Thursday, April 05, 2007
On the toxic pet food story....
Our correspondent Joe Johns and his team are breaking some news on the pet food scandal:

Most of us had been assuming that somewhere along the supply-chain the wheat gluten that goes into pet food was accidentally contaminated by the chemical melamine. Testing is still underway, but toxicologists suspect that the crystals containing melamine and found in animals' kidneys is making them ill or killing them.

The phrase to focus on here is "accidentally contaminated." The FDA now tells us it's investigating whether or not the contamination was intentional -- and profit-motivated.

Here's why:

The FDA says it's possible that melamine can be used to raise protein levels in wheat gluten. Higher protein levels make the wheat gluten more valuable. So, based on his conversation with the FDA, here's what Joe is looking at tonight: Was this all about money?

All the companies -- including the Chinese company that the FDA says distributed the tainted gluten, the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Development Co. -- have denied adding melamine to the wheat gluten in the pet food.

Here's another thing:

The FDA has now received more than 12,000 complaints about contaminated pet food. That's more than the total number of complaints the FDA had received over the past two years.
Posted By David Doss, "360" Executive Producer: 7:39 PM ET

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/