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The L.A. Business Journal front page has stories on Hahn fundraiser Ted Stein and ex-commissioner Leland Wong retaining criminal-law attorneys, the Wolfgang Puck empire and businessman John Anderson. But the talker story of the page (free with registration) begins this way:
The only local rendering company that disposes of dead dogs and cats has stockpiled 600 tons of animal remains since December, when numerous Asian countries banned imports of U.S. beef byproducts after a mad cow disease scare...“We’ve been building a mountain in the back of our place,” said Bill Gorman, president of the Vernon-based [West Coast Rendering Co.].
Vietnam, Taiwan and other Asian countries buy our rendered pets as feed for shrimp and fish, the paper says, but the USDA classifies the animals as "beef byproducts." So the market for rendered remains vanished.