A link has apparently been proven between the irradiation of imported pet food and cat deaths. By law, imported pet food has had to to be irradiated, to ensure no pests and diseases are imported into Australia. As pet food is made from the very worst rubbish meat and scraps that can’t be sold for human consumption, it is obviously essential to do everything possible to ensure it is 100% pest and disease free, to guarantee the safety of Australian domestic animals and wildlife.
So what happens? The importation of pet food for dogs and cats is banned? No that would be too intelligent. Instead, they stop the irradiation of imported cat food, but still allow it to be imported! The idiocy of those in charge of making biosecurity-related decisions, that could potentially lead to an outbreak of the very worst diseases imaginable, beggars belief. Why import petfood when it can’t be irradiated and we have a huge meat industry here, perfectly capable of supplying sufficient offcuts to feed Australia’s dogs and cats? If cat food can’t be irradiated because it kills cats that eat it, then why continue to import it? (Although on the other hand it could be argued that Australia would be better off without cats altogether; they cause more damage to wildlife than any other imported species.) Unfortunately it’s not likely to be a fatal cat disease that is imported in pet food, it’s more likely to be something that affects pigs, sheep, cattle and horses – and native animals – and perhaps people. Hopefully the pro-cat lobby will ensure that pet food is no longer imported into Australia.
Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS) has a few lines of information on the safety of irradiated pet food.
Anyway I suppose we shouldn’t really expect better from successive governments that will not pass laws to ban the feeding of animal material to other animals. That’s a no-brainer, yet it has not been done.
Tags: Australian quarantine and biosecurity, Conservation and the environment