Meowsings of a Right Paw Puttie Tat 10: Pet Food Recall
Hello...
Nikita here...
Yes, I know, its been nearly 2 months since I last appeared, and I apologize.
I've been thinking about how to best proceed, as promised, with more posting ( If you are new to SEJ see Archive for everything from the last few years. ), and something has occurred in recent days that has encouraged my return to action.
As everyone, and their Human Companions, are aware, by now, there is Fear at the Food Bowl all across the land.
A week ago it was reported that many brands of Cat, and Dog, Food were being recalled.
Animal Companions, nationwide, have been reported becoming ill, and some even have died.
This crisis may have begun in February, if this timeline is to be believed.
It has now been reported that Rat Poison was found, though how it got in the food is still up in the air: Was it an accident, or deliberate?
The Mainstream Media is reporting an official death toll of 16, so far, but there seems to be a lot more to this story, and the very real possibility of many more deaths, so far, and yet to come.
One place worth reading, on a daily basis, for stories related to this Crisis, is Pet Connection.
Its Blog has been on top of this since the beginning, with some great reporting, and links to other related news stories, not to mention the comments to nearly every post, by concerned Cat, and Dog, lovers.
They have begun a Database for people to report illnesses, and deaths, and are being swamped with e-mails,and tips.
As they write in this post:
Help us out on this! Yes, you should report your pet’s illness to the FDA. Yes, you should call the manufacturer, company that marketed the brand, retailer or grocer. (Good luck getting through to any of them, by the way.) But call us crazy, we think there needs to be an independent place for this to be reported, which is why we opened our database over the weekend.
So go to the database. Take a few minutes. Help us stay on top of this tragedy. Much of the media is still reporting 10 pet deaths — in essence, only those animals killed by Menu Food’s own tests. We know there are dozens if not hundreds more, but we can’t work with blog comments and e-mails. Anecdotal evidence is not going to cut it. We need names and details.
If you have a sick pet because of a recalled food, go here and enter the information. It’ll just take a minute.
There has been a lot of confusion all week, and so it is important to keep abreast of the story for the best, most accurate, information.
Pet connection reports the following, current numbers in their data base, with a caveate:
1,459 deceased pets ( 857 cats, 602 dogs ). As we’ve said before, these are self-reported numbers, but if nothing else they strongly suggest the numbers are higher than the “official” count of 16, more than half of which included animals killed feeding trials.
In a round-up, from which the above quote was taken, they also give a little backround on why "We made the decision to get the news out, and collect information on our own, in addition to that being offered through official channels. Not instead of, but addition to."
It seems that "we have been accused of offering ourselves as an official reporting site."
They clearly have not, from what this Cat can tell, while exploring the blog.
Check out this post for more.
Other websites following the story:
iVoryTowerz has a fascinating report about "How the Media Massage the Pet Food Scare".
***UPDATE - 11PM***
Go to Meowsings of a Right Paw Puttie Tat 12 for important updates!!
***END UPDATE***
In case you are wondering...
I have always been a Dry Cat Kitty, and over the past year I've discovered the pleasure of a good bowl of Hill's Science Diet for Indoor Cat ( Mature Adult 7+ ). ;-D
Yes, yes, I know, based on some of my photos on display on this blog, the claim that I am "Mature" might be considered to be up for debate, but humor me, okay.... ;-D
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