Until the recent Menu Foods recall of over 60 million cans and packages of pet food, Canadians were ignorant to the many dark secrets about our pet food industry. Since March 16, 2007, a host of other pet food manufacturers have joined in recalling their products when they discovered their wet or dry pet foods contained the contaminant melamine. Royal Canin has recently been called to task for overdosing our pets with Vitamin D. What will we trusting pet owners be poisoning our pets with next?

There is NO regulation over the manufacture and sale of pet food in Canada.

Canadians need to band together and stand firm in our demand that the pet food industry in Canada is regulated once and for all. We need to make sure not one more pet becomes ill or dies from tainted pet food. We need to know for certain the food we feed our pets lives up to the claims that its ingredients are as nutritionally balanced as the pet food companies say they are.

Now is the time for action. Please take a few minutes to send a letter to your local MP, and to the leaders of our country to let them know that Canadians are calling for the pet food industry to be regulated.

Sample letters are provided in the link to the right of the page, below the flag. Simply follow the link then save the file to your computer. Links are also provided with contact information for various elected officials. Feel free to personalize the sample letters or write your own. Send letters to as many people as possible. We need to get the word out there and let the government know that we mean business!

The moderators of this site – who we are:

Carol:After my cat was diagnosed with diabetes, I learned that the 'prescription' dry food I had been feeding him had likely caused the disease. I changed his diet and he is now nearly off insulin after a few short months. I have joined the campaign for pet food regulation because I believe that our precious pets should be provided with safe, high quality nutrition.

Linda: My cat became severely ill after eating one of the foods manufactured by Menu Foods. Fortunately, after four intensive days of care, my cat is now in good health. Thousands of others were not so lucky. I joined the campaign for pet food regulation because I want to make sure that pet owners and their beloved pets never have to go through this kind of crisis again.

Mel: Since having one of my cats diagnosed with diabetes and the other with inflammatory bowel disease in the past year, both which likely would have been preventable with proper diet, I have become passionate about feline nutrition and the need for regulation of the pet food industry.

In addition, there are many more working behind the scenes who are involved with doing research, providing information, campaigning and getting the word out there.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Some Recent Updates

The Toronto Star published an editorial in support of pet food regulation on April 9th. You can read the article here

The campaign in the US is making some progress. There is a Senate Hearing scheduled for today, April 12, 2pm EST. Speaking in support of improved regulation is Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins. You can read more on her position in her letters to here and here. The hearings will be webcast live; scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Webcast link. It appears that the webcasts are archived so if you miss the 2pm hearings, they should be available after the fact.

Breaking news on Tuesday: the CFO of Menu Foods Income Fund sold nearly half his stock a couple of weeks prior to the recall. ""It's a horrible coincidence, yes . . ." Wiens told The Globe."
Links to the story: Globe and Mail CTV News

Up to 39,000 pets may have been affected by the tainted pet food according to extrapolated data from Banfiield, The Pet Hospital. They have combined data from more than 615 of their veterinary hospitals in the U.S. Link to the story: CTV News

Finally, thanks to julie who posted a link to The Farley Foundation in Ontario; "The Farley Foundation helps sick and injured pets that belong to low-income seniors and people with disabilities." If you know of any other like organizations in Canada, please email us and we will post them on the site.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Remarkable work! Your web page is a wonderful stand and makes a great opportunity for Canadians to make a difference in your pet’s health. It leads them to information and even places in which they have the opportunity to make a difference. This is a needed forum not only on a national level but on a global one. If you have the time and the energy to provide a link or two for global contact to let all North Americans, Europeans, Asians, more simply put, let the world know what they can do to take action how wonderful that would be. Certainly it is wonderful and needed on a national level and I believe if you provide a place for solidarity, in which people from other countries could support your efforts, as well as to provide them information on how they could help their country, we may have millions instead of thousands of people making a difference together across the globe.

Perhaps a simple section that could link people to their government officials i.e. US senator links with names of US people and organizations supporting these efforts and I would believe there are European links etc…

Kind Regards,
Danielle

April 15, 2007 at 10:01 AM

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