| Page 2 of 2 < |
Is That Wheat Gluten in My Bowl?
I propose that this is a rather big deal. The blogosphere is howling, and at dog parks everywhere, the food recalls and the response of the industry and government is Topic A. The FDA has been criticized as passive and weak, though it appears to have quickly mounted an investigation and assisted with the recalls. Perhaps, as Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said, "the system is broken-down." Announcing his intent to hold hearings, he compared the FDA to "a fire department that is only called after the house is burned down."
Then hurry up. Americans will spend $40 billion on their animals this year. There are 160 million dogs and cats in this country. But many who have pets don't think of themselves as "owners," or their "companion animals" as property.
  |
"When my mother asks me how her grandkid is doing, she's talking about our dog," Nemo, a poodle mix, said Ben Huh, a Seattle software developer who has been blogging up a storm on his site, Itchmo.com. Huh points out that in his city, dogs outnumber children two to one. For many people -- alone, retired, young, relocated, childless, whatever -- a dog or a cat is one of the central relationships in their lives.
There is a lot of lingering anger in the pet world about the food recalls. We just learned that the chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund sold nearly half his shares in the pet food maker less than three weeks before it announced a widespread recall, according to insider trading reports. Menu's CFO described it as "a horrible coincidence."
When we heard about the recall last month, we tossed all the cans of Mighty Dog, which had one product on the recall list, but not our formula. Wary anyway, we switched to another favorite, Paul Newman's Own Organic Chicken and Brown Rice (also not recalled). But then the dates of the recall were expanded, and several other pet food makers pulled their products. And then . . . I started grilling chickens for the dogs.
In time I got a grip. All that cooking was a hassle. And the dogs missed their cans of guts.
William Booth is a Los Angeles correspondent for The Washington Post.
