Pet food recall: Congress steps up
By Gina Spadafori
March 27, 2007
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Bringing this up from the comments. Thanks, Steve:
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) sent a letter to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration March 23 asking for full details of the investigation into the pet food contamination.
http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/Durbin-Menu-Foods-letter-3-26-07.pdfRep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sent a letter to the president and CEO of Menu Foods Income Fund March 23 asking for detailed information explaining the contamination and subsequent recall of Menu Food’s pet food products.
http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/Kucinich-letter-Menu-foods.pdf
Had to bring this up from the comments, too: editorial cartoonist Bob Gorrell, on how Snoopy might react. Here’s another from Steve Kelley.
Also …. so many have lost pets! Every comment and e-mail … we have cried so much with all of you. We want to remind everyone that last week we posted information on pet-loss support and resources.
Reminding you:
- Call the FDA to report your information
- Call your veterinarian and ask him or her to report to your state veterinarian, also for the FDA
- Enter your pet in our database
Christie’ll be blogging and checking the mail for most of the rest of the day, while I attend to some personal stuff this afternoon.
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Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary
Update from PetSmart: Effective Saturday, March 24, Menu Foods has asked all retail outlets to immediately remove all impacted varieties of Menu Foods wet pet food, as posted on its site at http://www.menufoods.com, regardless of the date code.
Check website/pdf below it should help to identify other foods that have been pulled.
http://media.corporate-ir.net/.....andout.pdf
Comment by marcy — March 27, 2007 @ 12:28 pm
Wonderful! Glad to see some members of our government get involved. Also nice to see some news outlets actually reporting instead of regurgitating.
But…
I am still totally p’od at Hillspet and Iams for basically saying nothing on their websites. It’s been 5 days since the toxic chemical was identified. No comment Hills/Iams/others? What, CAT got your tongue?
Comment by John Pierce — March 27, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
Just another recall this one posted on the American Veterinary Medical Assosciation website:
Petrapport Issues Recall of Pig Ear Dog Treats because the pig ears have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella, the company announced March 23.
http://www.avma.org/press/rele.....recall.asp
Comment by marcy — March 27, 2007 @ 12:42 pm
http://www.gocomics.com/stevekelley/
Thanks to Steve Kelley, The Times Picayune
for keeping this in the news
Comment by 4lgdfriend — March 27, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
How to contact the FDA
I just received a call back from a representative of the FDA, in response to a
message I had left with their office this past Friday afternoon. I spoke with a
very nice woman there ( from their Massachusetts office), who informed me that
if we have any complaints of our animals becoming ill, or dying from ANY kind of
dog or cat foods, that we need to log on to: http://www.fda.gov/default.htm ,
and then click on Consumer Complaints Coordinator:
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/back.....plain.html ,
and then find your State.
Then find the correlating phone number for your State, and call to report your
pets illness or death to that number for your own State. She told me that this
really the only way that the FDA will really know exactly how many animals are
being affected by the tainted foods, and if other foods (like some dry foods)
might also actually be affected.
She also told me, that if you suspect you are having a problem with any of the
dry cat or dog foods making your animals ill, that this is the only way an
investigation will be opened on those particular foods. She told me that as of
today, she had not heard of any animals dying from any of the dry pet foods, and
so I went on to explain to her how many emails I had been seeing and receiving,
where many consumers believe that some of the brands of the dry pet foods have
also been affecting their animals. She sounded very surprised, and again stated
that this NEEDS to be reported to your various local State FDA complaint
divisions phone numbers.
I just hope that I have explained all of this, so that it sounds clear enough to
all of you, as I felt I needed to get the word out right away, so that we can
get the ball rolling on this.
This is not meant to cause any kind of a panic, but as I stated earlier, I have
been seeing so many emails, where people suspect that some of the dry foods
could also possibly making their animals ill.
Please feel free to cross post!
Comment by Mike — March 27, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
john,4 years ago about, peta went after iams and menu food and iams defended menu foods and how the pets were dying.go to http://www.peta.org it will really have u more pissed off/
Comment by sab — March 27, 2007 @ 1:05 pm
an article regarding the employees at the Menu Foods plant in Emporia.
Comment by Elderta — March 27, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
whoops… the url might be helpful:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....poria.html
Comment by Elderta — March 27, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
I contacted one of the editors at the Dallas Morning News yesterday and today they ran the same article the Los Angeles Times did. If you continue to contact your local media, someone will listen. The Dallas Morning News sent me a note saying had I not contacted them, they would not have run the article
Comment by Meri-Lou Mahoney — March 27, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
The news about some members of Congress getting involved was very heartening - I had just emailed all of my elected representatives on this issue this morning and obviously lots of other concerned folks are doing the same. Our New York pols have been quiet but hopefully they will step up too!
Our thoughts and prayers are very much with everyone who has lost a pet or is currently nursing one. We will not let their deaths or illnesses go unavenged.
Comment by Empress 60 — March 27, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
I wonder how many undocumented, illegal aliens are working in the Menu Foods pet food plants? Is this another example of the Swift meat packing plant? These businesses cut costs by higher cheap illegal labor and look the other way. I want an ICE investigation as well as a FDA investigation.
Comment by Judy T in Virginia — March 27, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
Mark Johnson stepped up.
http://www.amny.com/news/local.....ional-wire
Thanks Mark.
Comment by Kim — March 27, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
P.S. Mark - next time mention petconnection.com too…
Comment by Kim — March 27, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
If the politicians weren’t too busy raising money to get re-elected or getting their buddies bigger contracts with the government for pork projects MAYBE, just maybe use regular taxpayer types may get them to deal with issues such as contamination of our food supplies by foreigners and foreign countries.
I’m sure if their pets/children were affected they would have already past new protection or anti-terrorism laws already.
Think about that Senator Hillary Clinton!
Comment by B. Leed — March 27, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Thanks to petconnection.com for having the guts to provide honest information. Keep it up!
Here is one of my favorite quotes from an email below.
Conversation to Menu foods:
Also called Menu foods told lady what had happened with my cat. She Said I should immediately stop feeding the cat this food. I said not a problem My cat is dead.
Comment by sue — March 27, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
Sab,
Thanks for the heads up on the PETA site
your right I’m about as ticked off as I can be.
And PETA is in this fight with us they are now demanding test of dry food, my apologies to PETA for thinking they were not involved with this recall.
And the article about the people in the Emporia Kansas plant was interesting they care about their pets but they still feed them the crap that they made, It’s not their fault the ingredients were bad, but damm it stand up for whats right. Shut that place down until the problem is solved that should have happened a week ago.
I live in Kansas City so this hits close to home for me I drive though Emporia once a month on my way to Wichita, from now on I will only be able to think of this nice midwestern town as the place that poisoned my cat.
Now for some good news took both surviving cat’s and dog to the VET for more blood work all are now in normal levels and doing fine.
It’s also about time someone from washington got off their behinds and spoke up.
I received a second call from the Kansas city FDA this morning and they asked for more purchase records and vet records on my dog and deceased cat and there was a sense of urgency to her voice, I will comply and provide them with all the information I can I hope something comes of all of this.
John
My cat went in december but after the past 2 weeks it feels more he died yesterday.
I feel sorry for all who have lost a freind.
Comment by John — March 27, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
John,
I’m sorry to hear about your kitty. I didn’t catch what type of food were you feeding kitty? Was it dry and if so what brand. Thanks.
Comment by Linda — March 27, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
Som this is the email I received in response to my email reporting my dog’s illness, and complaining of the fact that it has been impossible to get through to the appropriate person at the FDA
Thank you for contacting FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. In response to your questions regarding the Menu Foods pet food recall, please see the following http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/h.....tfood.html which includes information on the list of recalled products, where to report adverse actions or other problems, frequently asked questions, etc.
Consumers who wish to report adverse actions or other problems can go directly to http://www.fda.gov/opacom/back.....plain.html to contact the FDA complaint coordinator in their state. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-866-895-2708. The FDA has received an overwhelming volume of calls and e-mail inquiries so we please ask for your patience as we try to assist consumers with their questions. We understand that many consumers have been complaining about difficulty in reaching both FDA and Menu Foods. Your information and comments are important to us - so again, we ask for your patience and cooperation while we try to process all of the inquiries we’ve been receiving.
Thank you,
CVM Home Page
I responded with:
Thank you for yor email….unfortunately getting through to the appropriate person on the phone has proven to be basically impossible. I suggest that you set up some kind of online system, either an online form or email. It seems that it would streamline what has been so far a very frustrating, cumbersome process. I have contacted Menu foods and filed a report, however no one has ever called back. I think this problem needs to be taken more seriously than it has been so far.
The FDA response:
Thank you for contacting FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. In response to your questions regarding the Menu Foods pet food recall, please see http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/h.....tfood.html which includes information on the list of recalled products, where to report adverse actions or other problems, frequently asked questions, etc.
Consumers who wish to report adverse actions or other problems can go directly to http://www.fda.gov/opacom/back.....plain.html to contact the FDA complaint coordinator in their state. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-866-895-2708. The FDA has received an overwhelming volume of calls and e-mail inquiries so we please ask for your patience as we try to assist consumers with their questions. We understand that many consumers have been complaining about difficulty in reaching both FDA and Menu Foods. Your information and comments are important to us - so again, we ask for your patience and cooperation while we try to process all of the inquiries we’ve been receiving.
Thank you,
CVM Home Page
It’s all the same regurgitated offical crap….Why can’t someone just volunteer to forward the email to the appropriate person, or set up a system that actually works….
It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
Comment by Joyce — March 27, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Lost three husky’s within a month’s time, 2 years ago after feeding Ol’Roy’s canned food purchased from Wal-Mart…How long has the food REALLY been tainted???
Comment by Margarita Gonzalez — March 27, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
Linda,
I was feeding IAMS select bites pouches,
I have just finished going though all my pet food receipts from 1-1-06 to present and so far close 160 pouches were on the recall list and eaten by my pets.
If there is any kind of a bright side to this (I can’t see it right now) is that when my cat died in December my family was so upset I started looking for another kitty.
Two weeks later we found the perfect one at a Petsmart adoption center we called the lady at the center because it was a week night and told her our sad news and she came right up to let us have a visit with all the cats.
welll the perfect cat picked my wife by reaching though the cage bars and with both paws grabbed her hand without a single claw and would not let go of her. ( here’s the bright side) this kitty has a brother and the lady said she really did not want to seperate them if it could be helped, yep you guessed it I have a kitty and so does my wife. I may have lost one cat but we saved two.
John
Comment by John — March 27, 2007 @ 9:31 pm