Pet Food Recall: Grrrrrrrr

Last night, I fed the dogs right before running to the train to go downtown and meet Al, and I was almost guilted into throwing them a handful of biscuits on my way out. (Since I don’t have children to warp with “Food is love!” messages, I have to take it out on the dogs.) I ultimately chose not to, which was good, because five minutes later, Al called and said, “Hey, don’t give the dogs any treats. They’re recalling those now, too.“

Because I only feed them dry food, I’ve managed to avoid being excessively freaked out by the pet food recall. But the treats in question were purchased at Target about a week ago, from a shelf that was shockingly bare, except for kibble, and one case of Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy–which had been recalled the previous day. Perhaps that case wasn’t from the affected lots, but still, I started getting a little nervous.

Now, with the treat thing, I’m beyond nervous and fully pissed off. As far as I know, Lucille and Solomon’s regular food is still fine–from day one, it’s been on the list of brands that weren‘t manufactured in a plant that used the wheat gluten. But how it affects me personally is, for once, not even what I’m pissed off about. It’s that so much food, sold under so many brand names, is affected.

When I adopted the dogs seven and a half years ago, I obsessed about being the best possible dog mom the way only a spoiled, overeducated person with too much time on her hands can. And I believed the many, many equally obsessive people who told me only to feed them high-quality food–not grocery store brands! Science Diet was best. Eukanuba was okay. If you were a really good mom, you’d buy Prescription Diet from your vet. Grocery store dog food is like feeding your child McDonald’s for every meal! You must get them the good stuff!

I tried, I really did. But after forgetting to make a special trip for their Science Diet and running out for whatever I could get my hands on enough times, I finally admitted I will just never be that good a mom. I am officially a grocery-store-dog-food mom. I feed them the (fingers crossed) unaffected Iams kibble, which I can get not only at the grocery store, but at the White Hen on the corner! Sweet! And even though Lucille–whom I didn’t expect to live five years when I got her–is now somewhere between 15 and 17 years old and still… well, going, if not going strong, I’ve always felt some guilt about that.

Now I’m happy I went with the practical option.

I already knew that Purina made Alpo. And I knew that Eukanuba and Iams were the same company. What I didn’t know was that practically every fucking dog food is made by one of those two companies. But wait, there’s Hill’s, too–they only do Prescription Diet and Science Diet, the really good stuff! Except, what’s this? They’ve been recalled, too. The really good stuff uses the same damned ingredients as every other brand, evidently. I also didn’t realize Purina is Nestle, or that Del Monte makes Jerky Treats and Gravy Train and “select products sold under private label brands.” So, yeah, human food manufacturers bought this wheat gluten, even if they only used it in pet food.

I’m thrilled that the specifics of the recall are getting so much media attention, for the sake of the doggies and kitties. (Lucille, for one, is old and fragile enough that she probably could be killed by a case of salmonella, let alone kidney failure.) But I’m still waiting for someone to point out the obvious here–this is the danger of corporate behemoths. The multiplicity of brand names gives us the illusion of choice, but as we see now, all of these “different” brands use the same (presumably cheapest) ingredients, in part because most of these “different” brands are not actually different at all.

And when this eventually happens to the human food supply, which seems inevitable, we’re all going to find out just how little choice we really have when we go to the grocery store for ourselves. Will we talk about it then? Will we talk about how the few gigantic corporations manufacturing most of our food are only concerned with getting the cheapest possible ingredients that keep them on this side of the law? Will we talk about how premium brands are full of the same shitty ingredients as cheap ones? Will we talk about how our options as consumers really amount to pretty or less pretty packaging?

Because it seems obvious to start talking about that now, but I don’t see it happening. Let me know if and where you do.