Dog food shortage has canines concerned

“You don’t seem to miss it until it’s gone”, and while that statement can apply to everything from love to gasoline, tonight we’ll apply the notion to that crucial commodity: dog food.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

On April first, with the Mad Cow disease scare winding down, The Belize Agricultural Health Authority lifted the temporary ban that was imposed on all imported animal food containing beef. However, if you have been to the supermarkets to buy your favourite brand of dog food you would think the ban was still in effect.

Sherman Sawers, Manager, Brodie’s Supermarket

“We have had several complaints about specialty dog food, which we are out of completely. But we are just asking our customers to bear patience with us and we?ll get it in as soon as possible.”

Today when we visited two of the biggest suppliers of dog food, the Belize Farm Centre and Brodie?s there was hardly any canned or dry food on the shelves. According to the Manager of Brodie?s supermarket Sherman Sawers, because of the restrictions they could not get any supplies of dog food into the country.

Sherman Sawers

“We had restrictions on importation, so we only could have sold what we had in stock. We couldn?t import any at all.?

Jacqueline Woods

?So what we see on the shelves in Brodie?s is all that is left??

Sherman Sawers

?That is right; it?s all that we have in stock.?

Jacqueline Woods

?When will you be receiving your supply??

Sherman Sawers

?In a week or week and a half we should be receiving some more dog food.”

Unlike the few bags of the No Name dry puppy food available at Brodie?s, at The Belize Farm Centre they are completely out of all dry dog food and their shipment is not expected until sometime next week.

Dr. Michael DeShield, Director, Food Safety, BAHA

“They have been out of food for a long time–well there was minimal food because of the long timeframe that this ban was in effect. And so there was a backlog and there are a number of countries which had that ban in place as well?it was not only Belize?and so I would imagine the big demand for the food immediately as the ban was lifted, and so all that food just went and dog food sells pretty fast, as there are a lot of dogs out there.”

If your dog has been accustomed to a particular food that is at the moment unavailable, Dr. Michael DeShield, BAHA’s Director for food safety and also a veterinarian, gave a few suggestions as to what you can do to help keep your canine’s belly full.

Dr. Michael DeShield

“You can always use basically the basic food that we use, try not to get the bones and things. But rice, try to get the dog used to rice, which is very good. A lot of people think rice will cause bumps on their stomach, but that?s not the case, it?s very good. You could use some gravy and some meat, some local products that you have here and then feed the dog with it, and then mix it with whatever commercial food, because the commercial food is very good, it has all the nutrients and vitamins that need. Just check with the local vet and ask them to see what they may have or what they recommend.”

Although some store owners believe BAHA may have overreacted in its response to the Mad Cow outbreak, Dr. DeShield says they acted responsibly even though the risk of getting the disease from dog food is very minimal.

Dr. Michael DeShield

“The main thing why it might seem that we over reacted is the fact that we weren?t sure what was going on with the U.S. We found this one case of Mad Cow, we know that it was wide spread; we didn?t know the extent of it. And so you have to put those bans in place immediately until you get a good grasp of what?s going on there. And that?s what we were actually waiting on. We were in consultation with our U.S.D.A. counterparts constantly. And the international community was trying to get the whole picture. And until we could get assurance that it was okay, then we had to put that ban in place.”

The ban had been in place since December. In the meantime, a temporary ban on imported poultry products has been imposed because of Avian Influenza. Dr. DeShield advises that if you plan to import food it?s always good to go through BAHA for an import permit so you do not face any restrictions at the border.