3 Businesses Indicted For Tainted Pet Food

(AP)  Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed potentially thousands of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China.

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 U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received consumer reports suggesting 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating food contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine.

U.S. Attorney John F. Wood told reporters that authorities haven't been able to substantiate those reports, but "as for pet deaths, we think it's in the thousands."

One of the indictments charges Xuzhou Anying Biologic, located in China's Jiangsu Province, and Suzhou Textiles, in Suzhou, China, with 13 felony counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce and 13 felony counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce.

The indictment also names Mao Linzhun, Xuzhou's owner, and Zhen Hao Chen, Suzhou's president.

ChemNutra and company owners Sally Quing Miller, a Chinese national, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, were charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 misdemeanor counts of introduction of misbranded food into interstate commerce and one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The indictments allege that Suzhou Textiles, an export broker, mislabeled 800 metric tons of tainted wheat gluten manufactured by Xuzhou to avoid inspection in China. Suzhou 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.

It also says the shipment was falsely declared to the Chinese government in a way that would avoid a mandatory inspection of the company's plants.

"The defendants intended to deceive the Chinese government in addition to consumers," Wood said.

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. The indictment alleges that Xuzhou added the melamine to artificially boost the protein content of the gluten to meet the requirements specified in Suzhou's contract with ChemNutra.

Wood said adding the melamine, which would allow it to pass chemical inspections for protein content, was cheaper than actually adding protein to the gluten.

He added that prosecutors aren't alleging that the Millers and ChemNutra knew that the product was toxic, only that they were aware the product had been shipped into the U.S. under false pretenses and failed to notify their customers.

"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," Wood said.

Steve Stern, a spokesman for ChemNutra, said the Millers "deny the allegations by the Justice Department in the strongest of terms and look forward to the opportunity to prove their innocence at trial. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Miller had any intent to defraud or knowledge of any wrongdoing."

Wood said the Chinese government is cooperating with the investigation and shut down Xuzhou shortly after its connection to the melamine scare was discovered last year.

In addition, Chinese officials signed an agreement in December increasing inspections on a number of products, including pet food ingredients, Wood said.

"Since this issue came to light, steps have been taken to protect consumer safety," Wood said.

He added that Chinese authorities took Linzhun into custody at the time his company was shut down, but he said he didn't know if Linzhun was still in custody.

The U.S. doesn't have an extradition treaty with China, meaning there's no legal way to force China to hand over Linzhun or Chen, Wood said. But federal authorities have alerted Interpol and other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for them if they leave China.

[erasmus6]

Yeah, finally the truth comes out! In the beginning the Americans were blaming a Canadian Company for the tainted food. But the Canadian company got it from an American company.

[irliberal]

Don''t care about the individuals - it is the corporations that must pay. For every pet that has died because of this (and can be proven) the owner should receive $10,000.00 as compensatory loss from the company that manufactured the food. Plus, if the owner spent any money at the vet treating the animal because of the poisoned food, then those vet costs should be paid for as well.

How much do you want to bet, that if this were law, that we''d never have another case of pet food company poisonings - ever?

[nothappyatall]

"
Just buy your dry pet food a month or so in advance.
You"ll have nothing to worry about.
Any problems will hit the media before you open the bag."

Doesn''t work that way, especially when the initial reports were quite some time after the fact and then only a few brands, and they had NO idea what the problem WAS, then a whole chitload of brands and then they found the cause.

Best bet is don''t buy CHEAP dog food that is largely made of cereal that can be contaminated by bad GLUTON in the first place, but a feed like Canidae , available at dogfooddirect.com has NO corn, cerreal, wheat, gluton etc- all have been causes of illnesses and death from fungus, mold and other contaminates.

[iceman_1960]

"Millions of pet owners remember the anxiety of last year"s pet food recall."

Just buy your dry pet food a month or so in advance.

You"ll have nothing to worry about.

Any problems will hit the media before you open the bag.

[kennergirl]

I agree with others that have said that not only Chinese products are sub par. People will get away with anything they can no matter where they''re from. Unfortunately for China they make a boatload of merchandise for us here. Why? Because they have cheap labor, period. When you start paying attention to labels on products you realize that a good 90% seems to be made in China. And most of the other 10% will probably come from other country anyway. I blame all these big corporations for choosing where to get their products made and not testing them before putting their products on the market. But I realize that for products to be affordable to the average consumer foreign made products is the reality. I wish it could be different but my dollars have to stretch even further now (and I''m sure a lot of people here have the same problem) so you gotta take what you can afford.

[cbsblogger]

Steve Stern, a spokesman for ChemNutra, said the Millers "deny the allegations by the Justice Department in the strongest of terms and look forward to the opportunity to prove their innocence at trial. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Miller had any intent to defraud or knowledge of any wrongdoing."

*** ....perhaps we might be better off if Gentiles or Muslims were feeding our pets instead of ChemNutra

[cbsblogger]

I regularly ask my grocer and their suppliers via email/phone/face-to-face what is the specific origin of a food item and where is it manufactured.

If you don''t wish to bother them with those questions that it is understandable. I''m bothering them to encourage both %u201Ccountry of origin%u201D labeling and their purchase from only the USA.

Some may think that is an imposition upon our food suppliers. To be honest I don''t really give a ***. I want to know where it actually originates as our government apparently doesn''t care.

[jedbarish--2008]

I feel I''m moving off topic here but I am stunned about all these anti-China comments. First, try to go find any products that are not made in China. They are all over your house. There is a good reason for this. They work harder, cheaper. Most of them are legit business enterprises.

Do you even know anyone, even your unemployed buddies, that would be willing to work in a plastics factory? Nope, you don''t. Would you do it for $50.00 an hour.? Maybe. Do you know of any product you bought that you would have paid 10 times as much for? Probably not.

[gmond]

lol SgtRDS

[sgtrds]

After reading this article to my dog, the only think he had to say was, "bark, bark, bark, bark, bark china"

Don''''t know what that means but I think it isn''''t good.

Bad dog.

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 05:42 PM : Feb 06, 2008

Really? All mine says is bark bark bark buck fush bark bark, no matter what I say to him............or at least that''s what it SOUNDS like he''s saying.............I could be wrong.......