This is what someone tweeted recently: “Nowadays, many people use needles to poke a small hole in the dog food and cat food delivered by others to poison them. And now there are people poisoning the grass on the road. Some people in my country have gone crazy. I don’t know what the situation will turn into after a while”.
There appears to be a person or persons poisoning cats and dogs in China by injecting toxic substances into dog and cat food bags on the shelves of retailers as seen in the photo below. I don’t have further information about the poisoned grass. Perhaps this is due to a person or persons dumping toxic substances on grass verges.
And this is an accompanying tweet:
We don’t have any more evidence of this either. Although it looks genuine but at this time I don’t have more. However, I do have another recent article which illustrates the dysfunctional relationship that China as a whole with the domestic dog. Puppies have to wear masks to prevent the authorities killing them. That’s my interpretation. It applies to some districts and there are many dog lovers in China, particularly in the middle class, so can’t generalise but there is far too much brutality against dogs in China. It is horrendous. Dogs are devalued to zero in many places.
There is a history of poisonous dog and cat food made in China
In a linked topic, there is a long history of poisonous dog and cat food made in China making its way to America and other countries. These are products manufactured commercially in China which are toxic to the animals they’re meant to feed. It’s very concerning but frankly unsurprising because as I mentioned above animals are devalued in China and there is a lack of regulatory oversight underpined with no animal welfare laws and corruption. It is a toxic mix which leads to these criminal incidents but no one is punished to the best of my knowledge.
RELATED: Melamine in cat food.
This problem is well documented and emerged in the early 2000’s. There were multiple incidents concerning pet foods that were contaminated with toxic substances. This harmed the animals; made them very ill or killed them.
The melamine case
One notable incident occurred in 2007. You may remember it. It was pet food contaminated with melamine which is a compound used in the production of plastics and fertilisers believe it or not. It was added to various pet food ingredients such as rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten to artificially add to the protein content.
Melamine is toxic to animals and it can cause severe kidney damage.
Thousands of pets became sick and many died because of kidney failure. It led to one of the world’s largest pet food recalls ever affecting many pet food brands in many countries.
This was not an isolated incident as there have been others concerning contaminated pet food made in China with harmful substances.
The dog jerky treats case
In 2014 there was the Chinese-made jerky treats case. It was reported that thousands of dogs were killed or became seriously ill in the United States. Today, the problem has not been fully resolved and the exact cause of the illnesses remains unknown.
The US Food and Drug Administration found low levels of various contaminants in the treats including antiviral drugs and antibiotics.
There would appear to be a serious problem with quality control in the manufacture of pet foods in China. And of course the fact that the foods got through to the shelves of retailers in America indicates a failure in the US in terms of a proper oversight of the pet food market.
Many pet owners and advocacy groups called for stricter regulations and improved quality control together with increased transparency in the pet food industry.
My research indicates that government agencies involved in monitoring pet food quality and organisations worldwide have enhanced monitoring and testing of pet food products to try and prevent further incidents.
Of course, not all pet foods made in China are toxic to the animals they’re meant to feed. We can’t generalise. Many pet food manufacturers in China do apply good quality control measures but notwithstanding the fact that there are some good manufacturers there is no doubt that there were too many unscrupulous ones causing a lot of misery among cat and dog caregivers.