Today is May 4th. Last night the ASPCA finally showed up on the horrific stage where the tragic slaughter of 8,500 kitties and puppies in the US. Where were they in December, January, February, March, and April. Taking a back seat and possibly bribes to stay out of it? On their home page they say, over cute pictures of kitty and puppy: "WE ARE THEIR VOICE".
A remarkably quiet and useless one, I might add. You might wonder, why "useless"? Here's why:
The ASPCA warns:
“We are strongly recommending that pet parents immediately investigate, via their pet food manufacturer’s Web site or by calling them directly, where the ingredients—specifically protein supplements—are sourced from.”
Given the current situation and until this crisis is resolved, the ASPCA is recommending pets be fed products containing U. S.-sourced protein supplements only."
So, months of silence, and now, no pet parent should feed their pet anything whatsoever that contains VEGETABLE PROTEIN sourced from outside the United States.
Yesterday, way before the ASPCA found such a wonderful advisory niche for themselves in this debacle, we had already started calling around, e.g., to the manufacturers of Mackie's treats to find out where they get their "secret sauce" from.
And that exactly is what the vegetable proteins, and the glutens are: chewy texture, good taste, and potentially laced with Melamine.
Mack's treats in days gone by used to include Pounce (dreadful junk food at its best), and today include Greenies, Zukes vitamins, and Bellrock Growers Wheat Grass Goodies, which contain less than 1% of wheat gluten. All sourced from within the US.
But then, caveat emptor, heed our Natural Balance experience. I chose that brand as it claimed to have no glutens or rice protein concentrate. Then, they pulled their entire line, telling us "we didn't know Diamond Foods was putting poison in our kitty food without us knowing." If you ever wanted to know what the phrase "gas-lighting" meant, that's it!
Does it then MATTER that we discover the other manufacturers source only from the United States? Does it MATTER that their legal contracts with their manufacturers state they must only use US originated product? No and No, again, apparently, since too many lie for the big eye over the pyramid.
How many are suddenly going to gas-light their exposure by exclaiming disingenuously: "We had NO idea they were putting all this bad stuff from China in there!!! Not our fault!!!"
To really explain the ASPCA's complete and utter uselessness in this matter, let me post my exchange between BELLROCK GROWERS, whom I believe is not "gas-lighting" their customers, and I, a pet-parent, will continue to use their treats:
Dear [privacy snip],
That's OK, you are wonderful in providing this disclosure. We are very very worried, and would like to share with you that our cat Mackie got very ill in February on Science Diet adult savory Ocean seafood. We had no idea then what was wrong, until March 17th. But we treated him holistically, and he was recovering slowly, until April, when a vet said OK put him back on some commercial, and we went to Natural Balance ocean fish. This after we checked their labels which indicated it had No glutens, NO rice protein concentrates.
...
However, he likes your treats. It's the one bright spot he has, and ... rather not take it away from him, but I think you would be interested in this.
When Mackie relapsed mid April, ... called and finally wrote Natural Balance on April 20th and they assured ... not only did the formulations I mentioned not have any glutens, nor any RPC, but they had their formulations tested at UC Davis and "all came back OK."
I kid you not.
5 days later they pulled that whole line, and are now wrangling with Diamond Foods or some such, ANI or whomever they say added RPC without their knowledge.
Whom do we the consumers believe?
If we are to believe NB was duped, may I offer this experience to your company as perhaps a point in time that extra due diligence now is as Martha would say: "A good thing".
We personally do NOT believe Natural Balance was duped by Diamond Foods, (I think this is just some legal-insurance CYA "fix" they both have going) because the language NB used in their email: "we use nothing bad", and "all tests came back OK" was sent from their lawyers office, way before they disclosed their "innocent victim" status, which IMHO is a legal charade. Had I believed them Mackie would have been dead. I didn't then, and I don't now.
Thank you
[privacy snip] @bellrockgrowers.com wrote:Hi xxxx,
If you were the person that called today to find out this information I am
sorry we got disconnected. We went to retrieve the information and you
were no longer on the line.
Our manufacture of our cat treats buys their wheat gluten from a company
in the US called ADM Milling. They are located in Keokuk, IA.
ADM ProVim ESP Vital Wheat Gluten is not involved in the current pet food
recall being conducted by Menu Foods. ADM has not provided any wheat
gluten to this company at either of their pet food production facilities
in Kansas and New Jersey at any time.
This is to further assure the customers for ProVim ESP Vital Wheat Gluten
purchased from ADM, Keokuk, IA plant that Vomitoxin is tested on a weekly
composite. No Vital Wheat Gluten is shipped from this location that would
contain> 1ppm vomitoxin content.
I hope this gives you the information you are seeking. We understand your
concern.
Thank you,
...
Bell Rock Growers Inc.
ph. 760.591.4151
toll free- 888-943-2847
fax. 760.591.0644
www.bellrockgrowers.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 5:05 PM
To: info@bellrockgrowers.com
Subject: Please disclose your Wheat Gluten manufacturer
Dear Bellrock,
I appreciate your page informing us that your products contain less than
1% of wheat gluten. Here's my position, unless I know exactly where you
get your wheat gluten, so I may determine for myself that I am satisfied
with your choice of suppliers, I will no longer stock BellRock.
In addition, it really doesn't matter that you only have less than 1% of
wheat gluten in a treat, were it tainted in any way it would still kill
a small pet, and in any case, I don't like the idea of wheat gluten a
regular part of any pet's diet.
I called to ask the source of your gluten ( and how you know THEY did
not stock from CHINA) , and got a busy signal.
Thank you
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