What are the chances that rat poison in the pet food supply is just practice for human food poisoning?

Question

Could the poison in the pet food supply just be practice to figure out how to get poison into the human food supply?

Answer 1

My husband said the same thing, jokingly. Now that I've seen other comments, I wonder......

Answer 2

I read an article about a blackmailer who tried poisoning pet food back in the 80's in Britian. He poisoned some and sent them to the pet food company and told them to put so much money in an account by a certain date or else he would put the poison stuff on the market. He sent them the sample to let the company know that there were actually poisoned items and that they would be hard to discover. The idea was that if the company did not pay the money the guy wanted, then a few poisoning from that brand would cause everyone to stop buying that brand and would cost the company a lot more than what the guy wanted for blackmail.

The company contacted the police and then they paid the blackmail. The poisoned food was never put on the market. The guy was later caught and when the police searched his place, they found a lot of baby food. It seems the guy was thinking about trying another blackmail like this with poisoned baby food.

When I heard about the poisoned pet food I remembered this story. Now, is this an actual practice to poison humans, I doubt it. There is not even proof that the poisoning is intentional. It is possible that it is accidental. We will have to wait for some more investigation to happen.

Answer 3

Because over 8000 animals have died and a lot more than that are sick. It's all of the major brands that are contaminated, and it's starting that they're recalling treats as well. People are rethinking if we should trust companies that don't test their food when they tell us it's edible. My cat has almost died from the same thing as the others - but this brand hasn't been recalled yet! (Science diet dry food, btw. only their canned food was recalled) On top of that, there is media about smoking, and knowledge about it. Pet food was just assumed to be ok, and now we're questioning that. The outcry over the chemicals in tobacco has already passed. Everyone who smokes these days knows the junk that's in it. That's the big deal. They still is reform being done with smoking anyway. For instance, no more smoking in public buildings. I definetly wouldn't compare tobacco and pet food like this. The circumstances between the two are totally different at the moment. They certainly shouldn't have the same ingrediants!

Answer 4

Not much. Very few pets actually died, due to quick action and publication of the threat. Most of the animal deaths were, in fact, of test animals testing the food, not people's pets; total deaths about 16. This led to a recall of 60,000,000 cans of pet food. So, you might say the main impact is economic and emotional. It seems to be just the usual poor quality control involved in goods imported from China....
Of course, a smart terrorist might study and learn from the situation.

Answer 5

A "test run" is actually standard practice for covert terrorist attacks. That thought entered my mind as well.

However, I think if it was intentional, the number of pet deaths would be much greater than that. I believe this is probably just the result of sloppy pest control.

And if you really believe the FDA is able to keep a close watch on food consider this: Less than 1% of all food coming in from overseas is inspected.

Really think our food supply is safe from terrorism? Read again:



http://www.webmd.com/news/20011031/is-our-food-supply-safe-from-terrorist-attack

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0603/061003kp1.htm

http://members.ift.org/NR/rdonlyres/5CB4DC4A-E33E-4234-95FF-6FBCB8B1026B/0/0706defense.pdf

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/12/01/news/state/17_29_0911_30_04.txt

Answer 6

Interesting theory, actually...
Well, you could look at it from another, rather bizarre angle

With the ecoli and such in our spinach or whatever, perhaps WE were the test subjects so they could poison dogs...

Doubt it, but whatever.

But, then, who would be wanting to poison us? Its not like they make money off us dying...if anything they're sued and lose money... I see no motive unless its for someones sick pleasure.

Answer 7

Boy its hard to see this question, because I unfortunately wondered the same thing. We have all become paranoid, but rightly so I guess. Lets hope it was just a horrible mistake.

Answer 8

Anything's possible with terrorists ( & liberals ) on the loose .

Answer 9

Shhhh! They'll send men tae silence ye!

Answer 10

no, the FDA has to many tests to get a widespread poison to the masses