When the story originally broke about the recall of 800,000 tons of tainted dog food in late December, I think the date was around December 20, it reminded me of the Nature's Recipe problem of the mid-'90s. I hoped, wrongfully, that it was not a similar problem, but indeed a mycotoxin—this time aflatoxin—had been found to have been distributed and ingested by dogs by their well-meaning owners. The bright side of the picture, of course, was that the recall appeared successful and that Cornell was called into the picture early on and moved, and continues to move, most positively in treating this terrible situation. The Doane Pet Food Company was similarly afflicted in 1998 so that historically, in fact, now with Diamond, there are three acknowledged and publicly recognized instances of these happenings. What worries me, as I am sure it does you, is that future occurrences may occur. Preventive steps to be assured they do not must be taken. Certainly the Pet Food Industry's statement contained in this week's “Question of the Week,” together Royal Canin with the Nestle Purina and Iams/Eukanuba comments, are satisfying and reassuring. That Diamond has increased its own level of inspection is good, too, but what exactly does that mean? Is Diamond now at the same level as other PFI members? And if so, what is that level? Diamond, one notes, is not a member of PFI, and are the standards set by PFI or the companies themselves strong enough? Since the problem seems to arise involving companies that produce massive amounts of pet food and the ingredients they use, perhaps the strict and rigorous inspections allegedly adhered to with regard to each load of raw ingredients should not only be fully explained to John Q. Public, but indeed made more rigorous and become even stricter.
Another incident of this nature—3 now within a 10-year (at the least) period—is totally unacceptable! Furthermore, I would hope that both AKC and CHF would be getting more involved in this problem as well.
It's interesting to note that representatives of animal welfare and veterinary groups are meeting in Orlando as this is being written with leaders of the American Red Cross, the Department of Homeland Security and other government and private emergency agencies to study rescue operations during last year's hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region. This National Emergency Management Summit is being sponsored by AHA (red flag), the goal being to integrate animal rescue into emergency planning. Considering the amount of time, energy and money and how proactive AKC was in these emergencies, one would have thought the AHA would have asked for AKC participation. It's failure to do so, which I understand is the case, hardly makes that organization any more credible to my thinking, at any rate.
Well, the time for more Delegates to be announcing for the upcoming elections is becoming more pregnant. While I'm not too sure whom amongst the latest list I would vote for were I to be a Delegate, I can only hope that more people will throw in their hats. I am not the greatest supporter of Ken Marden, but he stands out in this crew of candidates and happily has decided to run again, even though he was not re-nominated by the Nominating Committee. I'm not too sure the method in which the people who were nominated by the Committee was 100% accurately stated in a DOG NEWS article which appeared here. Recently, I received a number of calls from Board Member questioning certain statements. When I asked them to put it in writing as a “Letter to the Editor,” if you saw it so did I! So what is truth remains as written, since there have been no official complaints. Of course, in this week’s issue, John Mandeville’s “Inside Out” raises some interesting and somewhat similar conclusions.
We're off to the Invitational and looking forward to the two days we'll be there. I am speaking at a new organization for writers called PAW, at the request of Esme Treen. Who can turn her down for anything, but I'm not too sure I really understand how and why this organization was formed to begin with. They may not like hearing what I have to say, but that's their option, I guess. •