Pets – breeding, nutrition, health

You might have heard of this story in the national news, it happened this week – the day before Valentines Day – in a neighboring city to where I live.A small shard of metal was found in a child’s Valentines sucker – a Pokemon Valentine sucker – and the product was quickly recalled.As soon as the story broke here on local news – before they even announced where the product was made – I knew where it came from.It was made in China.

We’ll hope that one day China will get their act together and export only safe products. But until then, pet owners should be very aware and knowledgeable about where their pet food, treats, toys – anything that your pet could consume and any ingredient in them – comes from Or be ready to accept the consequences.

My objective is not to frighten you – instead my intent is to motivate you to take notice of and find out where everything you give your pet is from. Chinese imported wheat glutens and corn glutens caused the largest and deadliest pet food recall in history one year ago this month. I subscribe to the FDA’s recall email list – and I receive announcements almost every single day about a new recalled product (human products and pet products). Better than 60% of all of these new recalls are from imported products or an imported ingredient.

Please do not become complacent about your pet’s food and treats. Please don’t get too comfortable – and assume all is well with pet food. All types of recalls are happening on a daily basis mostly due to imported ingredients. You don’t want to be caught off guard and not know if your pet is eating food or treats that contain imported ingredients from some country with far less quality control than U.S. products.

I’m by no means 100% happy with the FDA or the CVM and their efforts to protect our pets (and our kids, and us!) – but we are head and shoulders above China.I think the FDA has a long way to go – and I am very hopeful they will continue to make changes to protect us and our pets. The one thing that is certain – for right now – the risk from Chinese imported products and ingredients is much higher than that of U.S. ingredients.

Pleasefind out where every ingredient in every product your pet consumes is from.It takes a simple phone call to the manufacturer – it might take ten minutes of your day for each manufacturer.But that ten minutes could turn out to be a life saver.Be pro-active for your pet’s health.

Call the pet food or pet treat manufacturer and ask them specifically if they use any imported ingredients in their products. You might get an answer similar to’we use all U.S. suppliers’. This is not the information you are looking for. A U.S. supplier of imported ingredients – tainted imported ingredients – was the cause of the pet food recall last year. Explicitly ask if any ingredient in the pet food comes from any country other than the U.S. and then ask what those countries are. In my work for Petsumer Report which provides this information to subscribers, it is often times a real challenge to get the necessary information. With some manufacturers you have to take on the role of investigative reporter to discover the information you need and deserve to know. Above all, be persistent.

It’s not that all Chinese imported ingredients or products are dangerous to your pet. It is that they have a history, a proven on-going history of exporting recalled, potentially dangerous products and there is no sign of improvement. Buyer beware. For your pet’s sake, find out if you are feeding a food or treat that contains imported ingredients.

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