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Suspicious Dog Treats: CBC's Marketplace Investigates a Deadly Mystery in this Unregulated Canadian Industry

Fighting for Fido airs on MARKETPLACE Friday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV

September 25, 2012- Thousands of dogs are sick or dying across North America and it’s been going on for years. No one can say what, exactly, made the dogs sick, but owners say their dogs got sick after they were fed a popular chicken jerky treat. MARKETPLACE is on the trail of this mysterious illness and putting these treats to the test: Fighting for Fido airs Friday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV.

Are big companies putting profits before pets? In this new MARKETPLACE investigation, Tom Harrington looks into the unregulated business of pet food—a business worth 50 billion dollars a year—and uncovers some disturbing details that Canadian pet owners need to know.

Warnings and advisories from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the American Veterinary Association, and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association warn consumers and vets about the treats, but so far, Canadian government regulators remain silent, and there have been no recalls on either side of the border. With some of the biggest pet food companies marketing these made-in-China treats, who fights for Fido when things go wrong? MARKETPLACE is Canada’s consumer watchdog, and is taking some hard evidence to the lab, hoping to crack the case.

Fighting for Fido airs Friday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV; Sept. 29 at 9:30 p.m. ET and Sept. 30 at 5:30 p.m. ET on CBC News Network.

Winner of the 2011 Gemini Award for Best News Information Series, MARKETPLACE airs Fridays at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC Television. MARKETPLACE also airs Saturdays and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. ET on CBC News Network. For more information on MARKETPLACE, visit our website at cbc.ca/marketplace, join us on Facebook and follow us on twitter: twitter.com/cbcerica and twitter.com/cbctom. Executive producer is Tassie Notar.


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About CBC News
For more than 75 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

For further information, or to request interviews, contact:
Melissa Prince, Veritas Communications
o) 416-482-2669
c) 647-205-4744
prince@veritascanada.com
or
Corey Black, News and Current Affairs Publicist, CBC
o) 416-205-8710
c) 647-221-4133
corey.black@cbc.ca

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