And the verdict is in...

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Last week I shared with you that the judge was to hand down sentencing to ChemNutra. ChemNutra was responsible for importing vegetable proteins tainted with melamine resulting in agony, heartbreak and loss for too many fur parents in 2007 ~ forced to say goodbye long before they should have. The result? The consequences were established as three years of probation and a $35,000 fine! For the moment I have no words to express my thoughts on this, unbelievable. I had held back in sharing because I thought the words may come, perhaps they will come out of your keyboard. Here are some additional links pertaining to this if you are interested:

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1729401.html

http://www.pr-inside.com/sentencing-for-chemnutra-over-misdemeanor-...

http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/02/chinese_formula22.html

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Ridiculous. I am not going to say anything else, because I would start cursing too much.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I feel so bad for the people whose pets suffered and died; this is such a slap in the face to them.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I am disappointed by the paltry sum of money and the probation is probably the unsupervised kind which means it is nothing at all.

[Frannie & Callie]

I'd disgusted by that verdict. The people in China who were selling melamine-tainted powdered milk were sentenced to execution. I know it's not exactly apples to apples, I'm not kill-happy, and know that an eye for an eye doesn't bring back any beloved child (with fur or without) but ChemNutra's punishment isn't coming close to fitting the crime. I do hope that there's a class-action civil suit pending that wipes them out for generations, and that they become a cautionary tale about what happens to you when you save money at the expense of lives. (I'm getting off my soapbox now...sorry for the rant)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Very disappointing. Is there civil action pending? I would think at the very least civil lawsuits could wipe them out financially....not a full consolation, but at lease something.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

The only way I can even try to wrap my head around this is knowing that good can arise from evil. Nothing will ever sweep away the loss, but many will push on in their memory to ensure this does not happen again. We are more educated than ever before, we know the questions to ask and will NOT accept silence as an answer. We are not ignorant consumers and if we are treated as such we will fail to line the pockets of those who think we are.

[F, Calla & Luca]

The bottom line is that pets don't mean much to companies or judges. It seems to encourage future horrors since I'm sure this fine was paltry compared to the profits reaped by using poison instead of protein.