The FDA And the Tainted Pet Food Scandal

tags: tainted pet food, melamine, Food and Drug Administration, FDA, Andrew von Eschenbach, politics

In view of the current problems with melamine-tainted pet foods, and the fact that these foods escaped detection by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for so long, a growing number of people are concerned about the safety of human foods as well. Obviously, based on this tainted pet food fiasco, the FDA is ill-equipped to test imported foods for safety and as a result, who is to say that these poisoned pet foods are not a "trial run" for something bigger, something that can cause wholesale irreversible damage to many Americans' health? I don't see anything that indicates the FDA is doing anything different to protect American citizens' health than the health of our pets -- do you?

Worse, although the FDA only blames melamine-tainted wheat gluten for recent cat and dog illnesses and deaths, a growing body of evidence suggests that an excessive amount of vitamin D in dry pet food may also be to blame. Vitamin D overdose leads to hypercalcemia, an abnormally high level of calcium in the blood that causes the kidneys to malfunction -- symptoms that are similar to those seen in animals who recently have become sick or died after consuming only dry foods. Additionally, research at the Cleveland Clinic has confirmed that high levels of vitamin D-3 in animals' blood causes kidney malfunction.

"The FDA is feeding the public a line, and the American people's faith in the government is dying along with dogs and cats," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich. "The agency's failure to pinpoint the cause of death for animals who have eaten only dry food is cause for the commissioner to resign or be fired."

I disagree with PETA on many things -- in fact, on nearly everything, except this one thing: I join with PETA in demanding that FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach resign because of his agency's mishandling of the pet food crisis. Or is this man yet another Bush croney who will stay in office, regardless of the damage he causes?

Cited story.