Have We Seen the Last of the Pet Food Recall?

As most people have heard by now, on March 16, 2007, Menu Foods, a large-scale producer of brand name and private label pet foods, issued a massive recall of almost 60 million cat and dog food products after 15 companion animals throughout the US died as a direct result of consuming contaminated food. One human has also been confirmed to have gotten sick from eating this pet food. The recall, which has involved serious missteps on the part of the FDA and the pet food industry, initially included only wet and canned foods-however it has recently been expanded to include certain brands of dry food as well as some dog & cat "treats."

Now, as recently as Friday, April 13, the recall has been further expanded to include food manufactured by Canadian distributors. There is also evidence that the CFO of Menu Foods sold up to half of his stock in the company just weeks before the recall. The whole situation is bound to turn out to be another ugly scandal that will further dimish the public's trust in large corporations.

Pet owners are obviously worried-and for good reason. According to information obtained by PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Menu Foods knew that its food was making dogs & cats sick as early as February 20, 2007, yet it did nothing to alert the public until March 16 (notably, they made the announcement on a Friday, and concerned pet owners were unable to reach the company over the weekend). More recently, animal protection organizations across the country have been fielding numerous frantic calls from people all over the country whose pets have gotten sick and/or died after eating dry foods (which were not included in the March 16 recall). It wasn't until PETA held a press conference on March 30 that the pet food industry announced the first recall of dry food the next day, on March 31. All along, the pet food industry has been trying to protect their bottom line and do some serious "damage control," rather than trying to whatever possible to save the lives of countless beloved animal companions throughout the country.

But the worst is over, right? The contaminated food has been identified, pulled from the shelves, and anyone who has been alive for the past two weeks should know which products are safe and which aren't....right? Well, not so fast.

Initially, it was believed that the cause of the reported animals' deaths was ingestion of a chemical called aminopterin. This chemical, though not legal in the USA, is commonly used as a rat poison in many parts of the world. Furthermore, lab analysis indicated wheat gluten, a common ingredient used to "thicken" gravies in pet foods, as the likely source of the contamination. However, on March 30, the FDA reported that it failed to find aminopterin in its lab samples, but did find melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastics. Since then, the FDA and pet food industry have only been focusing on melamine as the cause of the poisonings, with wheat gluten identified as the sole culprit.

Unfortunately, pet owners have now been reporting that their animals are getting sick and dying after eating only dry foods, which do not contain any wheat gluten. According to PETA, evidence from independent laboratories now points to an excessive amount of Vitamin D in the pet foods. Vitamin D overdose can cause symptoms nearly identical to those seen in animals who fell ill after eating contaminated food.

Why isn't more being done to protect our puppies & kitties? Two words: corporate profits. The pet food industry has every reason to keep this recall as limited as possible. The more "wrong guesses" they come up with, the worse it looks for them. Every day this story stays in the press is a day of losing money. The more pets that get sick and die (that can be legally blamed on them, of course), the more money they have to pay out to grieving pet owners. Unfortunately, sites like PetConnection.com are receiving reports of more and more animals getting sick and dying every day. The pet food manufacturers have declared the recall "generally successful"....so why are animals still dying?

I believe this recall really highlights the importance of what we feed our pets. Have you ever looked at a list of ingredients on a bag of pet food? Do you know what half of them are? Look them up on Wikipedia or Google and find out. You might be surprised to find out that a lot of those innocent sounding ingredients are really sweet sounding names for things like chicken crap, the cancerous parts of animals that are deemed "unfit" for humans, and maybe even some euthanized dogs or cats (yes...that's right...dog and cat "meat"...in food for dogs & cats).

If you want to protect your pet now, and prevent exposing him/her to something like this in the future, take an hour or two and do your research. Know what you're feeding your animal. If you see an ingredient and don't know what it is, do some research or call the company. Opt for foods that are more natural and minimally processed...they may cost more, but isn't your beloved dog or cat worth it?