No market left unregulated: FDA now in pet food business

[VoluntaryAmerican]

he Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on Friday that would govern the production of pet food and farm animal feed for the first time.

The regulation would help prevent food-borne illness in both animals and people, officials at the agency said, as people can become sick from handling contaminated animal food and from touching pets that have eaten it.

The proposal comes six years after the biggest pet food recall in history, when a Chinese producer contaminated dog and cat food with melamine, a compound used in plastics, causing the deaths of animals across the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/health/fda-moves-to-regulate-food-for-animals.html?_r=0

[Uriel999]

I already feel safer! :rolleyes:

[Occam's Banana]

It's for the puppies and kittens!

You don't hate puppies and kittens ... do you?

[Natural Citizen]

In 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) stated that, "Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with genetically modified (GM) food," including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. American Academy of Emergency Medicine (http://www.aaem.org/),

AAEM has asked physicians to advise all patients to avoid GM foods. In reality, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, infertility, immune suppression and nutritional problems. They urged long-term safety studies, but were ignored.

Dogs Naturally Magazine recently said this: “The label on your pet food or treat may conceal a little lie – and this lie could cost your pet's health or even his life. There is something inherently wrong with most processed foods that pet owners are unaware of. The heating and processing that these foods undergo create a fundamental change that could have dangerous ramifications it renders the food essentially dead. What goes in as good healthy ingredients is not what comes out once it is heated, sterilized, irradiated and extruded and nearly all dog foods will not meet AAFCO standards once they are heated. As a consequence, the vitamins and minerals must be added back in for the food to pass AAFCO requirements”. Combine this frightful fact with another one like; your dog food might say natural and made in the USA but ingredients included are from China or a source that fed their animals poorly and or with GMO grown feed”.

Jeffrey Smith/Institute for Responsible Technology shares “how animals were on the mend when taken OFF GMO foods”:

“These were veterinarians and farmers who had taken livestock, pigs and cows off of GMO feed. What do you suppose happened? Death rates dropped, still born rates were down, litter size was up, and overall health improved. One farmer was ecstatic about the huge increase in milk production in his herd; another described how healthy his pigs looked even down to reduced blood shot eyes. The vets I spoke with had all been in practice long before 1996, when GMOs were introduced. Each had his stories about the surge in diseases and disorders after GM feed came on the scene. One told me that the jump in dog and cat allergies correlated exactly with the introduction of GM pet food. Whenever he switched his allergic animals to an organic (non-GMO) brand, their symptoms such as itching would usually disappear. Others described inflammation, infections, and gastrointestinal disorders. Both vets and farmers saw differences inside GM-fed animals during autopsies or butchering, including liver damage, stomach ulcers, discoloration, and an awful stench. One farmer said that after seeing the alterations inside GM-fed animals, he and his wife started a strict non-GMO policy for their family’s meat.” (Apparently the vets who started their practices after GMO’s entered the food supply consider all these problems normal.)

Consider this when in the grocery store considering a big corporate pet food company’s line. Over the past 10 years they have been forced to appear to be a less expensive option with all natural superior ingredients. Wrong. We know this is all about money and profits. Ask questions, can the big dog food companies tell you where their chicken comes from and what those animals ate? Think before you jump for the natural chicken jerky advertised all day on TV from the grocery store. Is it from China? The commercial never says all natural, only that it’s real chicken jerky, but never that it is free of chemical preservatives.

http://www.aaem.org/

[Natural Citizen]

It's for the puppies and kittens!

You don't hate puppies and kittens ... do you?

Do you hate people? You don't hate people...do you?

It's OK for these corporations to use them and their pets as glorified science experiments? So what if they die?....It's for the market?

[Brian4Liberty]

So is the FDA going to be inspecting pet food production processes and facilities in China? Will they be prosecuting people in China that put poison in pet food?