Detecting corporate media bias often requires us to discern
omissions. For example, consider how the recent pet food recall was
reported.
Los Angeles Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino penned an
article ("Recall of pet food alarms owners") on March 19, 2007 that was
widely syndicated. In the piece (which was consistent with almost all
corporate media accounts), readers learned what brands were in
question, how many animals had been affected, and (of course) that the
company's stock has plummeted. Yoshino also interviewed a handful of
pet owners (sic), including Victoria Levy, who declared: "That's so
disturbing. When they put food on the shelves, you trust that it's
safe."
When they put food on the shelves, you trust that it's
safe. This is where the concept of "omissions" kicks in because what
the Los Angeles Times and its ilk opted to ignore is this: As tragic as
the animal deaths caused by the tainted "food" are, a small number of
contaminated cans is not really the issue when it comes to pet food. In
an industry dominated by multi-nationals like Nestlé, Heinz,
Colgate-Palmolive, and Procter & Gamble, repulsiveness should come
as no surprise.
"What most consumers don't know is that the pet
food industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture
industries," explains the Animal Protection Institute. "Pet food
provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered 'unfit
for human consumption,' and similar waste products to be turned into
profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly
diseased and cancerous animal parts."
If you question the
motives an animal "protection" group, here's what the Pet Food
Institute (the trade association of pet food manufacturers) has to say:
"The
growth of the pet food industry not only provided pet owners with
better foods for their pets, but also created profitable additional
markets for American farm products and for the byproducts of the meat
packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare food for
human consumption."
In a particularly ugly twist, euthanized
pets are often themselves boiled and used to make cosmetics,
fertilizer, gelatin, pharmaceuticals, and yes, pet food (with traces of
sodium pentobarbital for added flavor).
"When you read pet-food
labels and it says meat or bone meal, that's what it is: cooked and
converted animals, including some dogs and cats," explains Eileen Layne
of the California Veterinary Medical Association. One more time...and
this time with feeling: "When they put food on the shelves, you trust
that it's safe."
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net
In a particularly ugly twist, euthanized pets are often
themselves boiled and used to make cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin,
pharmaceuticals, and yes, pet food (with traces of sodium pentobarbital
for added flavor).
