British Columbia

Good! Keep those patients safe!

Northwest Naturals in Portland, Oregon, says in a statement that it is recalling one batch of its two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.

The company says the same product was sold in several states including California, Colorado, Washington and B.C. in Canada.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture says in a warning issued on Thursday that tests confirm that a house cat in Washington County was infected with H5N1 and died after consuming the raw frozen pet food sold by Northwest Naturals.

The test results have triggered a nationwide voluntary recall with the company alerting consumers to check their products.

The recall applies to products packaged in two-pound plastic bags with "Best if used by" dates between May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026.

Northwest Naturals says customers who have purchased the recalled product should immediately throw away the product.

With a provincial election that left the BC NDP in government by a small margin, there’s no doubt that 2024 signalled a clear shift to the far-right with the expressed support of extreme candidates with extreme positions.

As costs and damage rise, the government needs to focus on prevention and learn from First Nations.

Wildfires in the province now drive global climate change, often producing more greenhouse gas emissions than all other B.C. sources combined. Canadian wildfires in 2023 produced more GHGs than total national emissions of Germany.

But one of the most powerful reasons for action is economic — we simply can’t afford the status quo. Losses from B.C. wildfires cost tens of billions of dollars. The government reported spending over $1 billion fighting 2023 wildfires.

Yet such firefighting costs are just the tip of the economic spear. The total costs of a wildfire can range from six to 30 times the suppression costs.

For example, total costs of the 2016 Fort McMurray fire are estimated at about $9 billion to $11 billion — roughly 20 times the firefighting costs.

As wildfire conditions worsen, how will we support all the mills whose wood supply has burned? All the wineries with smoke-spoiled product? All the motels, campgrounds and restaurants emptied by smoky summers? All the Indigenous communities evacuated repeatedly? All the highways and dikes washed away by wildfire-caused flooding?

And how will we pay the increased health costs? A University of California, Los Angeles, study has linked 11 years of California wildfire smoke to more than 50,000 premature deaths and $400 billion in economic impact.