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Mad Cow Blocks Pet Foods from U.S.
This article was in the Ottawa Citizen on Sunday. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon. Deb Mad cow ban blocks pet foods from U.S. Ottawa stores have just a few weeks' supply left Kris Westwood and Dan Lazin The Ottawa Citizen; With files The Edmonton Journal January 4, 2004 If Canadian officials don't open the border to U.S.-manufactured pet food within the next few weeks, "there will be no pet food in Canada," retailers are warning. Fears the food might have come in contact with mad cow-infected meat in factories prompted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Dec. 24 to forbid pet foods made from beef, as well as pork, fish, poultry and vegetarian products. The move is part of a larger ban on imports of beef products after a case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was found in the U.S. on Dec. 23. Although there are more than a dozen pet food manufacturers in Canada, suppliers say between half and three-quarters of the country's pet food is imported. "There are some foods we can't do without -- we'll be in big trouble if we run out," said Shannon Brunet, a veterinary nutritional adviser at the Alta Vista Animal Hospital on Bank Street. Most medical pet foods, which are used to treat anything from intestinal problems to kidney failure, are manufactured in the U.S. "We thought we'd be OK for at least three weeks," Ms. Brunet said. "But it depends on the clients and whether they try to stock up." Ms. Brunet said the animal hospital will have to begin restricting how much food clients can buy because the warehouse it orders from has just one month's supply for all of Canada. Concerns about hoarding have led Ontario's Veterinary Purchasing Company, Canada's largest supplier to veterinary clinics, to restrict Ontario vets to buying a week's supply of food at a time, based on their past purchasing history. "In two months, I will guarantee you there will be no pet food in Canada unless something changes," said company general manager Brendan Ginty. Mr. Ginty said the situation will only become worse if people try to hoard food. "If everybody bought normally, we may be able to sneak through this," he said. Gourmet foods will also be hit particularly hard. "The majority of the premium and super premium products come from the States," said Tri-Star Products owner Doug Boucher, whose Manotick-based company imports gourmet Fromm products. "Then you get into the specialty products -- all of them are made in the States." And while these top-end products make up just two per cent of pet food sales, all pet foods are affected. "There are eight million dogs in Ontario, and up to two-thirds are eating products made in the States," Mr. Boucher said. With just four weeks' supply in stock, Mr. Boucher is worried he may have to shut his company when it runs out. "Pretty soon people are going to be screaming, 'What am I going to feed my pets?'" he said. "My hands are tied -- in fact, they're cut off." Brands affected by the ban include Hill's Science Diet, IAMS and Meow Mix. Food made by Canadian companies such as Shur-Gain and in plants in Canada, such as Purina, will not be affected unless the raw materials come from across the border. The Canadian Medi-Cal medical pet food brand should also be unaffected. Still, not all retailers are losing sleep over the ban. "We've stocked up on product to insulate us," said Kelvin Stanke, the owner of Critter Jungle on Carling Avenue, who says his four-week supply should be enough. "I think there's economic pressure to figure this out. I think it's all political. I think it's a little 'tit-for-tat' stuff." And if the ban lasts longer? "Ask me in four weeks," Mr. Stanke said. "If nothing's changed, maybe the answer will be a little different." Although Ritchie's Feed and Seed only sells Canadian-made Purina food, it is reacting to the ban by stocking up in anticipation of increased demand. "We're preparing for this, definitely," said store manager Darrell Kekanovich, who explained four of his staff were dedicated to ordering more stock. "They dove on it right away." One option U.S. pet food makers are exploring is switching production to Canadian plants, something Petsmart hopes will keep their supplies flowing. "We're working really closely right now with our suppliers to locate supply in Canada," said company spokeswoman Jennifer Pflugfelder. "Next week we'll have some more information coming in." In the meantime, Petsmart still has a stockpile at its Canadian warehouses to draw on. "We do have some shipments going to stores in Canada," Ms. Pflugfelder said. But Mr. Boucher doesn't think that will be enough if the ban continues in the long term. "From what I understand, there's not enough Canadian capacity to produce enough food to feed all the pets in Canada," he said. "It's not just that we don't have the production capacity. We don't have the raw materials as well." CFIA feed expert Sergio Tolusso said it's unlikely that the border will stay completely closed for more than a couple of months, but he couldn't be more precise. "The measures we've put into place are really only viewed as a temporary restriction at this point," said the expert, Sergio Tolusso, feed program coordinator for the CFIA. He said it would be "a few days or weeks at worst" before Canadian officials complete a list of requirements that American pet food plants would have to meet before their food could come over the border once more. He did not know, however, how long it would be before inspections of the U.S. plants were actually completed. That won't be known until the CFIA talks to the U.S. government about the problem next week. © The Ottawa Citizen 2004 |
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Mr. Ginty said the situation will only become worse if people try to
hoard food. "If everybody bought normally, we may be able to sneak through this," he said. Hmm, Canada sells us prescription drugs real cheap. Maybe we can sell them black market pet food? sneak it across the border at night? ;-) |
#3
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Mr. Ginty said the situation will only become worse if people try to
hoard food. "If everybody bought normally, we may be able to sneak through this," he said. Hmm, Canada sells us prescription drugs real cheap. Maybe we can sell them black market pet food? sneak it across the border at night? ;-) |
#4
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Interesting article. It's a mess, isn't it?
-- Barb I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either. |
#5
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Interesting article. It's a mess, isn't it?
-- Barb I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either. |
#6
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Iain & Deb wrote:
This article was in the Ottawa Citizen on Sunday. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon. Deb Mad cow ban blocks pet foods from U.S. Ottawa stores have just a few weeks' supply left Kris Westwood and Dan Lazin The Ottawa Citizen; With files The Edmonton Journal January 4, 2004 If Canadian officials don't open the border to U.S.-manufactured pet food within the next few weeks, "there will be no pet food in Canada," retailers are warning. I can see it now........ pet food in exchange for Rx drugs!!! 8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~ "I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson ************************************************* http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/ http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/ |
#7
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Iain & Deb wrote:
This article was in the Ottawa Citizen on Sunday. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon. Deb Mad cow ban blocks pet foods from U.S. Ottawa stores have just a few weeks' supply left Kris Westwood and Dan Lazin The Ottawa Citizen; With files The Edmonton Journal January 4, 2004 If Canadian officials don't open the border to U.S.-manufactured pet food within the next few weeks, "there will be no pet food in Canada," retailers are warning. I can see it now........ pet food in exchange for Rx drugs!!! 8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~ "I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson ************************************************* http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/ http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/ |
#8
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Oh fer pities sake, it was ONE damned cow. I hardly think the entire meat
and petfood industry needs to be shut down. Good lord. Karen |
#9
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Oh fer pities sake, it was ONE damned cow. I hardly think the entire meat
and petfood industry needs to be shut down. Good lord. Karen |
#10
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Karen wrote:
Oh fer pities sake, it was ONE damned cow. I hardly think the entire meat and petfood industry needs to be shut down. Good lord. Karen It seems that as long as the odds are slim that *you* will not end up with the contaminated meat it's not really a problem. -mhd |
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