Time: Unraveling the Pet-Food Mystery

[PhilipShore]

The fear and outrage surrounding the death of beloved Fidos and Fifis around the country from contaminated pet food isn't going away. Another recall was announced on Thursday, as officials added pet treats made by Sunshine Mills, a company based in Red Bay, Alabama, to the list of retracted products, because of the possibility it may have used contaminated wheat gluten. And Menu Foods Ltd. — which announced its first recall of 60 million dog and cat food products packaged under various brand names three weeks ago — extended the recall date to foods made between Nov. 8 and Mar. 6.

What Caused the Deaths?

Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, who is part of a Cornell team investigating the cause of death, says he would not normally expect melamine to kill a pet. Research on melamine's effects on animals is very limited: only a few dated studies have been done on dogs and just one on cats, which showed limited poisonous effects and no kidney damage. And melamine has a very low level of toxicity to rodents. "It looks like it is causing direct cell death in the kidneys and this is not something we would have expected to happen," says Goldstein. "I don't think it's pure melamine. Maybe there is some kind of reaction with the metabolism of melamine that would cause this."

A growing number of complaints about sick and dying animals who ate only dry food, which typically does not contain wheat gluten, is another reason some authorities question whether melamine is the real culprit. Bruce Friedrich, Vice President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has urged the FDA to test for excessive levels of vitamin D; last year a manufacturing error led to too much of the vitamin in Royal Canin pet food, causing kidney failure and death in several animals. But Goldstein says excessive vitamin D is unlikely, since blood tests would show high calcium levels, which haven't been found. Says an FDA spokesman: "Our analysis of the premix indicates that vitamin levels were appropriate." Other theories floated to explain the bizarre deaths are aminopterin, or rat poison, which would cause the kind of kidney damage seen. An Albany lab found the substance in two pet food samples of canned foods, but the FDA has ruled these out because no other lab has been able to confirm the results.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1607483,00.html

[Iceburg]

1. K&R

[mainegreen]

2. it'll be interesting to see where the chips fall on this one.

[Morgana LaFey]

3. I think it'll be interesting to see when the STOP falling --

this week after week shit is gettin' old. And the Time article confirms some of my own suspicion: this ain't over by a long shot, and we DON'T know what the offending contaminant really is. Not good at all.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. K & R. I wish they would figure it out. ....n/t

[Gelliebeans]

5. K&R

Thanks for posting this.

[tblue37]

6. They don't know. And until they do know, we can't be sure that the list of

unsafe foods is complete.

[esvhicl]

7. How many actual deaths do we know of?

I live in the metropolis of LA in a highly populated neighborhood. No one I know of has had any animal deaths, nor has my vet had any sick animals...

[badgerpup]

8. I'd like to know what is safe to feed my furry kids!

Saw a fragment of a show about "Make your own pet chow" and the kind of stuff NOT to put in it...
but one of my cats will not eat anything EXCEPT 'dry cat food'...

I'd been feeding them Diamond Maintenance- switched to Active Adult because I have a (rapidly!) growing kitten who prefers the adult cats' food to the kitten formula.
So far, they're happy, healthy, energetic little hellions...
but they're MY little hellions...

[HuskiesHowls]

9. Its interesting, too, that they haven't named the company

that sold the wheat gluten to all these pet food companies. All they say is that it came from China. It does make one wonder where else they sold the wheat gluten, and if, contrary to all reports, it DID make it into the human food chain.

I read the ingredient labels VERY carefully, and only buy all natural food for my dogs.