Pet Food Recall: History Suggests That Overreaction Is Perhaps Most Dangerous

Itty Bitty Bones and Three Dog Bakery

a little bit of searching has shown that this company is clear from recall of the peanut butter.

of @ Jan 25, 2009 00:00:52 AM

Make Your Own - It's Safer

Manufactured pet food is "least cost formulated" with ingredients that are sourced from all over the world.

Dilution formulas allow the use of contaminated ingredients.

With few exceptions, only a handful of manufacturing companies contract companies) make pet food for "the brands".

Incoming ingredients aren't properly tested, and manufacturing processes are poorly controlled.

Formulation errors result in toxic amounts of vitamins/minerals.

Education for vets includes nutrition courses taught by pet food companies.

Large corporations which sell pet food also sell toothpaste and chocolate bars. Shareholders (not pet owners) are the customer.

Happily, there is good news. You can learn to make your own pet food.

Books by leading veternarians and nutritionists are available, and you can purchase recipes formulated for your pet. Online help is available from pet owners who've been making their pet food for many years.

Pets DO have nutritional requirements, but you can learn what these are and then provide wholesome meals for your animals.

Rocky of KS @ Jan 23, 2009 07:52:09 AM

It is PROCESSED COMMERCIAL pet food that spread salmonella to humans

Regarding the comment about raw pet food and salmonella: there has NEVER been a report of a human contracting disease of any kind from raw pet food or the feces of pets that eat raw food.

That is competitive Typhoid Mary fear-mongering from the multinational producers of processed pet foods that have sickened and killed thousands of pets...and sickened humans.

From the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5744a2.htm

"On May 16, 2008, CDC reported on a 2006--2007 multistate outbreak of infection with Salmonella enterica serotype Schwarzengrund that was associated with dry dog food (1). At the time of that report, a total of 70 cases had been reported from 19 states, with the last case identified on October 1, 2007. Subsequently, an additional case was identified on December 29, 2007. Epidemiologic and environmental investigations have suggested the source of the outbreak was dry pet food produced by one manufacturer, Mars Petcare US."

of WA @ Jan 22, 2009 22:20:24 PM

Excuse me, but your ignorance is showing.

Wow, am I ticked off right now. Recall SCARES?!?!?! SCARES???!!!

Um...NO!!! These items are being recalled because they've KILLED. SIX people have died so far. THOUSANDS of pets died in 2007. China will never admit how many CHILDREN are dead on their own soil.

How many have to die to go from a SCARE to the real thing?

A.C. of MA @ Jan 22, 2009 21:55:01 PM

Just to let everyone know from a veterinary stand point the chances of your dog getting sick from salamonella are much slimer than your chances. Dogs bodies are made to handle some salamonella, hense why they don't get sick when people feed raw food diets. However you can get salamonella from your pet because their body sheads it (when fed raw diets). It is not better for your animal to be fed homemade diets unless you are getting recipes from you vet and adding proper vitamins and additives. Manufactured pet food is formulated with the correct amount of nutriants and vitamins that dogs need and that are important to their systems.

of FL @ Jan 22, 2009 18:16:57 PM

Connie, you're so illogical

Connie, I'm sorry your dogs are off their food. Nobody thinks it's a good thing when there are safety problems with the food supply. However, your argument basically says "I have invested my love and affection in a beast that is mortal, therefore an obligation is created in everyone else to spend unlimited amounts of money to prevent my beast from dying." While I agree that you have been wronged by the manufacturer who should at least give you a refund, the idea that manufacturers should not find spending unlimited amounts of money for your sake "onerous" is laughable.

I make goods that are affected by CPSIA. Because I acted early, I was able to get testing done that will get me through till August, but after that I'll have to go out of business. All because some Congressmen were convinced that no price is too high to pay for the "safety" of kids (never mind that my products are lead-free and always have been). Where do we draw the line? Sadly, the line may never be drawn, because too many people think like Connie: that others have an obligation beyond due diligence to protect them from anything they find undesirable in life. I wish it were possible for people to live in a cocoon. That way we could put people like Connie in one and forget about them while the rest of us live out our lives in the real world, which is full of danger and excitement.

Sarah Natividad of UT @ Jan 22, 2009 17:22:44 PM

Pet Food Recall bad choice for overreaction example

You could not have picked a poorer choice for an example of 'overreaction' to a food safety threat. The initially slow response to reports of sickened and dying pets and lack of a national veterinary reporting system were the real problems in that public health disaster.

Aso, if there were ANY regulations requiring testing of ingredients by the pet food industry, that recall might not have happened in the first place.

Poco of WA @ Jan 22, 2009 16:13:02 PM

Overreaction? No way.

The author didn't do his homework on this story. When thousands of cats and dogs died, many more made terribly ill and some of those that did live damaged for the rest of their shortened lives, it is in no way an overreaction to recall tainted food. Early 2007 the Pet Food Industry knew there was a big problem with many products. They may not have known the origin of the problem, but they fell way short of their obligations when they did not pursue the answer in depth and urgently. Some companies did "silent recalls," pulling their product from shelves after business hours but never releasing any statement that their product w/ certain dates and codes should be returned due to being poisonous.

If more attention had been paid to melamine in pet food, just perhaps melamine would not have found its way into the human food supply as well. Matt, do you think it overreaction to recall baby formula that kills human babies? Do you think melamine is only in milk and milk products in China? Melamine should not be allowed in Chinese products, but we have no control over what happens there. However, we should have much tighter control over what ends up in both pet and human food here in the USA. The FDA has fallen way short of its job far too often.

Profit and greed rule the day, not food safety. Companies should spend more of their budget on clean, nutritious food and less on glitzy marketing. Our pets were the canaries in the mine in 2007. There should have been more real news on this from the Mainstream Media. It was rarely mentioned. Recalls came too late, and there were too few. The result was a tide of suffering and veterinary bills and death. You dare to call this overreaction?

Carol of OR @ Jan 22, 2009 13:56:46 PM