[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:17, topic:568412”]
So the rawhide chews come from the same company(s) that had the pet food issues? If not, your analogy is meaningless.
[/QUOTE]
Seriously? The point is that China is not as well regulated. If you want to be sure, buy from a more regulated place.
Do you sell rawhide from China or something? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be so antagonistic.
I think his point is that it’s unfair to paint all of China with the broad “unsafe” brush based on the undesirable results of a few manufacturers relative to the volume of reasonably safe product the country exports.
And it’s a valid point, logically. Nevertheless, there is enough unsafe and just plain trashy product coming from China that consumers are having increasing difficulty trusting what China is exporting.
No, I don’t sell Chinese products. At least not if I can help it. But that’s because I own a bookstore and China doesn’t honor our intellectual property laws, which directly hurts American writers.
I’m not trying to be antagonistic. I’m just pointing out that China is a larger country than the U.S.A., and has thousands upon thousands of companies producing just about any product you can imagine. It’s unfair to say you won’t buy from a company just because a completely unrelated company in a different field is ill-behaved and happens to be in the same country.
(or, just see Inigo Montoya’s post)
I really do not want to see the China hijack get this moved to GD, so I would appreciate it if it was dropped.
The original question was whether rawhide was or was not safe.
The China issue is separate. It is true that some products from China have been dangerous. It might be true that many products from China are dangerous, (although the exact numbers or exact products have not been identified by any reliable source in this thread). Anyone who wishes may avoid toxic products from China by refraining from buying products from China, although the actual danger has not been established in regard to rawhide chew toys.
= = =
As to the original question: We stopped getting rawhide chews for our Boxers because they would carefully work the knots out of the ends and then proceed to try to swallow the rawhide whole, lengthwise, blocking their throats and causing them to gag. (The first time was with our first Boxer and the second time was 15 years later when a well-menaing friend gave one, unnoticed, to a different dog.)
I do not make any claims that rawhide is inherently dangerous. If you happen to have a dog, (or, possibly, a dog of a specific breed), that happens to like working the knots out of rawhide pieces shaped like bones and then swallowing them lengthwise, then rawhide is dangerous for that dog.
Sorta like how Legos (Manufactured by Wicked Danes!) are only dangerous to kids who like stufing tiny, jagged hunks of plastic deep into their mouths. 