THE PET FOOD RECALL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

 

The beautiful GeorgieW (left) and the late great Sigfried

aka The Big Guy in happier times.

 

 

Miss Piggy is on the lam.  She sees me coming and takes off at a scamper.  The coughing has stopped, and she is definitely feeling better.  Doc spent much of the day helping me on the pet food expose.  She is quite upset with the discovery that tainted Science Diet may have hastened her sister, Georgie’s death.  So am I.  On a brighter note, I met with my carpenter today.  He is going to design a screen system to allow the felines greater access to a second balcony. I’m going to set up fountains on both balconies for them.  

 

Today’s trackbacks included the following.  One of these days I will get around to posting the article I’ve been doing on the subject.

Porn – 4

Tramadol –

Cialis

Phentermine 37.5mg

Space, the final frontier…okay, yadayadaya they found a new place to test for life on Mars!

Pit Bull owner bits cop after dog runs away.   

Keith Richards admits mixing some of his father’s ashes with cocaine and snorting it. 

Cool prehistoric whale discovered in Italy.

What’s wrong with this picture?  The Braves are playing 1.000 ball?  Okay, they’ve played one game and won it.  But – if you’ve suffered through their losing openers the way I have, you know the drill.  I’ve gotten where I really like listening to MLB online.  It has that ‘sound’ you get on radio.  There’s nothing like MLB

PET FOOD RECALL

A Detailed Primer

(Researched with the very annoying assistance of Doc Holliday, who is very concerned about the possibility that baby Miss Piggy could have consumed tainted baby food, but I have assured her Piggy is fine.  We are quite upset though, to discover there is a distinct possibility that Georgie ended up consuming some of the tainted product while hospitalized.)

 

NOTE:  I have found notices that trying to open web sites that connect to the Chinese companies mentioned take you to an X-rated site.  I have also seen reports of viruses connected with these sites – so google and open at your own risk!

 

The Pet Prayer and Praise Blog has lit a candle for those precious babies who are suffering or have died.  If you aren’t familiar with this site, it is one of the dearest things I’ve yet to encounter online. 

The Pet Connection is maintaining an excellent site about the subject.

The importer of the tainted wheat gluten that is poisoning our cats and dogs has been identified.

 

Do not be taken in by the CNS report that only dry food is effected.  ChemNutra says only pets received the tainted product. 

 

Iams press release

So the CNS article is less than accurate.  Makes sense, anything that reeks of ‘liberal’ is wrong and ‘conservative’ is pure.  Problem is this is one of those times when their pro-business stance doesn’t hold water.    CNS is reporting something like 14 deaths.  One accurate count is now near 3000!

This is one import alert.

Pet Connection blog - about recall. 

What we need to know as pet owners – what do we feed the little monsters?

(Monster comment reflects Rumsfeld’s behavioral problems today.

The Safe List – as of today. 

The Recall List – as of today.

Menu Foods Recall List – as of today.

Georgie was eating Hills’s special diet while in the hospital.  Did it contribute to her death?   I am very much afraid this is what Georgie was eating while she was in the hospital.  And, this is the time frame for that pet food. What can we do to prevent this from occurring again?   Are you feeling as helpless as am I?  Even my absolutely wonderful vet doesn’t know what is going on.  There is no single source to get information out to the public.   There is one report that over 8000 deaths had been reported to the FDA.

The following action is definitely needed:  There are times when I don’t like to be an alarmist, but yes, let the Dems do a full investigation of this one. 

 

 

1)       New labeling requirements:

2)        

Product labels should be required to list not only the company that’s marketing the food, but also the company that made it. With full addresses and 800 numbers.

 

Product labels should be required to list the country of origin of the ingredients. It’s clear now that this information is every bit as important to a consumer trying to make an intelligent decision as the ingredients and nutritional analysis on those labels now.

 

3)       A true, national system for getting information to veterinarians and collecting information from veterinarians. This is important not only for our animals, but for ourselves. It’s quite possible a problem in animals can signify a developing threat for humans. (Ever hear of bird flu?) Veterinarians are an essential link in our national security and public-health systems, and we’ve now seen how little respect they get in this role. (For more in this check out this postat vetcetera.)

 

There is no veterinary version of the CDC – Center for Disease Control.  I don’t like government agencies, but in this age of bird flu scares, isn’t it an idea whose time has come?

 

My father was in the flower milling or manufacturing business for forty years.  Each and every one of those years he constantly battled the FDA over product quality with flour.  I don’t understand what has happened here.  They would have one little tiny bug in a huge tanker of flour and it would be condemned.  My father wanted to export flour to Africa for humanitarian uses but the export rules were so stringent, he gave up.  After going out of the manufacturing end of things, he was in the reprocessing of condemned flour for glue extender for flour.  It was constant.  There were times when perfectly good flour was condemned for food and literally sent to the glue factory.  I am not going to tell you which pizza company constantly bought really bad product, but I still don’t eat their product.

 

Once upon a time (even 10 years ago) this sort of a product would be subjected to a battery of tests.  My question is as follows.  Did it fail the human consumption test only to be used for pet food?  If the poisons showed up in testing it should have been condemned for any sort of consumption.  China denies any roll in the whole affair. 

 

Found via Pet Connection:  

 

 Information about the importer is here. This is a post about the original FDA notification and the company involved.  Note that there is only one company involved.

FDA just issued this warning against the import of specific wheat gluten from a maker in China. The full name of the company is: Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd. This company also exports wheat flour, cornstarch, sweet potato starch, protein powder, zinc oxide, carrots, garlic, ginger, and other agricultural products. (Web site)

This is the only known source of contamination identified by the FDA. Unfortunately, this was never released to the media from what we can gather.

 

Second Possible Chinese Exporter Sells Chemicals

We would like to caution that no exports from this company has been identified as being contaminated and that the only source of information linking Suzhou to the tainted wheat gluten is the one identified by the FDA as the source. We are looking for the FDA to tell us if this lead has been investigated. 

 

A manager at Xuzhou

 

Anying told the AP that the tainted wheat gluten was also sold to another Chinese export firm — identified as (Formerly known as Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co.) That firm’s Web site describes themselves as “one of the 500 largest foreign trade enterprises in China since 1991.” With revenues exceeding US $100 million. Quite a bit larger than Xuzhou, and possibly a larger trade partner with US companies. Their recent name change suggests that the company has been expanding into other export opportunities.

A list of their chemical exports do not contain melamine. Here’s the list:


Rifadin,

Clarithromycin,

sulphamethoxydiazine,

Ganciclovir,

glucuronolactone, N

ITROFURAZONE,

 Ibuprofen,

Pyrazinamide

 

Information about the product in question:   

” Detailed Product Description

Wheat gluten meal is also named wheat vital protein. The flour is used as its raw material, and from which extracts a light brown natural
Grain powder through intensively processing. It is a good solubles protein, containing fifteen amino acid essencial for human body. After all, it can yet be regarded as a plant protein food looking good, smelling good and tasting good.
Qualification:
Protein: 75% min
Moistur: 8% max
Ash (lime) : 1% max
The rate of absorbing water: 160% min
The degree of thickness: 99% through 200um tough silk sieve
Taste smell: normal, with grain delicious
Outward ap: light yellow powder”

 

Additional information about wheat gluten is almost alarming.  It also raises some questions.  You read what I’ve found and you make the call yourself.  I do not want to use the word ‘deliberate’ with the tainting of the gluten, but something stinks.

 

“…I’ve theorized the same–that an additive, probably melanine-formaldehyde, was added to the gluten to increase it’s crosslinking and hence it’s water absorption rate. Why would this be beneficial. Well, from a commercial standpoint, it means LESS wheat gluten would need to added in order to achieve the desired gelling effect (as in gravy manufacturing). Using melamine-formaldehyde as an additive represents a chemical method of modifying the gluten (increasing the protein-protein crosslinking to improve it’s gelling ability) in much the same way as with enzymatic mofication with TGase (transglutaminase). I’ve found several online references regarding using melamine-formaldehyde for not just wheat, but soy and other plant proteins as well. Also, melamine-formaldehyde is used specifically for crosslinking wheat gluten to improve the gluten’s resin-like performance in the textile/printing industry. The fact that the Chinese supplier also sold this to another Chinese supplier–a textiles company–is very telling….”

 Interestingly, Menu foods continues to say that the product they put in their pet food was issued for HUMAN CONSUMPTION.  Today the report is that it was not for human consumption.      The Boston Globe   has found information to confirm this, contrary to what the FDA reports.

 

“…According to import records, the wheat gluten was shipped to the United States from Nov. 3, 2006 to Jan. 23 of this year and contained "minimal labeling" to indicate whether it was intended for humans or animals. The vast majority went to pet food manufacturers and distributors, according to the FDA. But some of the processing plants that remain under FDA scrutiny make both human and pet food…”

 

Then there is the problem of disposing of the contaminated pet food.  (NOTE:  The site appears to be very anti-Bush, but that’s life.) 

“…In this case of massive pet food poisoning, the US government has failed to counsel its citizens in any way. Now the government fails to tell us anything regarding the safe disposal of tens of millions of cans and packages of poisoned foods. One must ask what would this government do if millions of us received letters containing powdered anthrax? (a major reason why the Bureau of Homeland Security was created and why our Bill of Rights was amended). In this case of massive pet food poisoning, the US government remains blind to the path of this poison through the US food supply. Is poisoned Chinese wheat in the human food supply? If so, it is unlikely to cause many sudden deaths, but the poison, Aminopterin, is a potent folate inhibitor (Vitamin B) which is known to cause abortions and neural tube defects in surviving embryos. How many defective pets and children may be born in the US because our government has failed its responsibilities? Spinal bifida and more neurological disorders are likely to increase…”

 

The toxin is a form of rat poison.

“…Aminopterin is also used in some countries as a rodenticide, although it is not approved for this use in the United States. On March 23, 2007, ABC News reported aminopterin was the chemical linked to a 2007 pet-poisoning incident: wheat from China containing the drug would have been used in a Menu Foods product, resulting in over 1000 pet deaths reported to an independent website, although only 16 could be directly verified. The incident resulted in a massive recall of the affected foods. The link to aminopterin was confirmed by New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker and Dr. Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, in a statement released on the same day.

 

And, to confirm my worst fears about Georgie….This is exactly what was described with her.  She was given at least two of the now proscribed foods.  I don’t know if it would have made any difference with her condition, let’s be honest here.  But still, it does make me wonder.   This comes from the fascinating site about Coton de Tulear dogs  authored by Dr. R. J. Russell, Ph.D.

 

“you took them to the veterinarian for tests even though they were without apparent symptoms. Most people in the US will probably assume that because their dog or cat is eating and active, it is not effected. That, of course, is not necessarily the case. Both the kidneys and the liver can sustain much damage (up to 70-75% destroyed!) before any symptoms become apparent. The hope is that with restorative care, these organs can regenerate partially or completely. The liver, as it happens, is the most capable organ in the body for self-repair, given that the damage is stopped and that the liver is presented an extremely light set of duties to help it rest and recover.

 

The liver is the most multifunctional organ in the body. It must do many things. One of its most stressful tasks is detoxification of normal food intake, since the metabolism of many food stuffs leads to the production of energy, structure and cellular pollution (toxins). As you can imagine, it is extraordinarily stressed when it is forced to deal with novel poisons--chemicals that have been ingested by mistake such as the food poison that more than 100 brands of dog and cat food have needlessly inflicted upon North America's dog and cat population. Georgie was diagnosed with liver failure brought on by a rare form of feline hepatitis.

 

… A good guess is that a nutritionally unnecessary food filler used to produce a "gravy-like" brown goo in cans and packages of wet food was contaminated with mold, and that in turn has lead to a massive contamination of the foods with mold-produced Aflatoxin. In this case the filler--wheat gluten--is much like last year's much more limited Diamond Food's corn gluten poisoning of dogs. The very bad news now is that unbeknownst to the consuming public, the same poisoned wheat gluten was used to manufacture an enormous and disparate group of dog and cat foods, from el cheapo Wal Mart stock to semi-premium and luxury marketed brands.

 

Because the manufacturer had absolutely no quality control tests of its supplies or production, the poison was marketed to millions upon millions of dogs and cat owners for more than three months undetected until dogs and cats began dying and an economic threat (law suits) was obvious to the company (Menu Foods, et al.). Indeed, the class action suits have begun today against Menu Foods, with allegations that the company knew that it's food was killing dogs and cats and deliberately delayed announcing the recall. The company has set aside $38million and has obtained unspecified bank loans to cover its side of the suits….

 Itchmo has a primer on how pet food is made, chemical interactions, the FDA holding back on a recall, and the effects of Vitamin K on pets. 

The Infamous Doc Holliday

THOSE DIRTY LYING DEMOCRATS

The American Thinker confirms my worst fears, all they want to do impeach GWB.

 

Dirty Harry (D- Caesar’s Palace) still intends to shut off funding for our troops. And he calls the War a failure.  He also says the US can no longer afford to deal with GWB’s strategy. 

Captain’s Quarters

Blogs for Bush

Why aren’t the Dems being blamed for gas prices?  Jawa

How dare Nancy Pelosi bow to Syria's archaic demands for women to cover their heads!

Gateway  has a photo of Nancy Pelosi in Syria that frosts my cookies.  Liberals make this big deal about women’s liberation, etc, yet that photo just set the cause of women’s rights back decades.  Right now I would really love to use some hard core profanity, but I don’t use those words, but I sure wish I did.  Poopiecatsonofap’shindend! (my father’s childhood cuss-word).  How dare she.  I don’t care if she is wearing a Gucci scarf.  She is still dishonoring every women in this country.  Naturally HRM Nancy I is oblivious to criticism of her personal foreign policy.  Psst...Nancy - your arrogance is showing!  So is your treason!

Jawa

Wizbang

Mac’s Mind

Little Green Footballs

Counterterror Blog

What is worse, HRM Nancy I and her hijab exploits hurt the newest   Education Minister in Kuwait , only the 2nd woman to hold such a position. According to Captain Ed, Nouriya al-Sabeeh struck a blow for women’s rights in Kuwait, by refusing to wear the barbaric head covering.  Too bad Her Majesty couldn’t respect this brave woman by following suit.   She was applauded by 50 women in the gallery, none of them wearing the traditional covering either.  In Kuwait women now are allowed to vote and are gradually assuming some rights.  But, Nancy Pelosi, by choosing to fraternize with our enemies, has dishonored the women and their courageous fight.  Way to go Nancy!

 

Thomas Sewell on those adorable little treasonous liars.

 

‘…So much hate has been hyped against George W. Bush that anything that is done against him is unlikely to be questioned in most of the media. But whatever passing damage is being done to George W. Bush is a relatively minor concern compared to the lasting damage that is being done to the presidency as an institution that will still be here when George W. Bush is gone. Once it becomes accepted that it is all right to violate both the laws and the traditions of this nation, and to undermine the ability of the United States to speak to other nations of the world with one voice, we will have taken another fateful step downward into the degeneration of this society. Such a drastic and irresponsible step should remove any lingering doubt that the Democrats' political strategy is to ensure that there is an American defeat in Iraq, in order to ensure their own political victory in 2008…."

IRAN, IRAQ, TERROR, ISLAM

Unfortunately, GWB is winning in Iraq.  Oh, darn, what-ever will the Dems do?

 What is wrong with Islam?

Atlas Shrugs on stolen cars and the terror connection.  

PRIMARIES 2008

The Giuliani race

Hillary cannot count on the women’s vote.

Is Romney’s big money finish an indication of things to come?  

Thompson hurts Giuliani, not Romney.

RPC Blog says Giuliani is at his peak now. 

Bill Richardson is grandstanding by going trying to have remains of US servicemen killed in Korea returned.  

Animal rights people are after Judi Giuliani. This is the one that is going to hurt.

Novak says Thompson (Fred) is in it for real.

Is Romney a cut and run?  Duncan Hunter thinks so. Not good  - or maybe it is.