--- title: China Petco Pet Food Scandal Is Just the Tip of a Toxic Iceberg description: Pet food retailers in the U.S. are pulling Chinese-made dog and cat treats from their shelves out of contamination fears canonical: https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/ author: Bryan Walsh article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-21T21:48:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:58:35.565Z article:section: Science og:title: China's food safety problems go deeper than pet treats og:description: Pet food retailers in the U.S. are pulling Chinese-made dog and cat treats from their shelves out of contamination fears og:url: https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte60325119a004aba/6986906f3bc999a4fa1a3977/china-dog-food-recall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4040 og:image:height: 2273 og:image:alt: China Pet Food Recall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: China's food safety problems go deeper than pet treats twitter:description: Pet food retailers in the U.S. are pulling Chinese-made dog and cat treats from their shelves out of contamination fears twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte60325119a004aba/6986906f3bc999a4fa1a3977/china-dog-food-recall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # China's Food Safety Problems Go Deeper Than Pet Treats > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/)  ## Bryan Walsh May 21, 2014 9:48 PM UTC  This photo taken on April 3, 2008 shows a dog being walked past a pet food store displaying bags of dog food for sale in Hong Kong. This photo taken on April 3, 2008 shows a dog being walked past a pet food store displaying bags of dog food for sale in Hong Kong. Mike Clarke—AFP/Getty Images  by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/)  ## Bryan Walsh May 21, 2014 9:48 PM UTC PETCO became the first national pet food store to [halt the sale of Chinese-made treats](http://time.com/107311/petco-china-jerky-dog/) this week, due to concerns over contamination—but it won’t be the last. Already the rival retailer PetSmart has [announced](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-petco-china-dog-cat-treats-20140520-story.html) that it will follow suit in taking Chinese pet treats off its store shelves. Over 1,000 dog deaths have been linked to problems with the imported jerky treats, but this problem goes back years. The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating thousands of reports of pet illnesses linked to jerky treats going back to 2007, most of which involve Chinese products, though there’s been a spike since last October. It’s still not clear exactly how the treats may be contaminated, or exactly how the products may be hurting the dogs and other pets that eat them. But this is hardly the first time that tainted Chinese-made food products have made the news. There was a [massive pet food recall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%5Fpet%5Ffood%5Frecalls) in 2007 that implicated Chinese producers, and there were worried that those ingredients could have made it [into the human food supply](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alarm-bells-ring-over-china-food-imports/). There have [also been concerns](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/business/worldbusiness/12lead.html) about lead paint on Chinese-made toys exported to the U.S. But any worries about contamination in Chinese exports pales compared to the danger that homegrown Chinese food poses to the country’s own citizens. Food safety scandals [are rampant](http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/from-milk-to-peas-a-chinese-food-safety-mess/), and by some estimates as much as one fifth of the country’s [soil is contaminated](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/18/304528064/china-admits-that-a-fifth-of-its-farmland-is-contaminated). Chinese who can afford it buy imported food whenever possible—and those who can’t just hope they’re lucky. Tainted pet food may get the headlines in the U.S., but food safety is far worse—for animals and people—in China itself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/"},"headline":"China's Food Safety Problems Go Deeper Than Pet Treats","datePublished":"2014-05-21T21:48:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:58:35.565Z","description":"Pet food retailers in the U.S. are pulling Chinese-made dog and cat treats from their shelves out of contamination fears","url":"https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/","keywords":["Environment","China","Scandal","health","Food and Drug Administration","International","Contamination"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte60325119a004aba/6986906f3bc999a4fa1a3977/china-dog-food-recall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bryan Walsh","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte60325119a004aba/6986906f3bc999a4fa1a3977/china-dog-food-recall.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"China Pet Food Recall","caption":"China Pet Food Recall","creditText":"Mike Clarke—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/107922/china-pet-food-contamination-recall-video/","name":"China's Food Safety Problems Go Deeper Than Pet Treats"}}]}] ```