Should Pet Owners Still Be Concerned With Imported Pet Foods? | Dogs

By SusanThixton
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The day before Valentines Day - a small shard of metal was found in a child's Valentine candy in a community just east of Tampa, FL. As soon as the story broke on local television, even before it was announced where the candy was made - I had a real suspicion to where the candy was made. It was made in China.

We'll hope that one day China will get their act together and export only safe products. But until then, pet owners should be very aware and knowledgeable about where their pet food, treats, toys - anything that your pet could consume and any ingredient in them - comes from Or be ready to accept the consequences.

My objective is not to frighten you - instead my intent is to motivate you to take notice of and find out where everything you give your pet is from. Chinese imported wheat glutens and corn glutens caused the largest and deadliest pet food recall in history one year ago this month. I subscribe to the FDA's recall email list - and I receive announcements almost every single day about a new recalled product (human products and pet products). Better than 60% of all of these new recalls are from imported products or an imported ingredient.

Don't be complacent about what you feed your pet. Do not be misled into thinking that no new pet food recalls means all is well. Recalls happen almost daily mostly due to imported products. You don't want to be caught off guard - not knowing if your pet's food or treats contains some ingredient(s) from China or any other country that has inferior quality control than U.S. standards.

I'm by no means 100% happy with the FDA or the CVM and their efforts to protect our pets (and our kids, and us!) - but we are head and shoulders above China.I think the FDA has a long way to go - and I am very hopeful they will continue to make changes to protect us and our pets. The one thing that is certain - for right now - the risk from Chinese imported products and ingredients is much higher than that of U.S. ingredients.

Pleasefind out where every ingredient in every product your pet consumes is from.It takes a simple phone call to the manufacturer - it might take ten minutes of your day for each manufacturer.But that ten minutes could turn out to be a life saver.Be pro-active for your pet's health.

When you call a pet food or pet treat manufacturer - ask them if they use all U.S. ingredients.You might get an answer like'yes, we use all U.S. suppliers'.Nope, that's not the information that you need - the supplier or distributor might be a U.S. company, but the actual ingredient could come from China.This is exactly the case with the contaminated wheat and corn glutens from a year ago.If you hear the 'U.S. suppliers' response, ask more questions'Do any of the ingredients in your pet food or pet treat originate from countries other than the U.S.?'Tell them you want to know if any ingredient in the pet food or treat is made in or grown outside the U.S.From my experience in asking over 30 different pet food/treat manufacturers these questions for Petsumer Report - you can tell pretty quickly which manufacturers are using all U.S. ingredients and who is not.The companies that use all U.S. ingredients - with the few expected exceptions like lamb and venison from New Zealand - are quick to tell you.The ones that don't - the companies that might purchase minerals, vitamins, or glutens from China - take you on an investigative journey before they finally give up the information you deserve to be told.

Please know - it is NOT that all Chinese imported ingredients or products are dangerous to your pet.It is that they have a history - a scary history - that has proven to be potentially dangerous and shows no signs of real improvement. It's simply a huge risk to feed your pet a food or treat with ingredients from China.

About the Author

Before you buy another bag of dog food or cat food, learn the secrets to selecting the safest, healthiest for your pet. Sign up for the free Truth About Pet Food newsletter and read from a library of pet food articles in Paw's Club. pet food, pet food safety, dog food, dog food safety, cat food, cat food safety, imports, Chinese imports, risk from Chinese imports, pet food recall

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