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Rat Poison in Pet Food


rmncwrtr

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The Machine did it. Some corporate idiot screwed up and the wrong tank of grain was processed in China and put on a boat for use in Scrappy's kibble.

 

Grain is processed with varying degrees of pesticides, fungicides, & herbicides. It's pretty conceivable this was either contaminated accidently in storage (rats/granaries) or intentionally treated because of a different intended purpose.

 

Seed wheat planted when I was growing up was treated with a mercury fungicide. Do you think that product builds up in the soil or just goes away? Where does it go if it goes away?

 

Don't presume it was one pet hater who did this thing.

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I never said it was a pet hater.

 

I have no idea how wheat processing works. But if a mistake was made someone needs to take responsibility.

 

Whether it was a machine or person, accidental or not, animals still died and the owners who loved them are in pain, mourning the loss of their loved ones. The owners are also facing huge vet bills on top of losing their furbabies. Others are struggling to keep their animals alive. Someone needs to pay for that. Someone also needs to put in some sort of checks and balance so it doesn't happen again.

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How about that recent spinach debacle. Haven't heard much, but saw the cdc report http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01593.html where they state there really wasn't any way to tell how the problem occurred.

 

Bottom line: Industrial food is not trustworthy. Corporations may dump money at a problem or sacrifice a peon to passify the masses, but in general, it's a crapshoot.

 

The end result here will be corporate fingerpointing, some (minimal) cash settlements & some lawsuits. Blame will be fixed on a supplier, someone will be fired, maybe a few more lawsuits among the supply chain to establish blame.

 

The problem with pesticides is you have to be looking for them to find them. There's no generic pesticide test, although there are tests that can look for multiple pesticides at once.

 

Don't get me wrong. This is a terrible thing for people to deal with. I'm not callous with regards to animal companions or their care-givers. I'm just saying if you buy what they're selling then you're going to get whatever they give you.

 

Good luck with that checks and balances thing. I'll sign the petition.

 

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Mr. Phil, there already are regulations in place for pet food. See here. The issue is how do those get enforced since this incident went against those regulations.

 

And yes, it happens with human food. Look at Odwalla or the ecoli that Jaee brought up or many of the others. People died in those cases and many got sick. I know it's buyer beware, one reason we belong to an organic CSA in Oregon City so I have a better idea what I'm feeding my kids.

 

But making my own cat food didn't work for us. I tried like I posted in another thread so I'm stuck with what's out there for better or worse. And I'd really hate to see this happen again. I'm sure Jaee's also correct that checks and balances is a pipe dream, but sometimes you just gotta try.

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I would not doubt that this occurred when the corpses of poisoned rats were processed into pet food.

 

The pet food industry is a subset of the rendering industry. They will take anything they can get... roadkill, dead zoo animals, unfit for human consumption slaughterhouse waste, etc.

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Mr. Phil, there already are regulations in place for pet food. See here. The issue is how do those get enforced since this incident went against those regulations.

 

And yes, it happens with human food. Look at Odwalla or the ecoli that Jaee brought up or many of the others. People died in those cases and many got sick. I know it's buyer beware, one reason we belong to an organic CSA in Oregon City so I have a better idea what I'm feeding my kids.

 

But making my own cat food didn't work for us. I tried like I posted in another thread so I'm stuck with what's out there for better or worse. And I'd really hate to see this happen again. I'm sure Jaee's also correct that checks and balances is a pipe dream, but sometimes you just gotta try.

The way they will get enforced is through pet owners paying more for their pet food to hire people to try and enforce these rules.

As for making your own pet food; remember that commercial pet food has not been around all that long. It doesn't exist in many of the countries that people own pets. Yet, all these animals seem to survive. You don't have to cook anything special for your animal, nor do you have to be dependent on food out of a bag that is full of filler and bullshit. It just ain't that tough.

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Eleven years ago, I decided to have another dog live in my home...the predecessor having died. So, after deciding upon the breed, Parsons Terrier, kept my eyes open for a supplier. I spotted an ad in the back of a magazine placed by a breeder who lived in SE Ohio, on the river, and placed a call.

 

After receiving photos of the pup, and the subsequent agreement on price for pup and shipment, our conversation came around to diet where I espoused the benefits of a natural diet. The breeder said she, too, gave her terriers a natural diet. I asked what she fed them, and after a pause, she said,

 

"Pedigree."

 

I said, "I'm not talking about manufactured food."

 

"I know," she said, "I give them natural food, too."

 

"Well, what do you give ,em?"

 

She paused for some time with audible sighs of stress emanating through the phone.

 

"I really don't want to say, as some people are squeamish and don't like hearing about the 'natural food' I give them."

 

I reassured her that I wasn't squeamish, in the least, and probably wouldn't be bothered by what she had to say.

 

"Well, you're not an animal rights activist or anything are you?"

 

"No."

 

"Well, ok. I give some of my neighbors, down here on the river, live traps and we all catch big river rats. I have a big fenced-in yard. I let the rats loose in my yard and the dogs get their 'natural diet'."

 

My laughter on the phone set her at ease as she went on to describe the high-intensity spectacle that ensued in this "natural diet" rodeo.

 

My dog, understandably, is an awesome rodent/varmint eliminator.

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I was working in a logging camp up the coast where they had had a mouse problem. So they got a dozen cats.

 

There are two cats left. Cougars and eagles got the rest. But no mice problem anymore. The cats seem to thrive without any food but what they catch.

 

Might not work if you don't have vermin. Probably hard for city apartment cat to thrive on this diet unless you live in a slum.

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