A friend of mine forwarded me an e-newsletter which said that following the recall of made-in-China children's toys with lead content, tests were conducted in the US on pet toys and many were also found to have toxic lead content. The brightly coloured latex toys are the chief culprits.
Well, Rupe has a few of these brightly coloured squeaky bouncy toys. I didn't have their labels any longer so I went to the pet shop to check. All were made in China. My heart sank. He not only loves carrying them and shaking them, he also likes chewing on them.
They have since been removed and I went crazy trying to find him subsitutes -- I couldn't find anything that wasn't made in China! Finally, I settled for a couple of Japanese made soft toys. They at least squeaked but they don't bounce.
When I was at the cashier paying for them, the woman behind me was going to buy exactly the same ball that I threw out. L told her what we did, and explained about the possibly of toxicity in China-made toys. Her eyes widened as she thanked him. Behind her, a couple who were chosing toys must have overheard because he heard them muttering: "This one, cannot. It's made in China." "Alamak, this one too."
Poor Rupert. He doesn't have any more squeaky toys nor bouncy balls now. But I think I was more upset to remove his toys than he was. And I'm cross with myself. If the pet food was tainted and the toys for children were toxic, I should have realised about the possibility of pet toys too.
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