Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall

I'm a contributing editor for Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, which has been covering the pet food recall on our blog and in our nationally syndicated pet column, since the night the story broke.

I just wrote a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle website about the pet food recall and its implications:

The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying after eating canned and pouched foods manufactured by Menu. The foods were recalled -- among them some of the country's best-known and biggest-selling brands -- and while it was certainly a sad story, and maybe even a bit of a wake-up call about some aspects of pet food manufacturing, that was about it.

At first, that was it for me, too. But I'm a contributing editor for a nationally syndicated pet feature, Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, and all of us there have close ties to the veterinary profession. Two of our contributors are vets themselves, including Dr. Marty Becker, the vet on "Good Morning America." And what we were hearing from veterinarians wasn't matching what we were hearing on the news.

Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall

Comments

[Kim]

Just a little note, Christie. Everyone is making it sound like the menu foods recall list is 90+ "premium" brands. In reality, the only food that I would even consider edible on this list is Nutro, and even then only some formulas of its "Natural Choice" line and most (but not all!) of its "Ultra" line.

Premium as a descriptive word should be saved for foods low in grain, by-product and preservatie free, high in meat and using human grade ingredients. None of the foods on this list meet that standard.

This tactic of calling the recalled diets "premium" or "among the best" has been used by the media to make consumers even more frightened of the pet food industry, demonizing the whole lot of them. The fact is that there are numerous pet food companies that use the same screening and ingredients that human food companies do. Some, sadly even more so!

I am beginning to become seriously concerned with the number of people rushing home to make fido a chicken oatmeal stew with ZERO knowledge of canine or feline nutrition. I have been making raw diets for six years now, and I am a huge fan of home cooked and raw meals for dogs. However, these people have no idea what they are doing, nor do a lot of them have the desire to learn.

A point needs to be made here that you can still feed your pet pre-made food, you just have to actually be careful about what you purchase. And the menu foods recall list never did make the grade, even before the recall.

My point in this ramble is that the reality of the situation is the average pet owner is far better off feeding good kibble than poor homemade.

**congrats on the Anderson Cooper interview... I can't wait. I've been waiting for weeks now for someone to bring the reality to the table, and so far no reporter has come close. I would love to see one of them mention the fact that these bargain-basement foods made with garbage ingredients were dangerous even BEFORE the contamination. These people were already killing their pets, just at a slower pace.

[Claudette]

I am very concerned over all of these recalls. Seems like we are given the list of dangerous and possible contaminated pet products, only to feel a few days of relief that the product listed wasn't the one being used on our pets.

Then all of a sudden we get hit again with another list of tainted foods to add to an already seemingly long list .

It seems like the safest thing to do is what pet professionals have told us all along not do do, and that is to prepare our own human food ( safe foods pets are able to eat) for our pets to insure that they will not be struck down with tainted dog food.

Now come to find out, not only are the foods we feed our pets tainted, but so are all the treats we reward our love ones with! Where will it end? and how long before we pause and rethink the food we are about to serve our unsuspecting pets is safe and will not kill them within a days time. I for one am very hesitant to serve my pets any kind of dog treats or foods. Dingos were my two dogs absolute favorite! Now they too are added to the list.... when will the madness end and how many more treasured pets will be added to an already growing death toll, before we find the culprit (s) and punish them to the full extents of the law!

Thank you, Kim. You made the point everyone seems to have missed. A number of people have asked me if I've had any problems with my animals as a result of the tainted food. My answer always is, I wouldn't feed that stuff to them anyway.

[Christie]

Well, I don't feed those foods to my animals, either.

However, I don't think that's the point here. I think that people have the RIGHT to expect that the companies who take their money are going to have ethical practices, are going to have labels that make sense and are accurate, that foods will be uncontaminated.

I actually think getting off on some crusade about home feeding or even just on the OMG horror of grocery store pet food is pointless and a distraction.

I myself have chosen to keep this story focused like a laser on the issues that I see as being at the heart of it: Ethics, honestly, accountability, tracking and notification of animal illness, the media and others dismissing this as "just a pet story".... and all the mental gymnastics that allowed this story, and the real numbers, to get downplayed for so long.

So I'm one home feeder who doesn't intend to jump on the "kibble bashing" or "let's all feed homemade" bandwagon, because I happen to think that even those people who make a different choice than I have about how to feed their pets... OR THEMSELVES... have the right to not have poison in the food they buy.

[Kim]

I see your point, Christie, and believe me I'm not trying to take away from the horror of the situation.

My point was only that these foods were already filled with poison. I think that this point needs to be made so that people don't fall back into the grocery food habit once the media gets tired of the story.

I see this as a horrific tragedy, but at the same time this is an opportunity to open people's eyes to what they've been blind to for so long... that the majority of pet food manufacturers have no concerns about our pets' health and wellbeing.

We may also have a chance here in the courts to change the legal stance that pets are property and nothing more. The reaction of the public to this crisis and their love for their pets may be just what is needed to tip the courts in favour of recognizing our pets for what they really are... family.

Instead, the majority of the media has focused on the fact that some high-end manufacturers (Innova, for example) uses Menu Foods as their canned food manufacturer. The propaganda machine is up and running, as Iams tries to make itself look equal to Innova (well, we're both made in the same place, we must be equal!).

I don't think that one single reporter has covered the entire story. No mention of all the past recalls, no mention of the fact that Iams is notorious for nutrition and labeling violations. No mention of what's in that food to begin with, or that the real problems lie with AAFCO rules and regulations, and that just because it's not on the label doesn't mean a damn thing.

Science Diet removes BHA and Ethoxyquin off of its labels and yet it's dry food is still good for almost two years. Petcurean recalls foods that are found to have over 10X the amount of allowed BHA... in their "naturally preserved" formula.

The problem here is not just this catastrophe... it's the entire industry. I agree that people have a right to purchase poison-free food, regardless of their quality choice. I also believe that we need to revisit what we consider poison, and just how much of it the government feels is safe. We all know what would have happened if this ingredient contaminate had been discovered prior to manufacturing... the contaminated gluten would have been simply mixed with uncontaminated gluten to lower the ppb to an "acceptable level." The same way they do now when these same ingredients are infected with aflatoxins.

I am not jumping on the kibble bashing or home feeding bandwagon. As I mentioned, I really believe that the majority of pet owners are NOT capable of providing a healthy home made diet to their pets. I am of the "garbage in, garbage out" mindset. This is a prime opportunity to explain to open people's eyes to the realities of the industry... and so far, no one has had the cahones to take them on.