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April 3, 2007

Recipes for homemade pet food; Congress tackles e-voting; Botched U.S. raid led to Iran hostage crisis?

With the confusion surrounding recent pet food recalls, what's safe to feed the family animals? If you're looking for a way to ride out this storm until all the facts are in, here are some recipe sources if you're willing to cook for furry family members:

5 home-cooked meals for pets from The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash.

Face it, dogs are easier. But "Chicken paprika for cats and people" sounds pretty good. For the cats' portion, add cooked rice, brewer's yeast and bone meal.

Pet food recipes at mega-recipes site Cook's Recipes.

Making cat food and recipes at catnutrition.org.

Dog food, cat food and birthday bones: 3 recipes from the Houston Chronicle.

How to Make Homemade Cat Food at eHow includes a couple of dozen comments from pet owners on what worked and what didn't.

How To Make Your Own Pet Food Recipes

Warning: Do not feed cats onions!

Hound Hash and more from Holistic Hounds.

Meanwhile, here's the latest:

Pet Food Recall at the Food and Drug Administration.

PETA -- People for the ethical treatment of Animals -- is all over this, with Ingrid Newkirk, president of the Norfolk-based group, calling for the resignation of Food and Drug Administration commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach: FDA Hiding Info In Pet Food Epidemic, PETA Says

Recall of pet food could expand, says USA Today.

The mystery persists:
No Aminopterin in Tissues of Animals Killed by Pet Food at the Toronto Daily News, whose beat includes Menu Foods, the manufacturer of the many brands of dog and cat food that are currently the subject of a nationwide recall.

"Aminopterin persists in the liver of animals for months at levels that are readily detected," said Barton A. Kamen, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Pediatric Oncology at UMDNJ. "Whatever is causing the renal failure, it is not Aminopterin."

National Ledger (Pet Food Recall: First Dog & Cat Food, Now Possible Human Food Recall?):

Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine... said melamine is "an ingredient that should not be in pet food at any level," but he warned that the FDA is not fully certain that the chemical caused pet illnesses.

Related: Also from the Toronto Daily News, Contaminated Pet Food Causes Human Food Scare Many shipments of fish products from China and Vietnam had been refused entry into the U.S. because of contaminants found in the fish.

Karl's numbers? Congress finally considers aggressive e-voting overhaul at Ars Technica.

Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ) has emerged as the leader of the e-voting reform movement in Congress. He is the lead sponsor of HR 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, which has garnered dozens of co-sponsors.

HR 811 features several requirements that will warm the hearts of geek activists. It bans the use of computerized voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail. It mandates that the paper records be the authoritative source in any recounts, and requires prominent notices reminding voters to double-check the paper record before leaving the polling place. It mandates automatic audits of at least three percent of all votes cast to detect discrepancies between the paper and electronic records. It bans voting machines that contain wireless networking hardware and prohibits connecting voting machines to the Internet. Finally, it requires that the source code for e-voting machines be made publicly available.

Undiplomatic: The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis Exclusive Report: How a bid to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic crisis, from The Independent (U.K.)

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 9:17 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Joanne on May 17, 2007 11:19 AM