The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t keep epidemiological data on dog and cat illnesses and deaths… but the nationwide veterinary chain Banfield does. And according to an extrapolation of data from its 615 veterinary hospitals Banfield estimates that as many as 39,000 cats and dogs may have been sickened or killed by contaminated pet food.
The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.
“It has meaning, when you see a peak like that. We see so many pets here, and it coincided with the recall period,” said veterinarian Hugh Lewis, who oversees the mining of Banfield’s database to do clinical studies.
There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats nationwide.
In other news, one person has died and more than three hundred have fallen ill in two separate incidents in China, after eating porridge suspected of containing rat poison. According to Wikipedia:
[…] canned and jarred gluten is commonly eaten as an accompaniment to congee (boiled rice porridge) as part of a traditional Chinese breakfast.
How many of those pets were Democats?
That does it, now they’ve gone too far! Leave my congee alone! Next they’ll be screwing around with my Umoboshi pickled plums and Cha-No-Yu!.
There are some things that you never forget, like, I was in kindergarten when my teacher came in and said that President Kennedy had been shot, and I was logging off my email when I saw a news alert about a plane crash in New York City, and I switched on the television just in time to see the first tower come down.
Now, with so many animals affected and I know so many animal people, I will forever remember the 9 week old Siamese kitten that died, and the entire household of hunting dogs that died.
39,000 dead or dying. Those numbers are unforgivable.
It is, of course, George W. Bush’s fault.
I would think that there will be many lawsuits over this unfortunate event.
How many of those pets were Democats?
THE REPUBLICAN SOLUTION THESE DAYS IS SIMPLE: JUST CHUCK THE DEAD ANIMAL IN THE TRASH AND GET ANOTHER.
THEN PAY OFF THE UNANTICIPATED EXPENSE BY PURCHASING EVEN CHEAPER PET CHOW AT WAL-MART.
If you don’t like Wal-Mart, you fucking nimrod, don’t fucking shop there!
See http://www.itchmo.com, re The Chief Financial officer of Menu, Mark Weins, sold half his stock 3 weeks prior to the recall. Worth lots more then!
I will never buy anything made in a Menu plant or from any company who contracts out some of their products to Menu.
Don’t be too hasty, Robin. There are many firms that contract-out parts of their product line. There’s a major specialty brewer that sometimes contracts-out part of its brewing to the big breweries. Sometimes it doesn’t have the capacity to brew all the beers it would like and must turn to the big brewers for help.