Pet-food recall: Menu Foods drops another Friday news release
By Gina Spadafori
March 30, 2007
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Here’s the most recent news release from Menu Foods. You’re going to have to go read it yourself, because I honestly don’t think it’s good for my blood pressure to have to cut-and-paste it into this blog.
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Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary
Proproganda. Whose going to buy their story or their products? Next step, they form another company and sell their toxic waste out of that plant - under a new label - a shell company or something. Shouldn’t these people be in jail or something?
Comment by Linda — March 30, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Ive already read it and am shaking Im so mad. So, because Menu Foods says its OK, that makes it so?
I have called Nutro and Menu Foods again today and of couse had messages taken. Where is the answer to my question, why do they think the food not on the recall list is OK considering there have been many complaints. No one has tested the food we have, I have offered it to everyone and their brother for testing and everyone turns and runs the other way. Why is that, it isnt poisoned, is it?
Menu Foods has shown nothing but disrespect towards pet parents and they are now even adding condescending to that. Why can they provide no specifics? What can we all do here to let them and others know that this is still not OK?
Comment by Sandi K — March 30, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Looks like AP has finally started to acknowledge the thousands of affected animals that have been reported to the FDA. In an AP story posted on CNN’s website, the AP writer referred to the fact that “the FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints”.
Hopefully that number will get noticed by & repeated on every hometown news source across North America.
Here’s the link to the full story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/.....index.html
Comment by fern — March 30, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
I have yet to hear back from Menu foods - the last canned food my dogs were eating before they became ill was also not on the list. Both of my dogs are ill with renal failure and I too have offered what food I have left to me test. The only positive thing is I did call the FDA and report my dogs illness and what types of food they were eating.
Comment by Joanne W — March 30, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
Wow! What a thinly veiled message to their investors. Where’s the press release their victims and other concerned pet owners? That is seriously messed up.
Comment by Kat — March 30, 2007 @ 3:11 pm
Okay everyone… take a moment.
Take a nice, long, slow deeeeeep breath.
And another one. Slow, deeep breath.
It’ll give you more strength when you punch paul henderson.
Lower caps reserved for those people who I have utter and total disdain for. He deserves it, because he clearly, from day 1, felt the same for us. I knew he thought we were stupid, but I didn’t realize how stupid he thought we were.
You all might want to review some things he said 9 days ago… http://playingbig.blogspot.com.....ident.html
It will be a while before I’ll be able to add today’s quotes to the mix, I can’t even read them all yet.
Comment by Kim — March 30, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
Hey, Hey, Mr. Henderson, over here, I’ve got a microphone!
Mr. Henderson, you say that you use the highest levels of testing and monitoring in the pet food business. You say also that the tests “will be” expanded as a result of what happened. Does that mean you have not “yet” tested pet food ingredients on hand nor food produced after March 6 for either aminopterin or melamine?
Hey, hey, over here, hey HEY HEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRr
SNAP
Comment by Cathy — March 30, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
What the Pet Food Industry is trying to here is “minimize the damage” to themselves, the shareholders and investors.
They were given a temporary a license to kill today. With pets dying and falling ill this is criminal.
Comment by Steve — March 30, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Do you think these people lose sleep at night over this?
For certain they are worried about the dollar bottom line, but do they understand or appreciate so many people are holding their dying pets in their arms?
I didn’t get that. It’s all money to them. Reimburse us? Yeah right! Money solves everything.
I wonder if there is a special place of torment in the hereafter for these heartless moneychangers?
Comment by Linda — March 30, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
This is probably more the Truth. What Menu doesn’t want us to know.
Comment on Yahoo group, MenuFoodsClassAction:
Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:19 am
I was a temporary employee for Menu Foods in Emporia Kansas for about 8 months. One of the, well the only “benefit” provided us temps, was that we were allowed to take home one slat of pet food per week. This was never pouches, it was damaged or mislabeled can food. After several months of feeding this food to my cat, who had always been extremely healthy, she got terribly sick in a short period of time and died. I don’t have any proof of what she died of
because I didn’t take her to the vet because there was no reason for her to become ill and I thought perhaps she was just under the weather. — She had always been an indoor cat. I don’t know her age but she was well into her adult years when I got her and I had had her about six years and I might add, through some terribly difficult years. We were very close.
I joked with my car pool at the time that it was probably the food that killed her, but truthfully, I had concerns about the plant conditions. Also, for those that don’t understand “manufacturing,”
all the brands that you are talking about are made by Menu. Menu, I recall, had 5 or 6 plants, mostly in the Mid-North and the main one, or head office, in Canada. As far as I am aware, none of which made dry pet food. At the plant I worked in the main difference between
products was in additives to the gravy. But Menu had spent a great deal of money putting in equipment to manufacture pouches in the last 3 years. They believed that can food would eventually phase out and they wanted to be on top of the game. The pouches had more
variance in product because dried vegatables were added into the mixture. The meat products in all these foods was the same. But even though the can food was ground meat in many cases, all food had additives that were added according to recipes that were not even
allowed to be discussed by employees or shared with anyone outside the plant. Even temps signed contracts to such at the beginning of their employee. My concerns at the time were not so much about the additives. I had heard about gluten not being good for cats, but I didn’t think about the gluten in the gravy, although I had worked in vegatables which was close to the gravy area and knew that there were sacks of gluten added in the gravy. It wasn’t that, if you
might be conjuring up pictures of Steven King’s Night Shift, the plant was filthy that bothered me or that I saw anything wrong with the production, although some of the meat products looked pretty green around the edges. It had more to do with some shifts in the lead over qc in the pouch department. Our lead took another job in the plant and when they finally gave us a new lead we were qc’ing about 100 pallets of food per shift, not nearly enough time to do a thorough job. There were 108 to 136 boxes of 24 pouches on one pallet. The plant ran 24 7’s. But if I had been thinking a bit more clearly at the time, recalling a large batch of food that was pulled that had dark flecks in it and later distributed, I don’t know why I would think that the plant would be profoundly concerned with qc. Except for the fact that Menu owned the Walmart account and it was highly coveted. Iams, Eukanuba, Mighty Dog, Special Kitty, were all regularly ran. (We did very little Science Diet, no Alpo.) The fleck situation happened, I might add, because a gravy
employee put the wrong additive into the food and it reacted with another additive, or so I was told.
I left their employee in June of last year. I might add that they failed their last inspection. I heard rumours about a theplon (?) coated container being too close to the production line was the
problem, but you know, it’s all so hush, hush. I assumed that the corrected the situation.
Comment by Steve — March 30, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
National Boycott of ALL Menu Food products (incl. where they are a contract mfr) until their BOD/Inv. Fund Mgt FIRES THEIR CEO for being a xxxxx (please feel free to fill in your own noun with plenty of descriptive adj. - I am so mad I can’t even begin to pick from the 100’s that come to mind). Anyone notice what they did to their website. Pulled off all the information except for the recall data - wonder what they are trying to hide now.
Comment by Janet — March 30, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
Nationwide Class Action Filed By Audet & Partners, LLP Against Menu Foods Seeking Medical Monitoring for Injured Animals and Emotional Distress for Class Members
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-.....amp;EDATE=
Comment by Steve — March 30, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
http://groups.myspace.com/petfoodrecall
Leave information here too, because I’ve seen some posts on sites deleted, and they were of the more incriminating nature. These companies do not want information all over the place, and when the court cases hit, some sites could be shut down? I don’t know…we need to cross post everywhere!
Comment by J — March 30, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
PEOPLE!!!!! WE HAVE THE POWER to bring MenuFoods and any company that would harm our beloved pets TO THEIR KNEES!!!!! DON’T BUY ANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS —-EVER!!!! Even after they claim all is safe to feed our pets —DON’T DO IT!!! They gave us the list of almost everything they make. PRINT the list & keep it on you when you shop so you know what NOT to buy. Trust me, THIS WILL BE THE BEST AND MOST SEVERE PUNISHMENT WE CAN INFLICT on MenuFoods. I am joining many others and switching to holistic/human grade pet food. It might be a bit more expensive, but you don’t need to feed them as much because much more of it is absorbed by the body because of the quality & less ends up in a pile on your lawn! So it pays to buy good quality. Google “holistic pet food” adn you’ll find several companies that have many locations, but that also ship if your not near them. Try it for the one you love, they’ll live happier and healthier…..
Comment by laura — March 30, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
That’s a start. But it won’t be that easy. Companies will deny they use Menu, or Menu will bankrupt and reopen under another name and another plant and hire new people and continue with the same “evil”.
Comment by Linda — March 30, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
keep the pressure on
Comment by 4lgdfriend — March 30, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
We need a new set of people in the FDA who will test and follow up. They had a heck of a time figuring out this problem and still the bottom line is unknown, what will they test for in the future?
Greedy companies here and abroad think they can cut corners and we pay the price and so do our beloved pets. This stinks! We as consumers just need to refuse to buy products that have any of these odd chemicals in them -
Comment by Linda — March 30, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Yes, it is time for a Boycott. It pains me to take my dog off his dry food made by Natura (Innova EVO), but they do state quite clearly on the video on their website that for now, Menu Foods is continuing to produce their wet food.
They already make their own dry food (thank god my dog is healthy maybe because of it). On the video the pres. of the company says that they have just decided to start making their own wet food, but what they need to do is discontinue it until they have made the switch.
So, in complex cases like this, I think it is important to boycott UNTIL THEY HAVE SEVERED THE TIE WITH MENU FOODS and write an email explaining that until they do, you cannot buy ANYTHING they make, no matter how excellent..
The lesson here? Don’t just boycott the brands on the recall list. Investigate any company that is distributing or making your pet’s food, period. And if they have any link whatsoever to Menu Foods, BOYCOTT NOW AND FOREVER.
Prayers for all the dead and suffering pets of this terrible ordeal.
Comment by Althea — March 30, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Why doesn’t anyone tell us the identity of the American supplier who sold the Chinese wheat gluten to Menu Foods? I, for one, would like to know where else it went. Into more dog and cat food? Into people food?
Comment by Louise Kurtz — March 30, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
We have been advised to put our beloved dog, Spencer, to sleep this weekend. After 4 hospital visits and extensive medical bills we have to accept his kidneys are gone and unrecoverable. He’s been pretty much bedridden and in diapers for a month now. Rancho Mirage PetCo has pulled all stock from shelves. We are getting NO help at all from IAMS — after a dozen calls.
Comment by J Marino — March 30, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
Re: Pet Foods — I went into to Petco day before yesterday and was shocked to find several brands on the shelf that I was sure had been recalled. When I mentioned this to the (very young) cashier She assured me that all was well (yadda yadda yadda)”Canned” answer?Now on Wlfe Blitzer I hear that the recall has spread to DRY dogfoods.
WHAT is wrong with this country when all we are concerned with the the bottom line profits.
Comment by Ann in Phoenix — March 30, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
CROSS POST CROSS POST CROSS POST
We all need to CROSS POST our comments everywhere we can find to cross post.
I plan on revisiting this site to list the addresses where I cross post and urge everyone to do so.
This may be the biggest grass roots endeavor ever to get answers and shout our concerns out to the public, politicians and Corporate biggies….
Comment by Anne in Phoenix — March 30, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
Class action suits are for lawyers. They don’t benefit our pets or the people who have suffered watching their pets die, or our pocketbook. I think if you have vet bills it makes more sense to be fully reimbursed by Menu Foods rather that get a percentage of what you would have gotten by being part of a nebulous class. While hating Menu Foods is natural, I’m sure most of the people that work their sincerely feel terrible about the loss of life. I really think the error in all of this was letting wheat in from a country that does not have the same standards that we do. This is what I call “free trade run amok”. The wheat producer is the one at fault. How could they sell tainted wheat that they knew was going into food production?
Comment by Melinda — March 30, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
Before I am willing to allow Menu Foods to reimburse me for the expenses related to my PooPoo, I want assurances from them that they WILL continue to provide care for him since it is their product that caused this in the first place. Who is to say that a month, a year, 2 years, 5 years, or more down the road that our pets won’t have flare-ups causing them to go into the hospital again. I’m just not willing to take that chance with them.
Comment by Adrienne Stephenson — March 30, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
this guy is 1 greasy lying canook ba$^ard..
the part of canada he’s in has some very nasty
actors, (i’ve had a few dealings with ‘em).
i read about a iraq veteran that got
his head crushed with a hockey stick in a bar
in ontario.
i think every effort must be made to shut this
slimeball down…
Comment by johnypaycut — March 30, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
“The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints; the company, more than 300,000.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ood_recall
Am I understanding this correctly? Menu Foods has had OVER 300,000 complaints? How many does it take for them to admit they have a problem and cease manufacture and distribution?
Comment by Kat — March 30, 2007 @ 7:31 pm
OK I HEAR YOU ABOUT NO CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT? BUT WHO IS GOING TO GIVE ME BACK WHAT I LOST? NO ONE PERSON KNOWS WHAT THE OTHER PERSON LOST.
I AGREE THAT NO LAWSUIT COULD BRING BACK THE BELOVED AND DEAR PET THAT I HAD, BUT LET ME TELL YOU I HAD A ONE IN A MILLION AIRDALE TERRIER THAT COULD FIND MY SON BURIED IN THE SNOW WITHOUT KNOWING HE WAS OUT THERE AND HE WAS TRAINED TO COME BACK ON COMMAND TO A POLICE WHISTLE AND HE COULD OPEN SLIDING GLASSS DOORS, AND ALSO A REGULAR DOOR. THIS DOG WAS THE BEST AND HOW AM I GOING TO TRAIN ANOTHER DOG TO DO ALL THINGS THIS ONE DID. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO WORK WITH A PET EVERYDAY TO TEACH HIM TO WALK ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD ON COMMAND AND NOT CROSS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD? I FEEL I HAVE BEEN ROBBED BY THESE STUPID DOG FOOD COMPANIES. YES ROBBED BY THEIVES THAT TOOK AWAY SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW IF I COULD EVER GET BACK IN MY LIFE.
YES NOT EVEN A MILLION DOLLARS COULD GET MY AIRDALE TERRIER BACK. IT TOOK HARD WORK TO TRAIN AND YEARS OF RESPECT AND TRUST AND LOYALTY AND LOVE OF THIS DOG. I FELT SAFE WITH THIS DOG AND I WILL NEVER FEEL SAFE AGAIN. DON’T YOU GET IT. THEY A THEIVES TO TAKE AWAY SOMETHING THAT IS MUCH MORE THAN THEIR MONEY MAKING PROFITS. WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR THAT? WHO IS GOING TO REPLACE THAT?
Comment by Georgeann Heckman — March 30, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
Louise writes: “Why doesn’t anyone tell us the identity of the American supplier who sold the Chinese wheat gluten to Menu Foods? I, for one, would like to know where else it went. Into more dog and cat food? Into people food?” Great question, Louise!
I posted links to an article last night that stated there are 3 US manufacturers of wheat gluten. 2 have denied any involvement, one has not. That would be ADM. ADM has set up shop in the Asia Pacific, and has wheat milling plants in those locations. Could be for the cheap labor, could be for the cheap wheat, or both. Midwest Grain stopped supplying Menu Foods with wheat gluten 18 months ago. ADM is still silent on the recall, even after Menu has fingered a US supplier!? Why would that be if they in fact had NO involvement? Doesn’t make sense.
Menu is now saying they will sue the US supplier. Well, that has to be a company with lots of money to be worthwhile.
I wanted to know what other animals consume wheat milling products. Below is a link to something called wheat middlings. Says it is used in swine, horse and poultry feeds. Great!
http://www.admworld.com/naen/p.....0middlings
A search for “wheat gluten” on the ADM site brings up several products. One called Provim ESP caught my attention cause it says it’s GRAS. . .Generally recognized as Safe. What the heck does that mean? They also have a gluten that is modified, and says it can reduce the requirements for vital wheat gluten by 30 to 40%. Huh!? Nice to see their wheat gluten is also used as a meat emulsion binder.
I’m learning way more about wheat milling and wheat gluten than I ever cared to know, that’s for sure!
http://www.admworld.com/naen/productdb/results.asp
Comment by Jackie — March 30, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
IAM’s says they don’t use wheat gluten in their food. But yet their tartar treats list wheat gluten first in the ingredients. My 6yr old dog ate IAM’s treats, bones and dry food and she died a couple of days before the recall was out. They just keep saying the dry food is not affected. Wish they could convince me otherwise. I’m the one with the dead pet not them.
Comment by Ruth — March 30, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
One comment Menu Foods has made in the recent past was that they would reimburse people the expenses they have been out in caring for their pets who have been injured by their foods. I have called, was asked what food my cat ate, which was Iams, was told to call Iams which I did, and all Iams did was offer coupons for replacement food. I don’t want their stupid food!!! I want to be reimbursed for the medical expenses I have been out to get my cat well and to keep him well. Out of 6 cats, all indoor, only one was fed the Iams, only one got sick and that was the one fed Iams. Pretty convincing evidence if you ask me. Anyone know a good lawyer?
Comment by Lou Smith — March 31, 2007 @ 6:47 am
Meanwhile, now they are blaming the cats for being “more sensitive” to chemicals. This article is the biggest tailspin yet:
http://www.comcast.net/news/in.....24757.html
I am getting really angry! We cannot let this go on!
Menu Foods must be stopped!
Comment by Jaycee — March 31, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
I just want to get my views in here too. I lost the most wonderful cat I ever had to this crap. He was fifteen years old but very active and very loving. He suddenly stopped eating and began to go downhill every day. We have no vet near where I live so I had to take matters into my own hands. I fed him baby food, cat nutritional supplements, and made sure he got water every day. I spend hours and hours with him. On his last day, he could not even hardly move and laid on the bed all day until he passed away at 12:45 am on Tuesday, March 27. I was with him until the end and I promised him I would be. He cried out to me several times that day and just before he died. I am utterly devastated. I loved him so much and I always will and I miss his presence. Does anyone know what it means when a cat cries out or yowls 3 times just before he died? Let’s get these people.
Comment by Linda Tsatskowski — March 31, 2007 @ 4:58 pm