And while my outrage meter seems to be working:

Imported ingredients used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their apparent protein content, federal officials said Thursday.

So we have companies in China faking the protein content on their substandard product in order to get more sales, and then we have American companies buying Chinese products to save a few pennies on a dollar.

Also important to note:

So far, melamine has been found in wheat gluten and in rice protein concentrate imported from China. Media reports from South Africa suggest a third pet food ingredient, corn gluten, used in that country also was contaminated with melamine.

So wait … in South Africa, the corn gluten is deadly too? What US company has been using Chinese corn gluten and hasn’t come forward about that yet, because they haven’t had to?! Purina Kitten Chow has corn gluten in it, and they have already been involved in the recall for one of the other ingredients bought from China. How do I know, as a consumer and pet lover, that their corn gluten isn’t coming from China too? Should I take that on faith, just because my cats haven’t gotten sick yet?! Not likely.

I guess I am going to eat a late lunch, go to PetsMart, sit my ass down in the cat food aisle, and read the labels to find something to feed my cats that doesn’t contain wheat gluten, rice protein concentrate, or corn gluten. Good freaking luck. But I really don’t know what to do!

But wait!

Wilbur-Ellis told the FDA it had shipped the rice protein concentrate to five U.S. pet food manufacturers. The FDA declined to identify the manufacturers during the Thursday teleconference. But Blue Buffalo was identified as one of the manufacturers after it posted details of the recall on its Web site.

So who the hell are the other four manufacturers!? Like playing Russian roulette isn’t it? I’ve been staying very informed on this recall business, and even I don’t know what to buy now! It’s starting to look like whether the kittens hate it or not, they are getting chicken for dinner. Real chicken. Chicken that looks like chicken and has no fillers. I’m not going to be happy about it and they aren’t going to be happy about it, but they have to eat!

This is so fucked up.