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The Pet Food List Grows — Why Now?
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The Pet Food List Grows

Lurch at Main and Central labeled his post: Soylent Green.

Add Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol’ Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands to the list of those who used the suspect wheat gluten. But the fun part is:

Wheat gluten is sold in both “food grade” and “feed grade” varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only “food grade” gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption.

This was “food grade” gluten and they still haven’t identified the source, so it could have been used in the stuff you microwaved last night. I don’t guess consumers are ready for the truth – no one is inspecting the food supply.

5 comments

1 Anntichrist S. Coulter { 04.02.07 at 8:50 pm }

Holy shit.

Well, after I stopped breathing there for a minute, I realized that I’ve only used the Dollar General brand cat food a couple of times, and it was months ago, and I haven’t fed *my* cats the Pounce treats (or any cats, for that matter) in about a YEAR (they cost almost a buck more than the other hairball treats), so it looks like we’ve been spared the sickle again.

I just have to check on The Dick’s wolf-hybrid dog, because I’m pretty sure that he’s fed her Ol’Roy dry food at some point… *sigh*

I’m not that skeered of the “food” contamination for myself, personally — if 36 years in Cancer Alley hasn’t killed me, I doubt that a bad TV dinner here or there is gonna do it. But then, I *do* get the occasional commodity from the local food bank, and where would a corporation dump iffy food, if not on the po’ mofos?

We gotta find a new planet. This one is shot to hell.

2 Bryan { 04.02.07 at 10:58 pm }

I was a fan of Pounce, but only for Koshka, who passed several years ago. The current crew don’t like treats, I think because I used them for medicine once too often.

Since you mentioned food banks. One of the people that lives in the apartments my Mother manages received two jars of peanut butter at a food bank, and didn’t eat it. So my Mother took it to give to another tenant who had her grandchildren visit a lot. I checked them when the salmonella warning came out and they were both from the tainted batch. It makes you wonder.

3 Steve Bates { 04.03.07 at 3:11 am }

Once again, Stella’s girls dodged the bullet… but the bullet is still out there, and it’s pointed at every cat any of us takes care of, and possibly a few humans as well, weirdos like me who eat wheat gluten.

I have a jar of the cheapest possible peanut butter in my pantry, and I’m throwing it out… now. It’s not worth the risk.

Annti, which “Cancer Alley” do you live in? I’m in Houston, across town from Pasadena/Deer Park, which is what the local public health people refer to as “Cancer Alley” because of all the refineries and chemical plants nearby… and they call it that for regrettably good reason. Stay healthy, Annti; we need you.

4 Bryan { 04.03.07 at 10:55 am }

The peanut butter was Peter Pan and the Mal-Wart store brand.

Wheat gluten is found in gravy mixes, flour, all kinds of things as a thickener, and not just as a meat substitute. That’s why they should have announced the distributor, so food processors who use wheat gluten could check their purchases to determine if they used gluten from that distributor. For Del Monte to show up at the party at this late date means that the word hasn’t gone out. Del Monte would have wanted to be part of a multi-brand recall, not singled out like this.

5 Anntichrist S. Coulter { 04.03.07 at 10:44 pm }

Steve, I live north of Baton Rouge, right on the Mississippi River, between a paper mill and a nuclear plant, just upriver of ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Marathon Oil, etc. The entire stretch of U.S. 61 through Louisiana is considered Cancer Alley, ’cause just about everybody who’s ever worked on it or lived near it has died of cancer, especially those who (like both of my grandfathers) work in the plants.

I’ve never used Peter Pan, thankfully (too much sugar), and the stuff that the food bank gives out is some off-brand that I’d never heard of until I had to sign up for the food bank. The local deer love the hell out of it, btw. When a big dump of brand-name food comes into the food bank system, 9 times out of 10, it’s something that’s either about to expire or about to be recalled. But hey, poor motherfuckers shouldn’t bitch, right? We’re not as “entitled” to gubmint protection as, say, GOP donors.

Thanks for the kind words, though. Always appreciated.

I did miss the DelMonte alert, though — hopefully no canned tomatoes on that list?