Dog Food

Contaminated dog food kills 23 animals, sickens 18 more WASHINGTON -- Contaminated dog food that was sold in 23 states - including Maryland - killed nearly two dozen dogs and sickened 18 more, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The deaths and illnesses sparked an FDA investigation into the pet food made by the Diamond Pet Food Co. at its Gaston, S.C., manufacturing plant. The FDA said that 23 animal deaths have been linked to the pet food. The company, based in Meta, Mo., issued a recall of 19 varieties of dog and cat food Dec. 21 because some of the pet food made at the Gaston facility was discovered to contain aflatoxin.

I know what this sounds like. It sounds like a country-western song, but it's the real deal: Some guy got married and discovered his new wife loved him but not his dog. So he loaded her up (the dog, that is) and drove on out to a semirural stretch of northern Baltimore County. And before abandoning his old faithful friend, he wrapped $5 and a note in aluminum foil and stuck it on the dog's collar. This is what he wrote:"My name is Muffin. Although my daddy loves me a lot, my new mommy doesn't like me and wants me put asleep.

Paul F. Iams, 89, a self-taught animal nutritionist whose pet foods bearing his name are sold in 70 countries, died Oct. 26 in Chappaqua, N.Y., of complications from a broken hip. Mr. Iams started the Iams Food Co., now a division of Procter & Gamble, in 1946, having once worked as a dog food salesman during the Depression. Not even severe economic hardship, he learned, could deter pet owners from paying the price to feed their companions. Over the course of three decades, Iams introduced Iams Plus, one of the first meat-based, high-protein dog diets; Iams Chunks, designed for adult dogs; and Eukanuba, a high-end line made with fresh meat and named after an expression of the singer Hoagy Carmichael.

BIRMINGHAM, England -- Kasenga Kambo of Madukani is beat.The 15-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback lies on a carpet in his wooden stall and tries to get 40 winks. Yet all around him swirls Crufts, "the world's greatest dog show." Border terriers are barking, Salukis are strutting and bloodhounds are drooling."He's just a rookie," says Dorothy Watson, Kasenga Kambo of Madukani's owner. "It has been a long, long day. I think he's fed up."Crufts, which ends today, is not for the meek. The annual four-day celebration of everything canine is the British dog world's answer to the Super Bowl.

In the eyes of longtime Great Dane breeder Joseph Alluisi, it's obvious why dogs have come to be known as "man's best friend." "Dogs are just like humans," Alluisi, chairman of the Independence Cluster Dog Show, said. "I think they're smarter than us, to be truthful. They're very interesting. They're very loving, caring and affectionate." Dog breeders, dog owners and dog lovers alike will convene at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship this weekend for the Independence Cluster Dog Show.

DEBBIE Snyder is like a magnet for dogs in distress.She has helped rescue many dogs, and she has tracked and found two lost dogs with the help of her 6-year-old giant schnauzer Stryker, who is a breed champion, has a Companion Dog title in obedience and is trained in tracking.Their first success was a standard schnauzer who had slipped its leash from a new owner and was lost in Oxen Hill.''I told them that Stryker was trained to track humans, not dogs, but I agreed to try," Snyder said. "For a scent of the dog they gave me its grooming brush.

SEOUL, South Korea - Prancing on a chair in a fashionable cafe, an 11-month-old beagle wears a red patent-leather collar and a sweater in festive colors. Nobody seems bothered when she puts her paws on the cafe table or tries to lap at her owner's cappuccino. In fact, this cafe is designed especially for dog owners - the menu even includes dog food - and many of the clients say they wouldn't consider going out on weekends to any establishment that didn't welcome their pets. "My dog comes first," says Kim Ju Young, a 29-year-old marketing manager who, with her beagle, Blue, patronizes several new cafes in Seoul that cater to dogs.

As gas fumes force it out of its underground home, it scurries -- disoriented -- through overgrown grass. But before it can make a break for freedom, the shovel comes down and WHAM!Baltimore's growing rat population is minus one renegade rodent.But it is a mere dent in what seems to Stephanie A. Brooks an infinite number of pests. Brooks directs the city's Rat Rubout Program. She says the 50 to 100 rat complaints that come in each day -- many from previously rat-free neighborhoods -- and reports from the field indicate the rat population has swelled this summer.

What should a dog eat? There are differing opinions. According to Dr. Christina Chambreau, author of Healthy Animal's Journal (TRO Productions, $17.95), raw meat is a dog's natural food. "You have to look at the dog's anatomy and physiology. Its teeth are designed to rip and tear. It has a short digestive tract which can receive big chunks of meat, bones, skin and organs. They absorb little nutrition from grains because they are not herbivores." Chambreau supports any diet that makes the individual animal feel healthier.

Like most baseball fans, I want my hot dog hot, my beverage cold, and my time in line short.For the most part, that is what I found yesterday as I chewed and sipped my way through Oriole Park at Camden Yards.The food and service were good. I have the stop-watch times and the temperature data to prove it. Moreover, I have testimony from fellow eaters and drinkers.When I got in line at a concession stand, I timed my wait with a stopwatch. When I got my food and drinks, I recorded their temperatures with a thermometer.