Food Retailers Continue to Pull Chinese-made Dog and Cat Foods

Petco became the first national companion animal food store to stop the sale of Chinese-made treats, due to concerns over contamination, and already another retailer, PetSmart, has announced that it will follow suit in taking Chinese pet treats off its store shelves. Over 1,000 dog deaths have been linked to problems with the imported jerky treats, but this problem goes back years. 

The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating thousands of reports of pet illnesses linked to jerky treats going back to 2007, most of which involve Chinese products, though there’s been a spike since last October.

There are many dog and cat cookbooks on the market where you can make homemade dog and cat foods and treats; I highly recommend them first over any commercial foods/treats. 

Click at the link below to watch Petco's video for very important information about companion animal foods from China and how to watch for early symptoms of food poisoning from dog and cat foods.

China’s Food Safety Problems Go Deeper Than Pet Treats

Furever

Interesting to see the great lengths people will go to keep their companion animal in their lives.

The bonds that form between humans and their companion animals, the dimensions of grief people experience when they lose an animal, and the lengths to which they'll go to preserve more than a memory...FUREVER.

FUREVER is a feature-length documentary that explores the dimensions of grief people experience over the loss of a companion animal. It examines the sociological evolution of companion animals in the U.S. today, particularly their position in a family unit, and how this evolution is affecting those in the veterinary profession and death care industry. With interviews from grieving animal guardians, veterinarians, psychologists, sociologists, religious scholars, neuroscientists, and the many professionals who preserve an animal's body for their devastated clientele, or re-purpose an animal's cremains in unique ways (taxidermy, cloning, mummification, freeze-drying, and many more), FUREVER confronts contemporary trends, perspectives, and relevant cultural assumptions regarding attachment, religion, ritual, grief, and death, and studies the bonds that form between humans and animals, both psychological and physiological.

Sixty-two percent of Americans have a companion animal, and they spent a total of $52.9 billion on their companions last year. Many judge animal guardians who choose to memorialize their deceased companions as unbalanced, yet religious or cultural rituals for deceased people often seem unusual to outsiders. 

How "real" is grief for a dead companion animal and who decides what kind of grief is acceptable, or appropriate? 

Rather than pathetic or morbid, these animal guardians embody America's muddled attitudes toward death and dying, touching on our collective fear of aging, and how that fear is shaped by the shifting influences of religion, technology, family, and money.

Loss of a Companion Animal

 

 

I found two great articles that deals with having a loss of a companion animal:

Pet Loss - 10 Tips to Help Soothe Heartbreak

 

This one below is specifically about dogs, but you can use it as a guideline for other companion animals as well.

Helping Your Dog Cope With the Loss of a Canine Companion

 

 

*Note: I'm not sure why the size and color of text came out that way! 

 **Dedicated in memory of Nicklas Hubert Naked (4/25/97-5/18/13)