Tuesday, March 18, 2008

After Dog Food Recalls, Not Much Changes

One year after contaminated pet food killed potentially thousands of dogs and cats, few safety measures have gone into effect.

While pet food safety legislation has been passed and an industry commission has made recommendations to improve the safety and quality standards for pet food, some critics say the efforts, even when they are fully implemented, may not amount to much more than the fox guarding the hen house.

The federal legislation, for instance, relies on manufacturers to voluntarily recall contaminated pet food. “As long as it’s voluntary, there will always be breaches,” says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of the forthcoming book “Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine,” due out in September. “There will be breaches anyway, but voluntary doesn’t work as well as regulated.”

Because there is no national tracking system that monitors pet deaths, there is no definitive tally of animals that died from consuming pet food made with imported Chinese ingredients tainted with the chemical melamine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23505218/

This gets under my fur worse than the UPS guy.
It's amazing after everything that happened the regulations aren't coming on strong. My food is made in the USA and Canada using only human grade ingredients, so I'm not worried, but think of the millions of pets who eat Ol Roy every day. There should be some kind of regulation in place to protect them.

Woof! Woof!

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