Book Review: Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine by Marion Nestle
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If you’re not already frustrated enough with the U.S. government, read Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, and monitor your blood pressure.
Marion Nestle traces the details of the 2007 pet food recall relying on numerous sources. She combed the official government documents and Internet blogs where pet guardians were sharing their accounts of what they knew about this massive recall.
Nestle openly states that many of her sources would not go on record. People like government officials, veterinarians, pet food company scientists, and university researchers. Add to that list multiple rebuffs from the pet food companies who ignored her attempts for interviews or could not grant interviews due to ongoing litigation.
Given these constraints, Nestle pulls together a well-researched account of what happened and the repercussions.
“A compelling expose, Pet Food Politics uncovers unexpected connections among the food supplies for pets, farm animals, and people and identifies glaring gaps in the global oversight of food safety. It is essential reading for people who care about pets as well as anyone interested in food, food policy, and our nation’s health in an increasingly globalized world.”
If you’re wondering why just four stars for such an important book. I spent just over a month reading this account of the pet food recall because some of the writing was a little dry for me.
A strong opening…
The first chapters caught my attention.
They covered details about earlier pet food recalls, the timeline of the 2007 recall, and some solid information on how pet food is sourced and manufactured. These chapters were perfectly geared at sucking me in with their captivating facts and observations.
One of my favorite passages:
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The middle dragged on…
These chapters focused more on the testing of the various pet foods.
While the investigative process was important, the presentation was dry. Mostly, Nestle would share various scientific facts and then explain the significance of the facts.
Thankfully, her explanations were clear. They just didn’t speak to me. Following the painstaking steps the scientists had to follow to figure out what combination of ingredients was actually killing pets did not appeal to me. While I recognize that this work was the most important work at the time pets were getting sick and dying, reading about the process 18 years later is not exactly headline news.
I was much more interested in learning about what happened after the recall dust settled.
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Powerful conclusions drawn…
The last chapters gave a sampling of the impact. There’s a chapter dedicated to covering how the contaminated pet food made its way into the human food supply and four chapters examining the bigger picture repercussions of the recall. This reading was compelling.
How could recalled pet food make its way into the human food supply?
Selling salvaged or damaged pet foods to livestock farmers was routine. According to Captain David Elder, director of the FDA’s Office of Enforcement, “…these weren’t recalled products that were turned into animal feeds…It was just part of the routine process and one of that continued now that the contamination is known.”
I would feel relieved, except for a few of the pesky facts:
“…farmers in six states had fed pet food tainted with melamine to about 6,000 pigs.”
“On April 26, the two agencies [USDA and FDA] jointly announced that meat from 345 affected hogs had entered the food supply.”
“2.7 million broiler chickens consuming this food had already been processed, sold, and no doubt, eaten.”
“…the FDA and USDA jointly announced that melamine-laced wheat “gluten” had been shiped to a manufacturer of fish pellets in Canada in the summer of 2006. That company, Skretting, had then distributed the pellets to at least 600 hatcheries, pond-stocking faciliies, and fish farms in Canada, and to nearly 200 such places in Washington State and Oregon.”
“On May 18, Uniscope, Inc., of Johnstown, Colorado, a company that makes and distributes binding agents for animal feed, informed the FDA that it had found melamine in its products, some of which came from Tembec Inc., a company based in Toledo, Ohio. The melamine (from an undisclosed source) had been used to make feed for cattle, sheep, goats, fish, and shrimp.”
What Nestle’s research could not verify was the pet death toll.
The FDA doesn’t even have an accurate count for the number of pets who died.
According to their FAQ for the Melamine Pet Food Recall, “Unlike with human food, there is no surveillance network for FDA to rely on to confirm cases of illness or death. When there is an outbreak of illness from human food, FDA receives assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state departments of health to trace the illness and determine the cause.”
Nestle did compile some interesting facts about pet illnesses and deaths in 2007:
“…the FDA had received 17,000 or 18,000 calls but had only been able to enter the details of about 8,000 of them into a logging system. Of the logged calls, about half reported the deaths of pets, and these were split fairly evenly among dogs and cats.”
Pet Connection was a web-based group of pet professionals who asked readers to report illnesses and deaths to them as well as the FDA. Their unofficial numbers were close to what the FDA was reporting:
14,228 reported illnesses or deaths
2,334 reported deaths, cats
2,249 reported deaths, dogs
Whats’ the official FDA number of confirmed deaths?
17 or 18. Self-reported deaths were considered unreliable because it’s too difficult to prove that a pet ate contaminated food and died from the effects of that contaminated food.
Quote from former FDA official William Hubbard
Is there a system in place now for tracking pet illness and deaths?
In 2010 the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine invited animal health and feed control officials in all states to participate in the Pet Event Tracking Network (PETNet). Consumers cannot submit reports to PETNet because the network consists of government employees only.
Consumers can report pet food complaints to their state pet food regulators and the FDA.
Other resources to consider if you’re researching pet food
