WhatFinger


ChemNutra, Stephen Miller, Sally Quing Miller

Final chapter in contaminated pet food scandal leaves unsolved mysteries



Justice purportedly caught up with some of the greedy companies responsible for the death of so many family pets last year. But even the closing chapter of the contaminated pet food scandal could be filed under the unsolved mystery category. “Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed dozens of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China.” ([url=http://www.breitbart.com]http://www.breitbart.com[/url]).

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Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co., and Las Vegas-based Chemnutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments. The U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City said the tainted food led to the death and serious illness of pets in the U.S. last year. One of the indictments charges Zuzhou Anying Biologic, located in China’s Jiangsu Province and Suzhou Textile, in Suzhou, China with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce. Chemnutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, 31, a Chinese national and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 55, were charged with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But as one pet owner wrote Canada Free Press today, “You know, something doesn’t jive here.” “I distinctly remember Stephen Miller in sworn testimony before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, the same hearing in which Menu Foods, ConAgra and one other also testified (also bad spinach victims), testifying that the (fake) wheat gluten was labeled as a ‘human food ingredient’…and someone, I think Washington State Representative Jay Inslee responded with “So we dodged a bullet here… “So, did Miller lie in sworn testimony before a Congressional subcommittee? “Or…was it mislabeled in China—and then re-labeled en route to Kansas City or in Kansas City, before being distributed to Menu Foods and others? “The FDA’s Steven Sundlof did say it had been labeled for “human consumption” and the FDA were chasing down all the recipients to ascertain whether or not it had gotten used in “human” foods.” “Perhaps the most instructive information Miller told committee members was that the wheat gluten he imported from China for pet food was “human food grade”. (Canada Free Press, April 25, 2007). “Toronto-based Menu Foods, in reality a publicly funded income trust fund, bought 1.7 million pounds of wheat gluten from Chemnutra. The gluten was also sold to at least three other major pet food makers. What Miller told committee members about the origination of Chemnutra imported chemicals differed from how they were described on Chemnutra’s website. “We import high-quality nutritional and pharmaceutical chemicals from China to the United States,” Miller said in opening remarks in his address to the committee. “These products come from manufacturers either known to us personally or recommended to us by a number of reputable and well-qualified trading agents with whom we have had long-standing relationships. Our US customers are manufacturers of pet food, and nutritional ingredients who want high quality, the best service, and the most competitive prices.” A posting to his company website described inventory as being purchased from “over 200 quality-assured manufacturers in China, with whom we have had strong relationships over the past 12 years. Miller also told committee members last April that “This was a new product”, adding “We had just started last fall in this business”. At the committee, Miller made no mention of Chemnutra’s company in China being within an hour’s drive of Xuhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, the company from which he purchased tons of tainted wheat gluten. There was no sign on the door of Chemnutra’s Los Vegas headquarters and information on Chemnutra CEO Sally Quing Miller was non-existent. Even as their pets were falling ill and dying, it was an eye opening heartache for pet owners who had to fight authorities for every scrap of information. Many pet owners learned only during the scandal that the content the multi-billion-dollar pet food industry puts in its cans, bags and pouches are unfit for Fluffy and Fido. Commercial pet food on supermarket shelves sometimes contains corpses of cats and dogs from rendering plants. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals go into the mix with bird beaks, animal feet and even intestines. Meanwhile even now that the pet food scare has faded from media headlines, there are no guarantees that justice ever caught up with all of the guilty.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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