Killing puppies and kitties. Bad PR?

On Vulcan logic dictates that if you kill people's pets, responsible people will investigate and then step up the regulation of the industry so this doesn't happen again.

But here on Earth logic is trumped by big money interests. I would think that showing photos of people's dying pets might help pass some legislation to stop it. It's surprising that nobody has done that, and I guess the big money pet food industry is counting on people not banding together and addressing this.

Actually I'm not surprised. I understand when mine safety is lacking. Businesses calculate the cost of a few people dying over time as the cost of doing business. They make the cold calculus, "We can spend X on lobbyists and politicians or Y on shoring stuff up." Then they calculate which is cheaper. Usually the lobbyists win over expensive extensive repairs.

But killing cute puppies and kittens? Man that's cold. I have a good friend with a sick cat and she will do practically anything to help him out. Does this story show us how powerful the moneyed interests are, that people don't really love their pets as much as they say they do, or that they have been bamboozled into thinking that they can't make any difference?

This is from our new friends over at "Just a Bump in the Beltway"

After Recall of Food, Veterinarians at Cornell University Rush to Save Poisoned Dogs

By MICHELLE YORK
Published: January 9, 2006

ITHACA, N.Y., Jan. 7 - On Friday morning, when their 4-year-old golden retriever, Minnie, was near death, Robert and Janice Lugo called in sick to their jobs, carried Minnie to their car and drove her to a top animal hospital four hours away.

They were in such a rush that Mr. Lugo left his winter coat back at their home in Catskill, N.Y. But he took his credit cards, which he figured he would need to pay for what could be thousands of dollars in veterinary bills.

It is the Lugos' last effort to save Minnie from liver disease brought on, veterinarians said, by pet food contaminated with a stealthy toxin. "She trusted us, and we fed her poison," Mrs. Lugo said, crying.

On Dec. 20, Diamond Pet Food, a Missouri company that sells its products internationally, voluntarily recalled 800,000 bags of pet food under several labels after an investigation. Based on lab tests, company officials believe that 1 to 3 percent of those bags contain dangerous amounts of aflatoxin, a poisonous byproduct of a fungus that grows on corn and other crops. When ingested in high amounts, aflatoxin causes potentially fatal liver disease. The recall included both cat and dog food, though dogs seem to be more susceptible.

I don't follow this issue, so maybe someone could explain how this keeps happening (at least that is what the folks over at Just a Bump in the Beltway seem to be saying.)