It was not to be.

The interview had been teased with a mention of the pet-food recall, which NPR characterized as having “sickened” pets, which is true only if you grant that most organisms “sicken” before, you know, actually dying, which is what thousands of pets did, NPR’s glossing over aside.

New FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg batted away the question about the pet-food recall’s core issue — the fraudulent substitution of melamine by foreign companies in order to game the protein readings — by acknowledging the challenges the agency faces with globalization and her intent to modernize.

To be fair, Dr. Hamburg has a good reputation and she just started the job. And of course, this is just one interview. But frankly, I would have liked to have seen a little more  determination, a little more acknowledgment that the FDA as it exists today is a shadow of the consumer-protection firebrand it once was — if not an outright servant of the industries it’s supposed to regulate — and how she was going to change that.

After all, we know tobacco kills, and that shouldn’t be news to the anyone including the FDA, which just got handed the task of regulating tobacco products. What we shouldn’t have to worry about killing us or our pets is the food we buy.

Here’s the interview.

***

Dr. Marion Nestle always stresses what we have said on this blog from the first day of the pet-food recall: This isn’t about “pet food” vs. “people food”: It’s about safe food, and it all comes from the same places.

On her “Food Politics” blog, Dr. Nestle talks about the problems with multi-nutrient supplements:

It’s hard not to think of multivitamin supplements (which also include minerals) as perfectly safe, since the amounts of specific nutrients rarely exceed recommended levels.  But according to recent reports, formulation mistakes get made and these don’t always get caught by quality controls.  Here are two examples.

According to FoodProductionDaily.com, 25% of Adverse Event Reports (AERs) sent into the FDA last year concerned multivitamin supplements. This, says one supplement trade association, should not be interpreted to mean that there is anything wrong with the supplements.  Maybe not, but how about checking?

She then puts these findings in context of the recent recalls of Nutro. More here.

***

Finally and also food-related, Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuy writes about prescription pet diets on her Dolittler blog:

The concept of a “prescription only” diet has merely been a marketing success for pet food companies who label their products as such and somehow manage to have engendered a belief that a product labeled as a “Prescription Diet”… requires a prescription.

But this is NOT TRUE! There is no legal basis for requiring a prescription for a product that is NOT regulated by the FDA as a drug. Shall I repeat that or was it sufficiently clear?

Nonetheless, it IS true that any private retail establishment has the right to require a veterinarian’s say-so before you can buy ANYTHING from them. Sure, PetSmart is not about to require a written script for leashes and kitty litter, but if it wants to do business with pet food behemoths like Hills and Iams, then they’re darn well not going to tick them off by failing to follow manufacturer requirements for sale of Prescription Diets.

More here.

Cesar Millan, television’s ‘Dog Whisperer,’ has legions of fans, including some dog trainers. But a group of veterinary behaviorists is not among them.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position paper aimed at countering some of the pervasive influence of his show, which airs on the National Geographic Channel, and of Millan’s training approach, which is based on what the position statement calls outdated dominance theory.

[...]

Though Millan has been criticized by a number of different groups and individuals, he has supporters. {…] “I have never seen Mr. Millan be abusive,” says Martin Deeley, executive director of the International Association of Canine Professionals.

Millan does not use coercive techniques exclusively, but also uses positive reinforcement, says Deeley, who has worked with Millan and knows him well.

Raised by Wolves blogger (and regular PetConnection commenter) Heather Houlahan was interviewed for and is quoted in the piece.  On the whole, it’s a pretty good overview of a complex and contentious situation that leaves the dog-owning public wondering exactly which trainers have it right.

Which brings up that old joke in dog-training circles: The only thing two dog trainers will agree on is that a third dog trainer is wrong.

But with an election looming, I got to itching to write about it. So I had an idea that was, as blogger Kathy Flake put it, “barking mad.” I decided to start a group blog, short term, to have an outlet for my thoughts on the election. And I decided to invite a a few of the bloggers I most enjoy reading.

And so, Bark Obama! was born.

I’m happy with my decision to keep presidential politics off this blog — the subject really doesn’t fit, and besides, the entire PetConnection team is decidedly not of a single mind on the issues (again, we consider this, as blogger John Scalzi is fond of saying, a feature, not a bug).

Christie, Kim and I are members of the group blog. But here’s the whole list (and we’re still adding to it):

• Patrick Burns, Terrierman’s Daily Dose
• Kathy Flake, WhatDoIKnow
• Christie Keith, Dogged and PetConnection
• Dr. Patty Khuly, Dolittler
• Susan McCullough, The Allie Chronicles
• Luisa Serrano, Lassie Get Help
• Gina Spadafori, PetConnection
• Shirley Thistlethwaite, YesBiscuit! and Everybody Secede Now!
• Kim Campbell Thornton, PetConnection
• Mary Young, PhD, Windfall Ranch

What a line-up, huh? Come over, come over, read and comment. You can even spread the word by picking up a badge for your Web site or blog. And we’ll be selling T-shirts and mugs starting next week to help cover our design and hosting costs, so you might want to check that out. I promise the goodies will be gorgeous, since my friend Jay Gavron of Gotham Park Studios — who designed both the PetConnection and DogCars Web sites — is handling the work.

I’ve put BarkObama! in our blog roll, but this is the only actual post you’ll see mentioning it here. We’ll be blogging here as always, pretty much non-partisan, and barking for Obama there until Nov. 5.

Watch this space: Adding notables from here and there … the Massachusetts state Legislature voted unanimously to outlaw “pet rentals,” and may other states follow suit. (If you want a part-time pet, how about volunteering at a shelter or fostering?) … California legalized pet trusts, although it’s still better to count on friends and family, not the law, to protect your pet if you die. … Factory farm interests pour big money into defeating the most basic anti-cruelty measures for food animals.

Anyway, I’m really pleased that our PetConnection blog made the Alltop list in the pet category, along with most of the blogs already on our blogroll and a couple I was delighted to discover.

Thanks to Laura Bennett of Embrace pet health insurance for letting the Alltop team know they needed to get the pet blogs on the Alltop site. (Here’s a little more on Alltop from Laura. But Laura … Christie invented the word “Interwebs.” Also, “not so much” and any number of easily catchable catch phrases.)

Unless Christie or Kim drops in with something today, that’s it from me. My deadline for the new books is one week away. Aiii-yeeeee!

If ya got something good, help me out and throw a link in the comments.

Clara e Ilario update: Clara has decided the little orange twirp is fun to play with. In the evenings now they race all over the house chasing and pouncing on each other. Above is a picture from last night, of them resting between crazy run-amoking. Somebody is going to get pounced on … look out, Clara!