China still untrustworthy

A compound related to a common nutritional supplement has been identified as the contaminant in a blood-thinning drug imported from China that sickened hundreds of frail patients in the U.S. and is suspected in a number of deaths, federal officials said Wednesday.

Last time it was our pets they sickened and killed.

The substance mimics the real drug -- heparin -- in standard safety tests and may have been deliberately substituted for the genuine compound somewhere along the line to boost middlemen's profits. It could also have been added through a mishap or some kind of misguided experiment. Because of difficulties in back-checking, it's unclear whether Food and Drug Administration officials will ever know for sure.

Greed lead to the deaths of thousands of cats and dogs (including our beloved Whiskers) now it's leading to the deaths of humans.

The FDA's announcement came days after the anniversary of last year's massive recall of contaminated pet food. In that case, the agency found that a chemical added to pet food ingredients from China had sickened thousands of dogs and cats, many of which died.

We should refuse to BUY ANYTHING FROM CHINA. First they killed our pets now they are killing frail patients in the U.S.

Pet Food Still At Risk

Check out Pet Food Recall: Buyer, beware By Christie Keith. It's very disheartening to know the pet food industry is still unregulated.

The federal legislation, for instance, relies on manufacturers to voluntarily recall contaminated pet food. “As long as it’s voluntary, there will always be breaches,” says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of the forthcoming book “Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine,” due out in September. “There will be breaches anyway, but voluntary doesn’t work as well as regulated.”

It was because Menu Foods dragged their feet about voluntarily recalling their poisoned product that Whiskers died. Voluntary doesn't work!!!!!

The Pet Food Recall ~ 1 Year

Pet-food recall: Where were you a year ago? By Gina Spadafori

I was at the oral surgeons with my eldest son. Our beloved cat Whiskers had died March 9th, 2007 from 75% kidney failure. I was horrified to realize that I had feed him one of the recalled pet foods (Special Kitty).

A year after the pet food recall

It was just a year ago when pet lovers found themselves in the middle of the nightmare of a massive pet food recall. Sadly many of the pets involved never woke up from that nightmare, and their owners are still trying to deal with it. Christie Keith, of Pet Connection answers the question, “has anything changed?”

I am outraged the answer is NO. Our pets are still in danger of being poisoned by their pet food.

Tiny Iowa town rescinds $5 cat bounty

I was happy to read that................
The tiny town of Randolph has rescinded a $5 bounty on feral feline.
Instead, the southwest Iowa town of 200 people has agreed to work with animal rescue groups on a catch, neuter and release program.

Bad News For Cats in Iowa

Iowa town offers bounty on stray cats. I wish there was something I could do for these poor strays.

Boycott the Olympics

After reading this China’s pre-Olympic cat killing in full swing, I will boycott any company that supports the Olympics. I do hope in light of the fact that China is responsible for the deaths of many of our pets due to poisoning the ingredients they sold to petfood companies (March 2007) and now the inhumane killing of cats the U.S. will refuse to attend.

Pet food scare in USA had a precursor

From USA Today

The Asian outbreak was little-known in the USA until it was reported last week by the blog Pet Connection. In the American public's view, the U.S. outbreak several years later appeared to be the first of its kind.

It was a comment by a Korean graduate student amid the 2007 outbreak that led Cathy Brown, a specialist in renal pathology at Georgia's Athens Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, to suspect this had happened before. Brown eventually tracked down tissue samples from the pets that died in 2004 at the Kyungpook National University in Korea.

The sample contained the same type of insoluble crystals found in U.S. pets in the 2007 outbreak, which killed at least 347 cats and dogs, according to preliminary data gathered by Wilson Rumbeiha at Michigan State University-Lansing. The exact number is believed to be much higher but in the absence of a structured reporting system has not been determined.

The Georgia paper was published last fall in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation but largely went unnoticed until it was picked up by the blog.

Cat Vitamins Recalled

The following recall has been announced:

-The Hartz Mountain Corp. is recalling 739 bottles of Hartz Vitamin Care for Cats because the product might be contaminated with salmonella, which could infect pets and people who come into contact with the cat vitamins. No reports of illnesses have been reported, according to the Secaucus, N.J., company.

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain in both people and cats.

The recalled cat vitamins, with the lot code No. SZ 22771, were distributed nationwide. The company recalled 3,600 bottles in November, also due to possible salmonella contamination.

For more information, consumers can call Hartz at 800-275-1414.

STOP Military Animal Abuse

Stop military personnel for abusing ALL ANIMALS see JAN'S FUNNY FARM: Military Animal Abuse to find out what you can do.

Why did Whiskers have to die?

It's hard to believe my furry friend has been gone almost a year. I still miss him so much. I miss hearing him say Mout when he wanted to go outside. I miss him sitting on my feet or in my lap. I miss him following me around outside.

It was bad enough when I read that cats in the Menu Foods labs had died as early as February 2007 and that Menu Food neglected to recall their poisonous food until it was too late for Whiskers. (Other post I have done on the pet food recall)

But now a Study says killer combination turned up in pet food before 2007 recall.

It seems that last year’s massive pet food recall wasn’t the first time thousands of pets suffered renal failure due to melamine and cyanuric acid contamination of pet food.

A recent article in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation says that a similar outbreak in 2004 was caused by the contaminants, and that “Findings in tissues from animals affected in the United States in 2007 were identical to those observed in the dogs from Asia that died in 2004.”

Why wasn't American pet owners aware of this before 2007? Why didn't we know the pet food we innocently gave out pets could potentially KILL THEM???

Christie Keith raises this troubling possibility.

Third is the question as to whether this has happened not only twice, but many times over the years. Certainly once the extent of melamine and cyanuric acid adulteration or protein concentrates in China was discovered it seemed fairly obvious the 2007 outbreak wasn’t the first one; it was just the first one we noticed. This study confirms that suspicion.

How many beloved pets over the years have died before their time due to kidney failure because of the food they were feed? How many furry friends have I lost because they were poisoned by their pet food?

You can read Christie's entire article at Pet Connection.