Boycott Made In China

Almost two years ago, my husband and I were forced to make the gut-wrenching decision to put our beloved dog, Chiclet, to sleep. She was an amazing dog, and she was an important part of our home and lives. Unfortunately, at only three years of age, she became incredibly ill and developed kidney failure. My husband and I could not understand this. She was young and had been healthy from the time we first brought her home. However, we didn't realize at the time that there were many other dogs around the country that were developing similar health problems. In fact, we didn't even begin to hear about other dogs falling ill until a few months later as the problem began to grow. These dogs were suffering and dying after ingesting Chinese dog food. Of course, my husband and I certainly have no way of proving with 100% certainty that this is the cause of our poor Chiclet's demise. However, out of ignorance, we fed Chiclet a brand of dog food that was later discovered to be dangerous and was recalled. So, we have come to truly believe that this was the cause of her death.

After the tainted dog food disaster began to die down, there were new reports of toys and jewelry containing dangerous levels of lead, children's clothing containing high levels of formaldehyde and lead buttons, toothpaste containing a poison used in antifreeze, toxic fish, dangerous tires, extension cords with inappropriate wiring, and so forth. The list is very extensive and seems to go on and on. Of course, I am ignoring the report of the cardboard hot dogs which one can either believe is a tale fabricated for the benefit of one journalist or was squashed by the Chinese government for the purpose of saving face. I have my own thoughts on that one.

Keeping all of this in mind, I have decided to boycott all Chinese products, and I would like to encourage others to do the same. After the recall of so many brands of dog food containing toxic Chinese ingredients, I began to be much more deligent about what I feed my pets. However, I have decided to extend my list of "do not buys" to include all products from China. If you question the safety of Chinese products, simply run a quick google search. There is plenty of information about the products they like to export. It is a shame that over fifty percent of all recalls in the U.S. and Europe are from China. In my mind, this speaks for itself. If you feel like safety is not reason enough to boycott Chinese products, read up on China's attitude towards human rights in Tibet, Darfur, and within China itself. Then you will be too damn sick to get up and go to the store to buy anything. Either way, that is one Chinese product that hasn't left the shelf.