The Pet-food Protein-gate, part three

In the last 2 Daily Doses, I brought you up to speed and the sordid saga behind the plight of pets here in the U.S. - at least those whose owners don't know to ignore the advice of vets and pet-store employees when it comes to your cats' and dogs' diets. As I've said repeatedly now, the ONLY foods your little kittens and pups of all breeds and ages should be eating are raw meats, raw chicken liver, eggs, and fresh-cut vegetables as a topping. (They will always nose the vegetables aside and eat them last if still hungry.)

However, this isn't common knowledge to pet owners because of a vast vegetarian conspiracy (more on this later). As a result, a growing number of American - and now apparently some Canadian - pets are getting sick and dying of melamine poisoning, all but proven to be caused by tainted Chinese pet-food ingredients bought on the cheap by companies that care more for bottom lines than pets' lives...

In itself, this isn't so surprising, in my view. Capitalism can be cruel and corrupt-just like government. But it's the only system, if relatively free, that works.

But now, there's evidence that this murderous conspiracy of greed isn't just threatening Felix and Fido. Melamine poisoning could soon land some of your friends (or even you) in the hospital or morgue if the worst-case scenario being reported comes to fruition.

According to the Associated Press and other sources, huge quantities of the more than 100 brands of tainted pet foods that have been pulled from store shelves since mid-March have found their way into hog-feed in as many as 6 U.S. states. Safety officials have quarantined hogs in California, New York, both Carolinas, Utah and Ohio. The urine of some of these quarantined hogs has tested positive for melamine poisoning, the FDA has released...

It isn't known at this time whether any contaminated hogs have reached consumers' plates or not. Also implicated is at least one poultry farm, according to the FDA's chief veterinarian. Beyond this, the FDA has announced its intention to investigate other human foods that may have been subjected to contamination by these tainted Chinese grains - things like pizza dough, protein shakes, energy bars, and even infant formula.

Time will tell whether this scandal becomes as deadly a risk to people as it has been to their pets. As much as I hope that doesn't happen, it would not surprise me one bit if a number of Americans end up on the slab. That's what happens when greed meets corruption - and when the FDA is in charge of oversight...

But perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this tragedy is that it's all based on a lie that's been systematically perpetrated by the vegetarian movement. In effect, all of the blood's on their hands.

In the first of the 3 parts of this series, I pointed the finger of blame for this pet-food conspiracy - and all its casualties - squarely at vegetarianism. In case you haven't put the big picture together, let me sum it up for you...

Not entirely surprisingly, the pet industry in this country has been infiltrated and taken over by a branch of the animal rights crowd. Not the most militant sliver, mind you. They believe that animal ownership by humans is as evil as animal slaughter for consumption. But these wackos are just a small percentage of the animal rights movement.

A great many mainstream "animal people" are enthusiastic pet owners who believe in bonding with and loving animals. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't believe in eating animals, or even allowing their animals to eat animals - even though it's exactly what their cats and dogs need to be healthy. A lot of them are vegetarians, and by default, their pets are, too. But not all of them are. Plenty of dog and cat owners are meat-eaters, but they still want to buy what's best for their pets...

So they buy their pet-food on the advice of the "experts" at the local Petco or PetSmart, despite the fact that these stores are largely staffed by young, idealistic folks - many of whom buy into the vegetarian dogma hook, line and sinker. The whole thing combines to become a snowball effect...

Pet owners and buyers of all types get care and feeding advice from misguided people who are convinced that eating meat is cruelty to animals. This creates more demand for meatless pet-food - which spurs pet-food makers to buy ever-larger quantities of the cheapest vegetable ingredients that are still high in protein (even if they've been spiked with poisonous additives). Naturally, the cheapest of these are outside the U.S....

And as such, they're low quality, un-regulated, and more likely to be hazardous.

Bottom line: If vegetarian dogma did not exist, pet owners, pet-store staffers, and veterinarians would wake up and take notice of what most animals eat naturally - each other. They'd also start allowing this knowledge to guide their dietary advice to pet owners, instead of allowing their own ignorance and prejudices to spur the death and sickening of countless numbers of the very pets they purport to be advocates of...

That's the very definition of tragic irony, isn't it?

Writing about the real animals "rights,"

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.