Food shortages are nothing new. We have been seeing a lot of empty shelves since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

With that being said, it comes as no surprise that there have been shortages of pet food throughout the country. So, what’s making it so difficult to find food for our furry friends?

According to Market Realist, a shortage in packing materials has gotten in the way for canned cat food companies such as Friskies. There is also the challenge of getting products to stores- something driver shortages haven’t been helping. And of course, we have the hoarders making it more difficult to even find products on the shelves.

Nestle, who owns Purina, the company that makes Friskies, said that the Pandemic caused pet food sales to go up, increasing the demand for the products.

Photo by Max Kleinen on Unsplash
Photo by Max Kleinen on Unsplash
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Chickens Smothered in Iowa Plant

After two incidences where hundreds of chickens were smothered to death over the summer, PETA is asking the Allamakee County Attorney to open an investigation on Agri Star Meat & Poultry in Postville.

In an article by KCRG,  USDA documents say 317 chickens were killed during an incident on July 8th, 2021. During this incident, a worker continued to dump chickens onto a malfunctioning belt in a poultry kill room.

Belt operators kept running the belt, even when the machine was malfunctioning. This caused more birds to be dumped onto the belt, even when it wasn’t moving.

According to a USDA inspector, this caused a large section of the belt was stacked four birds deep. This stacking caused most birds in lower layers to be smothered.

Following the incident, the USDA recommended that facility workers were trained on handling malfunctioning belts.

On August 12th, 2021- a second incident, similar to the one in July, resulted in more smothered chickens. The number from this incident was redacted from the USDA document.

Companies Based in Iowa

These companies all have one thing in common: They're based in the Hawkeye state.

OPINION - This Cedar Valley Eyesore Needs To Be Demolished

In its heyday, the Rath Packing Company employed 8,500 people. It's still thought of fondly by many as what helped put Waterloo "on the map" and giving many area families a good income to raise their families. When rumors of bankruptcy started in 1979, the company became employee-owned in 1980. Despite many attempts to save it and massive amounts of money invested (from employees and loans from the city of Waterloo) all of those efforts ultimately failed, leading to its demise and liquidation in 1985.

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