EDITORIAL: It's Time for Answers

Apr 02, 07:13 AM

Current Headlines: By Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Apr. 2--DOGS AND CATS all over the country are becoming gravely ill and dropping dead from kidney failure.

Now we know why. The "cuts and gravy" style food recalled from store shelves two weeks ago was contaminated with Aminopterin. The banned toxin is used as rat poison in other countries.

Just how the poison wound up in popular brands of dog and cat food sold at major U.S. pet stores and supermarket chains, remains a mystery.

Menu Foods, the Canadian manufacturer of the tainted pet food, has not been forthcoming in providing information to a terrified public. It's toll-free help line is a farce. Pet owners whose animals have become sick or died have been told to leave their number, but no one calls them back.

The Federal Drug Administration, which has asked people to call in and report sick or dead pets, is just as bad. You can't even get a person on the phone. A recording tells you to leave a message.

Both Menu Foods and the FDA have done a terrible job getting vital information to the public.

Menu Foods waited three weeks after pets began to die before it issued a recall. Now, officials at Menu Foods and the FDA insist that they have only confirmed 16 dog and cat deaths.

That's preposterous given the thousands of complaints pouring into veterinarian offices, pet food stores, and the Menu Foods hotline.

Maybe if they bothered to take pet owners' calls, they could begin to provide a more accurate picture of the magnitude of the problem.

By now, it's obvious that hundreds, if not thousands of pets, have been harmed by the tainted food.

The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported last week that the state's toll of pets sickened by tainted food had risen to 42 dogs and 19 cats. Seventeen of the animals had died.

The Veterinary Information Network, which counts 30,000 members, said the number of kidney failure cases was already higher than 471. According to its information, based on a survey of its members, 104 animals had died from kidney failure.

Last week, a class action suit was filed against Menu Foods in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

It accuses the Canadian manufacturer of negligence and of continuing to sell poisoned food even after it had received information that pets were dying.

Congress is also pressing the FDA and Menu Foods for answers.

It's time for both the company and the FDA to come clean. How did this terrible tragedy happen and how many beloved pets have died?

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Copyright (c) 2007, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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