Poisoned pet food scandal grows more serious

ABC News: Officials: Pet Food Poison
May Have Been Intentional:

April 19, 2007 — For the first time, investigators are saying the chemical that has sickened and killed pets in the United States may have been intentionally added to pet food ingredients by Chinese producers.

It was bad enough when this incident appeared to be a quality control problem. Now it seems it may been a product of greed and contempt for the foreigners who were buying this material.

Adulteration of the product with melamine, known to Americans of my generation as the plastic from which ugly but nearly unbreakable Melmac (TM) dinnerware was made when we were kids, may have been an intentional effort to fool pet food industry buyers that the product had a higher protein content than was the case.

But, the scandal grows worse still:

Some of the tainted pet food has apparently made it into feed for hogs. Federal agencies are trying to determine if it was actually fed to animals and whether it may have reached the human food supply.

It will be interesting to see if we ever get a believable story from the Red Chinese about how this could happen. And watch for US government officials to begin making excuses on their behalf and refusing to take serious punitive actions.