EDITORIAL
IS ANY COMMERCIAL PET FOOD SAFE?
by Robert Jay Russell, Ph.D., Coton de Tulear Club of
America President
CotonNews@aol. com
www.CotonClub. com
April 27th, 2007. Since March 16th, I have written more
than 150 pages of information about the mass poisonings of
pet foods on the CTCA's CotonClub e-ZINE. I have been
fairly good at predicting where this crisis would go, and
what potential pet foods would be declared deadly. But
tonight, the U.S. government and the pet food industry
achieved a new low that even I did not see coming. Namely,
the ingredient labels on the cans and packages of pet food
may be total fictions. Further, the advertisement and web
site declarations of the pet food companies may be utter
lies.
For example, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul declared
on its web site, its packaging and its brochures that its
products contained absolutely no wheat gluten, corn gluten,
rice gluten or rice protein concentrate. This was and is a
lie.
Natural Balance pet foods similarly advertised and
published on its packages that its products were absolutely
free of glutens and protein concentrate additives. That,
too, was and is a lie.
The "voluntary" list of pet food companies that claim all
"safe" ingredients but that have substituted cheap Chinese
protein glutens is likely growing by the minute. There is
some question, of course, whether or not the individual pet
food companies that relied upon the very few actual
producers and canners left in America really knew that the
canners and packagers had been substituting cheap,
poisonous Chinese crap for their much touted "healthy" pet
foods. But who knew what and when is irrelevant to the dead
and dying pets and their grieving owners out there in the
real world.
Tonight, there is not a single ingredient label on any
processed food -- pet or human -- that should be trusted by
any sensible consumer. Indeed, the FDA actually allows food
packagers six months to change their ingredient labels once
they change ingredients on their unsuspecting consumers. I
wonder just how many people with Celiac Disease have died
terrible deaths when their supposedly gluten free packaged
food had its ingredients switched for cheap, imported
glutens? We are beginning to see how many pets may soon be
dying of kidney failure because of bogus ingredient labels,
and that toll may be unimaginable in the end.
Remember: even an "honest," health conscious, pet-loving,
pet food company owner may have no idea what the canner
he/she uses is actually putting into the food he/she
markets and sells. Remember: this administration' s FDA is
not working on behalf of your family's safety.
When you censor, then fire scientists from government
protective agencies (e.g., NOAA, EPA, USDA, FDA), when you
place corporate lobbyists in positions of agency power,
when you cut funds such that inspections are no longer
possible, when you trash manufacturing and import rules and
product regulations. .. you are left with snake oil
salesmen to supply America with food and drugs and only
rumor mills and blogs to protect citizens from them.
Late breaking news: there is an unconfirmed internet rumor,
probably far more reliable than anything a company web site
or the FDA is telling you, that some pet stores are quietly
pulling every Natural Balance pet food product off their
shelves. No explanation given.