So my gray-haired old mother called me the other day, and somewhere between telling me the weekly weather forecast and her menu plans for the next few days, she mentioned this story:
Rat poison found in US pet food
Now, Mom happens to own a (live) pooch of her own, so it's hard for me to know if she's exaggerating the scale of the story. Nevertheless, she tells me that a few wealthy people lost dogs to the dog food in question, and that these are the kind of people who can afford expensive attorneys.
The China angle here is that the rat poison may have come from adulterated wheat gluten from the Middle Kingdom. And that's maybe not great PR for the Chinese right now, what with their big trade surpluses and all.
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UPDATE (Apr 6/07): Earlier this week, it was determined that the contaminant was not rat poison, but melamine, a chemical sometimes found in Asian fertilizers. In addition, there are suspicions that hundreds of dogs may have died, although there are only 15 confirmed cases so far. American imports of wheat gluten from the Chinese company in question have been suspended.
UPDATE (Apr 21/07): There may only be 15 CONFIRMED cases, but statisticians now say that 39,000 cats and dogs became sick or died from the poisoned pet food.
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