I spend a great deal of time sorting thru manufacturers’ claims and I can’t tell you the number of times a sales rep has used the pitch “it’s just as good as (pick a high-end food) but your cost on it is less!” My first question is “if it’s less, then what corners did you cut to make it?” A favorite saying from my Southern Dad: “if you let someone sell you a diamond ring for 10 cents, chances are you own a ring that’s not worth a dime!”

Before you continue to attack everybody and their brother for being greedy, liars or unethical (which by the way I am not and I resent being put into those categories by all the broad brush strokes y’all are using) you need to consider why imported ingredients are used.

The pet food industry knows exactly how much consumers are willing to pay for pet food. They hire very expensive research firms to give them that info. Soooooo, ingredients from the US cost more - substantially more - than imported ones. It costs less to can food out of the Country. It is cheaper to put US grown grain on a barge, process it in China and then return it to the US than to process it here. Of course, you lose control over the ingredients at that point.

The Chicken of the Sea plant in Southern CA closed during the Enron-driven energy fiasco a few years back. The company that owned it packed up & went home to Japan because the cost of electricity made their products unsaleable. That threw the canned pet food industry into a tizzy looking for anywhere to manufacture product.

Before casting stones, ask yourself; if I pay 50 cents per pound for pet food and ground beef costs more than $2/pound, how good & healthy can the food really be? Humans may survive on junk food, but they won’t stay healthy. Neither will our pets. Poor quality food, even without contamination, will lead to disease. You can’t blame tainted food for every sick animal. I have lost cats to kidney disease who ate raw food exclusively.

I beg some logical thinking here. As a biologist, I have a few commonsense questions to float:
1) acetominophen has no purpose in pet food that I know of. It costs money to add it. It kills pets. Why would a company intentionally put it into food? Melamine apparently boosts protein levels without the high cost associated with meat. That’s greed. But a pain killer? That kills pets? Give me a good reason for it to be there intentionally.

2) has any other lab found this contamination? Y’all are quick to jump my industry for being self-serving. Why wouldn’t a laboratory, knowing that concerned pet owners will want to test food, get a little free national publicity by “discovering” a new contaminant. I’m not saying this is the case, but do you have any idea how much this kind of publicity would cost? With all the suspicous minds on this post, you seem a little one-sided on this one. Has the lab shared it’s samples with an independent third party to test? It’s a simple way to counter the critisms that are being leveled at them.

3) a single incidence of contamination doesn’t hold up to scientific measure. The food could have been contaminated after manufacture. Do you have any idea how often I have to caution my customers to not use garbage can liners to store food in? Remind them to dump out the old food in a vittle vault before putting in the fresh? Not store food under the sink or in the garage next to chemicals? Again, send out your samples/lot numbers for independent testing.

Before you start a new Salem Witch Hunt, try to recover a little commonsense and decorum. You’ll get much closer to the truth and find more allies in your cause if you don’t show up raving and drooling like rabid dogs. Some of us ARE trying to reform the industry from within. How ’bout a little postive help instead of universal condemnation?

ITCHMO ADMIN: Sandi, we can all relate. We have the benefit of being able to edit our comments. :)

Maybe Christine needs some help to find the war zone here on the forums for posts like hers?

ITCHMO ADMIN: Hey now. We’re not kicking anyone off because of a difference in opinion. This isn’t a place just for pet owners with sick or dead pets. It’s a place for all pet owners. Period.

Christine, I think you need to do some research or come clean as to what pet food company or other agency you represent. The first word in your post that raises eyebrows is saying the situation WAS scary. If you have done any true research and reading, you will find this is not over and has not been over.

My cat died in March and her food was touted to be clean by Nutro. Well it turns out that on April 10th the same food she was eating was tested at the request of another person and her vet and guess what, it came back showing the toxins. So dont come here and try to attack people without knowing the full story. Many of these people including me now have dead pets or pets that will be sick the rest of their lives. Do you have sick or dead pets from eating tainted pet food?

The food tested at Epertox did NOT test clean but yet its the pet food company, PFI and FDA that is saying that cant duplicate those findings. So who is really spreading rumors Christine? I would say its you and the other agencies. Do you realize that they did not even ask to test samples of the food that Epertox has before issuing their public statement?

I dont have patience left anymore for people that come here and attack without knowing what is really going on and without having pets affected. Please dont waste your time and ours.

I venture to say that most of us would love to get sued for saying the truth, a chance to get the lying bastids under oath AND have a judge take a boxcar full of their cash away from them , perhaps handcuffs for perjury?

http://tinyurl.com/3xe7qw

Attacking the reputation of an expert, because God knows they CAN”T use the truth- they do not have that. Don DOES!

The TRUTH is an absolute defense- it cannot be destroyed.

And it makes a mighty handy OFFENSIVE weapon too!

Use it!

Spread the news on the challenge. And the story above that I linked means the word IS getting out.

How about a personalized T-shirt with a tombstone and RIP with our pet’s name under that and the date or year?

My date would be July 16, 2006, but Purr-Purr was sick for a long time with CRF. She was eating Trader Joe’s canned (Menu Foods) and Purina Pro-Plan (which may have not been contaminated) in the months before her death. The kitten was okay, but she sure does not have the energy she had before that — and she always took Purr-Purr’s food.

Most recently, I went out of town on May 9th and among the foods I got for the cats was Trader Joe’s Tuna. Well, I came home to poo on a rug, dried poo in the back bedroom and a report that my cat care person cleaned up several vomit and poo spots!!!!!!!!! TJs had insisted that the tuna was not made by Menu Foods and would be fine. Humph!

The last ingredient is Rice Flour! Of course they gave me my money back, but I still had to worry about my cats and clean the rugs!

Yes, I still have them on common juniper, and fig tree tinctures for this. That is probably why they are still okay.