THEY'RE KILLING OUR BEST FRIENDS

If you are like me and you have an animal companion (me, I got a greyhound and that is her picture you see) you have probably been appalled and dismayed by this whole pet food recall thing. Some of you may say that this is no big deal as its just dogs and cats. To you I say, you just don't get it. This is a big deal and heads should roll.

But they won't!

My doggie by the way is fine. She eats food from Three Dog Bakery. However, because there was a possibility that she had eaten some "jerky treats" that have been recalled, I had her kidney functions tested. Everything thankfully came out okay.

What follows below are several press releases from PETA.

April 3, 2007: Damning News From Menu Foods; FDA May Be Wrong About Cause of Pet Deaths
Yesterday, the dean of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that Menu Foods had contacted the college in early March, when cats in Menu labs stopped eating their food. Almost a full week later, the company sent tissue and urine samples from sick animals to Cornell, acknowledging that the food was toxic. Nearly two more weeks passed before Menu issued a recall.

Although the FDA continues to blame tainted wheat gluten for recent cat and dog illnesses and deaths, a mounting number of complaints about sick and dying animals who ate only dry food that did not contain wheat gluten strongly suggests that there is another source of contamination. Evidence from reputable laboratories indicates that an excessive amount of vitamin D in pet food may be to blame. Vitamin D overdoses produce symptoms similar to those seen in animals who recently got sick or died after consuming only dry foods. PETA is demanding that the FDA refocus its investigation to include other likely causes instead of pandering to the pet food industry and focusing on an ingredient that is found in only a moderate number of foods.


–April 2, 2007; 10 a.m.: PETA Calls on FDA Head to Resign
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has called for the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step down from his post after revelations that the FDA refused to name the maker of a dry pet food believed to have received the suspected contaminated ingredient. Now, two independent laboratories are claiming that the FDA was wrong when it determined that the agent causing kidney failure in cats and dogs was wheat gluten contaminated with a chemical called melamine found in plastic. The FDA has yet to recall brands of dry food that are reportedly killing dogs and cats. The FDA has deceived the public and media, both about the nature of the recall and about the FDA’s oversight of the pet-food industry. Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, has claimed to the media, “There are really no differences in the regulation of animal food and the regulation of human food. The same people that inspect human food plants also inspect pet food plants.” However, the FDA’s own Web site verifies that the agency has left “regulation” of the pet-food industry to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a nongovernmental body with no power.

PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed
In the wake of a massive recall of contaminated and deadly dog and cat food, Menu Foods and Iams are under fire for their cruel and unnecessary laboratory tests on animals. PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against the companies for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and—just as disturbingly—apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

Menu Foods reportedly knew of this potentially deadly food as early as February 20, 2007. When reports surfaced that its dog and cat food might have caused severe illness in customers’ animal companions, the company quietly conducted lethal toxicity tests to confirm the contamination. Dogs and cats were forced to ingest toxic and lethal food in Menu’s laboratory before the company announced the recall of pet food from stores nationwide nearly one month after the initial illnesses were reported. During this critical time, countless animal companions may have been at risk of getting sick, and many may have died.

In addition to the appalling failure to disclose information about the contaminated food to its consumers, Menu Foods chose to test the food by forcing healthy dogs and cats to ingest it—instead of using one of the reliable, humane alternatives that are readily available, including chemical analyses of the food, necropsies and tissue analyses of the already deceased animal victims, and non-animal test methods, such as the functional gastro-intestinal dog model (FIDO) or TIM-1 and TIM-2 (small and large gastro-intestinal models).

No one knows how many animals are dying in homes or how many are dying in laboratories for pet-food profits. PETA is calling on Menu Foods to provide full disclosure regarding the location of its laboratories, for law enforcement agencies to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against Menu Foods in the U.S. and Canada for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as the company had the information, and for Iams to stop unnecessary suffering and death by immediately ending its laboratory tests on animals.

PETA’s Investigation Revealed Cruel and Deadly Tests Conducted for Iams
For nearly 10 months in 2002 and early 2003, a PETA investigator went undercover at an Iams contract testing laboratory and discovered a dark and sordid secret beneath the wholesome image of the dog- and cat-food manufacturer. Undercover footage captured images of dogs who had gone insane from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs who were left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs, and horribly sick dogs and cats who were languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer without veterinary care. In addition to suffering through painful experiments, animals in Iams labs were denied companionship and enrichment and were confined to their barren cages for at least 23 1/2 hours every day. The recent massive recall by Menu Foods, contract manufacturer for Procter & Gamble’s Iams and Eukanuba brands—of more than 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food is further proof that laboratory tests on animals do not guarantee that a product will be safe to use.