The recent food recalls have truly hit North America by storm.

Merely a day after the first dry food was added to the more than fifty dog brands and forty plus cat brands affected by the recall, the list was further expanded on March 31 to also include a new brand even as authorities were baffled as to why the substance would kill dogs and cats, according to a report on Excite News.

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said it was recalling all sizes and all varieties of the Alpo Prime Cuts & Gravy wet dog food with certain date codes. They stated that some of the food had a contaminated wheat gluten that was from China. This gluten is supplied to numerous brands in fact.

For instance this same U.S. supplier furnished wheat gluten, which is a protein source, to a Canadian firm, Menu Foods, which this month recalled recalled some million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly one hundred brand labels.

On April second another major supplier took a hit when the Science Diet announced a recall.

This was particularly significant because this was a brand that many veternarians had been recommending for some time.

The next day Yahoo News reported that many dog and cat owners were cooking or otherwise preparing their own food for their animals.

Menu Foods and the FDA, which regulates the pet food industry, have refused to identify the firm which supplied the contaminated wheat gluten in question.

Does this indicate menu Foods and other big suppliers are policing themselves?

In this era of Enron, Worldcom, and corporate greed in general, is it a good idea to let the big boys police themselves?

Is that fair to our pets, who cannot speak out on their own? To me, the fact that the powers that be who regulate the industry refuse to disclose the name of the Chinese forim providing the badingredient seems to reinforce some suspicions that I have. Protecting this company but not protecting our pets? I am recommending to everyone that will listen to buy a premium dog or cat food for their pet.

Hill's Pet Nutrition has stated on the 30th of March that its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food included the tainted wheat gluten. The FDA said the source was the same unidentified company. Hill's, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Meanwhile, a May 6 article in the Progressive Grocer stated that Wegmans cat food had also been 'pulled into the web of the notorious Menu Foods pet food recall'.

This firm has added to it's rather extensive recall list some items that do not have wheat gluten.