Comments on: Change your dogs and cats can believe in

By: Catherine

Catherine — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:20:16 +0000

I hope our next president realizes that this crisis will continue unless some serious regulation comes into play. It’s a sad commentary when the world’s super power cannot reign in food safety.

By: Marcy

Marcy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:21:07 +0000

I agree with slt, candidates seem to always “promise” more than they wind up delivering. And foolishly, the public always believes them.

Obama and McCain should take the food safety issues very seriously…it started out with thousands of our pets dying from tainted food, and now we are seeing it spilling over into our own foods…most recently tomatoes.

If we (our government) don’t do something really soon about all of this, I think it may have the potential of bringing about the contamination of all food products.

And let me tell you…that IS serious.

By: 2CatMom

2CatMom — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:12:30 +0000

If its Obama, there’s a chance for a change. As you know his mentor, Dick Durbin, is very involved with food safety issues. So, this might get more attention that it normally would. Maybe.

By: slt

slt — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:44:29 +0000

I hate to sound all cynicalish but between now and election day, both candidates will be promising to fix every single broken thing that ranks high enough on the voter radar. No candidate can possibly do that. I’m glad to know they are informed and have plans *just in case* the other two branches of government decide we should all work together for the greater good and accomplish real change. But realistically, I’m expecting no major overhauls to pet food safety or even food safety in general, regardless of who wins in November.
And I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong in my expectations.

By: Dr. Patty Khuly

Dr. Patty Khuly — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:32:11 +0000

Bold…and brave. No, not just Al Gore. Politics is risky business on a pet blog. Somehow it works well here. Kudos.

By: Lis

Lis — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:18:35 +0000

Marcy, Obama believes that competent regulation strengthens the economy and the country.

McCain believes that the whole idea of competent government is a chimera—and that the natural consequences of having FEMA run an unusually incompetent political hack when a major hurricane struck an unsually vulnerable city proves that there’s no way that government can do anything good. The pet food poisonings may not hit home for Obama in quite the same way they do for Gore or Clinton (who both have pets), but he cares about food safety, and drug safety—it’s the FDA that regulates all three.

By: Marcy

Marcy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:38:29 +0000

Yes, Al Gore is endorsing Obama…

and it is wonderful that Gore mentioned the pet food recalls.

But,

what has Obama said along that line? I want to hear him say what’s going to be done about food safety if he’s elected.

By: straybaby

straybaby — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:46:50 +0000

Katie,

Here is what Hillary wrote up last Nov.

http://tinyurl.com/4ppuby

I would look at this and the proposals from the House and Senate on these issues and start bugging the heck out of your states “people” and any authors or supporters of food/product safety legislation. Now that we are in GE mode, bug the heck out of the candidates also. With hearings ongoing and we’ve had the beef recall and now the tomatoes (plus more lead), product safety, both imported and domestic, may have a chance if we all scream loud enough.

Gore’s energy usage could be up for many reasons, one could be environmental. We had a milder summer last year, so mine was down (YES!!) but this year I’ve already been through on “official heatwave” which required AC earlier than normal for me. If we have even a normal summer, my usage will be up from last year a few percentage points. If we have a bad summer . . . my wallet will be unhappy.

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:04:10 +0000

Early last year; Clinton was the only one who mentioned the food safety and pet food recall. It doesn’t surprise me that pet food safety has crept into the speeches of candidates and supporters now that the election season has begun - they want our vote. How many pet households?

Interesting on CNN this AM, they said Al Gore’s energy usuage is up 10% over last year and he had no response.

Real change would be a food safety bill with teeth in it -

Katie

By: 2CatMom

2CatMom — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:04:36 +0000

Eucritta: Sorry about that - I didn’t mean to ascribe any political position to you.

But how do I explain to my cats that I’m not voting for McCain even if he has the most pets?