Careful What You Put In Your Mouth!
Eating May Be Hazardous to Your Health: No Matter How Many Feet You Have!
Contaminated food items shipped from China to the US and destined for use in pet food, have been blamed for the death of dozens of cats and dogs. While the ‘official’ death toll is below 100 with many thousands of animals listed as ‘sickened’, the actual mortality rate may in fact be quite higher. The FDA admits to receiving over 16,000 calls re: sick animals [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aAyK9T1SNiYc
and many pets that died in the period immediately preceding the recall may have expired from organ system failure resulting from unspecified causes. Eventually, veterinarians began to recognize great similarity in emergency case presentations at the clinical level, specifically, renal compromise and liver malfunction caused by ingestion of toxic ingredients. Since most pet food manufacturers blend ingredients into batches as needed, the phenomenon did not become totally visible until a clear pattern of sickness emerged across the board over several months.
While some animals experienced a slow onset of symptoms and discomfort was not immediately evident, other pets collapsed with acute problems; all required emergency intervention and supportive care. IV fluids, electrolyte monitoring, intensive hepatic and kidney function monitoring and blood level analysis was necessary to achieve stability and support care in the recovery phase lasted as long as three weeks, depending upon the food ingested and the size of the patient.
What did this? Well, that answer depends on whether or not you believe the FDA. The FDA investigation into this matter has determined that ‘melamine’ a chemical used routinely in fertilizer in Asia, may have been intentionally added to the ingredients used to make pet food because it cause the protein analysis ratings to appear much higher than they actually are. [2] http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWEN594320070330?feedType=RSS
Taken at face value, the plausible basis for this is that in the name of greed, someone in the pet food chain decided to cut corners in order to make an even bigger buck. End of story? Well, maybe not exactly.At the time of the FDA’s announcement, Cornell University Lab researchers had already identified ‘aminopterin’ a rodenticide that is illegal in the US, as being present in the pet food samples tested. [3]
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March07/PetFoodUpdate.kr.html
The FDA declined to comment on that finding. It is one thing to spin a tale that attributes the presence of a toxic ingredient such as ‘melamine’ to a mistake by an Asian exporter trying to extend a profit margin, but it is a different matter entirely to explain the deliberate addition of a known poison. Such an act implies intent to do harm. A lethal chemical used to kill rats made it through the safety net the US government is supposed to enforce to insure the integrity of the food supply. From that perspective, this story isn’t completely about pet food, is it?
The vastness of the potential human threat posed by this situation is chilling. While meat and fish are inspected in great detail and fruits and vegetables are subject to irradiation and washing, ingredients…the fine print on the food label are virtually pushed through with barely a nod. "You don't have to be a Ph.D. to figure out that ... if someone were to put some type of a toxic chemical into a product that's trusted, that could do a lot of damage before it's detected," said Michael Doyle, a microbiologist who directs the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety. [4] http://www.kiplinger.com/apnews/XmlStoryResult.php?storyid=350248
If the pet food poisoning was just a dry run to highlight the vulnerability of our import safety system and to scare Americans, I’d say it was quite successful.
CatherineS
Course Participant
posted by PWH @ 11:20 AM
69 comments
69 Comments:
although i see your point of view, you are relatively accusing someone of terrorising our great nation, directly or indirectly, i supose that not even a ph.D has the right to do that. on the other hand, the FDA could have neglected that fact of the presence of the poison because it could lead to many discomforts towards imported good (remember that a very healthy economic relationship exists between USA and China) as a result i presonally believe that the FDA will look more closely into this issue and make sure from now on that no matter how big the buck is, internal national security is much more important. after all its widely known that little kids have the tendancy to eat pet food, which could lead to human fatalities, and than your approach is perfectly true!
(PS: i hope i am not too late handing this in, i totally forgot about it as i was studying for the exam.)
Thank You Very Much,
SAmer Ead
duck username: sead2
U Id#: 22540701
Read it carefully...I am NOT accusing anyone of anything...just pointing out the possibilities one might entertain as probable in the current world we live in. As for believing the FDA will always take the high road and choose to do the right thing...I think their record speaks for itself. And where is it widely known that little kids have a tendency to eat pet food?
As for the US relationship with China...China has refused visas to the FDA inspectors who wanted to travel to the plants that exported the tainted ingredients..hmm..I wonder why they would do such a thing?
http://www.steinreport.com/archives/010275.html
There is also a reuters news report to verify this but I cannot bring up the archived URL, but feel free to check on this.
Catherine S
Course Participant
While this is a rather disturbing occurrence, I feel as though we shouldn't be too surprised. In a world where making money is such a priority, it is rather discomforting, to say the least, that the idea to contaminate pet food appeared acceptable to at least one manufacturer. Like you pointed out, humans are just one step away, right?
Our experiments with genetically engineered foods are, I think, somewhat related to this issue. Why do we have to have gigantic red apples or enormous, unnatural looking tomatoes to enjoy a good bite? To make money. I wonder where that controversy will end up.
Posted by J543
I find this to be a giant issue that has been bamboozled by the news and not taken as seriously as it maybe should be. Maybe if you included the idea of the contaminated peter pan peanut butter it woud drive the idea home for many people who may not have emotional connections to animals. The idea that something as simple as peanut butter was contaminated and potentially lethal scared me into wondering what else out there has the risk of making humans sick. Many eat food without thinking twice or (disgustingly enough) eat fruit without washing it first. If someone became sick because of dirty pesticide covered fruit it would be understandable, but when it comes to a common household item such as peanut butter the situation becomes way more real.
This outbreak of illness caused by rigging of cat and dog food with the toxin melamine was quite a scare. As CatherineS mentions, at first, there doesn’t seem to be much cause for alarm. A few pets had gotten sick and some passed on as organisms do. But when more and more cats and dogs started exhibiting the same ailments and dying, veterinarians began to notice a pattern. By the time the concern shifted from local to nationwide, hundreds and hundreds of pets have either gotten infected, are ill, or have died. These animals continued to suffer and perish as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scampered to find the source(s) and the substance causing this upsurge of disease.
It is frightening how easily this incident could have occurred with humans as the victims rather than pets. Some toxic chemical could be put into the food that we eat either accidentally or intentionally (bioterrorism). Although U.S. manufacturers could be the ones responsible for the poisoning, the United States depends on other nations to quite an extent for certain things. Whether it be wheat gluten for pet food or spices, flour, and produce for consumption by the American people, the contaminated food source could be one of various items and could come from a number of different foreign countries. This dependency on foreign nations could have some dangerous consequences, especially being that we have rubbed many countries the wrong way, so to speak. A citizen from the trading nation or from a nation through which the goods must pass could cause Americans serious harm by injecting poison into our food or even by infecting the food with some deadly virus (either with or without intent). Moreover, one would be shocked to know how little the amount of the provisions imported to this country are inspected by the FDA (see http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-16-imported-food_N.htm).
Hopefully this unfortunate episode with our pets will serve as a wakeup call and urge the United States to rely less on foreign countries for foodstuffs and other supplies and to increase the FDA’s ability and means to examine such imports as well as monitor and secure foods items manufactured internally.
I thought your post brought up some interesting points. It is scary to think how easily ingredients could slip through the FDA. There are so many food products with dozens of ingredients. How does the FDA inspect food products, and do they inspect each item? It seems impossible to do that. It had to have been a signifigant amount of poison to have contaminated the pet food stock to have done so much damage.
Sarah G.
When I first heard about the recall I became worried because I have dogs of my own. I had no idea what the reasoning behind this issue was, but now I know thanks to your article.
Your title grabbed my attention, but the grammar within the article was poor. With some more editing, this article would read much better. I felt that adding the possible human food related issues was just thrown in at the end and not elaborated on......your article was about pet food, not human food. If you wanted to tie in human issues more effectively, I would suggest starting earlier.
Your article had a lot of great information, but I want to know more about what you think. You said something at the end which got my attention and I think that more comments like that could make the article have a more personal relevance to the reader.
There are interesting points raised by this blog. I don’t believe the author is accusing any entity of terrorism. She is merely pointing out that, based on this recent pet food disaster, if someone wanted to intentionally poison our food supply, it would not be difficult to do so. Personally, I believe the poisoning was unintentional. If an individual or group wanted to terrorize the United States, why poison the pet food supply? Whether or not this was an intentional act to increase profits or to poison pets, the underlying issue is that we really don’t know what’s in our processed food. This incident is just another reminder that we should eat less processed items and consume more whole foods. This goes for our pets as well. The health benefits outweigh the inconvenience for our animals and us.
posted by duck user: garbaci6
I don't have pets and probably will never but i definitely feel for those who do and have to go through the lost of pets. It is such a tragedy and i want to know what the US is doing to stop this from happening besides the FDA's research? It's been a more than a week since you posted your blog, is any different now like did the death/emergency care rate go down in pets? Hopefully they did.
etienne7
I agree with the first comment, everyone is constantly trying to increase their profits and they're willing to do anything to get it. It seems that people have been getting more heartless. Cutting corners with ingredients in pet foods is one thing, but I don't think that food companies are going to do the same with food for people. If companies were to do this, it would be more costly to them in the long run because there's the issue of people suing them for bad products and word about this will eventually lead to the downfall of the company.
Lily Huynh
The addition of rat poison is disconcerting, but there is a plausible explanation not explored by the post. Instead of jumping to terrorism, consider that wheat and corn products are used in pet foods as well. Rats are common in the storehouses where these products are stored, and an allowable amount of rat fecal matter can enter the food. If the company was in danger of exceeding this disturbing quota, they could have used a powerful rat poison-one too powerful to be legal in the U.S.- to stop the problem. Now I am not protecting the companies either, because I was scared for my pets when I heard of the toxic pet food, and I think it is a shame that companies are greedy enough to use this melanine, but terror in our food supply is not new. We have had several E. coli scares, the most one recently in vegetables, not to mention the number of threats to our beef industry due to mad cow disease. I am sure that the FDA watches out on human food and doesn't consider pet food as seriously, which is deplorable (and an assumption). I am sure that food contamination will always be a problem due to how vast the industry is, but future terror plots will most likely not occur.
johnser6
I do not think that the person who wrote this article is wrong in 'accusing' this pet food catastrophy as possibly an act of terrorizing the nation. It does seem unlikely that it is the case and the melamine is one thing because it appeared to add protein to the food but to add rat poison to the pet food is just ridiculous. It doesnt take a genious to know poisoning pet food will probably have negative affects on the animals. I def agree with the person who commented saying that if they didnt mean any harm then why can't the fda investigate the food plants in China.
Bobby Forget
duck username: forgetr6
U id 21972745
I enjoyed reading this article but I believe that it should be cited differently. I agree with the fact that there are some "greedy" people out there, who are willing to do anything in order to make a profit. Maybe add more information upon how it leads from pet foods into humans (how it can affect anyone), maybe our canned products contain ingredients that were "accidentally" mistaken as something else (in order to make a profit). Read up on that, maybe the FDA then wouldn't have let that slip (like the pet food poison incident). Also, what about the food produce and sold in the USA? What about the huge red apples, big bananas, gigantic broccolis, and other enormous fruits and vegetables. Overall I enjoyed reading the essay, good job!
leesh6
You have obviously done a lot of research on this subject, it shows quite greatly. It makes me think twice about what i put into my mouth especially living on campus having everything made for me. You made everything so true to life. Great job!!!
You did a great job introducing the issue at hand with emphasis on how strong of an issue it actually is, but I'm a little confused as to what your conclusion is with this post. Whether it is a possible terror threat, failure at proper inspection, or simple monetary greed, it is by all means a point of concern for us all, and we should definitely take steps towards its resolution. Perhaps you were merely introducing the issue in some detail in order to arouse some thought and concern, so I guess that's effective enough on your behalf. Thanks
A dog owner myself, I had already heard about the recall of pet food nation-wide. However, this is the first I've heard of the presence of rat poison in certain brands of food, which makes me wonder who the people are who put these products on the market. I would assume that, with all of those animal-lovers out there, all pet food must be tested before it can be bought and sold to pet owners. For this reason, I find it highly unlikely that the food would pass any tests regarding nutritional content. Maybe the combination of ingredients created some kind of poison that negatively affects several functions of the pets consuming the food. It makes me wonder, though, just how much of this food my own dog has eaten.
Erin Hickey
hickeye6
Well, while I was aware of pet's being sick around the nation because of their food, I was completely unaware of the cause. That is very scary, and the idea's you brought up about it being a test-run for human food was even more terrifying. Hopefully that won't happen. But in any case, on to comments about the blog. It was written very well to keep the reader entertained. The questions and answers were very creative. However I think more connections with biology and the way these poisons work to hurt and harm the pets could be added. Going into detail with the action way the poisons hurt the digestive system and the respiratory system and any other systems it hurt would have been nice to know about. Other than that, great job!
i have a dog and its good to know what the exact symptoms are. i agree that the FDA needs to do a better job to ensure that man's best friend does not get sick, but also to prevent man from getting sick as well. How can a company try and put money ahead of our pets?
This was very informative, but the accusatory tone over shadows the science in the post. Instead of reading about the politics behind the pet food poisoning, I would have enjoyed reading about the difference between melamine and aminopterin and the side effects they cause. You only mentioned a possible reason for the addition of melamine, but fail to mention why it’s bad for pets.
This is an interesting but terrifying article. It's scary to think about how little we know about the products we use and ingest. I'm glad that I read this, it really makes me think twice about trusting everything that's put in front of me.
interesting article. when preciseisly did this problem go public? i ask b/c i'm curious as to how the chinese are handling this problem. is it getting any publicity in china? you also jump to a few harsh conclusions. is the fda for sure that this inclusion of the toxin was intentional? i'm not too surpised although that this could happen, i feel like greed leads to stuff like this all the time.
thanks
duck: starbuc6
I enjoyed reading this article but I believe that it should be cited differently. I agree with the fact that there are some "greedy" people out there, who are willing to do anything in order to make a profit. Maybe add more information upon how it leads from pet foods into humans (how it can affect anyone), maybe our canned products contain ingredients that were "accidentally" mistaken as something else (in order to make a profit). Read up on that, maybe the FDA then wouldn't have let that slip (like the pet food poison incident). Also, what about the food produce and sold in the USA? What about the huge red apples, big bananas, gigantic broccolis, and other enormous fruits and vegetables. Overall I enjoyed reading the essay, good job!
leesh6
This is a very touchy subject. I have a lot of insight into this subject because of the time i spend at cornell. I do a lot of vet internship work at Cornell and it is true that the aminopterin was found in the food, i have heard it from "the horse's mouth" and for the statement that the chemicals was added purposely is a bold statement and is hopefully one that is not true. I also would not say that the dog food companies are cutting corners but more working with the public to control food prices. Because of the high demand for ethanol the price of corn has sky rocketed and the price of feed has gone up. This has increased the price of not just corn but resources that use corn like cattle, dairy, or poultry. If the dog food companies increased their prices with the increase of ingredient price than the public would be extremely unhappy and the is a believed reason for the import of ingredients.
I know it may sound like you're trying to scare the audience to some people, but I took your article as an identification of the possibilities. I know it's easy for someone to be afraid of the truth and its options and accuse someone of causing trouble, but I think that it takes a bigger person to bring awareness to the public, especially since most of us have pets and eat food from different countries. I liked how you connected the animal food issue to human consumption because it sort of ties together your point to those who maybe don't know what's going on with the pet food.
I think your article on the pet food poisoning incident was well supported with facts and not at all overly bias. You bring up a very good point that I had not really considered. Whether the Asian manufacturer was looking to stretch their product for a little more money or actually testing our food security system does not matter all that much now. The incident is alarming and left many pet owners heartbroken. The moral of the story seems to be that the U.S. needs a stronger food inspection system. Additionally, for those worried about intentional poisoning of food coming from foreign countries, it may be a good idea to buy locally as much as possible! You'll cut lots of carbon emissions produced in food transportation and support the necessary switch to sustainable agriculture, in the process.
(P.S. there were no new blogs posted this Friday - 4/27/07 - so I'm hoping I'll get credit anyway for posting on this "older" blog)
Posted by Amy Koenig
Duck ID: koeniga6
Reading this really does give you a sense of discomfort. It's difficult to grasp the concept that something as awful as this happens just to get some extra money or to get the produced foods past standards. Being able to sneak such poisonous foods without detection did quite a bit of damage to pets, and like mentioned before, humans could easily be the next step. Even though our food products are looked at so carefully, one slip up can result in a lot of harm.
I don't think that it's clear who you are blaming..is it the producers in China or the neglect of the FDA? Maybe you could propose a specific solution to the issue and ways to prevent.. instead of just stating what was done wrong... how stict should testing of imported goods be and how often should it be done? Maybe it would be better if we imported less and made our own porducts...that would help our economy as well!
If you believe the toxins to be purposfully added to the pet food, would you consider it as a terrorist act or just being frugal? How would harming the pets of Americans really benefit China? Is this the same pet food that is used in China or other countries..or was it specifically directed to the US?
kuchytk6
It might be a good idea to support these accusations with some more hard evidence or at least some possible motivations. From a bystanders point of view, the entire issue seems slightly like a crazy conspiracy theory. I would be more interested to hear real facts that vague insinuations and hastly drawn conclusions. The crimes you are suggesting are serious, and should not be tossed around lightly.
And also, what measures are now being taken to prevent future contaminants from entering the country? Is the FDA doing anything? Could a crisis like this happen again?
faracij6
I find this topic to be especially interesting, because I believe my dog was poisened by her food. She started having very heavy nose bleeds that would last for days, and the vets couldn't figure out the problem. I did some internet research and noticed that a symptom of food poisoning in dogs is a bloody nose. I hope the food contamination stops very soon. The FDA must be more careful about anything shipped here, even animal food.
Harmana6
This cases about pets getting sick from eating food that was imported from china is not a new problem in america. It's just the first time the casualties wasn't human. Every major fast food industry in america at one point had some type of bacteria base illness breakout as a direct result of them try to cut corners. So, is is this story such a surprise.
jonesn7
I have mixed feelings about this article because I wish to become a vet and something big as this is a big deal and one that should be looked at and investigated. But on the other hand we should also tread on this lightly because business sense, we wouldn't want to cut all ties between China and the US. Because although they are supplying the food, its not entirely their fault if some toxins were passed over by the FDA (which is a US responsibility). So I believe that with some quiet suddle approach, we should deal with this problem asap. For both humans and animals' sake.
It is amazing that anyone would add something deadly like this to pet foods. This may have been an accident. The toxin have have crept into the food unnoticed.
People have gotten rather sick in the past from canned foods but the toxin (botulinum toxin) was not placed there on purpose.
vkeo bio101
whoops vkeo = keov3
sorry!
This article is an eye-opener. I dont know if there was anything delibrate in this occurence but It does suggest that we need a more strict policy on food analysis by the FDA for both food for people as well as pets. In the event that this was a delbrate occurence the possibility of an angry mind could do some serious damage in our food supply if proper precautions arent taken.
gumlawl2 Logan Gumlaw
I feel that this is a very interesting view regarding the topic and its recent stipulations with food. It is important to consider that there are ways to affect Americans, and through food would be a very effective means of doing so. It is also important to realize the effects this could have on the country as a whole.
it's amazing to me this could have happened. all those cans made it onto the shelves before the contamination was found. there should be more product testing at the factory and during import, just to make sure it's ok.
sorry i was a little late.
This is a very interesting article that you wrote. It's pretty scary to think that something like this could happen without being prevented by the FDA. However, this is much less likely to happen to human food. I believe that the reason this slipped by was because the FDA isn't as concerned with the health of pets as they are with the health of people. I couldn't imagine what would happen if hundreds of people died from food poisoning instead of hundreds of pets.
ryanj6
I appreciate the comments...thank you all. This post does not reflect my personal opinions re: Chinese-US relations, nor does it attempt to explain the reasons behind the pet food contamination.
Simply put, I asked people to consider the possibilities, given the situation. Any 'conclusions' to be drawn, must be done so on an individual basis by each reader for themselves. I wrote the blog based on the facts made public by reputable sources. I believe the scientists at the Cornell Lab, they determined aminopterin, a rodenticide banned in the US for the last twenty years to be present in lethal amounts in the samples they tested. I believe the FDA when they announced their lab had found melamine and they were going to China to see if they could pinpoint the source of the contamination. I am sure the Chinese Gov't has their own reasons for denying travel visas to the FDA inspectors. I don't really care about all of that...what I do care about is the apparent vulnerability of the American food supply to un-inspected ingredients from outside sources.
I work in an animal hospital; I know first hand the suffering of the animals we treated. Once the recall was made public and the tainted food list published, people brought sick pets in early and we saved many, but still lost quite a few. I chose this topic to write about because if the same people responsible for overlooking the inspection of "ingredients" that go into pet food are just as lax regarding the inspection of ingredients that go into people food, a review of procedures should be explored.
I stand behind the sources posted and they do in fact contain some additional scientific information re: this subject; as to the accusation of 'poor grammar', please feel free to contact me and suggest your revisions. I ran this past the people at the writing center program in the library and they thought it was fine.
CatherineS
Course Participant
When I first heard about the recall I was extremly alarmed. I had been feeding my new puppy eukaneba, which is one of the most expensive foods out there. I was horrified at the thought of her getting sick and dieing from her food. What made it even worse was she has a very senstivie stomach and although there was nothing wrong with her food she was getting ill at the same time the recall was happening--very scary. It is very scary to imagine if this happens to our pets all around the world, what would happen if this mistake happened to us?
csharpe
I enjoyed reading this article, and I feel that it provides some interesting and detailed information about what the FDA and Cornell have discovered. Both the article, and the fact that such a an unfortunate event actually took place, are definite eye-openers. It is clear that perhaps the US needs to take a more active and in-depth approach to verifying exactly what is coming into this country.
tencati6
Well this is not a very surprising occurance. It is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that the FDA has done something like that. I recently read an article about the bacteria-infested human food that the FDA had let slip by. Yes, you should be very careful indeed what you feed yourself and others!
-lis6
People do not realize the potential harm they could be causing to themselves and to their pets until situations like these appear nationwide on the news. From what I have learned in nutrition class, the FDA overlooks some of the sources being put into food items unless they pose as a serious threat to the population. No wonder why animals have been contaminated with food poisoning. People start getting concerned about their health only when it becomes too late.
- posted by nguyean7
This article was interesting. It does make people wonder if the tainted pet food was intentional or unintentional. It also kind of makes me wonder what else is going on with the investigation that is not being reported to the media. I'm wondering if there's a lot more to the story then what's being reported. But I'm sure everyone's doing their best to get to the bottom of this and hopefully find out what happened.
Hopefully the FDA will tighten its regulations in the ingredients that go into food, regardless who is eating it.
-ngc3
I think it is also important to look into possibilities that the poison was added inadvertently. It may seem far fetched to consider the poisonous additive to be accidental, but in a mass production in plants with low quality control, it is entirely possible. It is quite possible that the poison entered into the pet food supply because it was used in the plants as a poison against rats or other rodents. In unsanitary production facilities, this should definitely be considered as a possible explanation.
~tokard7
I had recently heard of this matter on the radio news. as the host were commenting on this issue, one of their points caught my attention, which are somewhat similar to what people have posted. from the host's point of view. the pet food incident served as a wakeup call to the American public, that the food supplies we obtain from the supermarkets should be invested in a greater detail, and wash them before consuming should be act out in every household.
DUCK ID: Zhaoy5
ST ID: 21574346
As a pet owner, I was horrified when I heard about the pet food contamination on the news. Although my pet was fine, my first thought was that this whole horrible incident was most likely caused by a pet food company trying to make a few extra bucks. This attitude seems to be shared by many pet product and pet stores in America. You always hear on the news how pet stores are housing their animals in substandard conditions (in some cases they even abuse the animals), and it's pretty terrible to hear. I hope that this incident leads to some reforms in laws regulating pet food and pet stores, it's long overdue.
markse5
This is very interesting. I would have never have thought the FDA would let major issues like toxins in pet food pass for inspection. Although I do not have much knowledge about pets,I am concerned about the food that the FDA inspects for humans. Do the foods we eat contain toxins? Should we start questioning the morals of the FDA?
- rufoa6
You bring uo many chilling by necessary points that must be looked at by our government and brought to the public. If the US government is just going to let imported food enter our country without really inspecting it, then they are in affect allowing for the possible poisoning of a mass number of US citizens. I understand that you are not pointing any fingers, but it is a true statement to make to say that the US government can not faulter in this area. The job of inspecting imported food, whether it is destined to grace people's dinner plates or our pets' food bowls, is a greatly important job. This job of inspecting food is to protect the safety of all those who will be consuming the food and if we cannot trust our government to protect us in this vital way, we as citizens of the United States have a number of concerns that we will have to address.
I enjoyed reading your post and now am reflecting on how scary a situation like that could be if it was directed towards humans. I thin it was a major blunder of the FDA to take so long to take action. I know that a pattern may have been harder to establish with animals than if it had been a human case but I think the important thing to take away from this i that we need to start paying closer attention to what we are importing into the country and then distributing to the consumers. We can learn from this instance and put measures in place to protect us as well as our animal friends.
That was a very well written article. I liked your use of quotes and citations. As an animal science major it saddened me to hear about the pet food recall and the 1,000's of infected and dead pets. I dislike the fact that the FDA is trying to cover up the fact that they messed up. If it was humans that were sick and dying the FDA would have to admit their mistake. The FDA thnks that because only animals are affected it doesn't matter. It does. Soon if the fact that animals are infected gets overlooked then soon humans will be infected because chances are if the FDA overlooked the ingredients imported from China for pet foods chances are they are doing the same for our food. It is only a matter of time before an epidemic breaks out. ~Alubin6~
I found your article interesting and find it sad that the FDA waited so long to
establish a pattern in regards to the animals that were getting sick. I think it
shows us how careful we need to be now in regards to what we import and
distribute to consumers around the country. I think we can take away from this
the idea that we need a better plan in place incase this would ever happen on a
human level. I think it is important to learn from this so that we can continue
to protect ourselves as well as our animal friends.
I think that it is unacceptable for contaiminated food to enter into the market. Countless numbers of animals have surcomed to this unfortunate incident. I think the FDA should have been doing a better job in regulating the food. Hopefully this problem can be contained immediately before more animals are killed and possibly humans in the nearfuture. I am confident that with the knowledge and resoruces we have that we will be able to curtail this serious problem
I totally agree with your article that this is a pretty scary and entirely sickening thing that was let to happen. I had a cat that died very suddenly from what seemed like nothing but from whats being found out now, I think we know the reason. Its intense that something like this oculd just slip through the FDA (for whatever the motives of the Chinese manufacturers). Its hard the trust anything if you can't even be sure the food your eating or serving is healthy. Hopefully, some steps toward making sure this never happens again are taken because otherwise we could all be in trouble.
I find your article very interesting. As an animal science major i clearly care deeply about animals and i have pets myself. However, it does not surprise me that something like this has happened. Those responsible for this occurence may have had the view that they're just animals. This idea as well as the fact that such things can slip through the FDA is extremely disturbing. This nation has deep trust in the FDA and it really scares me that our own pets are dying because certain things are not detected. This may change my opinion of later opinions made by the FDA.
Duck Username:newtonj6
ID:21758205
The petfood recall issue has been going on for a great deal of time now it seems. Working at a pet store, I see a dozen of people coming in everyday wondering which food is safe. In fact I have had a lot of people tell me that they don't trust any of the pet food now and that they are making their own food for their pets. What people will do to make a profit is not surprising, people will do anything to stretch the money they have. Good article, nice job!
The fact that this incident occurred, is ridiculous. You would think that our country would have these types of things under control. I think that it was a good topic for you to write about because it informed any unknowing individuals about this food poisoning. I just didnt understand why you started your post with "eating may be hazardous to your health: No matter how many feet you have!". Are humans being affected as well by this food poisoning?
You certainly gave me a whole new perspective on the highly publicized contamination of pet food. Despite all of the attention, the news offered few details on the various possible causes of the poisoning, and you provide many new findings. Although it may not be the case, it is terrifying to think that someone could so easily contaminate a mass amount of food that could be destined not only for our beloved pets, but us. I hope that it was indeed unintentional.
You do a great job of bringing emotion and purpose to your piece. Describing the suspected chemicals’ effects on the body would be very interesting and appropriate for the audience of a biology blog, as the blog focusing heavily on political and moral subject matter.
Great job!
Ohearnt6
I remember reading somewhere about how they seemed to sugarcoat the amount of pet deaths due to the poisoning. I think its horrible that they did that. The FDA really needs to up its standards of food checking.
The scary fact of the pet food problem is something to take into serious consideration. Deadly food aside even the lethal pet food is dangerous to humans. Small children will eat a handful of dog food or cat food all the time if they are not being watched carefully. I wonder if there were any reports of children becoming ill around the same time the pets were dying.
Whether the pet food was poisoned or it was an error because someone was trying to make more money it is still a worrisome occurance. Food producers could make the same mistake in human food if the FDA is not on top of their stuff.
The reason behind the contamination can be many, however, accusations are difficult to say at the moment. The nation could possibly be at danger but why would anyone target our precious animal friends? The article is great at relating the incident to us humans, to take the matter as a warning to watch what is "put in your mouth." There is much citation from the FDA, academia, and government, to strongly support the article. And the article was a great read from beginning to end however the only part that threw me off was the assumptions of national threat. I had thought of that as a possibility before however, I never thought that the issue was big enough to surmise the idea.
The severe affects of the recall and the poisonous foods on our pets is quite serious. Working in a pet store certainly highlights the troubles many people and pets are going through. I've been told it was due to companies in Asia putting a filler into the food to show up as a protein. It is a way of cutting corners. However, you brought up a good point being, how do we know if what we are eating is even checked properly? It's scarey to think some of our illnesses may be caused by companies "cutting corners". However, how much security do we need to check our products and will we be doing it out of fear and not neccesity? Thank you for bringing up this subject. It is very nerve racking but interesting to concider the amount of security we have in our food supplying companies.
I thought your post was interesting. Its disturbing to know that the FDA doesn't do a good enough job to keep out these infectious bacteria in foods. We as Americans eat so many foods without giving it a second thought to whether it is contaminated or not. Feeding our pets is even worse because we would feed it anything. There should be more measures out there to regulate this occurance. Maybe you could go into detail about how foods are passed the FDA regulation because to be honest, when i hear of "FDA Approved" i think its safe but apparently its not. From my knowledge there are a lot of techniques out there to detect a bacterial infection. Such techniques include PCR, Elisa, Antibodies, etc. You should look into these diagnostic systems and compare it to the FDA methods.
duck:luuj6
I agree with the last post in that the USA and China have a very healthy economic relationship. And even though we may not agree politically with China, I highly they would resort to bioterrorism of the PETS of this country. It just doesn't make sense. The only thing behind this was greed, and greed alone. It's scary knowing that the FDA didn't pick up on this until it was too late, however. I just hope they heighten security on all processed foods and not just pet foods.
duck: meig6
I agree with what this article says - i am one of those unfortunate people who lost a pet due to this oversight by the FDA - and I agree that the fact that something like this could happen in pet food is down right worrisome and unacceptable and it makes one wonder how easy it would be for human food to become contaminated.
This article is kind of more scary to think about because I can't imagine something like this happening with human food. I hope FDA can be more careful regarding this matter. So, it can reduce the mortality rate of pets and it would be a relief to us.
~ parekhb6
This article was an eye opener for me, although it is a scary thought but it is true. People including myself believed that the FDA always inspected food products a greatg deal before they were placed on the shelf. The out-break affected a great number of dogs and cats, because it wasn't only a handfull of animals the thought is scary. Who knows if the same would not happen for human food. Many things should be done in order to prevent this happening again. In different countries in where the US receives food from should have US inspectors present and observing these countries practices. Not only should this be done, but the FDA should inspect food a greater deal before it is placed on the shelf.
Thank you for the useful knowledge, I appreciate it.
-Siddiqi7
It's scary to think that something like this could get passed our food inspectors and into our homes. I hate to think that it was deliberate but even if it wasn't and someone company did it for profit I would still strongly argue that the dangers were known and therefore, intentional. I feel certain enough that the FDA has been and will continue investigating but I'm always skeptical about what is being reported and what has actually been discovered. Maybe it's time for the FDA to be more open with the public about its investigations so that we can all feel a little safer when/if something like this ever happens again.
-simpson6
Although this may be more of a political issue than a biological one, it is interesting to consider that the onset was caused by interactions between people.
Although on a vastly different level, this can be compared to diseases brought to the western world by Europeans.
Also, would this incident be considered an epidemic if it is cultured and produced by people rather than being passed via infested vectors?
-AM
I heard about a drug for colds being produced in China that was a cheaper copy of the one being developed here but contained an ingredient that led to the death of quite a few children. Although it's not the same thing, I feel this situation is quite similar and wonder if it may be the result of the US importing material from unreliable companies abroad. If that is the case, then there really should be more thorough research on the companies that are allowed to sell their products in the US.
Also, do you know how long it took the FDA to realize there was a problem with the pet food?
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