Pet Food recall timeline

The timeline of these events opens further questions, even if true:

1) Shipment from China = Nov.3, 06, through January 23, 07
2) Chem Nutro ships this material to 3 pet food manufacturers and one distributor between Nov 9, 06 through March 8, 07
3) Menu Foods informs problem to ChemNutra on March 8
4) Menu Foods recalls pet food on March 18
5) FDA starts investigation after recall by Menu Foods
6) FDA announces melamine contamination March 30
7) ChemNutra recalls all shipment on April 3, 07

According to import records, the wheat gluten was shipped to the United States from Nov. 3, 2006 to Jan. 23 of this year and contained "minimal labeling" to indicate whether it was intended for humans or animals. The vast majority went to pet food manufacturers and distributors, according to the FDA. But some of the processing plants that remain under FDA scrutiny make both human and pet food.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/04/03/was_human_food_tainted_too/

ChemNutra Press Release from it's publicist The Blaine Group: (available at ChemNutro in pdf)

Las Vegas, NV... April 3, 2007... ChemNutra Inc., of Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday recalled all wheat gluten it had imported from one of its three Chinese wheat gluten suppliers – Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd.

snip

ChemNutra shipped from its Kansas City warehouse to three pet food manufacturers and one distributor who supplies wheat gluten only to the pet food industry. ChemNutra’s shipments commenced November 9, 2006 and ended March 8, 2007.

The total quantity of Xuzhou Anying wheat gluten shipped was 792 metric tons.

snip

ChemNutra learned on March 8 from one pet food manufacturer that the wheat gluten it had sold them – all from the Xuzhou Anying - was among ingredients suspected as a potential cause of pet food problems. ChemNutra immediately quarantined its entire wheat gluten inventory and assisted this customer’s investigation.

snip

After that manufacturer issued a pet food recall, the FDA immediately commenced a thorough investigation of ChemNutra’s wheat gluten, including documentation analysis, inspection, and laboratory testing.

On Friday, March 30, the FDA announced they had found melamine in samples of the wheat gluten ChemNutra had imported from Xuzhou Anying. The FDA did not inform ChemNutra of any other impurities in the Xuzhou Anying wheat gluten, nor of any impurities in the wheat gluten from ChemNutra’s other two Chinese suppliers.

oops: fixed color
grr: bold

Six weeks ago, on February 20, Menu Foods, the company at the white hot center of all of this because it supplies almost 100 pet food brands, got the first warning: complaints from owners whose pets were getting sick or refusing to eat.

The company started testing animals a week later, and some of them died.

(voice-over) But the Food and Drug Administration apparently wasn't told about the problem until much later and still has not been able to confirm how widespread it may be. In Congress, some are already calling for hearings.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), MAJORITY WHIP: I think when you have a company that discovers a problem that's killing animals and they don't report it for three weeks to the Food and Drug Administration, it is, at best, gross negligence.

and it says it was not the FDA, who found the contaminant it was the ASPCA!

A veterinarian and toxicologist who works for the ASPCA, which by the way, was the first to discover the toxic chemical was not rat poison, says melamine may be even more of a danger to cats than to dogs like Bam-Bam. Cats seem more sensitive.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/03/acd.01.html

There are still many unanswered questions about this even if we assume all information released by the FDA and all these companies has been presented in good faith.