Pet Food Recall Arrests Made in China
I’m glad to see the activity but I worry that the Chinese AND the FDA will try to pin everything on one or two supposedly rogue operators. Its very apparent that the system is broken and ALL food stuffs from China (including things such as ascorbic acid put in our foods and drinks to increase Vitamin C levels) need to be BLOCKED. Stop the imports until China fixes its system (if it can). Until then, a few arrests mean nothing.
Thanks to Morgan the Pirate Gato for meowing in this news from the New York Times.
China Makes Arrest in Pet Food Case
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: May 4, 2007SHANGHAI, May 3 — The general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to pet food suppliers in the United States has been detained by the Chinese authorities, according to police officials here and a person who was briefed on the investigation.
Mao Lijun, head of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, is being held in coastal Jiangsu Province, about 320 miles northwest of Shanghai, though a police spokesman in Pei County declined to say on what charges.In a telephone interview a few weeks ago, Mr. Mao denied any knowledge of how melamine, an industrial chemical, had adulterated pet food supplies sold under his company label earlier this year. He also insisted that his company had never exported any wheat gluten and that his products were only sold in the domestic market.
But regulators in the United States identified Xuzhou Anying and another Chinese company in nearby Shandong Province as the only sources of the contaminated ingredients that led to one of the biggest pet food recalls in American history.
Scientists are still trying to explain how melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, fertilizer and surface coatings but not considered very toxic, caused so many deaths.
The contamination — which affected some of the leading American pet food brands — has killed 16 animals and sickened thousands of others, according to the F.D.A.
The arrest of Mr. Mao may be an indication that the Chinese government is stepping up its own investigation into the scandal and also trying to show its willingness to cooperate with Food and Drug Administration investigators who arrived in China on Monday.
Concerns about the quality and safety of China’s agriculture exports have already led to an American ban on all wheat gluten entering the country from China and a warning for importers to sample or test all food and feed additives coming from this country.
Last month, South Africa also announced a pet food recall after more than 30 dogs died from eating food contaminated with melamine-tainted ingredients imported from China.
The Chinese government had initially reacted angrily to suggestions that Chinese food exports could have been the cause of death in so many American pets. At one point, the Chinese government even insisted that the country had not exported any wheat gluten to the United States this year.
People briefed on the United States investigation also complained that the Chinese government was reacting slowly to efforts by American regulators to get information from China as well as visas to visit the country.
But last week, with the pet food scandal widening and touching off global concerns, the government dropped the denial and only insisted that it was unlikely melamine could cause such harm in pets. Last Friday, however, China banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins that are made for export or for use in domestic food.
The government also approved the visas for regulators to travel here in the hopes of finding the source of the contamination.
The Chinese government now appears to be cooperating with American regulators. Last week, the F.D.A. issued an import alert circular that said the Chinese government had evidence that Xuzhou Anying was not the manufacturer of the tainted wheat gluten but may have had as many as 25 wheat gluten suppliers.
ChemNutra, the Las Vegas company that bought the wheat gluten and resold it to pet food makers in the United States, said it thought that Xuzhou was the manufacturer.
Regulators also said that Xuzhou had failed to disclose to China’s export authorities that it was shipping food or feed products to the United States and thereby avoided having its goods checked by food inspectors.
The Xuzhou shipments to ChemNutra were made through another Chinese company, the Suzhou Textiles Silk Light Industrial Company.
Despite its denials of knowing anything about melamine contamination, Xuzhou appears to have sought to buy large supplies of melamine, even in the weeks after the pet food recall.
The company had posted more than a dozen advertisement on the Internet seeking supplies of melamine scrap, the impure waste of an industrial chemical that animal feed producers here often mix into the feed to artificially increase the reading of the protein.
The producers here do that, many acknowledge, to cheat buyers into thinking they are getting higher grade feed, even though the melamine has no nutritional value.
On March 21, Xuzhou Anying had posted this on an Internet trading site called EC21: “We urgently need a lot of melamine scrap.”
Calls made today to the other Chinese supplier under suspicion, the Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Company, went unanswered.
Despite the ban on melamine in vegetable protein, chemical companies in China continue to say they sell melamine scrap to animal feed companies and even to food companies that make bakery items.
Follow this link to read the rest of the article, get more information and see pictures.
I have to agree, Joy. It’s like if you have a carload of kids and you’re on the way to the movies and they start pushing and shoving. You turn the car around and everybody goes home. The next time, they will learn to police each other before Mom has to get involved.
If you stop ALL exports from China, the good guys will quit looking for the U.S. to fix the problem. They will police each other and impose penalties for cheaters. I’d rather see them ALL step up to the plate to fix the problem rather than pout and play dumb.
– The Safe Pet Food Blog
What is this comment that this is not toxic to humans? I have not seen one study about the effects of slow long term poisoning of melamine and a human. Do we think we are so special…believe me if your dog is effected by consuming melamine….so are you….you are an animal too! There are no tests available…please produce them before such a flippant comment is made. Here is the deal …do you see the N’s in the melamine formula….this will cause a spike of this nitrogen to the immune system and an automatic antigen response is required by the human immune system.
Look at any animal and or Bovine study regarding improper food with a high nitrogen content…all the animals are sick. This is a huge problem for the world due to global warming and weather pattern changes now occurring. We were not poisoned by mother nature we are being poisoned by the Chinese……. the human doctors are laughing all the way to the bank as all your friends are diagnosed with auto immune diseases like diabetes, cancer, lupus etc.….should I go on? Humans are dumb animals!
Obewan
I totally agree, but the Chinese WILL continue . If they were so heartless as to kill their own dogs, minimizing the pets a family can have, let alone children, they will continue to do it. To many of them a family fur creature is nothing. This will not end……it will only be covered up ( an opinion) .
remember……economics is the name of the game.
jan
will this ever stop? why would anyone even think of putting a non-food ingredient in something edible for pets or humans?
karen & Jersey:
From what I understand, Melamine makes poor quality proteins appear to be a higher quality protein, thus selling for much more money.
I agree with Dr. Janet Herrmann, the face of those in China will not change. I greatly fault the U.S. for being so stupid not to test everything that could be used for food. It’s astounding they let tons of grain come from an unknown supplier in China without a thought as to testing. The U.S. govt is very stupid and corrupted.
1st of all I really don’t know what to say. I agree that the Chinese should NOT be putting melamine in our pets food! However the fact is they have been doing it for a very long time.
It is my gut feeling that this melamine is NOT the reason that my baby girl T C is now dead. Where did the aminopterine (rat poison) story go? Was it there or was that a lie?
We can blame the Chinese all we want but the facts that remain are these:
We have 1000’s of pets that are sick, dying or dead!
Our governmants initial investigation of the wheat gluten turned up nothing (yet now it is in such mass quantity that it is clearly visible to the naked eye). Not only is it in mass quantity but now that we are looking for it it is EVERYWHERE!
They initially found a “rodenticide” in some pet food samples, yet now it’s ??????
My questions that really, really need to be aswered are:
Why was Menu Foods allowed to continue full operation of all plants?
Why were the supect plants not taped off while a full investigation was conducted?
Where in the &@#$ did the FDA plan on getting the “raw materials” they required for test purposes; if in fact the “suspect material” was no longer being purchased from that source?
Why did the plant in Kansas close down for a full week? Well after the fact.
Why is it sooooooo easy for us to “blame China”? China admitted “it’s been doing this for years”! They are a profit driven culture, they would not be willing to risk our “economical arrangement” if they weren’t sure that we either a would never find out; or Bknew it was safe as they were using it. Trust me they would have no problem testing it on animals.
Why can’t/won’t we look ourselves in the eye & at least admit that we “screwed up”?
The only pets that our own government is willing to cop to are the animals that Menu Foods killed trying to assess the situation. If these babies were human; & this were Gerber or Beechnut baby food; trust me we would NOT still be having this recall.
Bottom line; my baby that was 11 yrs old (whom I had bottle fed just so she could survive at 2-1/2 weeks old) IS DEAD! MENU FOODS killed my baby.
Her food was; according to Menu Foods “safe to feed my pet”, according to Menu. As it was not part of the original list; it was not recalled till almost the original recall; but since I don’t have any of the poison food that my pets consumed in it’s entirety. I will also not be receiving a reimbursement for the $2000 dollars I spent trying to save my baby.
Please guys; no more “I don’t Recall” Let’s end this recall NOW!
This message is for anyone who loves their pet. I treat my animals just like kids. Dont you want the best for them? Then why skimp when it comes to their food. As soon as I heard about the food recall, I got on line to find the best for my dog. And I did. Its,” Lifes Abundance” and my dog loves it. Its all natural, no preservatives, it even has spinach in it. I bought it when my Min Pin was about 10 months old. She is more active, brighter, and more alert than she was when she was a puppy. It cost about $14.00 for an 8lb bag. And its worth every penny. I was’nt buying the cheap stuff in the begining. After I read an article about all the crap that goes in food you buy off the shelf, (including the good stuff) I decided my dog was worth more than that. You can see it in their eyes, and feel it when you pick them up, how much healthier they are. So if you love your pet you’ll check out ,”Lifes Abundance” at Healthy Pet Net.com.