Pet-food recall: A matter of responsibility
By Gina Spadafori
March 23, 2007
From the FDA/Menu Foods press conference, as reported by ABC News:
The president of pet food maker Menu Foods, which last week issued a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of pet food after a rash of animal sickness and death, said today that the company will reimburse pet owners who can trace their pet illnesses to the company’s products.
Earlier Friday, New York State veterinary health investigators announced that the pet food responsible for pet deaths around the country was contaminated with the rodent poison aminopterin.
“A pet is an important part of any family,” Paul Henderson, the president and CEO of Menu Foods, said at a Toronto press conference. “We understand what pet ownership is.”
While Henderson described himself as “angry” over the massive recall and the impact it has had on hundreds of pets, he also said the company has not stopped manufacturing at the two plants believed to have produced the contaminated pet food.
Here’s the rest.
Also, here’s a report (thanks, vetcetera) the plant in Emporia, Kansas, is going to shut down for a few days, related to the recall. Yes, that’s right, it has been continuing to run since the recall. According to the Menu Foods spokesperson:
“There is absolutely zero impact on employment. The company has certainly been challenged by what has been one of the biggest recalls in consumer history, but our consumers are loyal, the company is strong and business is moving forward.”
Emphasis mine, of course. How loyal are you, Consumers?
Update: Raw footage of the Cornell/NY State press conference (thanks, Kim). The Menu Foods one is on the same site. Still looking for the FDA’s. Anyone?
Interesting viewing, all in all.
Go to the latest blog post | Go to the PetConnection home page
Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary
Just one question, since I’ve been seeing repeated reports of the lack of response people are getting from various companies involved, including Menu Foods —— What exactly is going to be required for people to “trace their pet illnesses to the company’s products”? Has anyone said what people will have to do to prove their pets have been sickened or killed by this? It seems to me those whose pets died before the recall who didn’t save the cans or pouches to PROVE what they fed are screwed. As are those who might not have had appropriate tests done. (IE whatever tests the company may require versus what the vets ran.)
Comment by Dawn Turner — March 23, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Here’s a link to the raw footage of the press conference. In it they say they are STILL open and manufacturing food at both plants.
http://www.9wsyr.com/mediacent.....oid=193689
Comment by Kim — March 23, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
I had my cat cremated, was 3 cans into the new case of iams, the poisoning wasn’t even know to us yet, my cat died of kidney failure feb 13th, perfect health to having to be killed 10 days latter. I have no prrof, same symptoms as many others and thinking perhaps 10 of thousands of cats, no telling how long this has been going on for either. I think i’m like you have no clue what to do or much hope for a satifactory resolution and accountability, how could there be no quality checks, sample foods for testing, no they had to kill more cats and dogs then go oops, then keep selling the stuff for another week. my e-mail is rorback@hotmail.com if anyone has suggestions, all i can suggest is get blood records and tests from vet and proof of yer bill… good luck Lee
Comment by Lee Orback — March 23, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Your database shows way more than the 16 deaths EVERY news outlet is still reporting. Can anything be done to force the media to start reporting the real story. That based on your responses…there’s no way it’s only 16. I get more frustrated by the hour watching the news.
My prayers go out to everyone impacted by this tragedy. I am nursing 2 kitties back to health, after almost a week in the hospital. We are very lucky…it appears we caught it early, but I’ll continue to hold my breath for months, scared of a relapse.
I can’t thank Pet Connection enough for all you’re doing for all of us!!!
Comment by Sherry — March 23, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
New Info,
It is obvious they are keeping this as hush hush as posible, next it will be the dry food.
This was on bellsouth health news and only part of the article.
Debbie J
Published: 3/23/07, 5:26 PM EDT
By MARK JOHNSON
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists said Friday they still don’t know how it got there and predicted more animal deaths would be linked to it. Also Friday, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the “cuts and gravy” style food, regardless of when they were produced.
Comment by D Jackson — March 23, 2007 @ 5:04 pm
My loyalty is NOT to Iams or Science Diet. My loyalty is to my pets. I drove 100 miles to purchase Innova. I couldn’t stand the thought of them eating Iams or Science Diet one more day.
Comment by Terry — March 23, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
why the hell is menu food still open this place needs to close down
Comment by TONI — March 23, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
Apparently we’ve succeeded in drowning government in a bathtub and it’s oversight duties to it’s citizens with it. All we have now are unscrupulous corporations doing whatever they please with zero government oversight.
This is an example of the kind of small incremental screwups that when it occurs and doesn’t receive the proper scrutiny and official response, slowly destablizes a society… If a nation of citizens can’t count on a central government to watch out for them in the face of the most egregious behaviors by private enterprise, then we really got nothing… No responsible government, no stable society.. Nothing… Not a good thing for any of us.
Comment by Steve — March 23, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
THE FDA AND EVERY DOG FOOD CO. CEO’S NEED TO CLOSE THESE MENU FOOD PLANTS DOWN. MY GOD WE WERE FEEDING OUR PETS RAT POISON.
Comment by TONI — March 23, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
ABC said they would close the “the two plants believed to have produced the contaminated pet food.” Does this mean that the food at the NJ plant is compromised? And if so, why isn’t that plant being shut down, too?
Comment by CatLady — March 23, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
My cat became ill this week about 3 to 4 days after eating a package of contaminated food. He was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. Before this week my cat was a happy, healthy 9 year old, who had never been sick. Has anyone else experienced the same symptoms in their cats? It seems like too big a coincidence that my cat got ill days after eating this food. Luckily, I only give him wet food as a treat, about once a month. So since the beginning of the year he has only eaten 2-3 packages. Which may be why his symptoms were not as acute. Has anyone else had similar experiences with their cat? My prayers go out to every dog, cat, and their families that have suffered this ordeal.
Comment by Sandra Graves — March 23, 2007 @ 5:15 pm
Something struck me about this story and that is: “Why on earth does a cat (or dog) need to eat wheat (or corn or barley)?” I wasn’t aware that wheat composed a “natural” diet for any carnivore.
We foster golden retrievers and can attest that many of our dogs suffer with skin and yeast problems if fed on a product that contains wheat. Changing to an all-meat (go to your local butcher and buy a bunch of chicken backs and make your own feed) or at least a wheat-free diet clears up hot spots, ear problems and thin coats a great deal of the time.
None of our dogs has ever had any wet pet food, period. When I learned that the food is colored and drenched with “gravy” not for the benefit of the animal, but for the satisfaction of the owner, I put the stuff on our banned list.
Comment by Chuck — March 23, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
The poster above called Debbie J posted aprt of an article found in Bell South Health News. It said this: Also Friday, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the “cuts and gravy” style food, regardless of when they were produced.
I cant fine that article and I dont understand what this means, all 95 brands of cuts and gravy? What does that mean, in cans and pouches? I dont see my cats food posted yet and hers was a cuts and gravy in can by Nutro……can anyone clarify this better for me, I am so confused! Thank you
Comment by Sandi — March 23, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
They don’t need wheat. You don’t see dogs and cats stalking wheat in the wild. Nor do you see animals asking for a “side of gravy” after they just made a kill.
Comment by Steve — March 23, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
It is quite possible that if aminopterin is the toxin involved in the poisonings that investigators will expand from a focus on renal failure to other diagnoses such as liver failure. Aminopterin is a highly toxic substance that can affect is likely not the only fatal reaction to aminopterin. The media has focused on renal failure, but until now apparently no one has been looking for deaths resulting from other organ failures. I hope that veterinarians not be so focused on renal failure that they dismiss the deaths of other pets with different symptoms that could be the result of aminopterin poisoning. I lost beloved pet this week to what I believe was a reaction to as toxic agent, and he was on a diet of recalled pet food with production dates that matched those listed by Menu Foods.
Comment by MFEMFEM — March 23, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
GO TO NUTRO’S WEB SITE,PETSMART WEB SITE, NUTRO HAS ALOT OF CAN AND POUCHES ON THE RECALL LIST. T
Comment by TONI — March 23, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
Sandi,
Based on my experience with my two cats, I’m only giving my cats prescriptive food from the vet/hospital right now. The hospital is confident (as confident as possible at the moment) that the prescriptive food IS monitored because of its use and manufactured in separate plants. (If anyone knows differently, please let me know.)
If you’ve been feeding any type of cuts/gravy (that’s what I fed by cats), I suggest taking them for a blood test to ensure their kidney function is normal. It’s nothing to mess with.
The poison has also compromised one of my cat’s immune system (sickest of the two). He came home from the hospital with a respiratory virus. Just helps to confirm it’s the food, since that’s a side effect of that particular toxin.
Comment by Sherry — March 23, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
The CEO of Menu Foods is not owning up to negligence in the contamination.
From Reuters Canada:
‘Asked about compensation for medical bills of sick pets, Henderson said “to the extent that we identify that the cause of any expenses incurred are related to the food, Menu will take responsibility for that.”
Asked if Menu would admit to any negligence in the matter, Henderson replied with a flat “No.” ‘
Comment by LA CatDad — March 23, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
Menu foods and ALL that had a hand in this needs to be named and made to pay via class action. They need to be be hit extremely hard to send a message to Menu Foods and all other irresponsible manufacturers to clean up their act.
Comment by Gary — March 23, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
My cat died march 1 from kidney failure after eating the recalled Iams wet food. My dog used to sneak the leftovers from her bowl. I had his blood tested and the kidneys are fine but the liver is slightly elevated…. I wonder if this poison affects liver also.
Comment by Dianne Mofidi — March 23, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
menu food says they will pay for expenses but my cat was on Iams and and on the menu foods website they say if your pet was on Iams you need to deal with Iams. I have reported to Iams and the FDA Should I call Menu also?
Comment by Dianne Mofidi — March 23, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
My cat Kaedy’s been on intravenous fluids since Tuesday - and good news - her blood test came back normal today… hurray. We need to get another test next week to confirm everything’s okay, but so far so good. (She was sick from Nutro Natural Choice Turkey & Giblets - the only exact match I had for the recall although I had been feeding her just about everything on the recall list - I wanted to give her a “variety” so I’d make a special trip to Petco once a month and buy 2 of each of the “top shelf” pouches). Anyway, no more Petco or Iam’s or Science Diet or Max Cat or any of that crap - I’ll shop at my local small holistic pet store and get human grade food from now on. This was quite a lesson. I’ll be checking every product I buy for me and my family very carefully now…
Comment by Kathy — March 23, 2007 @ 6:36 pm
I had a little dog, Joey, who was fed the pouches. The end of November, 2006, he became very sick. He had some renal failure but his primary problem was liver failure. His liver problem in turn, caused a blockage in his gall bladder. His illness came on very suddenly. After battling it over nearly 4 months, we ran out of options and had to let him go. I’m wondering if the food contamination does not go back further than what is reported. Anyone out there have a pet that became sick before December 3rd?
Comment by Chellie — March 23, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
Menu Foods’ stock closed at $5.10 - that’s up over 30%. They are figuring they can just ride this minor storm.
P&G, who owns Iams - whose food killed my cat, closed down only slightly (down $.05 - that’s only .08% down)
Boycott these companies and any companies that outsources to Menu. Make sure you let them know you are boycotting them for that reason.
On some encouraging news, I received another call from the FDA requesting more information re my situation.
I am lucky that my vet and the internal medicine specialist took serum samples and took out my cat’s kidneys after I had to put her down on Wednesday. Menu wants proof? I got it. In spades. The poisonous left over packets are sitting on my kitchen counter, my $1800 of vet bills are sitting in a folder in my office, all the blood tests and complete medical records are at the vets ready to be sent to the FDA, and tissue samples from my cat are at the lab. Bring it on, Iams and Menu. I’m ready for the fight. You picked the wrong grieving cat owner to mess with.
BTW, here is a website collecting info for class action: http://www.progressivelaw.com/
Comment by Jo-Elle — March 23, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
Sandi,
I didn’t want to post the whole article because it is so long and I don’t know how to post a link here. My question exactly, what is meant by the statement, “regardless of when they were produced”.Does that mean all cuts and gravy’s regardless if it is menufoods or does produced mean where they were originated such as Iams????
Here is the whole article.
Debbie J
Health News
Related Stories
Rat Poison Found in Tainted Pet Food
3/23/07, 8:25 PM EDT
Stent Makers Brace for New Heart Study
3/23/07, 7:25 PM EDT
Hormones Factor Into Cancer’s Spread
3/23/07, 9:42 AM EDT
Study: Seniors Prefer to Exercise Alone
3/23/07, 9:42 AM EDT
Man Who Had 3 Hearts Leaves Pa. Hospital
3/23/07, 1:05 AM EDT
Join the Conversation
Discuss your viewpoints on this subject with others. Join in on the discussions in the BellSouth Message Boards now!
Rat Poison Found in Tainted Pet Food
Published: 3/23/07, 8:25 PM EDT
By MARK JOHNSON
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 17 cats and dogs, but scientists said Friday they still don’t know how it got there and predicted more animal deaths would be linked to it.
After the announcement, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the “cuts and gravy” style food, regardless of when they were produced. The company also said it would take responsibility for pet medical expenses incurred as a result of the food.
The substance in the food was identified as aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in some other countries, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.
The federal government prohibits using aminopterin for killing rodents in the U.S. State officials would not speculate on how the poison got into the pet food, but said no criminal investigations had been launched.
The pet deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. Some pets that ate the recalled brands suffered kidney failure, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and two dogs.
The latest death, a Yorkshire terrier named Pebbles, occurred Thursday. The dog died of kidney failure after eating some of the food. Her owner, Jeff Kerner, said he was contacting an attorney because he wanted to prevent another pet tragedy.
“Before they put this stuff in the bags, there should be some kind of test,” said Kerner, of Sherman Oaks, Calif. “I can’t just let it go. Even if they just change the law.”
The company expanded the recall - which initially covered only cans and pouches of food packaged from Dec. 3 through March 6 - after the FDA alerted it that some products remained on store shelves.
There is no risk to pet owners from handling the food, officials said.
The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation into the pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food. The gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated, the FDA said.
Paul Henderson, chief executive of Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.
Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.
“It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide,” Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.
Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by the manufacturer and found aminopterin in two of them. The two labs are part of a network created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation’s animals and food supply safe.
“Any amount of this product is too much in food,” Hooker said.
Aminopterin is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system. In dogs and cats, the amount of aminopterin found - 40 parts per million - can cause kidney failure, according to Bruce Akey, director of Cornell’s diagnostic center.
“It’s there in substantial amounts,” Akey said.
Donald Smith, dean of Cornell’s veterinary school, said he expected the number of pet deaths to increase. “Based on what we’ve heard the last couple days, 16 is a low number,” Smith said.
Aminopterin is no longer marketed as a cancer drug, but is still used in research, said Andre Rosowsky, a chemist with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Rosowsky speculated that the substance would not show up in pet food “unless somebody put it there.”
Henderson said Menu Foods does not believe the food was tampered with because the recalled food came from two different plants, one in Kansas, one in New Jersey. Menu continues to produce food at the two plants.
The company, already facing lawsuits, said Friday it is testing all the ingredients that go into the food.
“We have a lot of work to do, and we are eager to get back to it,” Henderson said. “This is a highly unusual substance.”
When asked whether there would compensation for medical bills for sick pets, Henderson said “to the extent that we identify that the cause of any expenses incurred are related to the food, Menu will take responsibility for that.”
A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was posted online by Menu Foods and is available at http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm. The company also designated two phone numbers that pet owners could call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.
___
Associated Press writers Andrew Bridges in Washington, Michael Virtanen in Albany and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___
Comment by D Jackson — March 23, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
Dianna…and everyone,
My husband is claim rep who deals with this type of litigation all the time. IF you have the proof (recalled food containers, before and after blood work, etc.) you may be able to recoup the medical expenses on your own.
* Send a certified letter “serving notice” to your local retailer’s risk mgmt department (you should be able to find it on the internet). State that you have proof, with med bills totally “X” dollars at this point. Finals bills and formal claim TBD.
* By serving the local retailer, they will contact Iams, Hills, etc. and Menu Foods. Ultimately, the insurance companies will process the claims on behalf of the various companies involved.
* By serving the local retailer, you also leave the option to take them to your local Small Claims Court should the original claim be thrown out. In Indiana, their insurance company would be required to hire local counsel and the payment could be up to $6,000. Note, pain and suffering is probably not going to happen (at least in Indiana because animals are only worth replacement as property). Those filing million $ lawsuits are dreaming.
It’s my husband’s experience that class action lawsuits have a minimal payout. They are an option for those without proof. If you do have proof that your pet was healthy prior and that you fed the recalled food, you may have another option.
Kathy…congrats on your happy outcome! I pray there are many more happy endings.
Comment by Sherry — March 23, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
I want to repeat that if aminopterin is the responsible toxin pet owners shouldn’t assume that if their pets became sick or died unexpectedly and the diagnosis wasn’t renal failure that pet food wasn’t responsible. Apparently aminopterin can cause death by liver and other organ failures. Vets shouldn’t assume that renal failure is the only cause of illness or death from eating products contaminated by aminopterin.
Comment by MFEMFEM — March 23, 2007 @ 6:53 pm
I have a question about the dates of production. I have some cans and pouches of Eukanuba with date codes just below the range specified by the recall. I purchased the food in late January. By the end of the month, my dog was suffering from renal failure. I had her euthanized on January 31.
Should I enter her death into the database here? Also, does anybody know how I can go about getting the food I have in my possession tested?
Comment by Dee — March 23, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
I am so glad to have found this website. My thoughts and prayers go out to every family that has been affected by this tragedy. I agree with you all in that the media needs to report “what is really happening”. I suggest that any family who has suddenly lost an animal due to acute organ failure within the past year and has feed that animal “wet food” they should report it to the FDA. The government needs to know the “real” number of animals affected by this situation and shut the Menu Foods, INC plants down indefinitely. In order for this to happen, the voice must be heard. In times like these, we have to come together and speak out! I came home from vacation on March 16 to find Jack, my 2 year old boxer/shepard mix dog depressed that I had been gone for a week and left him with a baby sitter. I felt bad for him, so I went out on March 17th and purchased 6 packs of Iams “wet cuts and gravy” food (I only give it to him as a treat, approx 1-2 times a month). I fed Jack a pack of the food at 4pm on March 19th (with the number 6317-4197, only 20 numbers off of the recalled food) and I noticed soon after that he began to drool profusely, like nothing I had ever seen him do before. At 12:30am that night, he awoke from a sound sleep and began to vomit yellowish stomach acid. He vomited 7 times in a 1 hour period; the last vomit before I carried him to the car had blood in it. He dry heaved and his body shook as I rushed him to the emergency 24 hour VET. They gave him a nausea shot and fluids under his skin. They advised me of the “wet” food recall and suggested that I get blood work done to test his organ function. They gave me “easy to digest special food” and said to monitor his state for lack of urination and signs of anorexia. It has been five days and he seems to be doing ok. I am really thankful that we went to the ER and he was able to flush out his system with the fluids they gave him. I threw all of the Iams food out (including the dry food) and I spend $20 today a 5lb bag of Organic dry food. Jack loves it, and for now on when I want to give him a nice treat, I will throw a plain chicken breast on the George Forman and not worry about the freakin toxins that Menu Foods are feeding our animals. Better yet, I read on their website today that they are testing the toxic food on cats and dogs and “several” of them are dying. I am so upset, it makes me sick to think that they know the food are toxic and they are testing them on innocent animals. We MUST come together and do something about this! For suggestions and those who would are interested in taking legal action or forming a committee to speak out against this toxic tragedy please email me at daisycrazy13@gmail.com.
Comment by Lindsay A. Glass — March 23, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
My real concern here is that since the contamination came from wheat products grown in China, I can’t possibly imagine that the contaminated gluten wouldn’t have made it into numerous products that we buy ourselves.
The scary part is that we get a lot of food these days from China and evidently they have zero controls on pesticides and such. I really want the company in question to be named so that the government can seize and test their entire supply. Because there’s no way a huge import/export firm would just ship the stuff to only this one company. Not when there’s large sums of money involved.
Me? I bought one pouch of the affected food as a treat a few weeks ago. And both cats got sick, but recovered(apparently?) a few days later. I hope half a pouch to each is something that won’t cause damage, but if it’s in the general food supply as well, and causes those levels of damage to cats and dogs…
My advice would be to not eat anything at all containing wheat gluten of any kind until this works itself out.
Comment by Joseph — March 23, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
Sandi,
It sounded as though they were adding to the list already given but I guess not, as of yet.
Debbie J
Comment by D Jackson — March 23, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
Possible Food Solution?
I thought I’d add another comment. I was at the local PetsMart and found this food called “Blue Spa” cat food. This might be a good solution as it is corn and wheat free(hence no gluten of any kind), plus is made with human-grade ingredients.
I’m putting zero faith in the chance that the gluten didn’t get into the dry food (albeit in much smaller amounts) given the cost-cutting and general greed of the companies.
Comment by Joseph — March 23, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
I wrote about the death of two of my kitties yesterday. Both of my cats had signs of jaundice at time of death. The younger cat (8yrs old) had a problem with her white cell count. The older cat (20 yrs) was not tested as she was an older cat (however she was healthy prior to going off her food).
Now that we know rat poison is a suspected cause; I have to wonder if my cats were poisoned. I don’t have any cans or bags of food as the first cat died on 1/14/07 and the death was presumed to be old age.The younger cat died a few weeks later.
I still shrudder when I recall having to force feed my younger cat by syringe her last two days on earth. After each attempt to feed her prn vet. she would promptly throw it up. I even bought a different food (sadly I bought Nutro Max canned/pate for the switch)which she also threw up.
It seems like outsourcing the dog food productions to Canada and China put our pets lives in danger in this case. China does things in producing foodstuffs not allowed in the U.S. As for Canada, the Mad Cow situation alone I feel imo is a red flag. *Outsourcing jobs in the productions of food and drugs can conceivably place our people and our animals at risk here at home.
I cannot help but think that these pet deaths are like canaries in the mines; we need tighter regulations for all foodstuffs both human and pet.
I won’t eat any food made in china (and other countries that have less strigent rules to follow to prevent food contamination), and my pets won’t either. And I will do my best to find food grown/made in the USA for all the members in my family. And the next time my pet suddenly hates the food it has been eating regularly, I won’t simply chalk it up to the animal being finicky if an animal goes off his feed.
Oh, yeah. I am still angry that this company waited to do the recall. And then also fed the suspect stuff to more cats and dogs (lab rats would have sufficed imo). My hunch about using an NMR spectrometer screen to search for answers was also on target.
I will pray for all the dogs, cats and people out there. All I have written is just my opinion for what it is worth. I cannot prove what killed my two cats unfortunately. Maybe it was a coincidence. But I cannot but wonder about the possibility of them being poisoned also. Take care all.
Comment by Grace — March 23, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Regarding Debbie J.’s comment that next it’ll be the dry food: it may already be. I say this from personal experience. This past Wednesday, March 21, I had to euthanize my seven-year-old cat because of acute renal failure. His name was Raul. He was a healthy, completely indoor cat. He had zero access to antifreeze or flowers or anything potential toxin that might trigger acute renal failure. My indoor cleaning solvents and whatnot are kept high up or in a closed, latched cupboard.
For most of Raul’s life I fed him and my other cat Science Diet dry food.
In late January the Petco store where I usually bought the food was out of the Science Diet dry foods I preferred, so I decided to try a new brand: Nutro Natural Choice dry food, in a 20 pound bag. A week or two after I bought it, when I ran out of Science Diet, I began feeding both my cats the Nutro.
About five weeks later, Raul took a sudden, terrible turn for the worse. When I took him to the vet, the acute renal failure was so severe that the kidney screen blood test had levels so high my vet’s machine couldn’t read them.
At the moment I don’t know whether my vet performed a post-mordem, though I did give him permission.
My other cat seems fine. I’m watching her closely. The fact she isn’t sick is inconclusive in my opinion, because the contimanted food hasn’t killed every pet that’s ingested it. If I’d keep feeding her that food, the same thing might have happened to her.
Right now only the “wet” food is being considered “contaminated.” So, someone please explain to me how a healthy, seven-year-old, completely indoor male cat whose only lifestyle or food brand change in years was the Nutro food (purchased within the recall period of Dec. 3 to March 6), suddenly comes down with acute and severe renal failure?
I may never know for sure whether the food was the caused, but that’s a helluva lot of coincidence. My vet and the local Humane Society leader agree. Watch your pets for symptoms, folks, even if they’re eating dry food.
Comment by Andrea — March 23, 2007 @ 7:31 pm
Update: Raw footage of the Cornell/NY State press conference (thanks, Kim). Here’s the Menu Foods one. Still looking for the FDA’s. Anyone?
The same link has both press conferences. The FDA says “State Agriculture Department”
Comment by Kim — March 23, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
I have some cans and pouches of Eukanuba with date codes just below the range specified by the recall. I purchased the food in late January. By the end of the month, my dog was suffering from renal failure. I had her euthanized on January 31.
Should I enter her death into the database here? Also, does anybody know how I can go about getting the food I have in my possession tested?
Comment by Dee — March 23, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
Has anyone been able to find a complete list of cat/dog foods that use ingredients supplied by MenuFoods? I am concerned about dry food now also and am wondering if Purina uses Menu Food products in it’s dry food.
Comment by L. Kuz — March 23, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
L. Kuz: http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210 has a list of foods and whether they are made at Menu Foods.
Comment by Kim — March 23, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
First of all, I want to say that my heart just breaks for all the dear pets and pet parents that have been affected by this insanity.
I was a faithful Nutro customer until a month ago when my 1.5 year old cat decided she didn’t like it anymore. Even though she would only lick the gravy, I kept giving it to her because she was eating her dry food with no problem. After a few weeks, I decided to buy Fancy Feast, which she just loves. I thought my cat was just being picky.
I have no proof that the food she turned her nose at was the tainted food, but it is a coincidece. Looking back, I also noticed that she was drinking a ton of water, very unusual for her…again, I thought it was due to the house being dry in the winter.
A month later, she has been eating fine, no vomit, and seems great, but I couldn’t help but wonder if she had been affected by the Nutro.
I took her to the vet today and all of her tests were just fine.
I couldn’t get a great answer from my vet about this, but does anyone know….should I still be concerned? If something was going to happen, would it have already, or could it still? I am so worried and so confused.
Comment by Jody — March 23, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
Dee, I would definitely enter your pooch in the database. I too am interested in getting the leftover food I bought tested, as it is dry food and they aren’t admitting to contaminated dry food yet. If I figure out a way or a place, I’ll spread the word.
Comment by Andrea — March 23, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
I watched the 3pm(CT) new conference, and was not impressed. Too much reassurance for their investors, not enough real information or compassion for us.
I am a loyal consumer/customer as long as the products/services meet with my approval. My dog Bubbles died because of this food (Nutro Ultra), and my other dog Daisy May has some blood/urine results that are a bit off (For one, her BUN is 35; it should be 25.), though not enough to worry about at this time. Our vet wants a recheck in a month, or if she shows *any* signs. How loyal to this food do you think I am right now?
It’s small producers for me from now on, and I am leaning towards a raw diet.
Comment by Pamela J. Betz-Baron — March 23, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
It may just be me, but it appears a larger percentage of the deaths (at least in SoCal) seem to be from the Nutro Natural Choice food (pouch). An article in the OC Register documented several deaths due to the Nutro Natural Choice and that is the food that killed our cat (and has a second cat in kitty ICU). I wouldn’t be surprised if the dry cat food from Nutro Natural Choice is also a problem.
Comment by Ron — March 23, 2007 @ 8:08 pm
I have to admit I am somewhat unnerved by some of the names on this list that use this company.
http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210
Comment by Steve — March 23, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
I’ve noticed that, too, Ron. It wouldn’t surprise me, either, considering what happened to my kitty.
Comment by Andrea — March 23, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
Andrea, I have used Nutro Natural Adult and Senior Cat dry food for YEARS and YEARS. I looked at the ingredience today and there is no mention of wheat at all. I still trust the Nutro dry food, BUT since I will be taking some of my 13 indoor cats to the vet in the morning AFTER they ate the “special treat” of Nutro Natural wet food in a pouch that had the numbers and dates of the recalled packs..because of this, I am NOT going to buy Nutro products again as long as they use Menu Foods.
I’m thawing out some chicken breast right now to give my kitties a “special treat” that I hope I can trust.
Comment by Libby — March 23, 2007 @ 8:28 pm
I am the managing editor for Adventure Books of Seattle. Our two Official Office Cats, ‘Ginger’ and ‘Sophie’ died from eating tainted ‘President’s Choice’ and ‘Special Kitty’. These cats were listed on our Staff Page and were known to thousands of people.
We called the Menu Foods hotline and spoke to a representative for awhile. We’re not going to sue them…we only asked them to reimburse AB for the reletively modest vet bills. (they had to be euthanized)
I urge you to check out the Straight Talk Blog page at AB and see our strongly-worded comments about Menu and their lack of testing policies.
http://www.adventurebooksofsea.....lkblog.htm
My heart goes out to all of you on the loss of your pets. Here in Seattle, people are flooding the local-based natural pet food stores, such as Mud Bay Pet Foods, because they no longer trust the big guys…
Comment by Robert M. Blevins — March 23, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
I’d like to share this with the group…today I got an email from PetSmart informing me that I had bought some of the tainted food (thank goodness for the PetSmart card). They told me to bring any that I still had back to the store. This email was about 5 days LATE…I took the food back on Monday.
I will save this email and my vet bill and that will be my proof. I really don’t expect any compensation, BUT I DO expect Menu Foods to be forced to close down and I DO expect Nutro and the other companies to do whatever it takes to insure this won’t happen again!
Comment by Libby — March 23, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
I have lots of questions remaining in my mind about not just the recalled pet foods, but those not “yet” recalled. I wonder how many people realize that many of the premium “natural” brands are also manufactured by Menu? While supposedly not part of the recall, we feed Wellness canned to our 6 cats. The 12 year old, a cancer survivor, has in fact been exhibiting marginal kidney values. How do we really know “other” foods that have been through the Menu Foods plants are “not” affected, if even on a lesser scale? How do we know there is no cross-contamination?
Comment by Stephanie — March 23, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
I am at a loss for words, the vets here are all booked-up. They are going to try to get are Dog in on Sat. just to run the test, he has been ill,vomiting, and he just lays there it hurts. My son who is ill and has been ill for a long time is is angry, up-set. Snowball was given to my son when he was 3 years old he is now 15. Snowball has been through parvo 2 days after we got him.He survived that, He also had a harnia and that is why we had to change his diet. I only pray Snowball will be Ok not for me but for my son. What have you done to us, This is just to much pain. Dog is man best friend, Snowball is my son best friend, and my son is just laying down upset and I pray he does not get any sicker due to this stress. When we find out what needs to be done I will post again, this site has help out. with the info needed.
Comment by Patricia — March 23, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
Andrea, thank you for your response. I will enter my pet’s death in the database with a note about the date codes. I will also notify FDA.
Comment by Dee — March 23, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
There are going to end up thousands of dead animals. I can’t believe the ‘media’ continues to use the phantom 16 number. I am guessing that the number is coming from the FDA. Everyone should contact their local FDA office and provide the info (I talked with them yesterday). There are dozens of dead animals in OC due to the pet food recall. I would not be surprised if the number of dead animals far exceeds 10,000.
Comment by Ron — March 23, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Dee - you’re quite welcome. The more info we can get out there, the better.
Libby - if I eventually find out I’m mistaken about the Nutro dry food, it’ll be a relief in regards to the safety of other pets out there who’ve eaten it. The Nutro web site even claims their dry food isn’t affected because they manufacture it themselves, not Menu Foods. However, there are simply too many coincidences with the timing and whatnot of my cat’s death for me to dismiss Nutro’s dry food outright. I hope your 13 kitties are okay. :)
Comment by Andrea — March 23, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
The rescue I volunteer at feeds all the cats (except those with special diet needs) the Nutro Natural Choice dry for kittens and for adults. Nutro helps out with the food. No cat has yet had problems since I started there—Jan 2006—from poisoned food. The cats that have had health issues had them coming in.
I don’t consider it dangerous except that their reputation is too tarnished for me, personally, by being part of the recalled food list. I no longer want to feed it to my own cats which have been eating it since being adopted last spring and well before at that rescue. I will feed Wellness dry kibble until Merrick releases their planned (spring 2007) cat kibble. Everyone will have to make their own decision as to what is available to them whether to do a complete boycott of anyone associated with Menu Foods.
Comment by Traci — March 23, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
Here’s some real eye-opening reading about this whole mess, and who’s really responsible for it.
Drudge Report
Rat Poison In Chinese Wheat Killed Pets
Powerful comments in this article…whewh!
http://www.drudge.com/news/925.....illed-pets
This one’s downright alarming, especially for the Chinese at the moment. We could be next.
Pet food as biosecurity early warning for China
http://synthesist.blogspot.com.....rning.html
Comment by Mike — March 23, 2007 @ 9:23 pm
You know, I’ve really had it with the KIND of reporting on this, numbers aside. I wanted to share this little story I’d heard, since it’s been such a big day for big press conferences, but I had to sift through all this junk before I found a version that wasn’t ruined by a nasty angle…
Here’s a stand-up-and-cheer story about Margaret Trask, who will never have to fetch her own slippers or unravel her own yarn in heaven:
http://www.beaufortgazette.com.....8108c.html
That was written by her home-town paper.
Here are three other takes on the same story, all from larger agencies, and all of which dismiss her as a lone kook and minimize the fact that the Wal-Mart may have had recalled food on the shelves on Weds, 3/21:
categorized as “strange and unusual”:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/.....ryid=78453
same as above, categorized as “oddities”:
http://www.canada.com/topics/n.....mp;k=65619
and this one is different, and not nice:
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006827479
Yeah, she’s a strange and unusual oddity. Her and Nader and Gore.
No one really Needs to protect consumers from big businesses like Menu Foods and Wal-Mart. We should trust them to take care of us and our pets… from cradle right into premature grave.
Anyway, Margaret Trask, I salute you.
Comment by Becca — March 23, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
A few posts back on this weblog, Stephanie saw our link and left a comment on the Adventure Books blog about her concern about the ‘natural’ foods.
The best thing to do is if you are going to use one of the local, smaller stores, such as Mud Bay in Seattle, ask WHERE the food is being produced. At Mud Bay, they produce it locally.
A good question,Stephanie. Thanks.
http://www.adventurebooksofsea.....lkblog.htm
Our story with Menu Foods. Note: The representatives ARE answering the phones, and the one we spoke with was polite. Hmm…we’ll see. You can use the link above to read the story of ‘Sophie’ and ‘Ginger’. They were the AB Official Office Cats at Adventure Books, with their own listings on the Staff Page, and were known to thousands of people.
Our thanks for all the messages.
Robert Blevins
Geoff Nelder
Christine Cartwright
Andrew Thomas
Greg Page
Gayla Prociv
Comment by Robert M. Blevins — March 23, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
I called iams and reported my story about jack and they said an investigator would be calling me soon and they will send me boxes to retrieve the remaining pouches of food so that they may test them. I suggest that all of you who still have the contaminated food to call the company and tell them.
Comment by Lindsay A. Glass — March 23, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
“At Mud Bay, they produce it locally.”
I am confused? Does Mudbay have it’s own label locally produced? I know that they sell several commercial labels (large and small) of natural foods but that those foods are not produced “local” as in Seattle or Washington.
Comment by Traci — March 23, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
While supposedly not part of the recall, we feed Wellness canned to our 6 cats. Comment by Stephanie
Thats what we use. I’m very disturbed, and very worried now to discover Wellness uses Menu when we have been under the impression Wellness is a top quality company that avoids using mass manufacturing outfits. I know they did a reorganization recently and retooled their manufacturing but I did not expect they would go this route. We were under the impression they were pretty self contained and had the highest quality standards in their food production.
Wellness
* Canned formulas are made by Menu, at the plants in Ontario, Canada and Pennsauken, NJ.
* Wellness does not produce pouches or cuts and gravy style foods, which are involved in the recall.
* Production lines are separate and the ingredients are different (Wellness uses “human grade” ingredients).
* Wellness foods do not contain wheat.
http://www.mudbaygranary.com/recall/statements.htm
Comment by Steve — March 23, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
Lindsay, you called iams and they are sending a investigator out?
Sorry for being cynical but won’t they call you back and say they found nothing? and they may destroy the evidence.
I could be wrong, but such thoughts cross my mind.
Gary
Comment by Gary — March 23, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
I urge all pet owners to Goggle “commercial pet food”. You will be amazed and disgusted as to what is actually put into pet food. There is also a list of brands and what the ingredients are, what they mean, how they are processed. Again, a great education. I stopped feeding my dog commercial pet food many years ago. She had allergies, vomiting and loss of hair. IAMS and Ekanuba (misspelled) was the preferred in our household. After reading how pet food is being processed and exactly what is in pet food today, we decided to make her food, she eats what we eat, a very healthy diet plus we give her a vitamin supplement that you can get from a natural pet food store. There has been some research done by doctors and a few other people who could not believe what was being put into pet food today. One in particular is a lady from Canada. She has spent thousands of her own money getting research done and has put her findings in a book. One thing to keep in mind, Canada does not regulate pet food so you don’t know what you are getting. If you don’t have the time to cook for your pet, go to a natural pet food store, it costs a little bit more but believe me your vet bills will be a whole lot less, you’ll have a healthier, happy pet. Natural pet food stores are getting more popular, talk with your store owner and do some research, for the sake of your loving pet. It’s time we stop, don’t be swayed with the commercial pet food marketing ploys, read the labels, look up the ingredients and learn.
Comment by Carol J — March 23, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
Has anybody experienced kidney problems due to there cat or kitten eating the Nutro canned products? The cans aren’t included in the recall and since the recall I have not fed my kitten anything from the recalled list but I noticed when reading the label that wheat gluten was an ingrediant in the kitten canned pate and I wondered why it wasn’t also included on the list if the wheat gluton is the problem?
Thanks in advance for anybody who can help me with this?
Comment by Tonya — March 23, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
I did just hunt down 2 links:
I won’t c/p the copy but they are
http://sev.prnewswire.com/reta.....007-1.html
(the above is the new statement by Nutro’s CEO)
http://www.newsday.com/feature.....dday-print
(On chronic renal failure which is now starting to show up, signs less obvious or sudden, vs acute renal failure)
Comment by Traci — March 23, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
I just submitted the following but it doesn’t appear (so apologies if it ends up double-posting)
http://sev.prnewswire.com/reta.....007-1.html
(The above is the latest/new statement by Nutro’s CEO, anyone concerned with Nutro products should read it)
Comment by Traci — March 23, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
yikes apologies.
Comment by Traci — March 23, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
My beautiful gray cat, Schatze, died of renal failure after eating Iams Flakes with Tuna and White Fish. Feb 25th. The date code was in the batches before the posted at the same plant. 6095. I still have two cans of the food left. Did anyone ever find a source to get it tested?
Comment by Jennifer — March 23, 2007 @ 11:06 pm
REPLYING TO THE BELOW COMMENT.
My cat died march 1 from kidney failure after eating the recalled Iams wet food. My dog used to sneak the leftovers from her bowl. I had his blood tested and the kidneys are fine but the liver is slightly elevated…. I wonder if this poison affects liver also.
Comment by Dianne Mofidi — March 23, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I AM BELIEVING THAT MY DOG DIED 3/17 FROM LIVER PROBLEMS DUE TO THE FOOD. NO ONE WILL CHANGE MY MIND. HE ATE THE STYLES MENTIONED. HE WAS HEALTHY AND ALL OF A SUDDEN FELL ILL TO THROWING UP AND POOPING ALL OVER, LETHARGIC, AND BEYONG HELP AT THE EMERGENCY VET. HE IS GONE. MY HEART IS BROKEN…I AM SO SO SO LONELY FOR HIM. I believe we will find out that more then the kidneys were affected.
MICHELE IN ST PAUL MN
Comment by Michele Peltier — March 23, 2007 @ 11:29 pm
My friend made me go to Wal-Mart with him yesterday. I never shop there because Wal-Mart is a notoriously unethical corporation, with slaves in other countries and other human rights issues… but, anyway, I checked the pet food aisle and wasn’t surprised to find Iams canned cat and dog food on the shelves. This was just yesterday. I told the clerk. Hopefully she did something.
Comment by Ginger — March 23, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
The AB Staff added some images of our favorite girls, who died due to carelessness by Menu Foods. Read the complete story:
http://www.adventurebooksofsea.....lkblog.htm
Comment by Robert M. Blevins — March 23, 2007 @ 11:40 pm
I would never send my leftover petfood to any of these companies. I don’t think they are going to report back to you that they tested poisonous so go ahead and sue us
Comment by Alan — March 23, 2007 @ 11:52 pm
It was mentioned a few days earlier as to the concern for the elderly who have been known to eat cat/dog food in certain circumstances. I think it would be prudent if our local health agencies looked into any elderly illness’ and deaths during this time period if they suspect pet food may have been consumed. Rat poison is toxic to humans as well, and although I love my cat like one of my children, I want to share something with you that is kind of scary…
I have 6 children (not pets,real kids lol) and my 13 year old son has in the past “taste tested” our kitty’s food. (Fancy Feast being his personal choice) I have told him on several occasions when I caught him, that it is not a good idea to try pet food; as it is not made with the same human grade products that we consume. Well, he is 13 and very stubborn (not to mention a little warped :) ), so we no longer let him feed the cat. In fact it has been 4 months or so since we last let him. We had switched to Special Kitty back in December when Nick (our kitty) decided he no longer wanted Fancy Feast. Had I not been dilligent in taking this “chore” away from him, I cannot begin to imagine what may have happened to my son.
Toddlers will munch on dry pet food, probably wet food too if given the chance. As much as we are protecting our furry kids right now (my family will never again buy another Menu product), I thought it would be worth mentioning to watch your kids and elderly family members too!
Comment by Amy Boda — March 23, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
We’re terrified here. My two little poms have eaten 2/5’s of a recalled pouch every day with their dry food. One day 2 weeks ago they didn’t eat well and I fed them cooked ground turkey instead of their normal food. The next day was the recall announcement. They are showing no signs of being sick now but they are both going to the vet tomorrow for blood tests for kidney and liver values. One of our cats sometimes stole a bite or two of the dogs food but I pray not enough to be a concern. If the dogs blood work is abnormal he’ll be going in too.
We will never buy another product from any company that deals with Menu foods. My biggest concern has been that they knew there was a problem for over 30 days before they decided to recall.
I’m planning on using the PETA list of foods to find a new brand for my babies. We’ll probably give the Dick VanPatten food a try if there is any left on the shelves at Petco. The vet said to wait till after she checks just in case they need a perscription food. We’re scared and broken hearted right now.
Comment by Maureen — March 23, 2007 @ 11:54 pm
Hold on everybody! We should not immediately believe the rat poison story, since they withheld information for weeks. Also the pathological pattern of Aminopterrin does not appear to match the descriptions we read on this site nor the kidney failures. It is too easy to adulterate specimens submitted for testing to cover up the truth.
Please hold onto your samples instead of turning them in. I am starting some studies myself in another direction. If anyone wants to join in and submit specimens of listed foods and samples of urine from live sick pets, please Comment to that effect. If there is enough interest, I’ll set up a response format; meanwhile inquiring for assistance from certain experts and labs for an honest investigation.
Comment by Ronald Wempen, MD — March 24, 2007 @ 12:36 am
I’m worried, not just about my pets. I have not seen anything in the news that addresses the hazards to humans handling the contaminated food or processing it.
Have factory workers possibly ingested aminopterin rat poison from touching/working with this chemically contaminated wheat at the dog food factory? Since aminopterin causes miscarriages and birth defects in people (the pet food contained 40 parts per million according to the Houston Chronicle, but the toxic dose for humans was not mentioned), are not especially the female factory workers at high risk from having processed this contaminated wheat? Workers at a feed factory would not be wearing protective gear comparable to those working at a chemical plant.
In addition, if aminopterin is unsafe enough to be banned from using as a rat poison in the US, then what about a pregnant woman who opens the contaminated pet food package or can, or rinses out the can to put it in recycle, or washes the dish, or the recycling worker handling the dirty packages, the toddler who investigates the food, or the residue from the animal’s vomit?
I’ve been thinking it is only seed wheat for planting that would have been treated with a toxic chemical, not wheat for consumption. I’ve read that seeds for planting are often treated with fungicides and other chemicals to help germination and survival.
Thank you
Martha Hoffman
Comment by martha Hoffman — March 24, 2007 @ 1:22 am
We lost our 7 year old Newfoundland Lexi when we had to put her down on Dec. 19. Does anyone know of a website with the symptoms? She became ill quite suddenly & the vet could not find a reason for it. We don’t have any of her food left & since she was such a large dog we had her cremated so we could bring her home. Has anyone heard what kind of “proof” the comapny is going to be looking for? I have a call into my vet to see if the symptoms match but they have been swamped & couldn’t get back to me today.
Comment by Suzanne Enlow — March 24, 2007 @ 1:23 am
My understanding is it does cause renal failure?
Comment by Traci — March 24, 2007 @ 1:44 am
http://catmanager.wordpress.com/
here is what I read, is this incorrect?
Comment by Traci — March 24, 2007 @ 1:52 am
I agree with the people here who don’t want to associate with a company that uses a company like Menu.
First off, they flat-out lied to us. They state all these glowing statements about how they make the food themselves, and the cold hard reality is that they all went for profits instead of actually making it themselves.
They used the lowest-common denominator supplier for their canned foods, which in no real surprize, used the lowest common denominator ingredients.
All the while they covered it all up. That has to be against some sort of law if you are selling your premium food when it’s the same as the 20 cent a can generic stuff.
But it’s this attitude of worshiping the almighty dollar at the expense of common sense(ie - they know that if there was a problem with this company, it would take them ALL down with it). And they did nothing. Nutro and Eukanuba were the two big surprizes to me. They should know better than to take such risks.
They used to be paragons of virtue in the pet community and well, evidently they are merely profiteers like the rest of them. Again, yet another isntance where I let my guard down and trust a company and they take advantage of that trust.
“Trust us - the dry food is fine” - it just won’t cut it. For all I know, they could be putting sawdust or chicken brains in the stuff and passing it off as top-dollar food. Short of a lab analysing the stuff, there’s no way to know anymore as a consumer.
Me? I switched to a small company’s product. Human-grade and no wheat or corn in it.
My gut says that the rat poison angle isn’t quite right. I bet it also has to do with the crop being genetically modified or something as well. China’s been having a slew of issues with its crops recently due to almost nonexistant envionmental laws and (mostly U.S.) companies more than willing to supply them whatever they want.
***
My real concern, though, is that their supplier isn’t named yet. “Inexpensive wheat flour” is hard to pass up as a producer/maunfacturer and was likely snapped up by numerous other companies to use in their products. We need to find out who is it and get government agents to knock down their doors and sieze everything they can find.
Comment by Joseph — March 24, 2007 @ 2:19 am
Personally, I would like to give nutro a chance to redeem itself, but by action not by words. I was told by someone on the phone at Mudbay that Menu Foods was a new canner for them. I again must mention I appreciate that they have donated dry food to the rescue I volunteer at. What the rescue does by Nutro is the business of the woman who runs it. I personally as stated won’t feed my cats more of Nutro purchased product until they stop having the (recalled) product made by Menu.
Comment by Traci — March 24, 2007 @ 2:39 am
My question is this - why is this limited to wet and pouch food. Aren’t the same wheat products found in the fry foods as well? My two miniature poodles have been sick on and off for the past 2 to 3 weeks - diarrhea and vomiting. I took them off the commercial food completely and have been feeding them boiled chop meat and rice. Suddenly, everything cleared up. This might just be an anecdotal thing, but I wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Comment by Mike G. — March 24, 2007 @ 4:58 am
I am so disgusted to learn that Natura outsources its wet food to menufoods and that no one has ruled out the possibility of cross-contamination during processing. We found our previously healthy five year old cat dead in the morning of March 4, 2007. I emailed Natura to ask how they can be sure that their food has not been contaminated and haven’t heard back.
I have pasted below a letter I wrote to my vet regarding our experience. At the time I wrote it I didn’t know the toxin was rat poison and did not think of the possibility of cross contamination.
——————————
I am writing this letter so that there is a record of my cat’s death.
We found Mabel on the couch on Sunday morning, March 4, 2007, dead. You were on your ski trip and in the moment we decided to bury her in our yard.
Mabel was my five year old cat. She was not sick a day in her life. She was seen yearly for wellness visits and got a clean bill of health on each occasion. She hurt her tail a few years ago and this was treated and resolved. Otherwise, she was in great health. She had a good appetite, tons of energy and was a very, very sweet, friendly and happy cat.
I fed her Innova dry and canned her entire life. A few months ago, she ate the Innova canned and threw up. I thought she ate it too fast. After that she would not touch the Innova. I wanted her to have canned, in addition to the dry, so I tried Fancy Feast and she loved it. But I did not want her to subsist on Fancy Feast since it has horrid ingredients so I alternated the Fancy Feast with the Innova. She ate the Fancy Feast and only licked the gravy from the Innova. There were a few kinds of the Fancy Feast that she wouldn’t eat either. She ate the Innova a few more times over the course of a few months and each time she threw up. I thought again that she ate it too fast which she does with wet food.
Now, there is this massive food recall. I just learned that Innova made by Natura and supposedly one of the highest quality manufacturer’s of animal food out-sourced its canned food to Menufoods, the manufacturer of the low end tainted food. This is shocking to me to say the least. Wellness, Eaglepack and other allegedly ”premium” brands also out-source their wet food to this company.
Innova is not on the recall list and neither is Fancy Feast. Maybe ultimately they will be on the list, I don’t know. I just think it is so odd that my healthy cat would just suddenly die in the midst of a major food recall.
In retrospect, I recall that she was drinking out of my dog’s water bowl more often that before. And she had the episodes of vomiting that I attributed to eating too fast. She was a little less energetic but not to the extent that I would say something was wrong, although obviously I must have missed the fact that something was deadly wrong.
I wanted you to put this in her file so that in the event these foods end up being tainted, the cause of her death doesn’t go unnoticed. I still have the cans of cat food which I didn’t feed.
—————————-
I reported my cat to the data base but she probably won’t be counted at this point. I plan on testing the cans.
Comment by Garyn — March 24, 2007 @ 6:26 am
My beautiful six year old male Maine Coon was euthanized on March 21. He started to have some vomiting about a week before we had to have him euthanized. He was eating Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care and Nutro Gourmet Classics. Both foods were supplemental “treats” to the freshly cooked turkey, chicken or beef that was his regular diet. We took him to the vets’ office Monday night but she didn’t suspect renal failure. He was dehydrated. He got a little better for about six half a day. Early Wednesday morning he went into a terrible state with uncontrolled bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. He tried to drink several times but it would only lead to more vomiting. I tried to pick him up and move him to the quietest, dark space I could find but the poor guy was in incredible pain - I worked as a vet’s assistant many years ago and never saw anything like this. I think he had liver failure, not kidney failure and I think the symptoms of aminopterin poisoning are almost an exact match for what my beloved friend suffered. It was terrible agony for him.
As for Nutro, I emailed them when he first got sick and notified them of his death. All I ever received was one generic email about how they were receiving many inquiries and couldn’t respond individually. I see they have now added pictures of their US plants to the first page of their website. Does Nutro think people will forget where their food was really manufactured?
I am convinced Nutro pouch food killed my best friend.
Comment by MFEMFEM — March 24, 2007 @ 6:35 am
I forgot to mention that while searching for foods lower in protein for our senior cat Maybelle, the one who began showing slight kidney problems in December, we taste-tested with several cans of Nutro’s senior Natural Choice, plus some Organix, plus lots of Natural Balance. This was in addition to the Wellness that all 6 have been eating for years. While supposedly the Organix and Nutro’s Natural Choice are not part of the recall, but made by Menu, unfortunately we live here in NJ so the odds are probably with us that our food is made at the Menu plant here in NJ. I don’t know where Natural Balance is made, but none of my cats was crazy about its taste. We cannot feed dry exclusively due to a variety of health issues here, but we have been using Royal Canin dry combined with all of the above canned foods. Again, I’ll restate that, imho, $$ is the bottom line of any big company, regardless of whether it’s a “natural” pet food company. While the aminopterin has been found in some samples, it has not been PROVEN to be THE cause or the SOLE CAUSE. We should all be very cautious about what we hear in these news reports. Understand the nuances of “facts” being reported. I’m a journalist and I’m hearing some very disturbing news reports that are distorting the facts of this matter and we’re talking about NYC major news stations that I listen to.
Comment by Stephanie — March 24, 2007 @ 7:37 am
Vet med info from VIN on aminoptern
Thanks to VIN vets for staying up all night and also making this information
available to lay people as not all vets are hooked up to VIN. It is
absolutely vital that pet owners have access to this material to carry to
their vets.
Aminopterin Toxicity
http://tinyurl.com/3bwz8s
http://www.vin.com/WebLink.plx.....pterin.htm
Ultrasound findings in some animals
http://tinyurl.com/2fuajo
http://www.veterinaryradiology.....-and-cats/
Mike E
Comment by Mike — March 24, 2007 @ 7:49 am
I am so sorry to hear about all the pets affected by this situation. I fed my precious dogs Nutro products and it worries me just how long this has been going on with the poisons undetected in the food. My dogs have had serious episodes of vomitting and I have taken them to the vet and spent thousands on treatments and dont know if the poisons had anything to do with it. Shame on the pet food company for doing this. I feel deceived as a customer thinking each of these companies produced their own dog food. They are all now caught with the fact it came from the same place at Menu Foods for their wet foods. I am no longer a Nutro customer and have since switched to Natural Balance pet food and my dogs are doing much better. For those who have no proof of their dog food purchase, if you purchased it at Petco and used your PALS card, they can trace your purchases that way. I returned all my Nutro food that I had without a receipt and they traced the receipts through PALS. God Bless all the pets that are struggling through this terrible situation.
Comment by Jennifer — March 24, 2007 @ 8:18 am
Several Unconfirmed Reports of Iams Dry Food Causing Illness
March 23rd, 2007
Update 3:30pm: We will be collecting emails over the next few days and release a result early next week. In the meantime, if you believe your pet was sickened by ANY kind of pet food, please contact the manufacturer and/or the FDA.
Original Post: We want to repeat that Iams dry pet food is NOT a part of the recall (it only applies to wet food) but itchmo has been hearing of several independent reports that Iams dry pet food has caused illnesses in at least three independent cases. All three reports of pets getting sick has singled out Iams dry food as the cause.
We’re not sure if this is anything more than just coincidence. But, we haven’t seen other dry food being singled out for illness and we’re curious. If you believe your dog has been sickened by dry food, or know of any reports that say so, please email us at tips@itchmo.com and we’ll see if we can log more possible cases.
A list of reports after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
http://www.itchmo.com/
Comment by Mike — March 24, 2007 @ 8:21 am
Ronald Wempen, MD -
I have about 25 unopened pouches of recalled Iams Weight Control Adult Cuts & Gravy. I’ll return them at some point but I’m in no hurry as we’re also hanging onto some of them for our own litigation.
If you move forward with your testing, please ask Pet Connection to post your information in the margins of their blog page so we can contact you.
Comment by Sherry — March 24, 2007 @ 8:24 am
“Please hold onto your samples instead of turning them in. I am starting some studies myself in another direction. If anyone wants to join in and submit specimens of listed foods and samples of urine from live sick pets, please Comment to that effect. If there is enough interest, I’ll set up a response format; meanwhile inquiring for assistance from certain experts and labs for an honest investigation.
Comment by Ronald Wempen, MD — March 24, 2007 @ 12:36 am”
I am VERY interested. I have cans and pouches that have date codes that are not in the recall, but my dog died of renal failure shortly after eating them in late January. I would very much like to have the remaining food tested by an independant lab.
Comment by Dee — March 24, 2007 @ 8:47 am
I am just appalled by what I’m reading. I just went out and bought Innova EVO (raw) dry food, after years of feeding my dogs Nutro dry. Does anyone still have the cans or pouches of Nutro? Does the label state that it was produced by Menu Foods? The dry food bag simply says manufactured by Nutro, their Ca location, and “made in the USA”. If they outsource the manufacturing, shouldn’t the label reflect that?
Honestly, I’m thinking of preparing my dogs food myself. I didn’t see any Natura or Innova products on the recall list, but I’m now paranoid about everything.
Comment by Sandy — March 24, 2007 @ 8:50 am
In a separate incident, Royal Canin has also had a class action law suit filed against it, for excessive Vitamin D in its products: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/Arti.....hub=Canada
Comment by Lucy — March 24, 2007 @ 8:52 am
Interesting that even today the Main Stream Media is still using the “a string of at least 14 dog and cat deaths appeared to be linked to contaminated pet food” spin as much as possible.
Comment by Steve — March 24, 2007 @ 8:58 am
I want to put my story out again incase someone else had a similar diagnosis in the beginning. I guess my question is, Is kidney failure the only diagnosis associated with this recall?
Our 6 year old Siamese was put down on Feb 18th. This was before any news of a recall and the vet was perplexed.
Sasha was diagosed at an early age with Kidney disease so we know she already had a compromised kidney. At that time I began buying only premium and prescription cat foods. But she was never wild about the prescription food so in an attempt to fatten her up I gave her Science Diet Savory Cuts-Senior. In the fall she was put on a prescription that the vet had had good luck with and by Decmber the vet was pleased with her kidney values and weight gain.
When she became sick the first week of Feb. the kidney values were still good but she wasn’t eating and had become dehydrated. We hydrated her and since nothing else was found we waited. She seemed better for about 5 days. The next week her appitite and general health declined again. More indepth blood tests and a check for Pancreatitus and rehyrated her.
Again better for a few days. I thought she was depressed about the snow and lack of sun!
Then bam! by that time the diagnosis of Pancreatitus was made. I blame myself because I had pills for it and I couldn’t get them in her, and she seemed better. My fault. I took her in and they wanted to keep her and hydrated and whatever else to aggressively treat this. The doctor called me an hour later and said that her Kidney levels had dramatically changed. Now she was fightibg 2 very serious diseases. She was not expected to recover.
I blame no one but myself. But she ate that food regularly, I still have some. Did this recalled food jeprodize her already comprimised system? I’ll never know.
I ADORED this cutie pie, she was a load of fun and those of you that have ever been owned by a Siamese know of what I speak. They are great pets, but then everyone feels that way I’m sure.
Last weekend, we commented that our other cat had lost weight and seemed melencohly. She has been looking for her little skinny sister around every corner for 4 weeks now. It’s heart breaking.
Now everyone is commenting on her weight loss and in the wake of this recall we are taking her in for testing.
Please, don’t do what I did. Now that we know this is out there be aggressive. If you mommy radar is up there is probably a good reason.
My situation my have nothing to do with this recalled food. For now I’ll wait to see want my other cats test results show.
We miss you Sasha, there will never be another like you!
Comment by sharon — March 24, 2007 @ 9:05 am
About a month ago, the pet store where I bought Nutro products had pulled the Nutro treat sticks that came in a pouch, because they were “dry, and coated with a white, sticky, substance”. They did this voluntarily, based on consumers bringing them in. They are back on the shelf, though I haven’t bought them. I’m now wondering about that. Has anybody heard anything about this? These were beef, and chicken and rice, chew sticks.
Comment by Sandy — March 24, 2007 @ 9:08 am
Who’s responsible for ensuring the safety of pet food?
Officially, the FDA and, in New York, the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, regulate the industry, but companies largely set their own standards and test random lots of food they produce.
Does the FDA have inspectors in pet food plants?
Not always. Its priority is on producers of human food.
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle March 24, 2007
(All we have now are unscrupulous corporations doing whatever they please with zero government oversight.)
Comment by Steve — March 24, 2007 @ 9:22 am
I find myself in the same situation as many others who have commented on this site. On March 12 I was forced to euthanize my 14 year old cat named Iodine. He was sweet and just about the best companion a person could have. Putting him away just about broke my heart. My concern stems from the fact that I never suspected tainted food. I had been feeding him both Iams and Stop and Shop Companion wet. Of course, I threw away all the cans and have no proof that what I was feeding him was tainted. He was an elderly cat and was being treated for diabetes, but about two weeks prior to his death he had been thriving. He was still playing and hunting like a kitten. He was strictly and indoor cat with no access to anti-freeze or any other substance that could cause renal failure. I have no way to confirm if what I was feeding him caused his kidneys to fail or if it was just a coincidence as a result of age and disease. I now am faced with the uncertainty of knowing if I had been feeding him poison or if it was his time. I guess that this is just something I will have to live with. As for compensation, there is no amount of money that could help with the pain of this loss. I miss my baby boy. No amount of money can bring him back. No apology from some company can bring him back. They only way I can feel some sort of relief over this situation is if this company steps up to the plate to take responsibility for its careless actions and ensures completely that this cannot ever happen again. Not to anyone, human or animal.
Comment by Paula — March 24, 2007 @ 9:44 am
I can’t stress this enough. The contaminated wheat came from a major importer that we don’t as of yet know their identity. But it’s entirely possible that if they sold it to one company for use in their foods, they would also be selling it to others in the industry. You don’t just ship over a few tons of grain and then only sell it to one company, not usually. You ship a tens of thousands of tons at a time. You also have other smaller customers who want their monthly quota filled - and that’s where it gets troublesome.
The wheat most likely got into the U.S. through Los Angeles or New York, since that’s areas where large quantities of materials from China tend to come in. I’m really appalled that some employee at one of those plants doesn’t do the right thing and start telling names. Because it could easily be in the general food supply.
Better to be safe than sorry. Besides, the food the vet would give you if they were under urgent care - it is generally free of corn and wheat products, which are known alergens for many people and animals. So why not just avoid it all the time?
A search online for “human grade pet food” will turn up a number of companies. Blue Buffalo, for instance, is sold at PetsMart. PetCo sells a couple of other brands as well. Often for only a few dollars more than the stuff we were all buying anyways, as opposed to the ultra-premium stuff they also tend to sell at specialty stores for silly money. Ie - $9-10 a bag versus $7-8 or so.
And almost everyone has a Petco or PetsMart near them. Supporting small stores is best, naturally, but even the poorest people can stretch their budget a couplle of dollars. And your furry friends will be much healthier.
My little tabby - I switched from Nutro Dry to Organic/Human-Grade and she ate a cup of it overnight the first night I got it(as opposed to picking at her food listlessly).
P.S. Keep the stuff you have. You’ll need it for evidence. The companies are just going to roundfile it and cover their rear ends. Afterall, if they resorted to outsourcing their production to save some money, you can’t possibly think that their lack of morals stops there.
P.P.S. - One last comment. Dropping wet food entirely might be the only way to save some of these companies from bankruptcy and nearly nonexistant sales. I know I’m never buying it again from Iams, Nutro, or Eukanuba. “We’re no longer selling any canned food and have dropped those product lines” or something to that effect would go a long way towards restoring trust.
Because all they are going to do, really, is find another company to make the food for them. It’s just like putting another bullet in the revolver once it went off and trusting luck will be on your side.
Comment by Joseph — March 24, 2007 @ 10:10 am
My heart goes out to all of you who have lost your pets. I feed my cats Iams Dry food so when I saw this recall, I assumed we didn’t have to worry. I started reading different blogs and noticed a handful of young healthy dogs that had been eating dry Iams food getting sick. I called my vet and was told by the tech that I really don’t have to worry because Iams dry is not on the recall list. Even though my cats weren’t showing any symptons I asked for my own piece of mind to have blood test done. Again the vet checked them out said they looked good but if I was anxious she would do the blood test. I received a call later in the day that my smallest cat (7 Lbs) has a higher Creatinine level and that i needed to bring him back for an IV fluid treatment. I was suppose to bring him back next week to have his level checked again. But the vet has just called and asked me to bring him back today.
First, I can’t be certain that the food is bad but if they are willing to by cheap products from another country (to make a bigger profit). How do we know it is safe? It just seems too much of a coincidence that my 5 yr old healthy indoor cat all of a sudden has kidney problems. Since he is smaller than my other cats I feel he wasn’t able to flush out the toxins like the other cats.
I don’t trust these companies anymore, I feel they waited to long to announce the recalls. According to ABC news(7:00am ct) they are now saying any wet food made by the companies in the recall should not be used. Instead of pulling everything off the shelves at one time they are slowly pulling off items. Whose to say they won’t make an announcement later on the dry products. It also makes me angry that they won’t accurately say how many pets are actually sick or dying. I will no longer use these products, I will only purchase natural pet products.
Comment by Rose — March 24, 2007 @ 10:14 am
to Dr Ronald Wempen, MD:
I would also like to join the others in wanting pet food tested. We had sent an official complaint to Nutro in Janauary along with a couple of cans of food they requested. We got a generic letter back saying the food was fine. Well our cat is now deceased 5 days before the recall and we want an independent lab to test. We saved her food that we felt was dangerous from day 1 long before the recall ever happened, we were too fearful to give it to the animal shelter. Our e:mail is srshaw@gci.net. Thank you for trying to arrange this for all of us!
Comment by Sandi — March 24, 2007 @ 11:17 am
We are discontinuing use of any and all canned foods immediately from brands that are known to be manufactured by Menu (we have several cases of wellness in the house). We are heading out to the store to purchase Natural Balance, which outright on its web site states none of its products are made by Menu. Does anyone know if Newman’s Own Organics is made by Menu? Unfortunately, their language on their web site is ambiguous.
Comment by Stephanie — March 24, 2007 @ 11:37 am
The only logical reason I can find for Menu to drop the original supplier of wheat and go to China is price. A penny a can more profit by millions adds up. Pure greed. So much for the “Your Pets Health Is Our Main Concern” rhetoric.
Comment by Alan — March 24, 2007 @ 12:03 pm
I’m reading several posts regarding pets who have died after eating DRY IAMS foods. I believe that regardless of whether this information is confirmed, it should be available to “parents” who think this is only a wet food concern.
http://www.itchmo.com/read/sev.....s_20070323
And here in the comment section there are SEVERAL posts regarding pets being sickened or dying after eating DRY FOODS (Starting at post 92):
http://www.gothamist.com/2007/.....nt-1043832
Comment by Jamie — March 24, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Can anyone advise where these two canned pet foods are made?
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul (canned)
and
Fancy Feast (canned cat food)
They aren’t on the menu foods list, but I want to be careful.
My dog has thrown up after eating the “Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul” canned food - so I guess I will throw it out just to be safe.
My cats have never gotten sick from eating Fancy Feast.
Comment by Collett Finey — March 24, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Here’s an interesting read.
sev.prnewswire.com/retail/20070321/CGW06421032007-1.html
Comment by Alan — March 24, 2007 @ 12:27 pm
Henderson confirmed that Menu Foods, the largest maker of wet cat and dog food in North America, buys wheat gluten from China. It also buys from the USA, says Menu spokesman Sam Bornstein, and another country that Menu didn’t identify.
The Food and Drug Administration said earlier that Menu identified wheat gluten as a possible culprit since Menu had changed a supplier of that product and that reports of pet sickness coincided with that change. Menu has never said what that ingredient was.
The U.S. imports 70% to 80% of its wheat gluten, used widely in human and pet foods either as a protein source or, in wet pet food specifically, as a binding agent.
In 2006 the U.S. imported 28,295,401 pounds of wheat gluten to be used as animal feed from China, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.
China is the third-largest exporter to the USA, after Australia and the European Union, which is the largest, estimates MGP Ingredients, of Kansas, the largest single U.S. wheat gluten producer. It didn’t supply Menu with wheat gluten.
MGP President Tim Newkirk says its tests of wheat gluten from China find it to be “typically a lower-quality product” than found in the EU, Australia or the U.S. It’s also about 20% cheaper than other imports, he says.
Newkirk and food manufacturing consultants say that rat poisons would be tightly controlled in the U.S.
Typically in the USA, wheat — from which wheat gluten is made — is stored in bins or silos and not out in the open where rats would have access.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....htm?csp=34
Comment by Steve — March 24, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
When I first heard of the outbreak in the listed cat foods, I was concerned. Over the past few days my cat, Fungus, has endured the signs of rat poisioning. I’m crushed. When I researched the topic, I ran across an ACB World News clip that states, “Pets are nothing more than property, like cars and toasters…” I was disguisted. How dare you put a price on a life. Thats grotesque. The mere thought of pricing something as dear as a life reminds me why our civilization will never survive.
You know, we put so much trust into these companies that produce our food that we dont even think twice about what ingredients go into them. STOP, THINK, PREVENT! Whats next?
Comment by Josh Bloem — March 24, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
Delaware SPCA…
From our Dad in PA. Anyone have any information on these brands?
Local (Wilmington, DE) SPCA is soliciting donations of canned Pedigree dog food and Fancy Feast, Friskies and Nine Lives cat food. I assume this means SPCA has researched suppliers of these and found no connection to Menu Goods.
Comment by Sherry — March 24, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Urgent (stupid) question. Are there ANY Iams, Nutro, Eukanuba or Nutro POUCHES that are NOT recalled?
Found shelves filled with them at my local PETCO. (Yes, I can check by SKU if necessary, just would be very helpful to know if ALL pouches should have been pulled, which is what I thought was the case.)
Comment by Kim — March 24, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
P.S. to my last comment - the PETCO Store manager is telling me everything has been pulled, I don’t believe that to be the case.
Comment by Kim — March 24, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
ALL PET OWNERS WHO FED ANY WET CAT OR DOG FOOD NEEDS TO TAKE THIER PETS IN FOR A BLOOD TEST,EVEN IF THEY SEEM FINE. ALL CAN AND POUCHES NOW ARE ON THE RECALL LIST SINCE THEY FOUND OUT WE WERE SERVING OUR PETS RAT POISON.HOW THE HELL COULD THIS HAPPEN!!!!!!AND THE NEWS MEDIA NEEDS TO STOP SAYING ONLY 16 PETS HAVE DIED IT’S MORE LIKE 2,000 NOW
Comment by MIKE — March 24, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
The president of menu pet foods released a statement claiming that they are willing to reimburse their consumers for the food, well, let me ask you something, HOW DO YOU REIMBURSE A LIFE?! I’d spit in his face if I had the chance.
Comment by Josh Bloem — March 24, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
I have to admit I’m confused with what the stores still have on the shelves. Today we saw cans of Alpo and Pedigree and Mighty Dog still on the shelves even though they are the cuts and gravy varieties. All have wheat gluten as an ingredient. I know Pedigree isn’t suppose to be made by Menu and I know Mighty Dog cuts in pouches have been recalled so does that mean the cans of cuts are made for Mighty Dog by another company? We’ve stopped using any wet cat or dog food but are still not even close to confident on the dry stuff. We have Purina One puppy chow and Purina One Urinary Health cat food right now. My older pom eats homemade food because she can’t have added sodium so now we’re putting some of her ground turkey and veggies in with the puppies kibble. The cats usually don’t eat wet food but occasionally do have a can of Friskies ground as a treat.
The dogs had blood tests today but we won’t get the results until Monday. They appear fine but have always eaten a little of the pouch food with their kibble because they liked the “poison” gravy :( We’re planning on switching from the Purina One as soon as we find a Urinary health friendly natural brand for the cats and as soon as Petco has some of the Natural Balance for dogs available again in our area.
Guess we’ll be worried for the rest of the weekend :( The vet assures us the Purina One is a good food and we should feed it with confidence. I’ve lost any confidence I’ve had it seems.
Comment by Maureen — March 24, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
There has to be a change in many of the dumb and useless laws we have. Like allowing pain and suffering awards in lawsuits involving anything that is/was alive.
Gary
Comment by Gary — March 24, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
Suzanne Enlow:
Friday I found a very good article at the below web site that describes the symptoms and possible causes of renal failure.
http://www.peteducation.com/ar.....icleid=350
Comment by Andrea — March 24, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
And to the people who’ve read reports or have had pets die from eating dry Iams, my cat died after eating dry Nutro, specifically Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Weight Management. When he became very sick I borrowed some dry Science Diet Adult from my mom’s to see if he’d eat that (at this point I hadn’t heard of the pet food recall, nor did I even suspect kidney failure). He was so sick he wouldn’t eat or drink anything, but my girl cat dove into it. Who knows if the dry Science Diet is safe either, but I’m not buying the “wet food only” theory.
Comment by Andrea — March 24, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
Andrea I’m so sorry about your cat. I’ve read several other reports today about pets dying from Nutro foods. Itchomo.com has been collection reports about Iams Dry Food, with some Nutro Dry Food as well. Please take a moment and go to http://www.itchmo.com/read/sev.....s_20070323
Comment by Kim — March 24, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
Thank you, Kim, for the compassion and the link. :) I e-mailed Itchmo and told them about my cat and the food that may have killed him. Hopefully they can put the info to good use. This mess is so awful, and my heart goes out to anyone who has a sick pet, or who’s lost one, because of this. It’s abhorrent. I work at a small town newspaper with subscribers all across the country (and even one in Sweden!), and in next week’s paper I’m writing an article describing what happened to my cat, and warning people that the dry food may not be safe either. I will definitely mention the other “unconfirmed” reports of pet deaths from dry Iams and Nutro. And, I’m going to talk to my vet about where I can get some of the possibly toxic food tested, and of course get my other kitty tested for renal failure. She’s behaving perfectly normally other than wondering where her friend went, but she ate the dry food for as long as he did.
Comment by Andrea — March 24, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
You should be made aware that these comments:
“Drudge Report
Rat Poison In Chinese Wheat Killed Pets
Powerful comments in this article…whewh!
http://www.drudge.com/news/925.....illed-pets
Comment by Mike — March 23, 2007 @ 9:23 pm”
are NOT from the official Matt Drudge web site, which is
http:www.drudgereport.com
While it is very true that Matt Drudge deplores our importation of products from China, anyone who listens to him regularly recognizes immediately that these are NOT his political opinions.
I very much agree that we need to work to see that the safety regulations for inspecting food for human consumption that have been removed are restored and strengthened and that new regulations for inspecting the quality and safety of the food of our beloved pets should be enacted and stringently enforced.
Comment by Kathryn Schultz — March 24, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
Collett Finey, if your pets are throwing up, stop feeding them these products. Animals will throw up food if something is not right about it. It may smell OK to them but their system will get rid of it if it’s bad. Unfortunately some pets didn’t show signs until it was too late. The only way to be sure if the food is good is to go natural or make it yourself. I would not trust any commercial pet food company, just do a little research of “commercial pet food” and you’ll get most of your answers.
Comment by Carol J — March 24, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
I am boycotting all brands associated with the recall, including those that outsource their canned food, regardless if they claim to monitor the quality. Sadly, this will include Innova and Natura products, as they utilize Menu Foods for their wet foods, and I’ve been feeding my dogs their dry kibble for years. They are guilty by association in my book. I hope they have enough integrity to think twice about continuing their relationship with Menu Foods. I sent them a letter yesterday, although, I doubt they will even take notice. I am also boycotting Petsmart and Petco, as they source some of their store-branded foods from Menu Foods, as well as selling most of the foods that are in the recall. This is the only way to get these major corporations, as well as some on the fringes, to wake up! We must affect their bottom line until better regulations and standards for pet food take place! Worse yet, WalMart is still selling the recalled foods in many stores across the country!!! Wake Up America!!!
I am so sorry for anyone who has lost their pet or pets to this tragedy. My heart goes out to each and every one of you. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
Be strong! Together, our voices will be heard! Together, we can make a difference!!
Comment by Jaycee — March 24, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
Well, it took a while, but I found easy-to-read lists of the recalled items for Iams, Eukanuba, Hills/Science Diet and Mighty Dog (Purina).
Maureen - according to Purina, Mighty Dog Cans are made in a Purina owned facility, not a Menu Foods plant.
4 different links are here: http://playingbig.blogspot.com.....ducts.html
Right before I posted this I found a Correction posted by the AP that they have NOT expanded the dates. This is horrible news, and infuriates me. What the hell are they thinking? It’s here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00672.html
Comment by Kim — March 24, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
my pup was older but as teacups live to 20plus years she had 3to 7yrs. my closest friend. kayaked camped slept tight against my body almost every night for 17 yrs.saw me thru heart surgery. never judged always loved.vets have no doubt it was the recalled food that ended her life.i don’t want huge money but after 72 hrs of my first contact with the phone bank i still have not been called back. have called twice more and they say they are to busy and calling who and when they can.
IF YOUR PET IS ILL GO TO YOUR VET!!! DON’T CALL DON’T CALL MENU FOODS!!! LOOK ON THE WEB SITES ALL THE INFO YOU NEED IS THERE.THE TWO VETS I WAS FORCED TO GO TO TOOK HEROIC EFFORTS TO SAVE MY DOG WHEN NOT TIED TO THE PHONE ANSWERING ?????S.
The FDA inspector called me at home 6:30 at night with orders from his boss to meet me soon and get the samples to the lab. they were on unlimited overtime for the weekend and the labs are open as the FDA wants to insure the problem doesn’t enter the human food chain. PROFESSIONAL,POLITE.CONCERNED. I JUST WISH I COULD GET 1/10 THE EFFORT AND CONCERN FROM THE COMPANY REPS THAT ARE THE FOCUS OF THE PROBLEM
Comment by darrell — March 25, 2007 @ 9:28 am
Does anyone know whether or not 9 Lives cat food is on the recall list?
Comment by Josh Bloem — March 25, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Even if you view pets as only property basic capitalist theory requires that no harm come to it by the careless action of others…
That being said, not even that level of care has been exhibited here. My dog Brandy was put to sleep on March 15th with a laundry list of then unexplained symptoms that the vet wrote off as “red herrings” for a pre-existing bladder tumor problem that we knew would one day cause her demise.
On March 16th I watched the Today Show in horror as they listed those same symptoms in describing the recall. I quickly went to the cupboard and got out a can of the food and checked the website recall list. Sprout Beef Cuts & Gravy was there but not our lot # (Oct 09). I contacted the local NBC affiliate http://www.nbc26.com and was told that they knew all of the lots had not been listed.
In talking to my vet, she was extremely dismissive and litterally shouted me down altough I do not believe that I was anything but reserved and rational with her. It appeared to me that she was in full mal-practice prevent mode. She did not want to cooperate in doing a post mortem sighting organ deterioration over the weekend even though I assured her that she had been kept cold and in a clean box. Night time temps had been in the teens here (Wi.).
The TV station did an interview in which I emphasized that there was good evidence that there were many more un-identified lots to be found but the final “news” report focused not on the facts but my grief.
I have been trying to get some agency or lab to actually test one of the remaining cans to no avail so far…
I have watched over the last 10 days as lot after lot has been added to the list and now the total recall of all product albeit not because they admit contamination of any particular lot.
In the absense of any actual science I am convinced by the events that the contaminations goes back MUCH farther than anyone has anticipated or is willing to admit.
Please see my comments posted as events unfolded at http://www.benedictionblogson.com/?p=3012
I think that like our vet, Menu Foods put short term financial concerns over public health - but what they heck… the are only property, right?
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — March 26, 2007 @ 9:02 am
The correction information published by AP and referenced here appears to be outdated.
Please see the company press release from Saturday.
http://www.menufoods.com/recal.....241409.htm
It reads in part: “Menu Foods Initiates Market Withdrawal of All Varieties of Recalled Wet Pet Food to Ensure Consumer Protection”
This is not exactly a recall but does instruct retailers to remove the product from the shelves. They make it sound as if the stores are at fault for not removing known tainted product. But if you read my previous post (above) I think there is pretty good evidence that it goes much farther back and this would be one way for them to stop the bleeding (so to speak) of continually having to add lots to the list while never actually acknowledging the contamination of more lots.
For the record, Brandy had only been given a few cans of this stuff. She had previously been eating Alpo and had been doing very well and gaining weight. Only after eating the Sprout did she suddenly become so sick.
Part of our vet’s objection to doing a post mortem was based on our lot #s not being on the list.
It cant get on the list unless someone puts it there.
So far a call to the FDA has not been returned.
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — March 26, 2007 @ 11:02 am
Hey again everyone. heard this today and don’t see it posted here yet. peta has called for all dry menu foods products to be pulled and currently is being ignored, am digusted with menu food on many levels but espessialy for killing animals to test the tainted food. And another toxin has been found in the food a fertilizer that used in plastic products as well. peace everyone-Lee
Comment by Lee Orback — March 30, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
I thought perhaps some of you might be interested in talking on paltalk, we can have a room to speak about are issues and concerns and possible solutions,we can speak to one another on mic, have are own moderators in a controled format. My nic is SentientShadows add me and i’ll open a room or open one of your own. hope to be able to meet some of you there.
Comment by Lee Orback — April 3, 2007 @ 4:34 pm