Thanks to Kathy Pippig for barking in this sweet story from The Newark Advocate.

After finding Hope, 10-year-old raising money to help dog
By LIZA MARTIN
Advocate Reporter

JACKSONTOWN — They’ve given her love, medical treatment, food and a home.

Most importantly, they’ve given her hope for a new and better life.

Prompted by her eldest son, Nick Foughty, Niki Wright and her boyfriend, Jeff Freeh, recently took in a malnourished, sickly and abandoned dog they found on the side of a Perry County road and named her “Hope.”

“I’m a dog lover, and she really likes me,” said Nick, who is 10 years old. “When I found out her brothers had been put down, I was really mad, so I said, ‘Mom, I want to help.’”

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Melamine!!!! I’m betting that there is not just one extremely dangerous contaminant in Menu’s food. How many more are they going to find?

If this is your first time reading about this topic in the blog and you have questions, please read on through the other posts on the poisoned pet food. You will find many of your questions answered either in the test of the posts or in the numerous reader comments.

Thanks to Terri Oak for barking in this news from CNN.com

FDA finds new chemical in recalled pet food, sick animals

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — Recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests failed to confirm the presence of rat poison, federal officials said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products.

The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food, but was not aware of any risk to people.

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The following statement comes directly from the Menu Foods site. Thanks to Jeannette for barking it in.

As you read through this piece you’ll notice that Henderson takes absolutely NO BLAME for the injuries to and deaths of what now appear to be thousands of pets. Instead, he keeps falling back on that old corporate tactic of claiming to have run the business by current industry standards.

Maybe Menu did keep to the letter of the law. But how is routinely buying food materials from a country with sub par storage and shipment processes of those processes keeping with the spirit of the law? It is no secret that Chinese food production and storage safety is not in line with North American expectations. I’m not being racist or judgemental here. I’m being factual. We’re talking food here, human and pet. Food. Not plastic geegaws, clothes or anything else that stays outside of the body. FOOD.

Maybe different toxins are showing up because there ARE different toxins in the wheat. Could it be that there are more than one or two poisons in the Chinese wheat and gluten Menu imported?

And yes, I understand that Menu and other similar companies are not required to test for melamine or other dangerous but relatively rare contaminants. Why not? Because the North American public expectation is that these kinds of companies will take reasonable care in where they get their products. Did Menu take reasonable care? I am not a food professional but it sure doesn’t look that way to me.

It looks to me that Menu Foods went to the cheapest source possible and went right past local and regional suppliers which had more expensive and safer food stocks. That’s like your local restaurant looking for the cheapest suppliers of meat and fish to keep their costs down. They might be cheaper but do you really want to eat there?

And Dogsters have barked in reminding us this issue is not and should not be about cost. Just because one person feeds a less expensive food is no reason for them to expect that all they can get is questionable food. When you walk into a less expensive restaurant, do you expect to put your life in danger with unsafe food? I’d hope not. You expect you won’t be eating expensive cuts of meat or caviar but you don’t expect your $6 meal to put you in the hospital or kill you. The same should be said for pet food. Cheaper may not be the absolutely tastiest but it should not be dangerous!

REMARKS BY PAUL K. HENDERSON
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MENU FOODS INCOME FUND
TO A NEWS CONFERENCE

MARCH 30, 2007
TORONTO

Ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you for your attendance, and for your continuing dedication to this disturbing and emotional story.

I am Paul Henderson, President and CEO of Menu Foods. With me today is Randall Copeland, Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, and a thirty-year veteran of the pet food industry, having spent a good portion of that time in plant operations.

This afternoon, I have a brief opening statement and then we will take a limited number of questions. For the sake of those listening in by phone, please do not begin asking your question until you have a microphone in hand.

One week ago, some of the dedicated researchers who had been investigating this matter reported the discovery of a single, toxic compound in our pet food. That, seemingly, cleared the way for us to address the problem, deal fairly with the pet-owners who had been injured, put our business back together, and move on.

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What a great idea for a contest! And those prizes aren’t bad either.

IS YOUR VET AMERICA’S BEST?

“Thank Your Vet for a Healthy Pet” contest honors veterinarians helping animals live healthier, happier, longer lives.

Every day, veterinarians honor our beloved pets by providing the special, personal care needed to help animals live healthier, happier, longer lives. Now, pet owners across the nation can say “thank you.”

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The ASPCA just sent out a notice that all the facts may STILL not be in on the poisoned Menu pet foods!

Whether or not this is true, will ANYONE ever trust these Menu guys again? Someone at Menu made the decision to buy cheap wheat from a country known for lacing their grain with rat poisons because their storage systems are too primitive to keep out rats. Their CEO and other executives delayed the recall while untold numbers of dogs and cats suffered and died and pet parents spent thousands of dollars trying to heal their furbabies. Then they pull the very sleazy trick of routinely dropping any important news on the wires and on news desks Friday afternoons with the idea that no one will report it over the weekend and forget it on Monday. Come on. Short of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King coming back in the flesh to vouch for these guys, no one SHOULD trust them! Even their own mothers ought to check their hands for missing fingers after shaking hands with them!

Thanks to the ASPCA for this update.

PET FOOD RECALL UPDATE: OTHER CONTAMINANTS MAY BE INVOLVED

Since Menu Foods, Inc. announced its massive pet food recall on March 16, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center has been flooded with calls from pet parents and animal welfare professionals alike. Based on data from these calls, the ASPCA reports that clinical signs in cats affected by the contaminated foods are not fully consistent with the ingestion of rat poison containing aminopterin which, says Menu Foods, is at the “root” of the contamination issue.

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Its Spring and time to get out and have some fun! How about getting into a brand new Dogster group dedicated to fun? Here’s what Dallas barked in to invite us all to come out and play!

I wanted to let Joy know about a new group called
♥All Fur Fun♥

****fun, Fun, FUn, FUN! Contests * Games * Events * Activities**** Where Every Critter is a Winner!
This group is a place to come and participate in Games, Contests, Holiday Special Events and Much more Fun..
We had not planned to open until April 1st but some how a pup slipped in then they rushed the gates to come play the games.

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Now here’s some good news for all those Dogsters with human children too!

Thanks to The Village News for this article.

Continual early exposure to dogs may alleviate asthma
Joe Naiman
Village News Correspondent

According to a presentation given during the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) meeting February 23-27 at the San Diego Convention Center, exposure to dogs in infancy and early childhood is associated with reduced symptoms of asthma.

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Someone just barked in about Breeding Master software and thought, wow, what a great idea for responsible breeders! The Breeding Master software does a lot from keeping track of vaccinations, tracking pairs and litters, stores pictures, tracks show-related information, stores relations and even builds pedigrees.

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Don’t forget to check out Cesar on CBS’ “The Ghost Whisperer” tomorrow night!

“My history with Ghosts”

My wife Ilusion and our kids and I all love to watch the “Ghost Whisperer” because it isn’t just a supernatural show; it’s also a spiritual show. It really stresses the important lessons that I learn from my dogs every day – to live in the moment and appreciate everything and everyone we love, all the time. My wife is a very spiritual person – she’s even seen ghosts and had visions in her life. But she was raised in America, where people are free to believe whatever they want. I grew up in a working class family in Mexico, where things were a little different. My family was more caught up in religion than spirituality. In spirituality you can definitely be more open to supernatural things, but since we were very Catholic, that would be like black magic or that would be like the wrong thing to follow. It wasn’t until I came to America that I really started to open up to things like ghosts and the supernatural. And of course, falling in love with my wife, I began to see the world in a much more open-minded way. Sort of like how Melinda opened up a new world for Jim!

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I am always humbled when I hear how Dogster has helped people draw meaning from the death of a furry loved one. Dee Ann barked in to let us know how her Maddy is helping other human, canine and feline Dogsters fight and deal with a terrible disease. Thank you Dee Ann for being a Dogster and thank you for sharing Maddy’s story!

Hello,

It has been a year and a half since we lost our beloved Maddy able to create a page for her on Dogster has been so healing. It helps us keep her memory alive.

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