Not that I want to join those that are "fear mongering", but there was a
letter to the editor in our local paper this morning - and I think the
writer made some very good points:

'Canaries in our coal mine'
To the editor:

The estimated 2,700 pets killed by thousands of tainted food products are
the canaries in our coal mine, alerting us to several dangers in our food
system.

First, the tainted ingredients were imported without, apparently, being
thoroughly inspected by anyone, including the FDA. That's typical. The
average American eats 260 pounds of imported food per year, and the FDA
inspects about 1.3 percent of it.

Second, we can't easily avoid imported food, because labels don't say where
each ingredient comes from. President Bush has repeatedly delayed country of
origin labeling laws.

Third, the FDA can only request "voluntary" recalls for most food. They
usually can't force a manufacturer to stop selling a food product like they
can make a drug company stop selling a drug.

Finally, the FDA suspects the adulteration was done intentionally, to
increase protein levels. As a result, the scenario matches one described as
"critical" in a 2006 Homeland Security planning document: Basic ingredients
are intentionally adulterated, enter the U.S. without inspection, and are
included in thousands of foods.

I urge readers to learn more about this. One place to start is a site run by
journalists and a vet: www.petconnection.com.

-Cathy Moore, Bloomington