Chinese factory linked to tainted pet food found demolished

[Bluebear]

XUZHOU, China -- Before Mao Lijun's business exported tainted wheat products that may have killed U.S. pets, his factory sickened people and plants around here for years.

Farmers in this poor rural area 400 miles northwest of Shanghai had complained to local government officials since 2004 that Mao's factory was spewing noxious fumes that made their eyes tear up and the poplar trees nearby shed their leaves prematurely. Yet no one stopped Mao's company from churning out bags of food powders and belching smoke -- until one day last month when, in the middle of the night, bulldozers tore down the facility.

It wasn't authorities that finally acted: Mao himself razed the brick factory -- days before the investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived in China on a mission to track down the source of the tainted pet food ingredients.

U.S. inspectors said Thursday the suspect facilities had been hastily closed down.

"There is nothing to be found. They are essentially shut down and not operating," said Walter Batts, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) office of international programs.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2003702435_petfood10.html

[annabanana]

1. Lets get those crack CSI teams in there . . . .pronto!

You just know there's enough "trace" in the rubble.

[dbackjon]

2. This is perfect example of why food imports from China should be banned

[kurth]

4. Exactly. They're putting up another factory somewhere else

This is how they operate in China.

[AndyA]

5. This is a perfect example of why a lot of things imported from China should either be

banned, heavily scrutinized, or heavily taxed.

We have no idea what is in so many of the things from this country. Toys children play with, things we eat food with and drink out of...the list is endless.

And the remains wind up in our landfills.

[Brigid]

6. My sister says . . .

that she was at Wal-Mart recently and they had a sign up about a recall of baby bibs made in China because of lead contamination. Now I ask you -- how did lead end up in baby bibs? :wtf:

[napi21]

7. It was in the paint they used to decorate the bibs. I've also read

about cheap baby toys that were recalled for the same reason...lead in the deco paint.

[Shallah Kali]

13. Lead Baby Bibs - lead helps the vinyl be flexible. Ditto for lead lunchboxes

On the baby bibs - it's a miracle our gov didn't decide it was 'safe levels' of lead just like they did with the lunch boxes:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18441501

How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021800528.html

Our gov is STILl considering letting in Chicken from china knowing their lax standards not to mention risk of bird flu:

Chicken from China?
Questionable farming practices fuel skepticism of US plan to import poultry
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/05/09/chicken_from_china/?page=full

Buy local or at least national whenever possible. bug your local stores to promote local food. bug your state and national officials to have Country of Origin Labeling. I say state officials since I figure it is more likely to pass and not get vetoed on the state level. Also urge your state officials to promote state produce like Minnesota has http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/minnesotagrown

[kestrel91316]

9. They're certainly banned from MY home.

NO PROCESSED FOODS. Period. Local produce. Organic dairy and meats. Good old-fashioned home cooking. If it costs more, that's ok. I NEED to eat less.

[shaniqua6392]

3. Thank you for posting this.

I will pass it along on the dog and cat message boards that I belong to.

[Bluebear]

11. Thank you shaniqua

[LisaM]

8. I could only wish that the owners were in it

To some extent, you have to lay the blame on the shoulders of Wal-Mart, who sell these faulty products and demand that they are made so cheaply that safety is ignored.

[Wiley50]

10. I Hope they find The bastard and String him Up by His Balls

Along with a few hundred of our own corporate/govt criminals

This world is at a humongous crisis point

[Richard Steele]

12. This is a big SCREAMING clue that this is much worse than just some dead cats and dogs.

Stuffing a suitcase full of cash and trying to skip town?
Sure, that's pretty normal for a guy who's pulled a financial
scam that killed a bunch of pets.

But wasting valuable "getaway" time (and massive wads of cash)
by hiring folks to bulldoze your entire factory in the middle
of the night?

No, that's not something a white-collar criminal does when the
jig is up. Not unless that factory was evidence of something
much, much worse than what was already suspected/known.

Grandad would have said, "mark my words"...but, this being 2007 and all,
I'll ask you to take a second to bookmark this thread. Because
I'm right, and this "scandal" is gonna get much worse than a few
thousand dead pets.

The guy who -DID- it has clearly shown us that he thinks it might.
And who would know better than him?

Richard

[TZ]

14. I read that 2 Chinese executives were arrested for knowingly

buying the melamine, in fact the proof was they ADVERTISED ON THE INTERNET for melamine. That makes me think there must have been a very large and OPEN market for this stuff. If it was only black market you wouldn't be so open about it. You are right I think, this pet food scandal is only the very tip of the iceburg.

[Shallah Kali]

16. IHT had articles showing that Melamine & Cyanuric Acid Are Common Animal Feed Ingredents in China

Filler in animal feed is open secret in China
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/business/30food.php

As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. "I don't know if there's a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says 'don't do it,' so everyone's doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren't they? If there's no accident, there won't be any regulation."

snip

Many animal feed operators here advertise on the Internet, seeking to purchase melamine scrap. The Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, one of the companies that American regulators named as having shipped melamine-tainted wheat gluten to the United States, had posted such a notice on the Internet last March.


China finds two companies guilty in tainted pet food export
http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/business/petfood.php


Animal feed producers here have acknowledged in recent weeks that for years they have used melamine to adulterate animal feed and or gain bigger profit margins.

Indeed, in interviews Tuesday, Chinese chemical producers said that another chemical that U.S. regulators have identified as a contaminant may have also been intentionally added to pet food ingredients. Three Chinese chemical makers said animal feed producers here often buy a chemical called cyanuric acid from their factories to blend into animal feed.

snip

But chemical producers here say it is common knowledge in the chemical and agriculture industry that for years feed producers in China have quietly and secretly used cyanuric acid to cheat buyers of animal feed. In the United States, cyanuric acid is often used as a disinfectant in swimming pools.

Two of the chemical makers said that Chinese feed producers used cyanuric acid because it is even cheaper than melamine and is also high in nitrogen, enabling feed producers to artificially lift the protein reading of the feed.

[SoCalDem]

15. Never fear.. I'm pretty sure Mao Lijun is back in business in a new place.. with a new name

and no doubt he will be shipping stuff here soon..

Money is a mighty motivator :(