3 companies indicted over contaminated pet food
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday for their roles in making and importing a pet food ingredient that resulted in animal deaths last year.
Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co., and Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments. The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City said the tainted pet food led to the death and serious illness of countless animals in the U.S. last year.
One of the indictments charges Xuzhou Anying Biologic, located in China's Jiangsu Province, and Suzhou Textiles, in Suzhou, China, with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce.
ChemNutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, 31, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 55, were charged with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The indictments allege that Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of wheat gluten tainted with the toxic chemical melamine to avoid inspection in China. Xuzhou then did not properly declare the contaminated product it shipped to the U.S. as a material to be used in food, the indictment says.
According to the indictment, ChemNutra picked up the melamine-tainted product at a port of entry in Kansas City, then sold it to makers of various brands of pet foods.
"Millions of pet owners remember the anxiety of last year's pet food recall. These indictments are the product of an investigation that began in the wake of that recall," U.S. Attorney John Wood said in a news release announcing the indictments.
ChemNutra did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The indictment also names Xuzhou Anying Biologic owner and manager, Mao Linzhun, and Suzhou Textiles' President Chen Zhen Hao, 58.
methusla (anonymous) says...
With the amount of borrowed Chinese money that Bush has borrowed to keep his administration afloat for 8 years, does anyone really think that any Chinese or China itself is going to have to pay for illegal business practices? GET REAL!
This will all mysteriously disappear, just like the lead paint in toys and WMDs' in Iraq.
February 6, 2008 at 4:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hottopics (anonymous) says...
I still worry every time I buy a pet product that I might be poisoning my furry family members. Next it will be something in human consumption if a harsh punishment isnt handed down.
February 6, 2008 at 6 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
JC (anonymous) says...
I've wondered if this is what one of my dogs died of.... I'll never know now.
February 7, 2008 at 12:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eddison2 (anonymous) says...
MethusIa - Ever wonder if we will be forced to learn Chinese?? I do....
February 7, 2008 at 10:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eddison2 (anonymous) says...
Wasnt this primarily in wet food?
JC sorry for your pet loss :( I know they can be like family.
February 7, 2008 at 11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
There were some tainted dumplings in Japan recently. I noticed since I have a friend stationed there. Came from China. Imagine that! I've read some scary things about how they handle food products over there. They're polluting their land and rivers at a horrible rate, too. No forward thinking at all.
February 7, 2008 at 3:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kerpow66801 (anonymous) says...
They are in the middle of an economic explosion. In a few years they will be on par and have better regulations. You would think though that they would learn from other countries mistakes and do it from the start... But what government does before people start dying....even then you never know.
February 11, 2008 at 5:38 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )