Pet Food Recalls: Blame Bush. No Really

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Rick Perlstein has an interesting and persuasive little column on AlterNet today. It goes sort of like this: First they came for the spinach. Then they came for the peanut butter. Then they hurt my dogs and I got pissed. Post pet-food recall, Perlstein looked into the Food and Drug Administration—the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of human and pet food—and found that it, too, had fallen victim to Bush’s starve-the-good-parts-of-government philosophy. Between 2003 and 2006 FDA safety inspections were down 47 percent and staffing, 12 percent. Safety tests conducted on food produced in the United States were down by three quarters from last year to this. Not only is no one making sure your food is produced safely, they don’t even care about your dog’s kibble.

I’m with Perlstein. Bush can take my money, my health insurance, and my civil liberties, but he’ll have to pry my little furry friend from my cold, dead hand.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate