Over Fifty Thousand Babies were sickened and four died. Now we find out that Fifteen Hundred Dogs have died as a result of melamine tainted food products over the last two months.
Over Fifty Thousand Babies were sickened and four died. Now we find out that Fifteen Hundred Dogs have died as a result of melamine tainted food products over the last two months.
If it were up to this author, I would shut down the sourcing of food products for human and pet consumption from China regardless of cost savings until an adequate safety system is in place that protects of families and pets.
The following information is taken from a Monday October 20th Yahoo news article By Gillian Wong a writer for the associated press.
Beijing ? Some 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur have died after eating feed tainted with melamine, a veterinarian said Monday, raising questions about how widespread the industrial chemical is in China’s food chain.
The revelation comes amid a crisis over dairy products tainted with melamine that has caused kidney stones in tens of thousands of Chinese children and has been linked to the deaths of four infants.
The raccoon dogs ? a breed native to east Asia whose fur is used to trim coats and other clothing died of kidney failure after eating the tainted feed, said Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University.? First, we found melamine in the dogs’ feed, and second, I found that 25 percent of the stones in the dogs’ kidneys were made up of melamine,” said Zhang, who performed a necropsy ? an animal autopsy ? on about a dozen dogs. Zhang declined to say when the animals died, but a report Monday in the Southern Metropolis Daily said the deaths occurred over the past two months.
“This is a problem throughout China where you have incentives that exist to produce things in a cheaper way to make greater profits, and people circumvent the regulations,” she said. “The (central government) is trying to eliminate this, but the problem is that for the few factories you close down, there’s another factory that pops up.”
Until we have a global food safety system with complete traceability and compliance standards that the entire supply chain is held accountable to, this type of problem will persist and leakage to other nations food supply will continue to be a risk.
We look forward to your comments.
