MSNBC.com is carrying a Newsweek article about the Recall.
Here's a few paragraphs of a 3 page article:
Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17728426/site/newsweek/
Titled: "Limited Resources" - questions about the regulation of pet foods.

"March 21, 2007 - It's been nearly a week since Canadian pet-food manufacturer Menu Foods Inc. recalled some 60 million cans and pouches of wet food linked to the deaths of at least 15 cats and one dog, yet authorities still can't explain exactly what went wrong. Some critics and animal lovers are honing in on what they see as lax regulation of the $15-billion annual pet-food industry in the United States.

"There's almost a void there," says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association. "There is no real pet food department of any federal agency."
Technically, the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring that, like human foods, pet foods are safe to eat, truthfully labeled and produced under sanitary conditions. But on Tuesday, FDA officials admitted that the regulation of pet food takes a backseat to its regulatory obligations of other food and drug sectors, and that inspections of pet-food processing plants are done only on a for-cause basis.

"There are limited resources," said David Elder, director of the Office of Surveillance and Compliance in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine in Rockville, Md. Elder added that inspections of companion animals' food products are, "based on risk." Which means that the processing plant in Emporia, Kans., where the tainted food was manufactured, had never been inspected by government officials until after consumers started complaining about pets dying of kidney failure. The Emporia plant remains open and continues to produce new food, according to a Menu Foods spokesperson, who adds that safety tests are being done around the clock.

"The FDA says Ontario-based Menu Foods began to receive complaints about renal failure on Feb. 20 and began on Feb. 27 to conduct a series of taste tests on 40 to 50 dogs and cats, leading to the eventual death of at least 9 cats. On March 16, the company issued its North American recall of pet food sold under 95 different brand names manufactured between Dec. 3 and March 6, including popular brands such as Iams and Eukanuba, plus many store brands sold in large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Publix. ...

But without regular inspections, the pet-food industry is largely self-regulated. ...
"It's wide-open. As far as ingredients go, there is no regulation," says Ann Martin, a Canadian pet-health advocate and author of three pet-food related books, including 1997's "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food." While the raw materials used in commercial pet food often contain animal protein derived largely from slaughterhouse offal--unused animal parts--Martin contends that there are other sources of that material, including road kill, zoo animal carcasses and fecal matter. ...

The industry insists their products are absolutely safe. "Pet foods are the highest regulated product you'll find in the grocery store," says Duane Ekedahl, president of the Pet Food Institute (PFI), an industry trade association representing the interests of 20 member companies whose products make up about 97 percent of the dog and cat food produced in the United States. ...

On Tuesday, PFI issued a statement claiming that, "All cat and dog food products on store shelves are safe. The recall is now complete and all suspected products have been removed from the stream of commerce. ..."

[ {{}} Anybody care to believe that?? ]

Wonder if Phish Food or Hamster Pellets would be safer?


/s/ Phred