dog food and salmonella?

Have you all heard the latest belief that feeding your pet in the kitchen is dangerous to your families health? Supposedly they traced back something like 80% (please dont quote me) of all home based salmonella poisonings to dry pet food in the kitchen. The dry pet food was contaminated???

My question is.. wouldnt the pets be sick too? and why are we not worrying about their safety but just advising the public to stop feeding your pets in the kitchen.

I guess I need to find this article and do some research. Is there any dry pet food made in the US? We have always been told Science Diet was the best and my parents use it for their cats. My whole family and friends use it for whatever they have. Now Im curious.

What do you girls think? (or guys.. guess your allowed too! lol)

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Member Since 2010Permalink Reply by Krista on August 13, 2010 at 1:47am

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-parenting/2010/08/10/...

found the article but no statistics listed so please ignore whatever I said! :-)

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AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on August 13, 2010 at 8:04am

Krista, now you have hit on a pet peeve and an important topic of debate in many canine communities. If you check out the "What's For Dinner!" group, you will see some of our past topics on this subject.

Since 2007, there have been recall after recall and not much has changed. Salmonella in pet food is just one of the baddies Big Commercial Pet Food adds to their product.

In 2007, it was wheat gluten now it is unsafe sanitation. The bottom line is, their number 1 priority is profit...our priority is our pets and family. Many times, both do not mesh.

I lost a beloved Std Poodle in the 2007 recalls and have gone to homecooking ever since. I free feed a premium kibble and feed home made dog food as the main meal. Many other's are feeding a raw diet but the one fact is, we need to be better educated about what we put in and on our pets.

Crap in food and too many chemicals in vaccinations and flea treatments is being traced to higher incidents of canine cancer, liver and kidney diseases and lower life expectancy. I love that you are interested in this topic, I can get long winded about it. Check out the Food Group.

You should treat pet food like you do raw chicken. Wash your hands after handling and wash bowls. Dogs have different acids in their digestive system to handle it (so they are reporting) but who knows what the long term effects will be?

Starting and continuing the dialog is the best thing to fight it. Knowledge is power.

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Member Since 2010Permalink Reply by Krista on August 13, 2010 at 10:32am

Lynne, I can tell your a very passionate person like myself. You can rant all you like with me because If im not with you.. I will certainly listen to your point of view! :-)

Now, You mention the "whats for dinner" and the food group and I think Sue said to move to the coffee house once.. but when I look at coffee house I only see chat(which isnt working), videos(works) and small worlds which brings up nothing for me either. Do I need to tweak some settings or get permissions?

Thank you for what you do Lynne.. Your voice does get heard and hopefully in our lifetime the FDA will actually check not only our food and consumables (toys and etc etc) but our pets as well. I too lost a cat that was like my child to the tainted canned cat food. I fed her fancy feast and 9 lives and I essentially poisoned her. I will never get over that guilt as Im sure you can understand too.. and by the time the vet was involved (I thought it was old age) she was past the point of saving. She died and within a month the whole cat food issue was reported. The vet said since she was already past he couldnt do the specific test but that he was sure by the descriptions it is what killed her. :-(

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Member Since 2010Permalink Reply by Krista on August 13, 2010 at 10:36am

WOW, Ok.. I highly recommend anyone interested go to the link that Lynne provided. To all of us Newbies.. she has done a remarkable amount of research and posted tons of information.. My reading material for the next few nights! :-)

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AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on August 13, 2010 at 4:48pm

Hi Krista. I think you will be very busy if you plan on delving into the Food Group. I have not posted much in there in the past few months as we are focusing on getting OofD.org up and bigger and better than it was. But I do keep up on the issues in the Dog Food Industry, be it recalls or ingredients. I try to post in the Group when ever I find something interesting and hopefully as folks find it, it may save just one other dog, then that is a good thing.

My Magic actually died before the recalls were announced but in checking the UPC numbers on the recall, I had recalled cans in my cupboard. I also have the guilty feelings that I did it to her. Looking back, I am glad she went before and I didn't know. Because I got to grieve for her with out the anger that hit after the recalls.

After Magic died, I met the most amazing doodle and it felt like Magic sent her to me and now here I am. I guess it is a case of one door closing and another opening. Anyway, enjoy being pissed off at some of the things you read in my, What's for Dinner? group. It used to be called The Food Group, so you may see references to that. But jump in anywhere in there, I love to chat with other's on this topic.

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Permalink Reply by Sue & the Crew on August 13, 2010 at 6:31pm

I found this surprising because I would have never guessed pet food could make you ill. I mean, come on, my girls EAT it how could handling it be bad for me?

Krista, manufacturers of many pet foods are so "global" it seems difficult to find a quality "made in USA" product. Ingredients come from all over, the product is made in one factory, packaged elsewhere, etc. I am from Canada, and I feed my girls Orijen and Acana made by Champions foods in Alberta, Canada (not sent elsewhere to be processed or packaged) using "regional" ingredients. Their website states the ingredients are 100% "China-free". My experience: so far, so good. I've heard good things about Fromm too.