I fear the pet food recall has finally reached the tipping point.  To wit:

So far, melamine’s been found in both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China. Media reports from South Africa, where 30 dogs died, suggest a third pet food ingredient, corn gluten, used in that country also was contaminated with melamine.

With the rice protein concentrate issue now exploding throughout the food industry, already there are recalls being announced by many organizations.

Wilbur-Ellis Co., the U.S. importer of the tainted rice protein, said Thursday it was recalling all the ingredient it had distributed to five U.S. pet food manufacturers. The San Francisco company in turn urged its customers to recall any products that may be on store shelves.

So far, three of those companies have done so: Natural Balance Pet Foods, Blue Buffalo Co. and Royal Canin USA.

Natural Balance, of Pacoima, Calif., announced a limited recall Monday of its Venison and Brown Rice canned and bagged dog foods, Venison and Brown Rice dog treats and Venison and Green Pea dry cat food.

Blue Buffalo, of Wilton, Conn., followed Thursday by recalling 5,044 bags of its Spa Select Kitten dry food. The company intercepted most of the kitten food before it reached distribution centers, company co-founder Billy Bishop said.

On Friday, Royal Canin USA said it was recalling some of its dry dog and cat foods made with tainted rice protein concentrate.

To make matters worse, however, it also appears to have finally made its way into the human food chain.

In California, state agriculture officials placed a hog farm under quarantine after melamine was found in pig urine there. Additional testing was under way to determine whether the chemical was present in the meat produced by American Hog Farm in Ceres since April 3, the state Department of Food and Agriculture said.

[. . .]

The FDA and Agriculture Department also were investigating whether some pet food made by one of the five companies supplied by Wilbur-Ellis was diverted for use as hog feed after it was found unsuitable for pet consumption.

“We understand it did make it into some hog feed and we are following up on that as well,” [Stephen Sundlof, the FDA’s chief veterinarian,] said.

Later Thursday, California officials said they believe the melamine at the quarantined hog farm came from rice protein concentrate imported from China by Diamond Pet Food’s Lathrop facility, which produces products under the Natural Balance brand and sold salvage pet food to the farm for pig feed.

To add tremendous insult to the entire situation, what with death and suffering being reported in animals around the world, the FDA believes the tainting—the poisoning is intentional.

Imported ingredients used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their apparent protein content, federal health officials suspect.

[. . .]

…[M]elamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is…

I simply cannot reiterate enough that anyone sharing a home with animals should be checking the FDA’s “pet food recall” page each and every day.  Just yesterday additional brands and types of food were added to the list by at least two companies.  And keep in mind we’re still waiting for the shoe to drop on the rice protein concentrate—as in, we don’t know how widespread its use actually is and how many brands and labels will be impacted.

Similarly, we’re still waiting to find out how much of it found its way into the human food supply, not to mention the wheat and corn gluten.

Which brings me to this: Why in hell would tainted pet food be sold to hog farms?  If it wasn’t tested before being sold to pet food manufacturers, shouldn’t it have been tested before being sold for use as pig feed that would eventually find its way to dinner tables?  America has some major problems with the way it handles its food supply.

Yet I believe the pet impact is of the utmost importance.  We can deal with a whole lot fewer people on this planet, but innocent animals being killed and sickened needlessly for profit is so disgusting as to make me almost reconsider my stance on the death penalty.