Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Pet food scare:

Too dangerous for rats but good enough for Fido

By Judi McLeod

Monday, March 26, 2007

Here's the thing pet lovers are missing about the Canadian company that sold the tainted food blamed for at least 14 dead pets: One: their products are still on store shelves across North America. Two: their profit line comes in part from a poison they import from China.

The still-on-store-shelves update was announced on Saturday by on-the-ball www.Briebart.com.

While it is true that Toronto-based Menu Foods has admitted it is worried customers will still find its products on store shelves, the multi-million dollar corporation is leaving it to individual store owners to remove its products, saying they should remove them no matter what the production date.

Pebbles"There is no known risk from items not listed on the recall list but an abundance of caution is called for in this situation. U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has been apprised of this action," the company said in a statement.

Scientists have pinpointed the agent responsible for killing family pets as wheat gluten imported from China.

How is it possible that a corporation in a Canada known worldwide for its wheat is relying on wheat gluten from China? Could lit be that Chinese wheat is cheaper than its Canadian counterpart?

How long has Menu Foods been importing its pet food ingredients from dog-killing China?

As recently as last summer, authorities in the Peoples' Republic of China culled and put to death some 50,000 dogs in one region and left the dog population a mere 10% of what it once was in another province. This was all carried out for what worldwide vets said was an inhumane means to deal with an outbreak of rabies. This was not the first time. Chinese pet owners have had their beloved animals literally torn out of their arms. During the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic back in mid-2003, unfounded fears that dogs might be carriers of the virus led to hundreds of animals being rounded up off the streets, dragged from heartbroken peoples' homes, and put to death.

Why does Menu Foods rely on dog-cruel China for the wheat gluten necessary for its pet food brands?

Canada Free Press editors wished they had placed closer attention to American pet lover Dean Ayers, who sent the first heads up on March 22.

"I have a friend who works in Petsmart," Ayers said in a message he sent via the Internet. "Today the Nutro rep. came in the store and, to make a long story short, started restocking all the cans of bad food that that was waiting on a pallet to be returned to the company. The store manager came and asked him what did he think he was doing? He told the manager that Nutro had ordered him to restock, that there is no proof their food was tainted, and he was going to restock.

"Well...the store manager took him into the office, had a few 'words of prayer' with him and told him to get out and don't come back, the manager would call the company, etc., and out he went.

"I have left out the friend's name, of course, and the location...to protect the friend. But I wanted everyone to know what this one company tried to do in this one store."

The poison killing dogs and cats in North America is called "aminopterin", a rodenticide so potent it was once used for abortions, a fact that may never have come to light without the current pet poison scare. Although it is used in other parts of the world as rat poison, aminopterin is not approved for use as rat poison in Canada or the United States. Yet it is being distributed to pet owners through retail under more than 90 brands in North America, including large retail outlets like Wal-mart and Winn-Dixie?

How is this possible?

Where are the Canadian and American authorities that would forbid the sale of aminopterin as rat poison but not as Fido's food?

Interesting that since the reports of dead pets surfaced, difficult to get access to Menu Food's website. While net surfers can find individual pages with the brands recalled, they cannot find any information on the individual board of directors. The links somehow don't work.

Meanwhile, Menu Foods should not be leaving it to individual storeowners who stock their product to remove them. They shouldn't have been selling pet food with poison from China to North American pet owners in the first place.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement