Vet P.O.V. Pigs and chickens and pets…oh my! (Pet Food Recall, redux)

OK so it’s about time I mentioned the pigs (…and now maybe chickens). I have one thing to say: What were they thinking???

OK so maybe I have more than one—and they’re all questions:

Who sold this “surplus” food to pigs meant for human consumption? Was it appropriately labeled, “pet food recall last call”? Who bought it? Does anyone even know the withdrawal time for melamine in pigs? Its effect on pig physiology? Or did they swallow the “16-death” pet food company party-line and consider any potential porcine casualties acceptable losses?

How many pet food execs does it take to change a light bulb? Apparently, the same number of hog farmers the same task requires.

To be fair, so far we don’t know who knew what…and when. But one thing is becoming clearer with each new piece of news: at least one in-the-know buyer and one in-the-know seller on either side of the pig/pet food equation was involved.

Now, these are ordinarily intelligent human beings. Sure it may hurt your chances somewhat to be a member of either group when it comes to you kid’s Career Day, but both professions are known for their well-honed ability to make money out of almost anything edible. So what went wrong in this instance?

Did the headlines of the previous month not register in their media-addled brains? Or did they just (somehow) manage to convince themselves they could get away with it?

I don’t know the answer. And congressional hearings on the subject are unlikely to shed any more light on this bad behavior. It’s obvious to me their reasons were motivated by the same ugly human trait that both spawned and propagated the recall: greed.

April 28th, 2007

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I agree.

My mother has been sick for the past couple of weeks and now I'm all paranoid that she ate some bad pork at some point. My parents don't eat alot of it, but it's common for them to have it once a week. Blech!

She has had bloodwork done, her urine tested, 2 cat scans ( waiting for the results on the second one) and so far nothing obvious has been found. Initially I thought it was the meds she was on for another problem or even possibly a food allergy that popped out of nowhere but her symptoms are not consistant. I try not to say too much about this whole human food contamination thing as she's a worry wart as it is. That and both of them are still wrapping their brains around the loss of their Jack Russell so talking about eating potentionally toxic food just doesn't seem appropiate.

Note: JR wasn't put down as a result of the food recall. The nasty tumor he had removed back in Jan came back more aggressively after surgery as we were told it would. Our vet wouldn't do a second surgery and my parents wouldn't have allowed it as it was a nasty surgery and all the tissue that needed to be removed couldn't be because the mass grew too deep into his chest.

Stacy April 28th, 2007 12:49:00 PM

What with the tainted pet food being fed to pigs, the rBGH and antibiotics given to cows, and who knows what else being fed to livestock, I am glad that I am a long-time vegetarian.

Susan April 28th, 2007 06:11:00 PM

Do you have more links for the pig thing? I only saw one on CNN and the information there was scanty.

zandperl April 28th, 2007 07:09:00 PM

For more info on the hog & chicken farms that received some apparently post-recall contaminated pet food, along with a tremendous amount of info re the pet food recalls, go to www.itchmo.com .

K9Rescue April 28th, 2007 10:30:00 PM

I wouldn't feel so smug about being a vegetarian. The FDA said last week the products such as white gluten and rice protein concentrate that were found to have illegal additives are also used to produce human food products. They specifically mentioned "meat" substitutes popular among vegetarians.

They didn't say the bad stuff made it into those human products, but they couldn't rule it out.

Gina April 29th, 2007 12:46:00 PM

I don't agree that I am smug about being a vegetarian. I made a personal, informed choice about how I wanted to live my life. It works for me, but I do not try to convert the rest of the world. My husband and children are not vegetarian.

I also do not believe that being a vegetarian protects me from tainted food. Look at the problems recently with spinach and peanut butter. I do try to protect myself by buying as much locally grown, organic food as possible and stay away from packaged, processed items. As we are finding with the pet foods, there is no way to be sure what is in that box or bag we buy at the store.

Susan April 29th, 2007 06:03:00 PM

the best thing about being a veggie is that you have more control over what goes into you--if you stay away from anything processed (including many of those frozen soy burgers) and assiduously wash your produce (I like Bronners castille soap for this). I'm not a vegetarian now but I did spend three years as an ovo-lacto veggie in my teen years. Now I just make sure I get my meat from free-range, organic, preferably local sources--but that's hard to do (and expensive!). I think this will be a great post topic for later this week: "Why aren't more vets vegetarians?"

Dr. Patty Khuly April 30th, 2007 09:57:00 AM

What about the pigs with pseudorabies in Wisconsin?

http://wisconsinagriculturist.com/index.aspx?ascxi...

320 pigs were sent to rendering after some of them turned up positive for pseudorabies. And where, exactly, is that rendered carcass going to be sent?

RKolosky April 30th, 2007 01:13:00 PM

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