Comments on: Pet-food recall: A letter from Nutro

By: Valerie Cashman

Valerie Cashman — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:26:11 +0000

I have had to PTS my beautiful Brown Stud and have four breeding females very sick. The stud lived on Nutro as did the first girl to get very strange symptoms. They were addicted to it for years. I was advised by Nutro to allow my cats only to feed on Nutro as they claimed it was the best in the world. I have had a small amount of the last packet of dried food they were eating tested for Melamine and it came back 1 part per million which is considered by the laboratory to be safe. Three vets have advised me to look for aflatoxins as we were sold a batch of food that had been radiated by the customs people. My stud is having a post mortem done. I look like having 50% of 17 years work wiped out…… I would like to know who produces the raw materials for Nutro and what is their corporate chain ie: is Wilbur-Ellis the one who gives them raw materials or Natural Balance or Mars? Can anybody help me track the food chain to the end of production ?

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:11:46 +0000

I sympathize with Rio. My cat also was poisoned on Nutro and now needs sub q fluids for life. It’s heartbreaking. The Hartford won’t say what exactly they are looking for in the vet records, and how much they would reimburse. I’m not going to send them records if all they’re going to do is use them for their own defense against law suits and find a way to refuse paying anything.

By: pearl

pearl — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:32:48 +0000

i too feed one of my cats tanted food but i did not feed her alot it was used as a treat till she did not want it enymore she has now become ill but not to the point of being sick and the vet said she will be ok BUTi have tryed to email nutro and it will not go through and the calls never get picked up just ring and ring … now how can i pay for bills that should not have happened i do think the people that made her ill should pay i run a pet grooming shop and nutro had sent me samples and panflets to give my clients in the past. now how do thay think i feel giving my clients info about people that do this to loving pets that trust us to look after them … i like to call this a rape and will treat as so and people that rape others should be held acountable. thay are no better then what the jails hold. this is crimal. and crimals should be held responcible.
i got into grooming to help not hert.

By: Roger L

Roger L — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:15:54 +0000

In early February of this year I switched my 11 year old dog to Nutro dry dog food thinking I was buying him a higher quality product. I have always fed my pets dry food from a different manufacturer. At the time he was very healthy and playful. Within a month he became lethargic, consumed large quantities of water and lost 5 pounds of weight. His original weight was 22 pounds. Most of his weight loss seemed to be muscle mass as he was literally skin and bones in the end. After $400+dollars spent on testing and, unfortunately, euthanizaion on March 15, I learned of the pet food recall. At first it was only canned and moist food. Now I see that some dry food is being recalled.

I don’t know who to trust or who to believe. I am not sure that the food was the cause of my pet having to be put to sleep and I hope Nutro is telling the truth about their dry food. All I know is that he was suffering terribly and now he is gone.

One question no one has answered, and I hope I have my facts correct, but why is Menu Foods importing their wheat and/or wheat products from China??? Both Canada and the US produce mega tons of wheat. Many foreign countries are allowed to use pesticides that are banned in the US on many crops and I would also assume that this lax attitude also applies to other foodstuff manufacturing. It seems that we are paying the price for importing lower cost products.

My little buddy Pete is gone and I would feel terrible if, in an effort to improve his menu, I poisoned him. I miss him dearly.

Roger L

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:17:38 +0000

Mr. Kravis:

One of my cats got a horrible UTI in December- right around the time I was feeding them some Nutro wet cans and some pouches as a treat. It came on so fast, and was so severe, my vet said she had never seen such a heavy load of crystals in a cat’s urine. Since your wet food never made up more than 25% of their total daily intake I believe we just dodged a bullet. And no, I don’t have the cans or pouches from December.

The cost for tests, and medication was well over $400 dollars. But compared to some folks vet bills and the heartache of losing a beloved pet, I got off cheap.

Guess what? As promised your dry food is in the garbage. The cans were thrown away several days ago when your company failed to respond to my questions. I went out tonight and bought a new dry food. My cats just love their new Innova Evolve Dry Food. Yeah its expensive at $7.99 for 2.2 lbs - but lets look at those ingredients. Turkey and Chicken are the first two ingredients - and look no grain. And hey at about $2 a pound more than your food - I’d have to buy 200 lbs before it cost me what treating the UTI cost me.

I have to sign off because my cats are trying to get into the Innova bag, and yowling for more - something they’ve never done with your food.

By: Susan Mick

Susan Mick — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:40:09 +0000

Pet food companies doing live testing on animals with food known to be tainted? C’mon people, is this ok with you? How can I feed my pets food made by companies who use pets to decide just how poisonous their food is? And then after many of these animals die or become very ill, there is further delay. I can only suppose that Menu Foods was waiting to see how much more murder they might be able to get away with. Doesn’t anyone see the horrible irony of this situation? It’s one thing to say you’re sorry but it’s another to do something about it. I just don’t want to believe that this is how the pet food industry does business. Please let us know this is not what goes on.

I’m looking into pet food from companies who do not use Menu Foods or who promise not to use them in the future. The pet food companies who promise that their foremost concern is the health and well-being of all animals have to see that using pets as research animals in this way to make pet food can never be acceptable. I still cringe when I remember the first time I heard about this on the news. I thought I was hearing things. Please speak up about this. I know everyone is in the throes of panic regarding the confusion over the poisoned food and many are living with the terrible grief of the loss of a beloved pet but the handling of this recall plays out like the worst horror story on so many levels. I want to know; is live animal testing of known poison foods by pet food manufacturers common practice and is it acceptable to animal lovers everywhere? What do the pet food companies have to say about this? I am waiting to hear.

By: Linda Boumarafi

Linda Boumarafi — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:29:00 +0000

While I appreciate the letter and I am certain the company (Nutro Products) is saddened by this catastrophe, I don’t see that Nutro is severing ties with Menu Foods. I am appalled at the way that Menu Foods handled this situation, especially doing a live “taste” study on pets to see how many sickened and/or died from tainted foods before recalling the products.

Since I as a consumer can’t boycott Menu Foods directly because they are a distributor for many pet food companies, I have to rely on the corporate executives to do what is right in this instance. As far as I’m concerned, any company who still does business with Menu Foods after this shocking course of action won’t get another nickel from me!

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:38:59 +0000

I’m sure someone from Nutro is monitoring this blog. So let’s hear something from you.

What is the status of your canned cat food? We know its made by Menu Foods and we know it has Wheat gluten in it. Have you recalled it? If not, why not? Have you had it tested? If not, why are you still selling it?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:14:07 +0000

I called and emailed Nutro several times and got no satisfaction whatsoever. The emails got FAQ bulk responses and the phone calls got generic answers and a promise to be called back with the answer to the questions I was interested in, which are these… Are the recalled Nutro Products being tested? If so which were contaminated and which were not? If they are not being tested, why not? This basic information is vital to the health of our animals and I think we need to insist on getting it. My second point is that I will not buy another Nutro product unless they cut ties with Menu Foods. Menu Foods has in my opinion forfeited it’s right to sell for to our pet, plain and simple, and Nutro despite it’s letter to the contrary needs to anti-up the information of what was tainted, where they sold it, and how they can assure us they are not really in the business of killing animals.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:44:39 +0000

This press release actually makes me angrier. Several days ago, I sent Nutro an email enquiring about their chunk style cat food in cans which is also made by Menu Foods. These cans do contain wheat gluten and I asked if they have recalled these. I have yet to receive a response. I had been told by someone on their hot line that they were recalling the cans as a “precaution.” But they haven’t done so, not from what I see on the store shelves.

I pointed out on another thread on pet connection that if you go to their web page, they first have a BIG SECTION about how Nutro makes its own dry food. Then you can link through to Menu Foods list of recalled pouches. There is nothing mentioned about the canned food.

As far as I’m concerned, if they knew the cans were safe they’d be making a BIG DEAL about it, just like they did with the dry food. You know what, I’m so ticked off, I’m going home and throwing out a just opened bag of Nutro dry. I don’t care if its OK or not, its a matter of principle. I will never, and I mean never buy any of their products again.

Mr Kravis, you can’t P*** on me and tell me its raining.