Illinois senator Richard Durbin’s office is soliciting citizen reactions to the ongoing pet food recall. Emails should be addressed to David Lazarus. I’ve just sent the following email:
Dear Mr. Lazarus:
My name is Dave Schuler, I am a constituent of Sen. Durbin’s, a resident of Chicago. As a committed pet owner I am very concerned about the recall of pet foods that has occurred over the last month and a half, seemingly expanding every day.
Starting with a far too long delayed response from Menu Foods and progressing from not knowing the source through suspecting that the reported problems may have been caused by wheat gluten imported from China, the present status is even more disturbing.
As of today wheat gluten, rice gluten concentrate, and corn gluten sold by Chinese suppliers have all been found to have been contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that should not be in human or animal feed in any quantity whatever. That this could be a coincidence strains credulity. That it is part of a program of deliberate fraud, an attempt to pass off a sub-standard product as containing more protein than it actually does, has been suggested by the Food & Drug Administration but it is not the only possibility. Other possibilities include deliberate poisoning or a defect in Chinese agricultural or manufacturing processes. These could extend to the human food supply and, indeed, just in the last few days it has been suggested that the melamine may have made its way into the human food supply.
Last night we learned that the foods we had been feeding our dogs for ten years, Sensible Choice Lamb and Rice, made by the Royal Canin company, had been recalled.
We returned the product we had in our possession to our retailer (they were very gracious) and purchased something so we had untainted food with which to feed our dogs in the morning. We are now researching alternative foods. In our opinion it is not only a single product or a single ingredient which is problematic but a decision-making process. We have lost our confidence in our long-time food supplier and there is no way they can regain it. We may have been poisoning our dogs under the mistaken assumption that we were doing our best for them.
We are not alone. There are millions of other concerned pet owners who are in exactly the same situation, some far worse having lost beloved pets as a result of tainted food.
The VERY LEAST thing that should be done immediately is that all vegetable protein sources from China should be banned pending review. That the FDA has not done this already is, in my opinion, negligent.
Objectives of legislation should include restoring confidence in pet food, companies, and government, all of which have been diminished as a result of this problem. I believe that the direction of this should be twofold. As consumers we should have the information we need to make an informed decision. This includes detailed content information that includes country of origin identification for every ingredient and every ingredient of an ingredient.
The second aspect of legislation should ensure that American brand name companies need to be aware that, when they choose to buy from overseas suppliers to which Americans have no legal recourse in the case of problems, that they are assuming the full responsibility for the wholesomeness and suitability of the products they sell. Ignorance is no defense. Since this story broke I have been posting about it on my blog, The Glittering Eye, http://www.theglitteringeye.com, nearly on a daily basis. I have received at least 1,000 visitors per day on this story alone, so, clearly it is of importance to Americans.
I think it is important not only because of its threat to our beloved pets, for which I have vital concern. I think that this story has implications for globalization, on corporate behavior and corporate citizenship, and on national security.
I would welcome hearing from you.
Sincerely,
David J. Schuler
