somehow with every aspect of this disaster, it all points to you know where, the Govt. I wonder if some Hollywood producer might make something like “wag the dog?”

Comment by Gary — April 29, 2007 @ 8:26 am
Bench & Field hasn’t had any recalls. There are a few that haven’t been affected at all, thank goodness.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:27 am
I have 20 cats, myself, and am a holistic pet food distributor. I have noticed that cats who were on the highly flavored grain-based, by-products brands sold at grocery stores (Meox Mix, Friskies, Purina) have a harder time switching than cats who were on a nicer brand.

Dr. Lisa Pierson, a holistic vet not associated with my company, makes some excellent suggestions about switching cats to a new pet food. Its on my blog here:

http://safepetfood.wordpress.c.....ned-foods/

And just a note about samples… Many cats and dogs dive right in to a holistic food, they’re meat-based and smell great. However, some will not switch so quickly. Whatever food you get, I’d suggest getting a small bag so you can take as much time as they need to transition safely.

Teresa Holladay
The Safe Pet Food Blog

Comment by Teresa Holladay — April 29, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Great diary on pet deaths and how long this might have been going on…

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....72540/4070

Comment by Maureen — April 29, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Who is the second importer of the rice protein? Has it been released yet?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 8:46 am
I have been the proud pet parent of 15 cats over the past 25 years and I can assure you this problem with tainted food has been going on for the past 5-7 years. I have many times had an “episode” as we came to call them after one of them took a few bites of canned or dry food. Immediately after eating the symptoms would be vomiting, elevated respiratory rate, collapse, etc. After a few hours and the food went through their systems they were fine again. I have repeatedly said over the years, well there’s another bad can/bad bag of food. I would then throw away any similar food. I have always had mine on a wide variety of foods and flavors and brands because of this, so if a batch was bad I can throw it away and use another. Now I’m reduced to one type of canned and one type of raw diet and I pray these continue to be safe. I think this has been happening to the cat population in general but with parents working and/or cats hiding when they are sick for a few hours it may not have been as noticable as someone that has stayed home with them as I have. When it’s all said and done as the news articles state today I think we’ll find this has been happening for years and our pets have been dying for years so the numbers of 15K pets sick/dead etc could be in the six figures in reality….

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 8:48 am
I’m curious…I hear a lot about Purina products, mostly dry, having a problem. Thus far we hat we haven’t had any problems with Purina but we are staying away from products with all the grain.

I know I’ve heard a lot about Beneful dog food but no one I know seems to be having problems with Purina.

Again, I wonder if this is related to distribution of product around the country.

So what about IAMS? It seems like there are all kinds of complaints about IAMS dry, especially lamb / rice products. Is this still a concern? I haven’t heard much out of them lately either.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 9:00 am
Tonight 6pm EST on CNN Lou Dobbs will be talking about dangerous food in America. I would guess its going to be mostly on the human food at peril but I would assume they will also include pet food

Comment by Jan — April 29, 2007 @ 9:15 am
Carole, Iams tests on live animals so a lot of us and vets are not using their products for that reason alone. Secondly all their canned foods are made by Menu Foods and although not all are recalled, we’re also not supporting Menu Foods in any manner (plus cross contamination can occur). Menu Foods deliberately did not inform us of any problems for months and hundreds/thousands of pets could have been saved if they did. Lastly, to date I don’t believe Iams (Proctor & Gamble) has admitted to where their dry foods are manufactured and I have a big problem with that. If a pet food company won’t admit where products are manufactured at this point in time there’s a problem. And a PS: Iams website is truly deceiving to the public as far as their recall notice as they claim “a small amount” has been recalled. Thousands of cans are not a small amount.

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 9:17 am
I’m not sure if this is off-topic or in the right place.

Perchlorate contamination in human food sources has “suddenly” made the news this weekend. That has been known for years and was a topic reported two years ago. Most of us have been aware of areas of groundwater contamination in the United States and even give our pets bottled water.

When I heard the broadcaster mention contamination in our food sources yesterday, I turned up the volume in anticipation. I expected them to reveal the first list of human food products being recalled from the rice protein or wheat gluiten. But…old news, at least to me. It was on again today.

Could the news media be given this “old” news to report to divert the public’s attention from the recent threat of foreign contaminated food sources? Kind of suspicious to me…to focus on perchlorate and suppress the possibility of a more serious, widespread food tampering.

Everyone I know is wondering why the media has remained almost silent about the government’s investigative progress(?) relating to the pet food contamination. We are now preparing to contact our congressmen.

I am thankful I discovered this website right after the recall. You have also listed other sites with diligent investigative posters. What would we do without you? I have shared this site with other pet parents, as well as the Howl and Itchmo sites. I personally thank all of you for your time and effort on behalf of my cat. I had some unopened recalled treats and would not have known this but for your site.

Comment by MySimon — April 29, 2007 @ 9:18 am
Has anyone tried Fargo (frozen) FarMore dogfood? Its a complete, natural, raw diet that comes in “logs.” My 15 yr Maltese took one sniff and chowed down! My Maine Coone (who usually won’t touch anything not out of a can or bag) licked up the microscopic particles left on the plate. By the way, several local PD feed their working dogs Fargo and it’s available from my local high-end pet food store. Their web site is farmoredogfood.com.

Comment by Patricia Hill — April 29, 2007 @ 9:38 am
http://www.ita.doc.gov/ooms/ChinaTradeActRCS.pdf

The China Trade Act

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 9:44 am
In answer to the media question—-
They can’t risk losing their sponsors….
All those cute doggie and kitty commercials. 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 9:48 am
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 9:00 am

To date, Purina has recalled two products, both wet food; one was because it was produced for them by Menu Foods, the other was because some of the tainted wheat glutin from the Chem Nutra deal had been used at their Crete, Nebraska factory. This is information available at their website. They claim that all of the rest of their wheat glutin is from other sources, although they also admit that it is not entirely a domestic product since they further claim that they cannot get enough wheat glutin from U.S. sources. In addition, Purina indicated that they do all of their own manufacturing, with the exception of the one product produced for them by Menu Foods; they contracted that one product due to the nature of the pouch packaging involved.

Over the course of time, Purina has gradually divulged more details of their sourcing methods in their FAQ’s at their website. They readily admit that vitamin & mineral supplements are imported from China, since, again, they say they cannot get it in the amounts needed for their scale of production in this country or elsewhere in North America. Aside from that, the corn meal gluten they use is sourced from U.S. and North American product (not specific as to full process here, when you consider the corn is grown and harvested, then it is processed into whatever your end product is, whether that be corn meal, corn flour, corn gluten, or whatever else). Again, this is taken from their website.

While I won’t step on anyone’s toes here, I would want to see an objective report linking Purina products to illness, injury and death before making a firm decision on the company. To date, in all of the blogs, blog comments and forums I have visited, I have seen only what is called anecdotal evidence. Unfortunately, there will be cases of coincidental illness, totally unrelated to anything the pet has ingested. It is possible that some of this is being reported as related to a given product from a given manufacturer. It is also possible that some other problem existed with the pet’s environment and caused trouble. Without testing the actual food consumed and without a legal necropsy to link a specific food to a specific pet’s illness or death, right now we *might* have circumstantial evidence against Purina, just from the numbers being reported, but not enough evidence to believe they would recall product.

What this does is to bring us right back to the question we have asked from time to time here and I believe only Christie Keith might be able to answer it, if anyone here can:

Do you know the status of Dr. Pion’s (of the VIN) testing of five foods he had been seeing as referenced in the VIN forum but not recalled? The last I heard was from a newspaper article which indicated that he hoped to start testing five foods at the UC Davis lab about ten days ago. While I realize that he cannot legally name any names (liability issues), no matter the outcome, it would be good if he could announce whether or not testing has been completed, and further, if all tests were negative for the tests he ran, he might be able to announce that, again, without naming names.

In terms of Purina, while I would certainly rather my cat would eat one of the other cereals I’ve tried her on, and believe me, I have read everything both here and from other blogs and forums related to trying to switch a stubborn cat to a new food, it just isn’t going to happen with my cat at the moment. I understand from other posts and blog comments that our little family shares this problem with some other people. We all understand that the products the cats insist upon are not even good for them, particularly by comparison with some of the other foods available, but if the cat won’t eat the other food, we’re stuck until we can figure out a way that the cat agrees is workable as we won’t risk hepatic lipidosis with our cats.

Consequently, particularly where the Purina name keeps cropping up anecdotally, I keep an eye on the various blogs and forums as well as their website and, barring objective evidence, continue to feed our cat her Purina cereal. At the Itchmo forum, a thread exists which covers Fancy Feast and cats, if you wanted to read that and I think one covers Beneful, as well.

HTH,
Kay

Comment by Kay Hammil — April 29, 2007 @ 10:05 am
kay-
have you been to the doggybling site?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Patricia-
I hadn’t seen Far More until your post. Love reading all the raw finds to add to my freezer :)

Feed it and let us know how it works out :)

Haven’t heard any recalls on them

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 10:12 am
As to the FDA not having enough manpower or funding——We are a nation of laws——too many laws——too many agencies——so many that we can’t get enough funding for all of them——and so many laws that we can’t enforce them.
Simply put we’re bogged down——our courts are bogged down. Our taxpayer dollars are spread so thin, we can’t seem to take care of our border patrol, our food inspections. Even our public schools are bogged down with new rules, some of which defy common sense….a plastic knife to cut a piece of meat? Looking at it this way, I’m not surprised we’re in such a mess as this. We really need to stop with all these “extra” programs that are being funded. Some are just plain ridiculous.
Now might be a good time to let our Senators and representatives know where we want the funding to go.
I think our priorities need to be focused on minding the food store and protecting our borders. Otherwise, “We Be Dead” (quote from my kid). 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 10:14 am
I’ve been there and read it all—can he cite veterinary testing for the statements being made there? This is one of the sites I had in mind when I referred to anecdotal evidence…

It does *appear* that there is a problem, but the actual nature of this problem is not stated and not known. It could be true that Beneful is just so widely used that you are seeing numbers of complaints related to coincidental illnes or an allergy to the food.

Again, if someone wants to, there are ways to test the food and to have the necessary testing done on animals and I am seeing nothing at the DoggyBling site which indicates that this is being done.

This is just my humble opinion, and I certainly do believe that Purina could be more proactive with their procedures and their informational releases. For example, given the concerns people have with their foods, I believe they should have tested ingredients, using a third party lab, then released the test results. They choose not to do this, and that is their right, but without a “come clean” behavior such as this, I will continue to watch them very carefully. I’m not a Purina apologist—as I said, I would love to be able to get away from their products altogether, but cannot at this time do that safely. That said, however, objective evidence from the people involved with Beneful and Fancy Feast foods would be desirable if they would like to force Purina to recall foods.

Again, I do not want to step on toes; I know what it is like to lose a pet. We all want to know why it happened, even in the case of an elderly pet. Sometimes we might jump to the right conclusion as to cause, sometimes we might jump to the wrong one. Without the testing, we will never really know, I’m afraid…

Comment by Kay Hammil — April 29, 2007 @ 10:21 am
Kay, we’re all panicked, and panic causes hysteria, that’s what’s happening here. Can you blame us for being overly concerned and rather safe than sorry?

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Kay, we’re all panicked, and panic causes hysteria, that’s what’s happening here. Can you blame us for being overly concerned and rather safe than sorry? Nothing like this has ever happened before as far as the size of the recalled foods. We don’t have any “history” or “experience” to base our actions and thought processes on.

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 10:27 am
I’m making my own food now, I’ve decided not to experiment on my pets anymore by feeding them commercial foods. I hope they go bankrupt!

Comment by Lori Anderson — April 29, 2007 @ 10:29 am
I’ve found a pre-made raw diet for cats also that sounds good. Has anyone tried Wild Kitty frozen? Website is wildkittycatfood.com.

Comment by Patricia Hill — April 29, 2007 @ 10:38 am
Since I have decided to make my pet food and have decided to buy my food locally and eat whole foods, so the panic is over for me. The cost of making food for my pets (if I buy it on sale ) is the same as their crap that they have in the stores. I’m cynical, angry as hell, and hope the greedy corportations and China feel this for a long time to come!
Sorry for the triple posting, but I just had to vent!!

Comment by Lori Anderson — April 29, 2007 @ 10:38 am
When you look at what has been admitted to by Chinese suppliers:

“Most local feed companies do not admit that they use melamine. But last Friday here in Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, a pair of animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine, whose chemical properties give a bag of animal feed an inflated protein level under standard tests.

“If you add it in small quantities, it won’t hurt the animals,” said one animal feed entrepreneur whose name is being withheld to protect him from prosecution.

The man - who works in a small animal feed operation that consists of a handful of storage and mixing areas - said he has mixed melamine into animal feed for years.”
http://www.itchmo.com/

It appears that at this time and point the best solution is to avoid any foods that contain grain products. Even the “reputable” companies may be receiving shipments that are tainted without knowing about it. Or the companies that say they only use US grains may not even know where it originally came from. Just because they get it in the US does not mean it originated from there.

If this has been going on for years, then what else is being slipped into products that no one is admitting to..until more pets or even people die.

It is impossible to trust any corporations at this time!!

Comment by mal — April 29, 2007 @ 10:39 am
THE OREGONIAN - FRONT PAGE TODAY
* * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * *

A race to solve pet food mystery
Fears for humans - Scientists find substances but not the mechanism sickening cats and dogs

Sunday, April 29, 2007
RICHARD READ and LYNNE TERRY
The Oregonian

Cornell University toxicologist Joe Ebel peered last month at lines that crossed his computer screen, resembling hundreds of jagged mountains.

The previous fall, Ebel’s steady hands released an arrow that killed a 16-point buck, the second-largest deer bagged last year by a New York bow hunter. On March 26, in an urgent quest to save animals, his hands controlled a mass spectrometer, a machine that breaks materials into chemical parts.

Any one of the telltale peaks, Ebel knew, could identify the mysterious substance in wheat gluten imported from China that appeared to be killing cats and dogs, scaring pet owners, frustrating veterinarians and causing widespread product recalls.

Ebel, squinting through goggles, raced to find answers that could prevent further deaths and stop the unthinkable: contaminated food reaching U.S. dinner tables.

When a break finally came, Ebel stayed as calm as when he shot the white-tailed deer. There it was — a sharp spike depicting the same material Procter & Gamble Co. scientists had just implicated: melamine, an industrial chemical with no business in pet food.

Ebel and other scientists from New York to California asked how melamine — a substance made from ammonia and used in glues and laminate flooring — could cause acute renal failure, when chunks of it fed to dogs in one study merely made them urinate a lot.

It’s a question that still confounds U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials as they ask farmers to euthanize 6,000 hogs on farms that received tainted pet food.

It’s now a puzzle vexing scientists studying cyanuric acid. That substance has been found in stricken pets and by FDA investigators in rice protein concentrate at the same North Plains warehouse where melamine from China showed up.

Each day, members of the Cornell team, in Ithaca, N.Y., have discussed these questions with an expanding number of scientists across North America. They’ve searched for hundreds of potential culprits, helping rule out a rat poison, aminopterin, fingered by another New York lab. They still don’t know what led publicity-shy Procter & Gamble scientists to melamine.

The Cornell group has been impressed by the collaboration among high-octane experts from government, industry and universities. Together the scientists have scrambled to contain whatever, in Oregon alone, may have killed 46 dogs and cats and sickened 78 more.

At some research centers, such as the animal health laboratory at Canada’s University of Guelph, 18-hour days are taking their toll.

“This is getting a bit wearing,” says Grant Maxie, a clinical pathologist at the Ontario university, where scientists found strangely beautiful, large gold melamine crystals in dead animals’ urine and kidneys. “We started with aminopterin. And then on to melamine. Now on to cyanuric acid.

“What’s going to be next?”

During the week of March 26, the Monday that Ebel examined melamine’s profile on his screen, Richard Goldstein downed Diet Coke after midnight to stave off sleep in his overflowing campus office.

Goldstein, a Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine professor, is a renowned kidney specialist at the vet school rated first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. He had spent all day dissolving melamine, aminopterin and wheat gluten in urine of varying acidity. Try as they might, Cornell team members could not replicate the crystals found in the stricken pets, let alone determine how they might hurt animals.

The search for a culprit had gone international, drawing on the best and brightest of veterinary science. At Guelph, clinical toxicologist and pathologist Brent Hoff, an amateur pilot who volunteers as a vet during off-time on Canadian and Caribbean islands, had acted on reports from Cornell, the University of Michigan and the University of California at Davis. Hoff and Maxie’s team posted Web photos of the distinctive melamine crystals they found in dead cats.

Recalls mushroomed. Thousands of pet owners called the FDA, learning that well-known brands such as Iams and Eukanuba were actually manufactured by other companies using imported ingredients. FDA officials had a theory: Profiteers in China had tricked U.S. importers by using inexpensive melamine to boost nitrogen, which buyers often measure to gauge protein content.

FDA scientists, gun-shy after the New York State Food Laboratory’s rat-poison finding fell flat, awaited further confirmation of melamine’s presence. The agency did not announce it until Friday, March 30.

The clock ticked past 2 a.m. Goldstein pored over papers dating from the 1920s. Ebel and others had proved melamine was present, but Goldstein could find no evidence that the substance was deadly.

After 3 a.m., he turned off the lights and headed home, eager for sleep before returning to the cat urine. Soon, he’d wake to the sounds of his wife, three kids and Mocha, the family’s 15-year-old dog.

Last weekend west of Portland, a stream of cars took the rural North Plains exit off U.S. 26 near Hillsboro. The vehicles turned past an espresso stand and a Union 76 station, snaking back south toward the highway.

FDA investigators, state agriculture officials and pet food representatives parked in a dusty lot near faded green metal sheds and warehouses. They entered a cavernous warehouse marked Van Dyke Grain Elevators Inc., a company with ties to San Francisco agricultural distributor Wilbur-Ellis Co.

There on April 4, according to Wilbur-Ellis, trucks delivered 144 1-ton bags of rice protein concentrate shipped from China’s Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd. All of the bags were white — as usual — but one stuck out. It was pink and “melamine” was stenciled on the front.

Wilbur-Ellis notified authorities and isolated and tested the bags’ contents, finding melamine in the pink one and the others.

Last weekend, a company spokeswoman said, FDA investigators checked for cyanuric acid, the related substance found in infected pets. They detected it, says Ann Barlow of Peppercom Strategic Communications, which represents Wilbur-Ellis.

Bruce Akey, executive director of Cornell’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center, has been studying cyanuric acid, which has a high nitrogen content. Like melamine, the acid appears to be a marker found in sickened animals, if not a cause. It’s a familiar substance, a chemical routinely used in swimming pools to keep chlorine from breaking down in sunlight.

Heating melamine, Akey says, creates differing but slightly related compounds, one of which is cyanuric acid. Akey wonders whether some interaction of those substances could be causing damage.

In North Plains last weekend, the FDA investigators examined goods, weight slips and delivery documents, says Don Hansen, the Oregon state veterinarian. His staff members have helped contain the tainted goods and plan for their disposal.

The investigators, whose findings agency spokesmen decline to discuss, packed up their equipment. They drove out past the gas station and the coffee stand, the mystery unsolved.

Joe Ebel, the Cornell toxicologist, enjoys the challenge of the chase, preferring archery to hunting with a high-powered rifle and scope. Sometimes he hides in his tree stand, admiring a majestic buck he lets pass. The 54-year-old has hunted since he was 16.

Now Ebel is pursuing another moving target in a hunt that moved closer to the human food chain with revelations April 19 that hogs ate contaminated pet food sold to farms as salvage. In Oregon, two pets became sick as recently as last week.

Perhaps, Ebel muses, Akey and other scientists’ suspicions are well-founded. When companies cook pet food, melamine and cyanuric acid could fuse into something lethal. Maybe the heat combines those two substances with yet another compound in the chow, producing deadly crystals. To test all that, he figures, you’d have to feed animals stuff that would bring activists running.

“To do that kind of work,” says Ebel, pondering the magnitude, “it would be a Ph.D. project.”

Ebel has little time for abstract questions. On Friday evening he faced 26 new samples on his desk, including some hog feed and urine.

Ebel wants to go fishing on Lake Ontario. Instead, he’s spending this weekend at the lab.

Richard Read: 503-294-5135; richread@aol.com Lynne Terry: 503-221-8503; lynneterry@news.oregonian.com

©2007 The Oregonian

Comment by Nadine Long — April 29, 2007 @ 10:41 am
This is the largest Pet food recall in our nations history.

The issue that is going on over at Doggybling has been going on well before the ‘recalls’ were finally put in place. They been in touch with Purina and have documented the names. Those people at Purina actually stated they were aware there was a situation and were looking into it. I posted a link to some of it last night.

I do wonder that if Purina were to expose Beneful if it would lend sight to who the second importer is that has yet to be named.

Purina also just opened an office in Beijing.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Re: Purina Foods: Friskies and Fancy Feast. Please join the discussion over at Itchmo:
http://64.79.216.38/~itchmo/fo.....opic=200.0

Comment by Peggy — April 29, 2007 @ 10:42 am
Nabiya,

“Politics, the war, and terrorists” are three different issues. If you don’t think this pet food issue has anything to do with politics, then you have little understanding of how the FDA is funded, how big business affects our government, and why the FDA is dragging its feet when it comes to being truthful about both the pet and human food supply.

As for terrorism, the recall indeed has shown how vulnerable the food supply is to terrorism, so if people want/need to discuss it, then I do see the relevance.

Honestly, I don’t see your point in attempting to control what’s discussed here. I think the admins are doing a fine job with keeping discussion civil and on topic, and I think we should let them decide when/if to remove posts that they feel are inappropriate.

Comment by Cathleen — April 29, 2007 @ 11:03 am
I was really concerned about all the news picking up the FDA article saying a recall of the contaiminated pork was not warranted…

They edit out the first part of Captain David Elder’s statement and used the last sentence.

“The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid is of concern to human and animal health,” Elder said. “Melamine, at detected levels, is not a human health concern.”

The media does a disservice at times to the issues important to our citizens.

But, based on the reactions of some friends & co-workers, there are more people than we care to admit that simply do not want to hear this type of news - they actually dashed to hear Anna Nicole on CNN or Imus, but avoided this topic and got angry with me for mentioning it.

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Here’s the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article from 4/20 where Captain Elder was quoted:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/.....03671.html

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 11:08 am
Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 10:27 am

This is why it is so very important to try to use logic in our decision-making processes where our pets and we, for that matter, are involved. Given the commentary on Fancy Feast, I have successfully removed all FF from my cat’s diet without bothering to wait for someone, whether a vet or not, to test at least the foods implicated in an animal’s illness—flying in the face of my own statements regarding the Purina company and how we should view their products: that is (without further objective documentation), at this moment, they *appear* to be safe, although not very healthy in terms of feline needs. What I won’t do without objective evidence, is to state that their products need to be recalled. In terms of the Beneful situation, this remains to play out and it will be interesting to see what the DoggyBling guy has worked out. Objective documentation would be beneficial, however. In addition, we have seen how corporations behave, so what appears to be safe today may not be safe at all and may actually be recalled tomorrow or Friday at midnight.

In the end, I do understand what people are going through and I do feel the same terror as everyone else—we who are using commercial products are at the mercy of a manufacturer and their suppliers. I do grieve for those who have ill pets or have lost pets—this is a situation which was entirely unnecessary, and this does include the anecdotal cases as well, as these may end up being related to faulty product in some way, too.

This said, however, we must be careful to separate out the known facts when making decisions and carefully use circumstantial evidence. Certainly, Purina does not look good in these cases, especially when you look at the ingredients lists, but those of us currently trapped with one or more of their products must weigh the conditions carefully and hope that we decide correctly. When an animal categorically refuses to switch, then we are left to gamble that the product is safe (if not terribly healthy), then we watch the various blogs and forums like hawks to keep up with recalls :(

Comment by Kay Hammil — April 29, 2007 @ 11:10 am
I have to say I was not surprised by the news article outlining “how to make money selling fake protein”. Appalled, yes, surprised, no.

But I’m wondering this: if the pet food companies cannot obtain sufficient ingredients in the U.S. for their food, then where are the human food companies getting their ingredients?

I just stood and checked boxes and cans in my cupboard and found just about every one contained a questionable ingredient. I’ve emailed Kraft, and intend to email several more companies. If the pet food companies are waiting for this to die down, and the human food companies are lying low knowing that they’re buying the same ingredients from the same importers, then maybe it’s time to get ALL the food companies involved in this.

Comment by carly — April 29, 2007 @ 11:21 am
Comment by Kay Hammil — April 29, 2007 @ 11:10 am

Kay, I agree. Weeks ago I thought it was logical that if there was a “for profit” motive that it was then logical to start expecting contaminents in soy, corn, rice, whey. I also had to consider the posibility of it being in human foods too since ChemNutra claimed it was ‘human grade’.

I started weeding out my pet foods then and being as careful as I could even knowing the labeling issues. I still have to use Fancy Feast Gourmet Gold dry on top of one of my cats Timberwolfe. I checked labels on the wet and tossed the wheat, corn or soy, rice.

Only one is left that I have to mix, Meow Mix Market Select, with the wets to entice my one sick cat to eat wet. She is FeLV+, cyclic neutrophenia and dehydrates quickly, ontop of all that, she was feed from Oct 6th to Mar 11th the Eukanuba and Science Diet recalled varieties. I had gotten worried about her food and switched to FF low carb, less grains then.

She HAS to eat. I am doing as best I can to protect her. I realize now that is the best I can do considering the overall state of affairs with globization 7 doubting that the US Agri-Business or our government will stand up much in this horrific tale of greed.

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 11:25 am
The IHT article seems to have disappeared.

I wonder if it was too revealing of Chinese practices.

Or whether it was taken down at the request of the Chinese government, or one of the importers.

PS. Peggy: Don’t tread dangerously. You’ve been warned :)

Comment by leek — April 29, 2007 @ 11:26 am
I am so excited! I tried the Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw Prowl food for my Persians…and they ate it! Neither one has ever had raw food in their lives, and for them to at least eat it the first time is a major accomplishment! It must be good stuff. :)

I have added the Frappr! map of pets lost in this tragedy to my own website: http://www.alphava.com

…where I am asking for prayers for the owners. I would encourage everyone to add their pets and pics to the map. I originally found it on Pets Need A Voice Too http://www.pnv2.com/ at the bottom of the page.

If you have a website, you can add it also! The more people acknowledging and getting the word out on this, the better. This map is putting locations and pictures of the pets, along with the numbers.

I added my precious JuJu, that I lost, to the map.

Comment by Marcy — April 29, 2007 @ 11:33 am
THE CAPITOL LETTERS DON’T MEAN I’M YELLING, IT MEANS I WAS OFFENDED AT BEING SINGLED OUT AND TOLD NOT TO TALK POLITICS,ESPECIALLY SINCE THIS DOES INVOLVE POLITICS WHETER WE LIKE IT OR NOT.
AS FOR ME, I AM WITHDRAWING FROM DECIDING WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO GIVE ME AS FOOD AND MY FUR BABIES AS FOOD. I WILL NOT GIVE THEM THAT POWER ANYMORE. EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED TO EAT IS RIGHT HERE GROWN LOCALLY WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS. I FEEL MUCH BETTER WITH THIS DECISION AND I DON’T HAVE TO BE FEARFUL. THIS ACTION IN AND OF ITSELF IS A TERRIFIC POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL CHOICE WHICH I ENCOURAGE MANY OF US TO DO. THE KITTIES WILL CHANGE TO OTHER FOOD, WITH PATIENCE.

Comment by Lori Anderson — April 29, 2007 @ 11:34 am
Comment by Linda P. — April 29, 2007 @ 11:34 am

Little cover up action going on here?

You would think these guys would figure out nothing they do is ever likely to succeed.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Nutro site is back up. Natural Choice Lg. Breed Lamb Meal & Rice (what I used to feed) no longer lists “rice gluten” in the ingredients. Was 5th ingredient before change.

If you click on “International” and read their statement, you’ll see they’re still using rice gluten in that food.

Comment by Eva — April 29, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Found this too.

“About ten years ago shrimps imported from China to San Francisco were found to have human feces in their gut. Investigation showed that the Chinese were feeding crap to farmed shrimp. Since then I have not eaten anything imported from China. In fact I don’t eat any food imported from any “Third World” countries - not even Mexico. I also don’t eat processed foods because food manufacturers are not required to state where they got their raw ingredients from.”

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 11:40 am
Those of you who object to IAMS because they test on live animals ought to be acknowledging the fact that MenuFoods (and hence, ALL the MenuFoods stuff) does, too. Where do you think the “official” 16 dead animals came from? Animal testing.

Comment by Pat — April 29, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Comment by Eva — April 29, 2007 @ 11:37 am

“For over 75 years, Nutro has created, tested, and produced the finest pet foods on the market. Our philosophy is simple: we constantly strive to provide better ingredients and better nutrition for better health, no matter what the cost.”

Hmmmmmmm okay.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Perhaps I should have worded my post a little different. Thanks for offering all the info however I already knew all of it. I have been up on this since Day 1 of the recall. I’ve talked with IAMS extensively, I used to use their wet food. I’ve also talked with Purina and with Blue Buffalo.

I wasn’t looking for info on any of the companies or foods - I’ve already done all the homework on that. We’re feeding ProPlan cuz our cats will eat it and I am not going to keep transitioning them from food to food unless I have to. That is not healthy and I have to do what is right for them. And since we aren’t having any problems with it and they all seem fine and their tests are good, we’ll stick with it until we are forced to switch or until Blue comes back with their wet food.

My point in my original post was that I see a lot of folks ragging on Purina right now but I don’t see the same thing with IAMS, even though there have been a lot more problems with IAMS dry (except for Beneful) and Nutro than with Purina. So, I was just curious as to why a lot of folks seem to have zeroed in on Purina when IAMS is in the same boat and their website doesn’t offer much on this.

They are both huge and don’t really have to appease the public if they choose not to. They have a huge customer base and the majority of that customer base is still using their food.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with both of them and their dry foods. I started mine on Blue Buffalo dry two weeks ago as a treat and am sticking with it. I was sorry to see all their wet food pulled however they did the right thing.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:43 am
From Itchmo just now

Subject: Itchmo Safety Alert: Melamine spiking widespread going on for years
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:18:40 -0400

Full details:
http://www.itchmo.com/read/mel.....s_20070429

We will just let the story speak for itself. No more
denials, no more hemming and hawing by the FDA. Time to
take massive cautionary action is now. It’s not just
animal feed anymore. It’s not just pet food. It’s
a crisis. It’s been going on for years.

Highlights below from the IHT article:

Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group
factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into
melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.

But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized
chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local
entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form
of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance
the protein level.

“It just saves money,” says a manager at an
animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to
animal feed to boost the protein level.”

The practice is widespread in China. For years
animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by
blending the powder into feed with little regulatory
supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap
traders and agricultural workers here.

More at http://www.itchmo.com

Comment by Nadine Long — April 29, 2007 @ 11:44 am
The FDA (part of the executive branch of government) is run by presidential appointees but they would never do anything that was not in the best interests of the voter. The FDA is doing their best to not show favoritism towards big business (the pet food companies and agri-business). The government of a very large Asian country would never do anything that the US Government didn’t want it to do because their leaders are good friends with our leaders and their business policies are based on their love of and respect for the American public.

Big cash donations, corporate influence and the influence of a large Asian country have nothing to do with the pet food recall or the deaths of our beautiful pet companions.

Our noble, honest, sincere, truthful, gallant government leaders are doing everything they can to ensure that nothing bad gets into human food or pet food.

I hope this post is politically correct and offends no one’s sensibilities.

Lets all go back to watching American Idol and forget about all this recall nonsense. We are all overreacting to the death of 16 pets.

Comment by MFEMFEM — April 29, 2007 @ 11:46 am
I am considering switching to Artemis dry and wet. I am on Serengeti dry and Merrick wet now and not having any luck.

Any thoughts on Artemis?

Comment by Claudia — April 29, 2007 @ 11:51 am
It does seem that the IHT story is now “Not Available” on the website. Someone on the Itchmo site copied and pasted it. Here it is in it’s entirety.

Additive that tainted U.S. pet food is commonly used in China
By David Barboza and Alexei Barrionuevo The New York Times
Sunday, April 29, 2007

American food safety regulators trying to figure out how an industrial chemical called melamine contaminated so much pet food in the United States might come to this heavily polluted city in Shandong Province in the northern part of the country.

Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.

But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.

The melamine powder has been dubbed “fake protein” and is used to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that provides higher nutrition value.

“It just saves money,” says a manager at an animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level.”

The practice is widespread in China. For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

But now, melamine is at the center of a massive, multinational pet food recall after it was linked earlier this month to the deaths and injuries of thousands of cats and dogs in the United States and South Africa.

No one knows exactly how melamine - which had not been believed to be particularly toxic - became so fatal in pet food, but its presence in any form of American food is illegal.

U.S. regulators are now headed to China to figure out why pet food ingredients imported from here, including wheat gluten, were contaminated with high levels of the chemical.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned imports of wheat gluten from China and ordered the recall of over 60 million packages of pet food. And last week, the agency opened a criminal investigation in the case and searched the offices of at least one pet food supplier.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also stepped in Thursday, ordering more than 6,000 hogs to be quarantined or slaughtered after some of the pet food ingredients laced with melamine were accidentally sent to hog farms in eight states, including California.

Scientists are now trying to determine whether melamine could be harmful to human health.

The huge pet food recall is raising questions in the United States about regulatory controls at a time when food supplies are increasingly being sourced globally. Some experts complain that the FDA is understaffed and underfunded, making it incapable of safeguarding America’s food supply.

“They have fewer people inspecting product at the ports than ever before,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. “Until China gets programs in place to verify the safety of their products, they need to be inspected by U.S. inspectors. This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional.”

The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country’s dubious food safety record and history of excessive antibiotic and pesticide use.

In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair, to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.

China’s government disputes any suggestion that melamine from the country could have killed pets. But Friday, regulators here banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies.

Yet it is clear from visiting this region of northern China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed.

Many animal feed operators advertise on the Internet seeking to purchase melamine scrap. And melamine scrap producers and traders said in recent interviews that they often sell to animal feed makers.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” says Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

Most local feed companies do not admit that they use melamine. But last Friday here in Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, a pair of animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine, whose chemical properties give a bag of animal feed an inflated protein level under standard tests.

Melamine is the new scam of choice, they say, because urea - another nitrogen-rich chemical that works similarly - is illegal for use in pig and poultry feed and can be easily tested for in China as well as the United States.

“If you add it in small quantities, it won’t hurt the animals,” said one animal feed entrepreneur whose name is being withheld to protect him from prosecution.

The man - who works in a small animal feed operation that consists of a handful of storage and mixing areas - said he has mixed melamine into animal feed for years.

He said he was not currently using melamine, which is actually made from urea. But he then pulled out a plastic bag containing what he said was melamine powder and said he could dye it any color.

Asked whether he could create an animal feed and melamine brew, he said yes, he has access to huge supplies of melamine. Using melamine-spiked pet food ingredient was not a problem, he said, even thought the product would be weak in protein.

“Pets are not like pigs or chickens,” he said casually, explaining that cheating them on protein won’t matter. “They don’t need to grow fast.”

The feed seller makes a heftier profit because the substitute melamine scrap is much cheaper than purchasing soy, wheat or corn protein.

“It’s true you can make a lot more profit by putting melamine in,” said a second animal feed seller here in Zhangqiu. “Melamine will cost you about $1.20 per ton for each protein count whereas real protein costs you about $6, so you can see the difference.”

Few people outside of agriculture know about melamine here. The Chinese media, which is strictly censored, has not reported much about melamine or the pet food recall overseas. And no one in agriculture here seems to believe that melamine is particularly harmful to animals or pets in small doses.

A man named Jing, who works in the sales department at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group, said Friday that melamine scrap prices had been rising but he was not aware of how the company’s product was being used.

“We have an auction for melamine scrap every three months,” he said. “I haven’t heard of it being added to animal feed. It’s not for animal feed.”

David Barboza reported from Zhangqiu and Alexei Barrionuevo reported from Chicago. Rujun Shen also contributed reporting.

http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....s/food.php

Comment by Linda P. — April 29, 2007 @ 11:52 am
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:43 am

“My point in my original post”

Hi Carole-
Just trying to catch up on posts; which is your original post, I can’t seem to find it.
Thanks

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 11:56 am
And a PS: Iams website is truly deceiving to the public as far as their recall notice as they claim “a small amount” has been recalled. Thousands of cans are not a small amount.

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 9:17 am

This is truly a perspective issue. We as consumers may think thousands of cans is a lot, however a company like IAMS, who manufactures thousands of can a day, and has many flavors of food not recalled, it is a small amount. If you look at the items recalled, it is not an large percentage of what they offer. I had all kinds of IAMS that was not recalled (based on lot number and flavor) but I chose not to use IAMS any further because the majority of it was processed at the same plant as the recalled food.

So, it may seem that IAMS is being trivial however from their perspective the recalled quantity probably didn’t make much of a dent in their inventory.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:56 am
The Plot Thickens

I’m thinking I should start referring to the Pet Food Industry at this point as the Pet Food Mafia.

These guys apparently have no shame.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 11:56 am
It was back at 9:00am this morning.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:57 am
In reading through this again and again, questions arise that need to be answered. How about this for a course of ACTION:
FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) file with AAFCO, the manufacturers want to hide behind this “regulatory” entity. (BS, smoke and mirrors) Bombard them,see how they respond, if at all.
Second thrust is Standards and Labeling. This is usually the oversight of USDA, but the no-mans land agency wise for the pet food indusstry is the FDA. Get the GMP protocal, (Good Manufacturing Practices) for each item in question.
The third thrust should be in conjuction with the FOIA, a copy of what is called a C of A. a cerificate of analysis on “lot runs” of a production item. A lot run will be different from producer to producer.
And the final thrust: Do the manufacturers have an independant third party audit, I doubt it, but an example is Siliker Labs. If they don’t why don’t they.

Comment by elliott — April 29, 2007 @ 11:57 am
Steve, I assume you have seen some of the rejected shipments from China over the past few months, as they relate to seafood, shrimp, etc.

It is pretty disgusting and amazing how many shipments get rejected.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:58 am
Lori - TIP: Typing a FEW words IN CAPITALS is EMPHASIS!

When you type EVERYTHING is CAPITALS you are SCREAMING!

—-

Also: Comment by Kay Hammil — April 29, 2007 @ 11:10 am

Beneful is complained about all over the internet where there are boards & blogs to complain on & tell “YOUR PETS STORY”.

My dogs ate Beneful for years, then around Feb they starting hacking & puking. Numerous people have stated this, over & over. Purina AND the FDA have been notified….WEEKS AGO, if not MONTHS.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 11:58 am

Well, leave it to big Global Corporate interests to try to keep the facts hidden while we slowly poison ourselves to death. Have to make a profit.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
In the event the quarantined pigs are deemed not fit for humans, wouldn’t it be logical to assume they would become animal feed (“pork by-product”)?

Comment by Lori Lee — April 29, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Lori Lee:

I seriously doubt that will be that case - there would be no point in destroying them if they were going to be used an animal feed.

If and when they are destroyed, APHIS has offered to help with this to insure that they are disposed of in a legal way.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
Comments by Cathleen 11:03
To discuss the FDA being in shambles is not political. To make comments that the problems with our levees, water supply, environment and our borders are a result of the war is political and ridiculous. These have been known problems for 10-15 years now and waste space on this blog.

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Jeez, guys, gals, whatever…we’ve heard all the politics before….I’m not pleased with FDA, USDA, AFI or any other group either.
My point was about the FDA not having enough funds to do their job (whether we like their way or not..we need someone out there to check the food and we need more agents to protect our security)
I was requesting that we ask our Congress people to start funding these agencies for our health and safety and if necessary to cut back on some of the more frivolous funding. And please don’t respond to this with WMD, the war, etc. You can yak about that on the political blogs.
We need to protect ourselves and our furbabies right now.
And one more item to add to our request of Congress: Stop importing from countries who are known to have poor quality food and lax QC inspections. 8) …..enough already!

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
Earlier I had posted:
“The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid is of concern to human and animal health,” Elder said. “Melamine, at detected levels, is not a human health concern.”

The media does a disservice at times to the issues important to our citizens.

But, based on the reactions of some friends & co-workers, there are more people than we care to admit that simply do not want to hear this type of news - they actually dashed to hear Anna Nicole on CNN or Imus, but avoided this topic and got angry with me for mentioning it.

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 11:05 am

Here’s the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article from 4/20 where Captain Elder was quoted:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/.....03671.html
“

NOW the article has been edited and the Elder comments are gone???!!!!

There is some serious editing in progress?

Ann

Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
Thank you Kathi and Nabiya, enough is enough. See how quickly a blog can turn ugly when you bring in the politics of war, Katrina, the environment etc? Let’s all keep focused on our pets, the recall, letting our voices be heard to the FDA and all the other excellent posts here.

Comment by Cathy — April 29, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
Nabiya,

Ah, I see. So, we may say that the “FDA is in shambles,” but we are not permitted to speculate as to why it is in shambles. OK.

Comment by Cathleen — April 29, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
“This week, the Chinese government reported that an elderly woman died and 202 people were sickened at a hospital north of here after they consumed a breakfast cereal that turned out to be laced with rat poison.” Hmmmmm

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
Bottomline, I think we can talk and blog all we want, but with the exception of sharing new, relevant news, it serves only to get it “off our chest.” I would like to see some organization of all these voices so it could truly have an impact with the powers that be.
1. Is Sen. Durbin taking into consideration the emails he is receiving from average citizens like us?
2. What is being done with the data collected by petconnection.com regarding sick and dead pets?
3. How can we get our voice heard?
I think the postcard idea was great, but that only involved people who lost a pet. I don’t know about you, but whether your pet is sick or not, it is truly scary. Especially when you factor in human food along with pet food safety standards.
I have submitted several “opinion” columns for the local paper and have had no reply. I don’t think this story is getting the attention it deserves. So, how do we organize and change that as a group.

Comment by Donna — April 29, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
Comment by Ann — April 29, 2007 @ 12:33 pm

Ann-
Articles that are ESPECIALLY interesting I’ve begun saving into word prior to posting the find on the blog.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
There is no question that the FDA is underfunded to carry out their mandate. And there are definite cases of them being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Case in point: New drug approvals.

How many of you remember reading (or complaining) about how SLOW the FDA is to get needed new drugs to market? FDA was under a lot of pressure on this, and responded by introducing a “fast track” program for selected drugs. And guess what happened then? Some of these “fast track” drugs had dangerous side effects that weren’t detected until they were out in more widespread use. So THEN the FDA was under the gun for releasing “dangerous” pharmaceuticals.

I was working in a pharmaceuticals lab during a period of time when the FDA didn’t even HAVE a permanent Director - just a succession of temporary appointees - because NO ONE wanted the job.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m no big fan of the FDA. But I know for a FACT they are underfunded while simultaneously being under a great deal of economic, public and political pressure. And that is a recipe for “bad decision making” no matter how you look at it.

So adequate funding for the FDA begins to address that. Adequate oversight must also be in place with a reasonable schedule of reviews, and some form of limitation on how liable the FDA can be held for activities and information dissemination they participate in as a part of carrying out their charter.

Start to take some of the pressure off of them and give them the money to do their job right, and there’s a chance things might be able to improve.

But if we leave the current situation as it stands, they’ll never be able - or probably very willing - to try to clean up their act.

Comment by Pat — April 29, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
I really miss the Web bloggers of what we had yesterday and prior. Today we have a whole new chilling thread it seems. Maybe we have new people in here, I don’t know. But what we were was very together on the task at hand and worked great as a team. I hope we can get that back.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
Is anyone else suspicious that the IHT have pulled their “Additive that tainted U.S. pet food is commonly used in China” story?

Luckily lots of us have it cached, and Linda’s posted it all up above - but do I sense a conspiracy going on here?

Why would they pull such a damn good story?

Comment by Phil — April 29, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
International Herald Tribune
Page Not Found:
The selected resource is currently not available.

There are no conspiracies at work, just stunning and startling coincidences.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
Back to what I think we agree is one of our missions, trying to get the press to move away from the damaging 17-18 pets died numbers. It trivializes what is going on with our dogs and cats, and even trivializes how feed animals and the human food chain is involved. If you remember yesterday’s Chicago Tribune story, it was excellent but for the fact that they used the 17-18 numbers. For anyone that wrote to the two reporters, or for those who didn’t, I want you to know the impact that petconnection.com has. I just received a response from Mary Ann Fergus, who co-wrote the story. She said she knows of petconnection and other (similar) sites and has mentioned them before. She tried this time but said she was unsuccessful. I also wrote to the editor about the trivialization of using those numbers, so perhaps Mary Ann will be able to write about the true magnitude of this fiasco in her next story without having it edited out.

I only write this because we all have the ability to act to keep the story honest.

Comment by Maureen — April 29, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
Also interesting is the title change from

Feed sellers in China routinely use protein substitute

to

Additive that tainted U.S. pet food is commonly used in China

Comment by Kim — April 29, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
Shelly,
I believe its called trolling, sometimes they are sent in to confuse or take over the matter at hand so “we” get distracted and are unable to accomplish our goals.
Nutro (lamb and rice)has removed both the corn and rice gluten from the the ingredient lists.. Petfooddirect has only removed the corn gluten so far, same product. I do not know how to use a screen capture and I tried the “wayback” site, no 2007 site archive available for Nutro.
Luck to all, be safe not sorry.

Comment by DukenCC — April 29, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
I was going to bring up these suggestions last week but didn’t because I didn’t want to detract from the postcard blitz.
We can talk about what order to do some of these suggestions. (note these are not my ideas alone, many others have made these suggestions as well.)
*writing our own senators and representatives -either by postcard, letter or email - about what we want most to be done. (it would be nice if we could all suggest the same subjects…maybe 3, 4, 5…things most important.
*writing, etc. to each pet food brand, company and parent company (select one at a time as a group..meaning us..to get their attention..) outling what we want changed and in the meantime while they are pondering our requests, we refuse to buy their product or any other product associated with their company until they do change. And most definitely no ingedient no matter what it is must not come from anywhere except here in the US (Gulf Pacific and Texas Rice are grown and milled right here..G-P is a supplier)and we want human grade food for pets and slow cooked on low temps, etc.
*Send “special letters” to all brands CEO/Preidents ie; Nutro, Natural Balance, etc. who hid, lied, failed to inform, recall soon enough, etc. that we are not going to buy those brands unless the current CEO/Pres step down and the company changes their ingredients to our specifications and reveals all aspects of their business and fire their attorneys for stupid advice.
*A VERY SPECIAL LETTER to Menu Foods Trust Fund regarding Paul Henderson…explanation not necessary here…about dumping him immediately or we will not buy any product remotely attached to Menu…and they will need to buy different equipment in order to produce the kind of food we want for our babies…these V-S Letters must also be sent to Menu’s clients as well.
———I think if we do this as a blitz one specific letter theme at a time for Maximum Impact on one Rep, then one Sen..and on through each..then one company..and on through each, etc….We can have an effect.
———We would want to start this now before they think they can go back to business as usual.
———Also type a master letter on each of these subjects for the blitz and send to everyone you know and ask them to do the same with everyone they know, etc.
———Those who have time and energy, put your letter into petition form and collect names to send to each of these key people and companies.
#####Remember what I said earlier about the media and their pet food sponsors——well that’s how it also works for pet food companies and us as their “sponsor.” 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Linda P - thank you for posting the IHT article that is no longer accessible “Additive that tainted U.S. pet food is commonly used in China”.

There seems to be a big coverup going on regarding the Pet Food Scandal & human food contamination story. There has been nothing in my local newspaper lately. I was expecting the latest story about the hogs to be on the FRONT PAGE this morning, but there was NO mention of it in my newspaper. I have complained to them many times over the past few weeks.

Sorry to say, but I think there is alot more to this coverup than just the Pet Food mfgr’s advertising dollars paying off the media.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 1:04 pm

I noticed that too — PLUS, my computer froze up at that same time — and, the plot thickens even more….then, the thunder rolled in, lightning, kaboom! This is FOR REAL!

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
Comment by DukenCC — April 29, 2007 @ 1:09 pm

” do not know how to use a screen capture “

To capture the screen you are on Hit the “Print Screen” button at the very top of the key board. Then go to where you want to save it (I use Word) and click paste. It will copy itself there, then just save the file!

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 1:39 pm
catlover -
Our local newspaper, Wimington, NC, stated “NC is downplaying the hog worries” (*words to that effect - already threw paper away)
Not much on local TV either - teensy-weensy blips) probably because so much pork has been on sale lately.
*** Also in fairness to our local hog farmers, I too, wouldn’t want to see them suffer for something that was not their fault, but it doesn’t excuse the media for failure to report it. They could easily explain the situation without a panic and without hurting our farmers - but hey, they’re so used to being “fed” the news, they no longer know how to get out there and get the story.
****Footnote: the TV station manager refuses to acknowlege me now. (sigh) not the sharpest knife in the drawer.. when I read the TV’s website news - same old dumb useless news as ever. 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
You can also save a web page bu using the Save As command under File. Use the Web Archive format (*.mht) and save it to whatever file you want on your computer.

This saves the original web page.

Comment by mal — April 29, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 1:28 pm

It’s for real and it’s BIG.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
”****Footnote: the TV station manager refuses to acknowlege me now. (sigh) not the sharpest knife in the drawer.. when I read the TV’s website news - same old dumb useless news as ever.

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 1:42 pm “

I’m wondering about the reporters that wrote the IHT report. I know at least two are New York Times reporters. Wonder if they might help more.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
Carly, Steve, others who have raised the issue of avoiding Chinese ingredients in human food — good luck with that, if it’s even possible. I plan to contact ALL the companies that produce food I regularly eat. Unless you eat ONLY locally grown food (or, I would imagine, Idaho potatoes — I’ve been eating a lot of those lately!), anything you eat MIGHT have Chinese crap in it. I contacted Quaker oats as the first company, to find out what they know about their products. They told me that all the OATS they use come from North America — but, they also said that they have no way of telling me if other ingredients in specific products come from Asia, because they source from all over the world. Then they gave me the spiel that all the pet food companies have been feeding us for weeks about how careful they are & how they only use the finest ingredients. Translation: just like the pet food companies, they apparently don’t even KNOW where the crap they’re putting in their food comes from. Betcha I’m going to find out it’s the same for every other company I contact. Everybody had better look out — this thing is far more hideous than we first imagined over a month ago.

Comment by Dee — April 29, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
Someone has probably already posted this, it is the study given to the EPA on the “Chemical Challenge Program for Cyanuric Acid” done on mice,rabbits,etc. interesting that test subjects had increased water consumption.

http://www.epa.gov/HPV/pubs/su.....4659rr.pdf

I don’t know how to use tiny url..

Katie

Comment by katie — April 29, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
Comment by Dee — April 29, 2007 @ 1:45 pm

Hideous. Good choice of words.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
OOOPS! This thing is jinxed!

REGARDING - Feed sellers in China routinely use protein substitute

I thought I read it was a NY Times article, fed to IHT. Not at either… The article is posted here:

http://64.79.216.38/~itchmo/fo.....opic=204.0

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
David Barboza - NY Times writer

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Look at the facts. We’re not even investigators anymore as much as we are observers watching these guys pulling every low down stunt in the book.

Reminds me of the film the French Connection.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
LOL..That’s itchmo Kat. They were able to get it up before it exploded off of the real site. The IHT had it up earlier.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
Alexei Barrionuevo - NY Times writer

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Dee
Quaker Oats in the drum box is what they were refering to as being US grown. The other oat products like granola bars, cookies, etc have other ingredients added to make the product. I only buy the drum boxes. I had a bad experience 30 yrs ago with the instant packages and refuse to buy them. 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
NY Times must have pulled it, so IHT lost it. No where on NY Times. I’ve been looking.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
“I’m wondering about the reporters that wrote the IHT report. I know at least two are New York Times reporters. Wonder if they might help more.”

David Barboza lives in Shanghai and his wife is Chinese. I’m sure there are some that think this may have something to do with why the article was withdrawn.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
Look at the volume of melamine they have oh my gosh!!!

http://www.alibaba.com/country.....amine.html

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Anyone know if Ms Q ever applied for U.S. citizenship? At the hearing Stevie Miller answered “yes” to the question of his wife being a Chinese citizen. 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 2:07 pm

Brave guy. I wonder if their in a re-education camp today.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
shelly
Hope they don’t plan to make bombs out of the s***!

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:11 pm

Oh ma gawd. Is like, that whole country built out of it melamine products?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
steve
I see a new Hollywood movie being made here:
The China Connection 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:20 pm
Anhui Herrman Impex Co., Ltd. is one of the many on there; they sell melamine, a bunch of other chemical looking thingys and

Antibiotics?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:20 pm
The reporter for today’s Intl. Herald Trib. article, David Barboza is a brave journalist, writing critically of Chinese practices from China. Here’s an article he wrote about this mess on April 12th in the NYT:

http://tinyurl.com/3djqon

Note that in today’s IHT article, one Chinese businessman was quoted using his entire name, another by first name. This is very dangerous for them. We were fortunate to see this article in print. I suspect the State Dept. has come down heavily o the IHT and the NYT.

Comment by Maureen — April 29, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:20 pm

http://cseries.typepad.com/pho.....opeye1.jpg

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Remember the old days, pre-communism when we used to buy “fine china” dishes?
So what exactly do they have planned - with all this crap anyway?
And just how long have they been getting this stuff?
More importantly - what all have they been putting it in? 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
I have noticed that someone brought up the fact that they said something about the canned food that was in the bag of Purina cat food. I remember that can and I never gave it to my cat but I remember that the can had a White persian cat in the front of it. A site that I go to to answer questions for other people have said the same thing. I have given my cat Purina dry cat food during the recall and nothing has happened to her. I think it was the can of food that they had in the bag of dry food that was a sample. I can’t remember the name of it but it had a White Persian cat on the can. I hope this will help.

Comment by Jill — April 29, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Comment by Maureen — April 29, 2007 @ 2:26 pm

Did you catch the last paragraph of the very article?

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
What Article?

Comment by Jill — April 29, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
http://tinyurl.com/3djqon

Comment by Maureen — April 29, 2007 @ 2:26 pm

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
“This week, the Chinese government reported that an elderly woman died and 202 people were sickened at a hospital north of here after they consumed a breakfast cereal that turned out to be laced with rat poison.”

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Did you see this one?

Melamine Baby Feeding Sets

[China (Mainland)]
Features: 1) Melamine baby feeding set 2) Including: plate, bowl

http://tinyurl.com/3ysmmx

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Melamine Dinner Set

[China (Mainland)]
A variety of melamine dinner sets: 3pcs, 4pcs, 6pcs, 8pcs, 12pcs

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Steve, are you a bachelor? LOL!

Dinnerware and such is commonly made out of Melamine. (Food isn’t)

*smiles*

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
Comment by Jill — April 29, 2007 @ 2:27 pm

Jill, the can with the white cat is Fancy Feast. Never used it but have seen it hundreds of times.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
Lots of stuff is made of melamine because it is a safe product - just not in large doses in food.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
it’s also a fertilizer; it kills stuff that’s used to live

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:08 pm

Kind of like lead paint and asbestos?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Oh by the way just wanted so say hi to the guys in Pet Food Industry. Hi guys. How’s it going today?

Hope your enjoying lurking. Bad jam your in eh?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
Oh my. Will looky here.

Tainted Food is Seeping into Human Supply
International News Service, Australia - 5 hours ago
The end of this pet food crisis appears more elusive than ever, shedding light on issues beyond the largely self-regulated pet food industry to America’s …

http://tinyurl.com/32qf6o

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
“The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstorous he cannot believe it exists” - J. Edgar Hoover

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:23 pm
LOL Steve, you are too much.

Yep, busted. Suspect they’ve been here for a while. I suspect at least 2 actually posted today. Instead of typing away at a more productive cause we’ve had trolls. Instead of getting off their you-know-what’s and getting this problem resolved, and helping to ensure it doesn’t happen again, they’re just making excuses. I’ll stick to my raw diet thank you.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
Here is the same article from the Chicago Tribune. It says FDA looking into melamine shipment which went to Illinois potentially went to a human food manufacturer.

http://tinyurl.com/ysv79x

Now THIS excellent article is what I was expecting to see on the front page of my local newspaper this morning!

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
I got edited

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
Catlover, you’ve been expecting way too much today. We need to lower our expectations.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:20 pm

Steve -
it’s not loading here

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
Kind of like lead paint and asbestos?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:15 pm

Steve, Steve, Steve…until now folks didn’t know that melamine has been used in all sorts of things for years. And trust me, no one ever died from touching a whiteboard or a countertop…at least not to my knowledge.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
Now we know how ‘they’ know how to get pages pulled. Ensure you’re getting these pages onto your hard drives prior to posting

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
I refuse to lower my expectation. I feel the citizens of this country are entitled to know the potential severity of this problem. Unfortunately, there are many people who only watch CBS news or only read their local newspaper, they do not access the internet, therefore they look at you like you are nuts when you bring up this topic.

I have Lou Dobbs on right now, we’ll see if he mentions this story today. But that probably IS expecting too much!

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
Shelly you are correct,I am saving these articles before they get yanked, they need to be passed along to keep the citizens informed!

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
Hey folks - prove to Menu your kid got sick from poisoned food, and they’ll pay the bills -
http://tinyurl.com/ypgl67

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:32 pm

Go ahead. Be my guest.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
Sorry, not good enough. Menu should be paying all vet bills for anyone who had to have their animals tested, regardless of outcome.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Roger that!

Well Steve, that definitely confirms it. Melamine was used as a cutting agent in the Chinese wheat gluten. There needs to be an investigation into criminal negligence on the part of these manufacturers and the FDA needs to clamp down on imported food stock.

Comment by Sandro — April 1, 2007 @ 7:32 am

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Shelly, you didn’t get edited. We don’t change peoples’ posts. You got moderated. I deleted one of your posts.

Again, folks: If you can’t discuss the issues without personal attacks, this is not the place you need to be.

I have deleted more posts today than any day ever, and frankly, I hate doing so.

My suggestions: 1) Don’t feed trolls; and 2) Take a break, step away from your computer.

I’ve been moderating online discussions since before most people heard of the Internet. When everyone gets all snotty and snarky with each other, it’s time for everyone to step back and take a deep breath.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
Worth Repeating. See it, study it, absorb it, Think about it.

They are so screwed up, they can’t even keep their lies straight!!! They withhold information and lie when they do speak, and our beloved pets are dying every day. And will continue to do so as long as these….these…I can’t even come up with an adequate word…. are withholding this information and leaving this food on the store shelves!! They KNOW it’s poisoned and they’re NOT recalling it!!

I cannot even describe the horror and anger I feel right now.

Comment by A.C. — March 30, 2007 @ 2:25 pm

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:45 pm
Go ahead. Be my guest.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:41 pm

What does this even mean?

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 3:44 pm

Come again? I’ve never made any personal attacks ever on anyone. The post that got deleted was where I asked Carol if she worked with Purina. If she did, she could certainly help us with what she might know that we don’t about the industry. I’ve never been one to attack anyone here at this board (nor any of the boards I participate in) and have provided this forum with a great deal of information and insight, as has anyone else. The assumption was false and offensive.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:46 pm

That means if you like melamine products go ahead and invest them.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Early on in this thread someone asked if the results of Dr. Pion’s food tests had been released. I checked the VIN web site and didn’t see anything. On the contact page they have Dr. Pion’s email - so I sent him a message asking about the results. I’ll report back if I hear anything.

On reactons to being told about the food crisis: I think a lot of people stick their heads in the sand when there is a crisis. Particularly when they have little or no control over the outcome and the outcome could have a very negative affect on them and their loved ones, there is a temptation to just block the information out. But as for Anna Nicole and Imus - people love to gape at a car wreck when they are not affected.

Comment by Andrea 2CatMom — April 29, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
Sorry, I read it wrong, that you were suggesting she was a plant.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 3:56 pm

Bet you’d like a vacation right now. On a sunny secluded white beach far away from civilization. No?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Steve, it’s obvious that the point of my post is that we are all most likely using products that contain melamine in our everyday lives and have not known it up until now.

How many of us use whiteboards everyday at work, or have a kitchen counter?

I just think it is important to put some of this in perspective and realize that just because melamine shows up in food doesn’t mean it has the same properties when used in manufacturing of other items.

If this whole pet food recall never happened, a lot of folks would never know that melamine is used in other stuff and life would go on.

Bottom line, if melamine has never been a concern in product manufacturing (no, not food or pesticide) then it doesn’t all of a sudden become one to panic over.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:58 pm

If your asking me to feel sorry for the Corporates sorry. I’ve become completely jaded since this event caught my attention on March 16. Your entitled to your opinion and beliefs though.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
Actually, before this fiasco, I used to love melamine! I have white melamine cabinets & countertop in my kitchen, and I am not a good housekeeper, but they are soooo easy to keep clean! No matter what you spill it comes off. You can’t even burn the stuff!!! I liked it so much, I also bought a nice hutch desk at Scan Design made out of it. And when I needed a new kitchen table, instead of solid oak, I got an oak table with a melamine insert on the top layer, because it’s indestructible. And it looks just like oak, so it blends right in with the real wood. My former wood table had so many dings and dents but not a single scratch or dent on this one, and I have had it for 6 years.

Melamine is fine, as long as it stays out of the food supply, and that includes being used as fertilizer. That has really been bothering me, how could a plastic be used as a fertilizer???

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 3:58 pm

“it is important to put some of this in perspective and realize that just because melamine shows up in food doesn’t mean it has the same properties when used in manufacturing of other items.”

Melamine has no business being in food for any reason whatsoever. Not One.

Had melamine and gosh knows whatever else has been contaminating our pets food, had not been, we would not have had an increase of 30% in renal failures at the largest vet hospital alone, within one month. Thousands of dogs and cats dieing unexpectedly that had been healthy just days before. And tens of thousands more sickened. That’s ‘my’ perspective.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
Trying to switch finicky kittys to raw. Sprinkled some with parmesean (sp) cheese and we had a few more takers. It was expensive regianno. LOL.

Comment by elliott — April 29, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
I so seldom chew on countertops or whiteboards, tell me, is it as tasty as it looks?

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
When the FDA postulates that melamine is not harmful to the human system, it is presumably doing so based on a single feeding. However, we may be looking at the consumption of this “additive” over a lengthy period and so a saturation of the systyem begins to take place and slowly begins to effect the organs even human ones. I suspect that many pets could have overcome a feeding or two (though we know some died within days), but may have been incapable of cleansing themselves after constant, chronic and became overrun by this chemical. We know now that tainted gluten, protein, and who knows what else entered our food circle from China in the Summer of 2006. But as posts here suggest, there is a strong probability that this poison was being added to most imported grains and powders from China at a far earlier date. One can only surmise that it became a matter of “if a little is good (for the price), more would be better.” And they simply crossed the edge through greed and now some of us know what no one wanted to be known.
I have not seen “Super Size Me” (the movie) but it does seem to be an example of this process where once a month is OK, but every day will eventually kill you.

Comment by Jay — April 29, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Catlover, you are making my point. You currently have melamine in your home and I am guessing you don’t plan to change that.

Shelly, I totally agree with you - what I was getting at was the fact that melamine used in manufacturing other products (not food) is not all of a sudden a bad thing. I was getting at the fact that some folks are panicking over the fact that melamine is in stuff other than food.

I think my comment could be read two different ways.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
“If your asking me to feel sorry for the Corporates sorry. I’ve become completely jaded since this event caught my attention on March 16. Your entitled to your opinion and beliefs though.”

Steve, I believe you also took my comments the wrong way. I am not the slightest bit concerned with Corporate anything.

This all goes back to your comparing it to lead paint or asbestos, which I don’t believe is a fair comparison.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
I just remembered, back in the day, I used to go backpacking and I had a melamine mug I used to pack along. It was very lightweight, and also melamine does not absorb odors like regular plastic, so you can eat out of it, then drink water out of it. I also think it’s unbreakable.

So don’t take a bite, unless you want to break tooth:)

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
Comment by Jay — April 29, 2007 @ 4:14 pm

Jay, I think part of the confusion is that they did do that study on dogs where they were fed melamine on a daily basis at higher doses and didn’t have any deaths, let alone serious illness.

That is why they are having a hard time reconciling that melamine is actually the culprit, at least in dogs.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:19 pm

Thats doesn’t absolve the Pet Food Cartel of responsibility. They have a serious credibility problem. Worse now then when this fiasco began.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:30 pm
Feb 20th - Menu Foods receives first reports of problems with pet food.
Feb 26th - Menu foods commence tests on 50 animals.
Feb 26th & 27th - Menus CFO sells half his shares for $102,900.
March 16th - Recall announced. Share price plunges
April 10th - CFO calls this a “horrible coincidence”

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
Steve, I would agree that some, but not all, companies involved in the pet food industry do have serious issues right now.

Even with all the various companies involved in the recall, I am not willing to lump them all in the same pile.

One other thing that stands out to me…there are loads of folks who are not well informed about this recall or they don’t take it as seriously as others. I honestly believe that some of these larger companies have such a huge customer base that the number of customers they will lose will be far outweighed by those who continue on with their products long after this recall.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:36 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:36 pm

Your beginning to sound like an apologist.

Your in one camp or the other. You either want to know if you been lied to or you don’t.

Nice talking to you. Good luck.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Associated Press
Alabama Bans Chinese Catfish
04.26.07

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks announced a stop sale order in the state for all catfish from China after antibiotics banned in the United States were found in Chinese catfish.

Sparks said 20 samples of catfish from China were collected for testing by the department of agriculture over the last few weeks. Of those samples, 14 tested positive for fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic banned by the FDA since 1997.

“We are sending notice today that we are not going to continue to sit by and let these foreign countries produce their food at a different standard than we ask our farmers to produce by and then send those products in here at a cheaper price,” Sparks said Wednesday.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
From: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-.....a+Melamine (sorry for the caps, that’s the way it’s printed on the site)

>>

Crunching the numbers, 30,000 parts per million is 3%.

Now, we know from FDA reports that the maximum concentration found in contaminated gluten was 6.6%,
and that the gluten makes up 10% of the finished product. So… you have 10% of 6.6%, or .0066%.

What does that tell us?

It tell us that dogs were fed 4.5 times the maximum amount of melamine that could be present in Menu
Foods products, FOR ONE YEAR, with NO ABNORMALITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE FEEDING OF MELAMINE.

The LD50 for melamine is a bit over 3 grams per kilogram in body weight. Dogs come in all sizes, but
lets assume were talking about a 44 pound dog, or 20 kilograms for a happy medium. So, for a 50% chance
of killing a 20 kg dog with melamine, you would serve it up a dose of 30 grams, or slightly over an
ounce. That compares to the maximum concentration of .0066% melamine known to be in the food. In a
13 ounce can of dog food, that comes to 2.5 grams of melamine.

We also know that Menu Foods killed at least one test dog, which died within a few days of being dosed
by the company with melamine. We also know that the cats and dogs murdered by Menu Foods are the same
cats and dogs sent out to labs for testing.

The obvious conclusion is that Menu Foods is engaged in out right fraud and obstruction of a Federal
investigation, by intentionally giving their test animals massive doses of melamine to throw investigators
off the track. For reference, have a look at the photos published by the University of Guelph, which
show a cross section of one kidney. The crystals are so dense it looks like someone poured then on the
tissue, and that is just a single cross section of a single kidney, and ignores the melamine excreted
in urine and feces.

Lets end this half baked farce and go after felony indictments!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Don — April 29, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
Comment by Don — April 29, 2007 @ 4:47 pm

You got it. The sooner the better.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
RE: post 172, for some reason the quote from the site, didnt post, perhaps because it is in all caps
in the original document, heres the text on melamine tests in dogs:

Chronic feeding tests have been carried out on rats over a 2 year period at a dietary level of 1000 PPM and on dogs for 1 year at a level of 30000 PPM. Throughout the study, the general health was not significantly different from that of the controls after 60 to 90 days, however, the dogs showed melamine crystalluira, which persisted throughout the remainder of the 1 year of observation. At these levels at autopsy, gross and microscopic examination of the tissues revealed no abnormality attributable to the feeding of melamine.

Comment by Don — April 29, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
Who remembers the processing temperatures used in making kibble? (I know I’ve seen this information somewhere - just don’t recall).

The thing to remember is that a chemical compound can have dramatically different properties depending on the conditions under which we are exposed to it, what it’s in combination with, etc.

I would guess that in the melamine feeding studies on dogs (that didn’t show toxicity) that they just ground it up and fed it. I would guess that they didn’t first mix it up with a bunch of sludge and run it through a process at elevated temperatures and pressures (i.e. a kibble manufacturing line). So extrapolating the feeding studies in the 50s to melamine ingested as part of a pre-processed food really may NOT be analogous.

By the way, sodium gas is poisonous, and chlorine will burn your eyes out. But put them together, and you have table salt (Sodium Chloride).

Comment by Pat — April 29, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 4:42 pm

Clearly you and I don’t agree on all aspects of this recall issue. I wouldn’t expect anyone here to necessarily agree with everything - that’s what makes us all unique.

I’m just as annoyed / concerned as the next person. Without a doubt much of this has been mishandled. However I just don’t feel that it is as black and white as some think - and I cannot in good faith draw any final conclusions until it has all played out and we know exactly what happened and why.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
Pat, exactly my point. The only reference they have on melamine ingestion is the one done on dogs…not much to go on.

As for combining chemicals, I sincerely hope that they are on to something with the latest tests re: cyanuric acid. It would explain a lot.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
“I was getting at the fact that some folks are panicking over the fact that melamine is in stuff other than food.”

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 4:15 pm

Really? Hadn’t noticed that. I know folks are quite fond of many Melamine products, folks that are part of this group as well. It wasn’t a subject until today? We do have an issue with it being in our Pets food, this is what we are discussing on the Pet Connection. The food, not the bowl.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
Curious if the CDC will report “publically” any increases in human ARF????!!! 8)

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 5:07 pm
Lets see how long this article lasts before it “disappears”

Chinese Admit Adding Melamine to Pet Food is Common Practice
Associated Content, CO - 1 hour ago
The recall started with pet food manufacturing giant Menu Foods, who produced food for most of the major pet food brands in the US.

http://tinyurl.com/29e4a5

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:07 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 5:03 pm

They’re up to 4 chemicals known to be in the pet food on my last read, 2 are mentioned on this blog. Melamine and the Cyanuric acid.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
“US pet owners, horrified by the lack of regulation that has led to the deaths and illness of so many beloved pets, have mobilized quickly thanks to an Internet campaign and the efforts of Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) who has written legislation calling for more Federal oversight and regulation of the pet food manufacturing industry and has spoken out publicly calling for the FDA to do a better job inspecting food ingredients imported from other countries.”

She ain’t just whistling Dixie

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
I’m with Hamilton

I can’t wait to see every single one of them in court, under oath and facing perjury charges.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
I believe Claudia asked this question: “Any thoughts on Artemis?”

I bought some Artemis chicken canned cat food about a week ago. I bought it because no grains or grain derivatives were listed on the label. However, when I opened a can, I discovered that it contains what appears to be rice. I’m not implying that the food is contaminated with melamine, but there is a discrepancy between the ingredient list on the label and the contents of the can. I have emailed the company and am awaiting a reply. I have purchased Atemis canned cat food occasionally in the past and never encountered this before. I’ll post again when I receive a reply from the company.

Comment by Sue — April 29, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

And how many years will that take before it is revealed? After we’re dead and gone? Probably.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 29, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Hmmm….wonder how that got there?

:)

http://tinyurl.com/29e4a5

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
Steve-let Itchmo know

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 5:30 pm
Steve,I might like to have a few of the “crisis management” firms employees served with a paper or too as well. It would prove to be interesting.

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 5:30 pm
Sorry I just posted this on the Trip to the vet tread and thought it might be better asked here.

I know this may have been asked before but I’m just too frazzled to remember.
I posted yesterday everyone switched cat food brands cold turkey and all went well. Guess I miss spoke my oldest cat Jasmine (10 years, not that old) has been having a hard time transitioning to the new food. Seems its too rich maybe and she’s projectile vomited two times. She had been eating the Purina One Urinary health and an occassional can of the Friskies Turkey and Giblets (also Urinary approved). Now I’d like to give her the Friskies for a day or two mixed with the new food but I’m afraid to.

Comment by Maureen (Lilly and Lucy's mom) — April 29, 2007 @ 5:43 pm
EDGE OF DISASTER

Comment by Barb — April 29, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
Wonder who’s ingredients will be in the next major National Production Runs of Pet Foods and Brands to hit the shelves across America.

I cringe to think of whats coming down the pike next.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
shelly
Hope they don’t plan to make bombs out of the s***!

Comment by Kathi — April 29, 2007 @ 2:16 pm

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:11 pm

Oh ma gawd. Is like, that whole country built out of it melamine products?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:16 pm

Did you see this one?

Melamine Baby Feeding Sets

[China (Mainland)]
Features: 1) Melamine baby feeding set 2) Including: plate, bowl

http://tinyurl.com/3ysmmx

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 2:55 pm

Melamine Dinner Set

[China (Mainland)]
A variety of melamine dinner sets: 3pcs, 4pcs, 6pcs, 8pcs, 12pcs

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 3:00 pm

Really? Hadn’t noticed that. I know folks are quite fond of many Melamine products, folks that are part of this group as well. It wasn’t a subject until today? We do have an issue with it being in our Pets food, this is what we are discussing on the Pet Connection. The food, not the bowl.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 5:55 pm
It seems the story that got yanked from the International Times Herald was not yanked QUITE fast enough, and all those incriminating papers already sold or emailed or otherwise saved? The only thing more amusing than the running of the trolls is a really incompetent bunch trying a cover up when it has already failed.

Under oath, penalty of perjury and I am going to have the “perp walks” filmed so I can watch it repeatedly.

And sorry for the typo, I was laughing too hard to type the word two it seems, served with a paper or two it should read.

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
Fact is the PFI has been in bed with China for so long they don’t have any choice but to try to fob off this stuff to us for another round of major shipments over the next few months.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
Steve, now there is a troll over at itchmo posting under my name that I feed mainstream foods??? What the heck? That is the funniest thing I have read in weeks- I swear I am gonna wet my pants.

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 6:03 pm
Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 6:03 pm

Tell itch so they can kick it’s butt out of there.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
It’s a NY Times article — NY Times writers. I think it was yanked off NY Times - thus expiring the ITH feed.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
Now the troll is saying i wear clothes from china, each (sic)Belgium chocolate French wine and champagne and Tequilla from Mexico.

Do you think this master investigator has found out that Steve and I are married and we have ..er.. kinky weekends with spocko, which is really none of their business, but still. Which one of use wears the french undies is REALLY a private matter wouldn’t you agree?
Lol and this is very funny!

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
I like this one. “Personal Injury”. Give them a taste of their own medicine and more.

Defendant: Menu Foods Midwest Corporation, Menu Foods Income Fund, Menu Foods Limited, Menu Foods Inc., Menu Foods Holdings, Inc., Nutro Products, Inc., Petco Animal Supplies, Inc., Petco Animal Supplies Stores, Inc., ChemNutra, Inc., John Does 1 through 100 and PETsMART, Inc.

Case Number: 0:2007cv01808
Filed: April 9, 2007

Court: Minnesota District Court
Office: DMN Office [ Court Info ]
County: Hennepin
Presiding Judge: Ann D. Montgomery
Referring Judge: Arthur J. Boylan

Nature of Suit: Torts - Injury - Other Personal Injury
Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Personal Injury
Jurisdiction: Diversity
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 6:14 pm
Food Poisoning Kills Hundreds of Sea Animals

http://www.associatedcontent.c.....f_sea.html

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
I’m way behind catching up.

Comment by shelly — April 29, 2007 @ 2:03 pm

Yes, I saw it on IHT earlier today, then found it was gone, like everyone else.

The 2 writers are NY Times writers. I looked them up. It must have been NYT that pulled it.

All these news medias pull on RSS feeds, then pick & choose which ones they want to post. Someone changed their mind at NYT. I just hope it wasn’t a hoax.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
RE: Artimis (I’m going to try to post again on this thread) Called them on Friday. Wet food canned by Evangers, Il.; no recalls/problems any products. Unfortunately my cat’s like gravy & chuncks, not “mush”. So no go for them. I’m looking at raw - so far Wild Kitty looks good.

Comment by Patricia Hill — April 29, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
It was not an RSS feed Kat, and there are plenty of copies.
This whole vanishing posts and stealth recalls and all the rest is just digging them in deeper.

Comment by E. Hamilton — April 29, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
Here’s the link to Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory

http://www.sdmingquan.com/template/about_e.htm

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 6:51 pm
Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 6:51 pm

It looks like the photo of their building has been touched up to add the name to it, so it may not even be their building…

Comment by Nabiya — April 29, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
I hate to be a doomsayer, but I have a sick feeling that the melamine has indeed made it into the food supply. Not just the hogs/chickens - but maybe the bread. Too many coverups and vanishing posts if you ask me.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
There are 2 pictures of the front, from different angles, that I’ve seen:

1) the disappearing IHT/NYT article; 2) their website.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
Catlover, you’re not the first person to suggest that this has made it into the bread. Is there a specific reason why you believe this?

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
1. Because this is not being covered loudly on the national media or in most of the local newspapers.

2. Because the FDA said the 2nd rice protein shipment went to a food manufacturer in Illinois and looking into the possibility it could have gotten into the human food supply.

The link is here somewhere, I can post it again if it’s gone. I saved it in case they yanked it.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
Carole, here is the link.

http://tinyurl.com/ysv79x

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Here is an excerpt:

director of the FDA’s Chicago office, which oversees state operations.
MacIntire said his office is investigating a shipment of rice protein concentrate imported to Illinois and potentially used in a human product.
Nationwide, the FDA has only enough inspectors to check between 1 percent and 2 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in 2006.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
E.Hamilton - they PULL from AP, NYT, Boston Globe. If you do a search on their site for articles they’ve listed you will see. Plus, they have Publishing Alliances.
http://www.ihtinfo.com/pages/ab_about.html

A BALANCED GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

The International Herald Tribune creates, collects and distributes world news, information, entertainment and opinion of the highest journalistic integrity. Its balanced perspective addresses all areas of human interest and is trusted and enjoyed by people in all corners of the globe.

Established in Paris in 1887, today the IHT is owned by The New York Times Company and continues to expand the reach of its authoritative journalism through the newspaper which is sold in 180 countries and via computers and mobile devices at IHT.com.

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2005 revenues of $3.4 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, nine network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and 35 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

Over the years, The Times Company’s properties have been awarded many journalism awards, including a total of 116 Pulitzer prizes, more than any other news organization.

For more information about The New York Times Company, click here.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
I saved the above article on my hard drive, since Gina has asked us not to post entire articles here.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
No recall of the pork which made it into the food chain:

Government: Hogs That Ate Contaminated Pet Food Will Not Be Recalled

Sunday, April 29, 2007

WASHINGTON — Two federal agencies said Saturday a continuing investigation affirms that the risk to humans from hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food is very low and that no recall is warranted.

The government said last week that 345 of 6,000 hogs that may have the food are believed to have been placed on the path to slaughter, but that almost all are still on farms in California, New York and South Carolina.

Those states were told that no meat from any of those hogs can enter the food supply.

“At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued,” the Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department said in a joint statement.

“Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken,” the agencies said.

….more…

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269114,00.html

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
“Nationwide, the FDA has only enough inspectors to check between 1 percent and 2 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in 2006.”

Catlover, what amazes me is that they have done TV reports on this (60 minutes) (Dateline) for the entire world to see.

Given the whole terrorism concern, I just don’t understand why they broadcast this. I guess it probably goes to the fact that we have a right to know what is going on in our own country.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
I guess not everyone watches 60 minutes or Dateline, because most people I run into do not seem too aware of this, or have heard about it but do not think it’s a big problem. There is hardly ANYTHING about this in my local newspaper.

You have a point about the terrorists, though. If that’s the main reason this is not headline news, then I sure as heck hope somebody in charge is taking action behind the scenes. I don’t have a very warm & fuzzy feeling about this situation.

Comment by catlover — April 29, 2007 @ 8:25 pm
This is the first time I have seen any financial implications of the recall on a company made public.

Colgate reported a 50% profit increase in the first quarter of 2007. The recall cost them 8.2 million during the same time frame.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
I have to believe that part of the reason other countries import crap is because they know our inspection capability is insufficient.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
!! THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE IS BACK !! with revisions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04.....0food.html

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
In recent years, Japanese consumers have opened their eyes and minds to “food safety”, and are demanding more information about the food they consume after a series of food scandals, including BSE outbreaks, deaths related to E.coli O-157/H7, avian flu and mislabeling of products.

The Japanese government had to act to reassure Japanese consumers after BSE infected cattle was detected in Japan in 2001. The government set up the Food Safety Commission in April 2003 under direct supervision of the Prime Minister’s cabinet. This Commission, together with the Ministries, is responsible for safeguarding Japan’s food supply through a new system based on the principles of risk analysis, “Traceability”. This enables consumers to track the origin of the ingredients of and production all the way from the harvest (farm), manufacturer to the retailer of food and beverage products. The goal is to make food traceability for about 70 kinds of fresh and processed food by 2007 using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags or QR Codes attached to food packages to deliver information such as farmers names, dates of production, names of pesticides used, etc. to in store consumers.
Further to this new system, the government is planning to propose a set of new laws as a measure to making the health and safety of the Japanese consumer their first priority. But, it is evident that adapting and implementing new laws will take a lot of time, and setting up such a detailed traceability system will prove to be costly.

Another excerpt:

The QR Code, a modern version of the bar code, can hold 100 times more symbols, including the Japanese alphabet and binary codes. The codes hold details such as: list of preservatives, additives, livestock/raw material origin, feed history, and even distribution dates and the use of bioengineered ingredients.
The most recent cell phones in Japan are equipped with a QR Code reader. By capturing the QR code onto the cell phone screen, data can be retrieved and displayed onto the cell phone.

What an excellent idea!

Whole article here:
http://www2.jma.or.jp/foodex/en/other/vol04.html

Comment by Julia — April 29, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
So why is that the Chinese government can shut down Binzhou Futian Bio-Technology but the FDA can’t shutdown ANI?

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:42 pm

Ouch. Excellent question.

Comment by Laura — April 29, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 8:34 pm

Kat, do you (or anyone else reading this) have a copy of the unrevised original article? I’d dearly love to know what was edited out of the new version.

I know it’s against Gina’s wishes to post whole articles here, but I think in this case there’s a good reason for it - i.e., you can’t link to the original, because it’s no longer available.

Comment by Laura — April 29, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Laura … the link to the entire original article is in the blog post above. It’s over on Itchmo’s Forum.

I’m not comfortable with posting entire articles here for two reasons: 1) It’s a violation of copyright, and a theft of another writer’s work. As a person who tries to make a living as a writer, I can’t condone ripping off others who do the same. Therefore: Fair use and link, please.

and 2) Posting entire entire articles makes the comments really hard to read when you have to wade through really, really long ones.

So … please don’t post entire articles here, no matter the reason.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Also … I’ll find out from Dr. Pion about the testing. My recollection is that the tests were negative, but I’ll double-check that with him on Monday.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
You can see the original article at this itchmo forum http://tinyurl.com/2zdwxb

Comment by Marilyn — April 29, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 8:42 pm

Politics

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 29, 2007 @ 8:52 pm

Duly noted, ma’am. Thanks for the link!

Comment by Laura — April 29, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
I’m reading them both, side-by-side & they look to be the same. At first, I thought they had removed the part about the guys telling how it was done — but it’s there. I’m about 3/4 finished. It’s long.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
I thought my recent diagnosis with hypertension was due to poor eating habits and the stress from losing my dog Scout to ARF. Maybe I have been slowly poisoned by Vital Wheat Gluten!

Comment by Allison — April 29, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
Here’s one of the differences in the two versions of the piece. Apparently the number of affected pets magically shrank in the few hours between the publication of the two versions of the piece.

The IHT version published earlier today says “…linked earlier this month to the deaths and injuries of thousands of cats and dogs in the United States and South Africa.”

A few hours later, the NYT site says “…linked this month to the deaths of at least 16 pets and the illness of possibly thousands of pets in the United States.”

Comment by Cathy Moore — April 29, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
Phrases deleted from original article are:

“China to investigate”

“made from coal found its way into”

“that killed dogs and cats “

“openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.
For years, producers”

“animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with”

“substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.”

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

The remainder of deletions not listed above were insignificant or done for grammatical reasons.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
Comment by Cathy Moore — April 29, 2007 @ 9:03 pm

Bingo. Maybe the FDA complained.

Also, note how the first version sets the scene in the factory. The revised version opens with what the FDA is doing. Less dynamic, far less interesting, and hence less likely to be read.

Okay, so what’re NYT’s ties to the industry?

Comment by Laura — April 29, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
It appears to be the very same article. I compared side-by-side. Wonder why they took it down earlier? Who knows.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
Additional deletions (from second page)

“of 60 million packages of “

“found in wheat gluten “

“of at least 16 pets and the illness of possibly”

“The link to China has set off concerns among critics of the Food and Drug Administration that ingredients in pet food as well as human food, which are increasingly coming from abroad, are not being adequately screened.”

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
And isn’t the paragraph about shipping tainted product to other countries in Asia new?

Comment by kb — April 29, 2007 @ 9:22 pm
It’s called censorship.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 9:22 pm
Maybe one or a few of their FOOD advertisers complained.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:25 pm

They been lying since day one.

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
Someone probably put up a squak…

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
Maybe the PFI hired Karl Rove

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I’m even embarassed to admit this, but I am… I had 2 of the new versions side-by-side… uh, that’s why they looked the same to me!@!! ‘cause they ARE! duh… not enough sleep makes me DENSE! I kept thinking WOW - that’s a lot of changes, why didn’t I see that???

egadddddddzzzzzz!

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
So, who’s still using Menu Foods to make their stuff? And how much Chinese ingredients are still going into the latest mass manufacturing runs under the radar?

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 9:41 pm
They have the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory para, way down in the article. The 1st had a much better punch.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
“In Wudi last week, the only people aware of any problem at Binzhou Futian were representatives from the two dozen local animal feed producers who were called Tuesday to an emergency government meeting.”

Amazing how China manages to keep everything under wraps. Doesn’t anyone talk to anyone else?

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
Lying, with Chinese Characteristics: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Part 1 of 7)

http://tinyurl.com/2xlwf6

Comment by Steve — April 29, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Illinois has a big concern. The FDA says they are investigating rice protein conc. going into the food supply. I think that article was posted here.

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Excerpts from an article about counterfeit Olympic baubles in China…

“The U.S. on April 10 filed two complaints with the World Trade Organization, saying China isn’t doing enough to stop piracy. China, viewing its first Olympics as a chance to showcase itself to the world, is cracking down on unlicensed Olympic products by introducing a hotline to report violators, stepping up inspections and putting microchips in tickets.”

“Protecting Olympic trademarks is a “core task” for the government, says Wang Lijun, deputy director of the Beijing Intellectual Property Office. Wang on April 24 announced a phone hotline to report fake Olympic goods and the misuse of logos.”

“We will take action within 24 hours, which includes arriving at the site and then tackling the issue,” Wang said at a news conference in Beijing. “We hope that by 2008, we will present a better image of China.”

Of all the things that the US could file a complaint with the WTO, they choose piracy.

And of all the things China could respond to in 24-hours, they choose counterfeit Olympic stuff.

Last year their government prosecuted 2,072 trademark violations. According to Hong Kong, preventing counterfeit Olympics crap is a matter of national pride. And they plan to have special ops in place to handle this.

And oh yeah, China is unhappy with the US for filing this complaint.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
Doesn’t anyone in a strategic position in our government see the problem with being more concerned about piracy than what gets imported to our country?

Apparently since it is affecting companies like Microsoft and Disney, it is of national importance.

Comment by Carole — April 29, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
That is pretty bad. They let our pets die & food to still move across the US, by failing to act agressively. ‘cause they were worried about piracy?!?!?!? and presenting a better image for China?!?!?!?

At this point in time, I would not let my kid go to China for the olympics — and eat their food!

One reason they acted so fast — it doesn’t involve the FDA! It’s probably the FTC?

Comment by Kat — April 29, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
And China wants a good name for the Olympics after they’ve admittedly (International Herald Tribune article) been boosting the protein levels of grains for years?????

They want to alter the weather pattern over China by “seeding” the clouds for rain just prior to the Olympics to make the air purer for the athletes and attendees to breathe easier?

I wonder why the Olympic Committee chose China to host the Olympics????????

I certainly will not be buying any “official” Olympics logo products.

Comment by petlover — April 30, 2007 @ 7:42 am
Petlover, it is done by secret ballot. Even though it was brought up that China has Human Rights issues as well as unclean air and other sanitary concerns, it came down to two thoughts:

Hosting the olympics would promote positive change for the country, and since China has been a strong competitor many felt it was due them.

It will be interesting to see how this situation has any impact.

Comment by Carole — April 30, 2007 @ 8:41 am

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