Sunday, April 1, 2007

Pet food recall-hysteria is blinding people

So as the mother of two cute not so little cats who USED to eat Iams food including the cuts and gravy style, I have been very concerned about the contamination although my cats are very healthy (driving me crazy at times with their active antics-as I write this I am playing fetch with one and trying to keep the other off the keyboard). Its scary and of course pet owners are very scared but some people seem to be going overboard with the hysterics. Of course the fact that there is a bunch of disagreement on exactly what the toxin is doesn't help. But the hysteria is causing people to forget some facts. It seems that only organic companies/raw pet food suppliers can be trusted while the mainstream companies can't. Now I wouldn't exactly put my faith in Menu foods at this point but these "wholesome" companies are trying to make a profit as well. If you are going to distrust companies be consistant. I am shocked by the people who are quoting company websites as the source of the reasoning why their "diet" is superior. When I reminded someone about an FDA recall for SALMONELLA in a raw food supplier the response was that companies justification for why they felt the FDA was being "too cautious". And the idea of feeding raw food, with all the contamination issues of E.Coli, Salmonella and other bacterial issues is pretty scary. Someone said that "USDA approved meat" is good. Do they not understand that the USDA does inadequate inspections as well? And raw USDA meat even has some allowable contamination because its presumed the meat is going to be cooked? Plus now its led to some nasty insinuations. On DU, I observed a cat vet get attacked again and again as "pushing menu foods" because she, like many vets regard the brand Science Diet for their cats and is skeptical of raw diets. I would think her years of treating animals would be behind her reasoning but NOOO- its all that she is a corporate shill, corrupted by years of "gifts" from Science diet. The nasty attacks that have been aimed at this person are very distressing to me. Once again the person with the scientific knowledge can't actually know what they are talking about. To be fair she has said that homemade diets (which understandably are becoming popul ar) can be done but you have to be careful, and most people don't have the time or money to do it accurately. I would post this on DU, but it would just cause a flame war no doubt.

2 comments:

whee said...

hi -- it's xchrom -- i just wanted to say hi!

sue said...

Thanks for dropping in! Come back soon! Sue