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  1. #1
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    The truth about 39,000 sick and dying pets

    The truth about 39,000 sick and dying pets

    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=55150

    Posted: April 12, 2007
    1:00 a.m. Eastern

    If you've been following the pet food poisoning scandal here in the United States, you may think that a dozen or so dogs and cats have been affected. Try 39,000. That's what Banfield, which operates 615 pet hospitals nationwide, says their data on kidney failure indicate when applied to the dog and cat population across the United States. And they have a good-sized sample: They've seen a million dogs and cats since the poisoning started.

    But suppose you're not a pet owner, or you just don't care. It doesn't affect you, does it?

    The Wall Street Journal suggests that maybe it does. An article titled "Who's Monitoring Chinese Food Experts," by Nicholas Zamiska in Hong Kong (April 9, 2007, p. B1), highlights the fact that inspection of imported food and commodities is pretty much the responsibility of the importing firm. Yes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects, and last month it turned away 215 shipments from mainland China; but the number of shipments to the U.S. from China is approaching 10 million annually. What the FDA can inspect is in the low-digit thousands. And of that, they turned away 215 in one month. Was that half of what they inspected? A quarter?

    The reaction of the Chinese firm that supplied the poisoned wheat gluten illustrates some inconvenient truths, truths that suggest Chinese values are rather different than ours. According to the Wall Street Journal story, the FDA has identified ChemNutra Inc. of Las Vegas as the wheat gluten supplier to Menu Foods (the pet food manufacturer). They imported the product from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. in Jiangsu, China. The firm's response:

    "A manager of Xuzhou Anying, surnamed Mao, told Reuters last week that his company never sold any wheat gluten to the U.S. 'I don't understand how come they are blaming us,' he said. But when representatives from ChemNutra met with Mr. Mao on March 31 in China to discuss the alleged contamination, he 'was apologetic and embarrassed and promised to do an investigation,' said a person familiar with the matter."

    But it is the next sentence in the Journal article that tells the real story: "This person said that the wheat gluten was shipped through an intermediary before arriving in the U.S."

    Gee, I wonder why Mr. Mao's firm used an intermediary between China and the U.S.? Could it be that his firm knew it was contaminated? Could it be they thought the chance of inspection was less if the shipment came from somewhere other than China? Perhaps they wanted to be able to deny shipping contaminated food if something bad happened as a result of the contamination?

    In effect, the U.S. has outsourced much of its food production to China. The reason? It's cheaper. And why is that? Heavy pesticide use, heavy fertilizer use and cheap labor – all the things that environmentalists and regulators prevent us from doing here. In effect, by using Chinese imports of commodities, fruits and vegetables, big food producers – and most are huge – can bypass U.S. FDA regulations. This leaves the FDA's quality and safety regulations affecting only domestic producers, raising their costs and shrinking their market (many respond by hiring illegal immigrants, who will work for less and reduce costs).

    Finally, we might ask: Does China think they have a problem? This article from November 2004 would indicate so. It acknowledges that "prohibited products and processes are widely used. … Most factories are not properly equipped to produce quality foodstuffs. … Criminals sell impure and bad foods."

    None of that seems to be a problem for the multinational firms that outsource key ingredients of their food products to China. Maybe China isn't the only party with a lowball view of the value of human life? Maybe the rest of us need to know where the food ingredients we buy actually come from?

  2. #2
    Senior Member BorderFox's Avatar
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    Wow. I didn't realize. I for one love my dogs more than most people. I can't imagine. We got lucky I guess (knock on wood).
    Deportacion? Si Se Puede!

  3. #3

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    If it can happen to our pet food, then could it happen to our own human food? Kinda scary isn't it. We are importing more food than ever. Why that is happening is beyond me. Should we blame George Bush?

    I saw this following on Lou Dobbs a few days ago, which lends awareness to the issue.

    DOBBS: The United States today taking action on unfair trade practices by communist China. The United States filing two complaints with the World Trade Organization. One case aimed at putting a stop to the piracy of music, books and movies and computer software. The second case challenges China's barriers to the legitimate sale of U.S.-produced movies, music and books.

    The Bush administration has been under increasing political pressure to act on China's restrictive trade policies. If for no other reason, then to at least build a favorable condition for its requests for an extension of trade promotion authority or fast track authority, which seems to be at risk now in Congress.

    The current pet food crisis has exposed a serious flaw in our food safety efforts. Not just for pets, but for people as well.

    As Bill Tucker now reports, the federal government is inspecting less than one percent of all the food that we import.

    (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Bush likes to emphasize the faith-based nature of his administration. Food safety is one of those areas. Over the past decade, our food imports have doubled, our food inspections have not kept pace.

    WINONA HAUTER, FOOD AND WATER WATCH: Look at seafood. We import 81 percent of the seafood into this country. And the FDA inspects about one percent of it. When you look at the actual real tests where they're sending something to a laboratory, a sample, that's about six- tenths of one percent.

    TUCKER: Less than one percent of our total food imports are inspected by the Food and Drug Administration. Yet, one-fifth of the food we eat comes from somewhere over than an American farm.

    MICHAEL DOYLE, UNIV. OF GEORGIA CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: Our Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for about 80 percent of the foods that we consume, does not have all the inspectors and personnel that's needed to provide us the safest foods that we are accustomed to.

    TUCKER: The FDA has 600 inspections for 65,000 facilities. While the FDA managed about a one percent inspection rate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture managed only slightly better at 16 percent last year. Critics say it isn't hard to understand why imports are so rapidly increasing.

    TOM BUIS, NATIONAL FARMERS UNION: A lot of the countries that we import our food from pay their workers a fraction of what we pay in the United States. Their environmental standards in which they produce to protect the air, water and soil are far less than the water required for U.S. producers.

    TUCKER: They are cheaper and earn the importing companies higher profits.

    (END VIDEOTAPE)

    TUCKER: And while big ag companies are bringing in more imports, they're also fighting country of origin labeling. Despite Congress passing the law in 2002, those labels are still not mandatory. Corporations would rather consumers just see the USDA-inspected sticker, Lou, and let them have faith that it's been inspected and believe that it's from a farm in the USA.

    DOBBS: And in 99 percent of the cases, that's absolutely not true.

    TUCKER: Correct.

    DOBBS: Bill, thank you very much.

    Bill Tucker.
    RDR

  4. #4
    Senior Member Lone_Patriot's Avatar
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    we have our dog & cats on solid gold pet foods. it is made in the USA from produce grown/raised in USA.
    http://solidgoldhealth.com/news/

    oh yeah i have no financial interest.

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