This whole pet food recall has bothered me.
Maybe it's just because I have two bunnies of my own, or because I am an animal lover in general, but there's something horrible to me about not having any idea what is truly in your pet's food, and accidentally poisoning your own beloved animal.
Our bunnies eat as well as we do. (Maybe better.)
Every day, we make them at least two salads, where they get several types of lettuce, one or more types of fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro), carrots, and sometimes fruit (strawberries, bananas). Let's not even talk treats. We've been told this diet is good for our bunnies, and they definitely like it.
However, most pet owners want to do what is best for their pet. Going to that point, a lot of pet foods involved in the recall are very high-end brands. Many people truly do love their pets like they were children, feeding them the best food so the pet will be around for as long as possible.
And even though our rabbits' diet involves a little more personal involvement and preparation on our part than the typical dog or cat owner, I understand the pain that pet owners are going through, when their pet suddenly starts dying of kidney failure because it ate tainted food. It would be as if we fed our rabbits some tainted lettuce, and they suddenly fell over and started convulsing.
The deaths of these animals seem so senseless, especially since reports on CNN said that the companies may have known about the tainted food as early as December. Until the food was recalled, owners were powerless to prevent this harm to their pets. Who would think that their pet's food contains rat poison, or plastic-making compounds?
I hope no one I know has been affected by this problem, but it makes me sad to think of all the cats and dogs across the country that died needlessly. If these manufacturers had worried more about potential deaths from its poisoned food, rather than the bad publicity surrounding a recall, a lot more animals might have survived.
Guess I'll give the rabbits a little extra carrot tonight.
6 comments:
Actually, the foods involved in the recall aren't very high end brands. The press is actually starting to focus a lot more on organic and "super-premium" (because, thanks to marketing execs, the word "premium" in the world of pet food just means normal) because the majority of them haven't been affected by the recall. Here's a list of safe foods: http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/. Even though their foods are safe, it's interesting to see how many of those companies are still involved with menu foods in some way though.
Even though most of the foods that were affected were only the wet varieties, after what I've heard of Menu Foods, I wouldn't feed my dog anything that was involved with Menu Foods at any stage of the food-making process. On one of the message boards I read, some of the people have said that their dogs were actually poisoned, but were saved in time, and they called Menu Foods to get their vet bills reimbursed, and Menu Foods refused because they didn't have their sales receipts for the food they purchased. Seriously, once the payment clears the bank, who saves their receipts? It's not like people often plan to return a half-eaten bag of pet food to the store. And, if the pet owners have test results from their vet showing the same poison in their pets' blood that was involved in the recall, shouldn't that be enough? I can't imagine that most pets would routinely encounter rat poison.
Ok...I guess I should probably stop ranting now. As you can see, I get a little worked up when it comes to pet stuff...but then again, you already knew that. ;-)
Ahh, I just think of "high end" cat and dog foods as the wet stuff they sell in tiny little expensive cans and packets. Fancy Feast, you know, stuff like that.
Yeah, and part of the problem (which you mentioned) is that Menu Foods isn't going to reimburse pet owners for vet bills unless they can prove their pet got sick from that food. Though in court they would only have to prove by a preponderance of the evidence (a 51% likelihood or more), it's still difficult to do - and it also puts some of the blame on the victim pet owners (like, if you can't prove that we poisoned your dog, you must have done it). The whole burden of proof thing pisses me off. Plus, some owners spent hundreds of dollars trying to find out what was wrong with their pet, and they aren't going to get any relief for that money until this class action goes through. UGH!
Well, someone mentioned that people who bought the food by credit card can contact the pet store they bought it from because most of the bigger companies like PetCo can search for the sale by credit card number and print out a duplicate receipt. So, that may help some people. (I know you don't need this information, but I'm hoping if I put this information on the Web, maybe someone whose pet was affected by the recall will come across it and be helped by it).
I know Menu Foods needs to protect themselves from scammers and people trying to take advantage, but at the same time, they HID this problem for weeks after they knew, and now they're doing everything they can to avoid giving restitution to people who have watched their pets go through so much pain. It's heartbreaking.
Honestly, it is scary to the ingredients in just about any brand of cat and dog food. The premium brands may not have as much fillers in them, but they are still made with a lot of the "unedible" remnants from slaughter houses.
And as you said, we want are pets to be around as long as possible, so I feed mine a completely raw food diet, which includes raw meat, vegetables, and some grains. It's so healthy for them, plus they looooovvvveee it.
It doesn't really jive with my vegetarian diet, which dogs can be on too, but I'm no going that far with it.
Anyway, happy birthday!
Morgan
Morgan, is it ok if I e-mail you about the raw food diet? I've been wanting to do that with Annie, and actually I tried it for four days, but I had so many questions and no one I knew of to ask that I just switched her back to dog food.
Sorry it took me so long Julie. E-mail with any questions you have, etc. My boss also has a lot of experience with the raw food diet, so if I can't answer it she can.
Val knows my e-mail.
Talk to ya soon,
Morgan
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