Like a Hollywood drama unfolding, the conclusion to the tainted pet food story ends in punishing of the bad guy. In this case the defendant was the head of China’s FDA. His punishment for the several reported cases of human and animal fatalities: the death penalty.

China by handing that ruling is trying to appease the publics concern over government corruption and to scapegoat a single person. The defendant was Zheng Xiaoyu who was found guilty for taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies to pass unsafe drugs and consumable products. The list of his faults includes passing a batch of antibiotics that killed 6, tainted pet food ingredients, and poisonous toothpaste.

It’s considered scapegoating due to the harshness of the ruling and the fact that no one person could be responsible for all of these heinous disregards for human life. Just like with any application of the death penalty, the defendant was found beyond a reasonable doubt to of willfully and methodically planned an act to take a human life. Zheng by knowingly taking bribes for unsafe consumable products willfully opened the door to the resulting human and animal deaths.

Besides the defendant, his aid was also sentenced to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes on Zheng’s behalf. Why more heads didn’t roll is beyond me. Considering he was the chief of China’s FDA and there was no oversight or auditing of his actions is surprising.

So with the credits playing for this saga, this drama is nearly over. What was learned from these events will better help monitor and regulate the foods and drugs the public consumes. Currently our FDA is heavily pressured by pharmaceutical companies for speedy approvals. If at any time they start to get ideas of following in Zheng footsteps, maybe our judicial system should use the precedence in China’s latest ruling.

Source doc washingtonpost