appening and show how a politically dangerous subject is dealt with by a government and its friends in the media. This study is only concerned with the issue of contaminated pet food and does not explore the thesis of deliberate contamination of food in American restaurants and on farms. That will be covered in a later study.

Firstly, a listing of the course of events in the poisoned pet food matter:

In March of this year, reports began to surface in the American media about pets, cats and dogs, dying or becoming very ill from eating commercial pet food,. This date is not fixed because there are now more reports surfacing that indicate that this poisoning began as early as December of 2006 and went on, sporadically, through January and Februay of 2007. This new information has been emerging from reports of American veterinarians.

As of March 20th 2007: Reports indicated that at least ten dogs and cats had already died and that many more were considered to be critically ill due to kidney failure

As of March 22nd 2007: The death toll has risen nationally to 16 confirmed dead pets: 15 feline, one canine. It is speculated by veterinarian organizations that the actual death toll is probably much higher.

On March 23rd 2007: As of 1pm the New York State Agriculture Department (which, incidentally, has one of the best labs in the US for determining food contamination -- the FDA frequently relies on NY Ag Dept.'s own advisories for issuing its own recall notices) has announced the poison identified is aminopterin. Aminopterin is a folic acid antagonist which in the 50's and 60's was used as cancer chemotherapy (and, illegally, to induce abortion) until it was replaced by the less toxic drug methotrexate, and seeing as methotrexate is probably one of the most toxic drugs in the anticancer arsenal, this is telling you something. Typically humans receiving MTX, much less its chemical cousin aminopterin, also receive leucovorin to 'rescue' them from the effects of folic acid depletion. As an aside, Aminopterin is used in some countries as a rodenticide

On March 24th 2007: Per a medical advisory aimed at veterinarians from the American Veterinary Medical Association, it appears that aminopterin is causing kidney failure due to the drug crystallizing in the kidney tubules (thus destroying the kidneys); the medical advisory also notes that there is still testing going on for other agents besides aminopterin (advising caution to vets) and also notes the risk of other health problems as a result of aminopterin poisoning, specifically the fact that the drug depresses bone marrow; a close "chemical cousin" of aminopterin, methotrexate, is used in humans and dogs with various blood cancers like leukemia's and lymphomas, and in lower doses as a "last-resort" drug in humans with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, both of which are autoimmune diseases, specifically for its bone-marrow suppressing effect, and methotrexate is used in very high doses to destroy bone marrow in preparation for stem-cell and bone marrow transplants.

As of March 27th 2007: The Veterinary Information Network (a veterinary medicine association that, among others, sponsors continuing medical education for vets) has reported that there are 471 cases of kidney failure linked to aminopterin (a commercial rat poison) tainted Menu Foods products that their association is aware of including 104 confirmed deaths (11 canine, 93 feline); this same report notes that www.PetConnection.com has anecdotal reports of 1792 more deaths (1018 feline, 774 canine) attributed to contaminated pet food.

On March 30th 2007: The FDA has now officially discounted the use of aminopterin as the agent causing pet deaths and now states, officially that the actual cause is the inclusion of melamine, their analysis's state they have found in suspect pet food. Melamine is a urea-based chemical that is used widely in the manufacture of plastics (especially floor laminates and oven-proof dishware), and also, due to its urea base, used in several countries as a fertilizer. Of note, FDA-originating news reports that melamine has been found in the kidneys of a cat who died of Menu Foods related poisoning and the NY Ag Dept. lab which first detected aminopterin in the pet food has also confirmed the melamine finding., but has not confirmed FDA statements that melamine is capable of causing deaths of pets or humans The FDA press releases claim that “As melamine is a urea-based chemical it could be a missing link as to why the poisoning is so severe--certainly, melamine *cannot* help with aminopterin-caused kidney failure. One of the known effects of melamine intoxication in humans is kidney stones, and combined with the known mechanism of kidney toxicity with aminopterin, specifically crystallization in the kidneys -- the two chemicals likely have a synergistic effect. In particular, it's uncertain how melamine is toxic to the kidneys of cats, who generally have better filtering systems for urea and uric acid derivatives, thanks to the fact that cats are obligate carnivores

On March 30th 2007: The FDA has issued an emergency order stating that they now believe Chinese-originating wheat gluten to be the agent contaminating pet food as well as to specifically block import of any wheat or wheat gluten products containing melamine and to step up surveillance and testing of all wheat and wheat gluten products entering the US. Per a website also following the pet food scandal, one shipper of the allegedly “tainted wheat gluten” is now known to be Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd. and the FDA releases stress that “anything using wheat or wheat gluten from this company should be considered potentially tainted.” The FDA neglects to mention that wheat gluten is used extensively in the preparation of food for human consumption throughout the world and also that no known cases of human kidney failure or infection have been noted.