Living in Crete | Another Pet Food Scare

The Animals in Crete section of our BritsinCrete Forum <http://www.britsincrete.co.uk/cgi-bin/bicforum/YaBB.pl?board=Animals> is one of the most intense of our forum boards. Animals are close to the hearts of the expatriate residents in Crete. The pet owners and members are quick to voice their concerns about animal welfare in Greece, as witnessed by the number of "please find a home" requests for household pets that they come across in their daily driving in Crete.

The last time I posted, what I thought was an interesting topic: "anti-circus demonstration in Malia", it backfired on me, being accused of bias. So to play safe, I use the BritsinCrete Blog as a means to distribute some information of interest.

Today an email arrived from the www.garcanada.com organisation ( "gar" stands for Greece Animal Rescue....or something similar) that I have paraphrased below.

----If you are taking your pet to the vet for overweight problems check that in any dietary supplements that the vet is not prescribing a product using a metabolism enhancer "chromium tripicolinate" in brands under the Eukanuba label from Iams.

While I do not know if the dietary pet products from US manufacturer, Iams are used by veterinary surgeons in Europe but in the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked Iams not to use "chromium tripicolinate".

The FDA considers chromium tripicolinate to be "genotoxic" - it can cause DNA damage, mutations and tumors. Chromium can on its own affect the metabolism of glucose in animals.

The affected Eukanuba brands are: Veterinary Diets Optimum Weight Control/Canine dry, Optimum Weight Control/Feline dry, Restricted-Calorie/Canine dry and canned, and Restricted-Calorie/Feline dry and canned.

Chromium tripicolinate is used as a source of supplemental chromium in diets for pigs. But that did not apply to other animal food.-----

It makes me wonder what else will pop up in the months ahead. It seems that pet food manufacturers use a lot of Vitamin D in pet products and latest research shows that high levels of Vitamin D3 intake by cats and dogs can cause kidney failure.

Details of the D3 and other scares in Toronto Sun April 1, 2007 (no, not an April Fools thing)
http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2007/04/01/3887948-sun.html

It must make you pet owners concerned over what the pet food manufacturers are serving up to your four legged companions not only in the US but here in Europe.

Just a reminder that the BritsinCrete Forum is a useful place for any information you need related to living in Crete to set up home there for retirement, work or just hang out.
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