cat eat cat world

[Guest guest]

March 20, 2007

 

A Cat Eat Cat World

The Pet Food Recall

By MICKEY Z.

 

Detecting corporate media bias often requires us to discern omissions.

For example, consider how the recent pet food recall was reported.

 

Los Angeles Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino penned an article ( " Recall

of pet food alarms owners " ) on March 19, 2007 that was widely

syndicated. In the piece (which was consistent with almost all

corporate media accounts), readers learned what brands were in

question, how many animals had been affected, and (of course) that the

company's stock has plummeted. Yoshino also interviewed a handful of

pet owners (sic), including Victoria Levy, who declared: " That's so

disturbing. When they put food on the shelves, you trust that it's

safe. "

 

When they put food on the shelves, you trust that it's safe. This is

where the concept of " omissions " kicks in because what the Los Angeles

Times and its ilk opted to ignore is this: As tragic as the animal

deaths caused by the tainted " food " are, a small number of

contaminated cans is not really the issue when it comes to pet food.

In an industry dominated by multi-nationals like Nestlé, Heinz,

Colgate-Palmolive, and Procter & Gamble, repulsiveness should come as

no surprise.

 

" What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry is an

extension of the human food and agriculture industries, " explains the

Animal Protection Institute. " Pet food provides a market for

slaughterhouse offal, grains considered 'unfit for human consumption,'

and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste

includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and

cancerous animal parts. "

 

If you question the motives an animal " protection " group, here's what

the Pet Food Institute (the trade association of pet food

manufacturers) has to say:

 

" The growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet owners with

better foods for their pets, but also created profitable additional

markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the meat

packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food for

human consumption. "

 

In a particularly ugly twist, euthanized pets are often themselves

boiled and used to make cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin,

pharmaceuticals, and yes, pet food (with traces of sodium

pentobarbital for added flavor).

 

" When you read pet-food labels and it says meat or bone meal, that's

what it is: cooked and converted animals, including some dogs and

cats, " explains Layne of the California Veterinary Medical

Association. One more time...and this time with feeling: " When they

put food on the shelves, you trust that it's safe. "

 

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

 

 

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to

tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been

enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money

power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the

prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and

the republic is destroyed. I feel, at this moment, more anxiety for the safety

of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my

suspicions may prove groundless. " Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins

on November 21, 1864