Thursday, February 04, 2010

A Mercuric Matter…

This is just a little short blurb.  I was on a dog owner’s forum this morning.  I wrote about giving Maggie tuna for breakfast and how happy it made her.   A curmudgeon wrote back that I should be worried about giving dogs tuna due to the high mercury content of canned fish.   Excuse me?  Mercury in tuna?  Shouldn’t we be more worried about the human aspects?  I seriously doubt the FDA would allow high mercuric content canned fish to be sold in the US.  It reminded me of that myth that vaccines were causing autism.  It is the same paranoid mindset.  I should know. 

5 comments:

geelizzie said...

I was told by the vet to never ever give my cats canned tuna meant for humans, but they make canned tuna cat food, so go figure. Maybe it's because animals have different metabolisms and are way smaller than humans? I did read that light tuna has less mercury than albacore, but I kind of like the albacore better. Oh well, if the mercury in the tuna doesn't kill us something else will.

impromptublogger said...

I have no idea about the tuna although I too have heard the same thing about mercury content as geelizzie. And I want to congratulate you on getting off the Chef Boyardee! A good less sodium alternative is the Annie's brand. I don't know if your supermarket would carry it if it is a smaller kind but all the chain grocery stores doo. It is an all natural brand.

glittergirl said...

oh, people who frequent dog message boards can sometimes be.... opinionated.

your dog seems to be in great health and has always eaten "people food", right?

i believe it's true about mercury in tuna, but that would only have an effect on maggie if you were feeding her cans of it daily.

as a little treat it seems harmless...

clarekin said...

The high mercury content in tuna is why small children and pregnant women are advised to avoid tuna (along with a few other fish). I'm not sure what it'd do to a dog though.

got mercury said...

Actually, there are very high amounts of mercury in tuna. Check out www.gotmercury.org for more information.