Pet Connection Blog » Pet food recall: AC360 digs into the contamination, the numbers

Pet food recall: AC360 digs into the contamination, the numbers

By Christie Keith

April 6, 2007

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Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN continues to do some great coverage of the recall. The transcript is up, there may be video later. We’ll update with a link if that happens.

As reported earlier, some are suspecting the contamination was deliberate. They delve into the “how” and “why” of that… and as usual, it’s about money:

All of the companies that bought or sold the gluten deny adding melamine, but one theory FDA investigators are exploring is whether the melamine was introduced intentionally into the wheat gluten. Why would somebody do that?

(on camera): One answer is that this whole thing could have been about money, in other words, to make it look like the wheat gluten had higher levels of protein than it actually did, and, therefore, could be sold for more money.

They also go over Banfield’s database numbers and what they might suggest about the scope of the illness and death caused by the recalled pet foods:

The research is spotty, and there’s not even a basic clearinghouse to track all the pets sickened or killed. The FDA has turned to one indicator, though, the chain of 600 Banfield pet hospitals across the U.S. plugs information into a database every time an owner shows up with a sick pet

Banfield says it has seen a 30 percent increase in the number of cats diagnosed with acute or chronic kidney failure, compared with a normal period. But the hospital group says it’s difficult to extrapolate from that how many pets have been sickened or killed.

The FDA says it has received more than 12,000 calls from pet owners about tainted food, but it doesn’t break out how many have actually been affected.

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Filed under: 2007 food recall, animals: pets, news — Christie Keith @ 9:10 pm

Comments (200)

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I hope its OK but Im posting this here and in the last section, maybe someone knows how to write petitions?……

I was thinking tonight on more that could be done to make sure this never happens again and I was wondering about a petition. While SOME congress men & women or senators, etc may read letters, I have to admit Im skeptical that the reps for our state do…but I think they do read petitions, at least the number of names that are signed to them, names equal votes. I was wondering if anyone out there with writing skills (and judging by the blogs here, there are quite a few) would be able to write up the petition to request Congress to set up whatever it takes, a pet death registry, a pet version of FDA, stricter oversea purchasing requirements, etc. If that could be done, maybe Gina & the folks here could put a link to it so everyone could download a petition and take it around their home and work areas for signatures and then mail them in to Congress, state reps, etc. Its just an idea but maybe worth trying or thinking about?

Comment by Sandi K — April 6, 2007 @ 8:58 pm

Comment by Sandi K — April 6, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
Sandi,
I’m posting this again: no one seems to have really jumped on it, but maybe you’ll be interested. On April 28th there will be a nationwide march as a protest to all these recalls. They’re hoping to get more and more cities to sign up: check it out! What better way to protest this war on our pets than a huge march! That can’t be ignored. Last year, I participated in the Global Night Commute, protesting the war and child soldiers in Uganda. And you now what? Within a few months there was action in Congress, and now there have been peace talks…and this war was going on for years. Let’s get the same attention to this tragedy, which affects so many of us. Here’s the links (they seem to be switching site now):
http://keepourpetssafe.braveho.....vents.html
http://pnv2.com/index.html

Comment by Krystal Kubichek — April 6, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
On AC360, now that makes sense. It will be about money most likely. I am not convinced that melamine is the culprit exclusively, however. Everyone (not on here but the ASPCA guy etc.) is going on about the toxin being more toxic to cats than dogs. These people are using the false numbers of 16 deaths and such. 15 cats, one dog. We all know this is inaccurate and if we look at the pet connection numbers our poor dogs are not that far behind the kitties. Studies of melanine toxicity in dogs are available and are not that impressive. I think it may still be the culprit and the idea of someone trying to make a quick buck by cutting a corner is the thing that makes the most sense to me so far so we shall see. I will keep searching and stay tuned.

Comment by jm — April 6, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
I still think that something happened at the harvest or GM or something, but okay I wished I would have seen the 360 segment - darn I missed it - busy - how do they think this “protein” was added?

Comment by Linda — April 6, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
They are thinking it may have been deliberately added to give the appearance that the food had a higher protein content since both protein and melamine are high in nitrogen. They also stated again that the melamine may be just a marker for something else so we are still up in the air there. For sure there needs to be more investigation on this.

Comment by jm — April 6, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
I was reading last night that for the melamine to be “good” it had to be 98% pure. Lower than that, it was worthless, which may be a part of why it was used.

My question is, if it was, say, 90% melamine, what was in the other 10%? It seems like there had to be something else there, otherwise it was “good” and would have sold for twice the price of the wheat gluten.

I wonder if it was something that we don’t have any kind of test for. Look how long it took to find the melamine.

Comment by carly — April 6, 2007 @ 10:17 pm
Kudos to CNN and Oregon. How great has the Oregon state veterinarian been? They are most impressive.

Comment by jm — April 6, 2007 @ 10:23 pm
Well I have heard that lots of things are added to increase the weight of products so they will be heavier and sell for a higher price -

so it just seems reasonable that somethihg could have been done somewhere along the line that increase the price of the wheat gluten - but what exactly is a wonder but I’ve only been reading articles pulled off the web but it sure seems plausible.

Thank you for the recap jm. I had read this past couple weeks, and can’t remember where as I have been reading so much, that they also add stuff onto the wheat while it is growing so it will absorb more water and weigh more - heavier so it demands a higher price. Wish I could remember where I read it?

Comment by Linda — April 6, 2007 @ 10:24 pm
Pet Food Industry has zero credibility.

The long list of astounding revelations since March 16 has been staggering.

Comment by Steve — April 6, 2007 @ 10:38 pm
And also they add lots of toxic junk to beef up their crop yield and this too I’ve been reading about, but can’t quote and I borrow a computer with web access at night so I can’t save anything here and research, but I do remember that this toxic chemical use by local farmers is a real problem and they are trying to increase yields so they, of course, can make more money.

Comment by Linda — April 6, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
CNN tonite A MUST WATCH 1am.. new Info. Latest Developments.. WATch NN Anderson 360 tonite

Comment by kelly B — April 6, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
40 dead in Oregon and counting which equates to 3,500+ across the country. Has the FDA made any progress since the recall started 3+ weeks ago? What a disaster!

Comment by Ron — April 6, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
They CNN Anderson Cooper talking about $$$$$ motive?? Hope people are WATching CNN Anderson Cooper 360 tonite !!!!!

Comment by kelly B — April 6, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
I’m watching now. They’re not even talking about pet food yet, but the crawl at the bottom of the screen is nothing but pet food recalls. “One percent” of all pet food, my a$$.

I wish they’d done it last week, but delighted they’re doing it at all.

Comment by Laura — April 6, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
A deadly poison ended up in the U.S. pet food chain.

The Whole Pet Food Industry needs to be scrutinized with a fine tooth comb.

How many companies at this very second are having food produced in Emporia? You know, the ones with the Happy Valley Family Naturals Home Cooked Chow and Gravy type of marketing image on the package. And ingredients from a country that boasts of high technology but has one of the worst pollution and human rights records on the planet?

Comment by Steve — April 6, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
I agree, even alot of the no name brands.. ?? THEY ALLLL NEED TO BE TESTED ,andthe Companies.. anyone Selling Pet foods .. The whole thing needs a DRASTIVC Over Haul.. There talking about $$$$ being a possible motive.. what else?? Can’t wait fothe TRUTH.. And Also , what poisons?? Wheat Gluten? Vitamin D?/ melamime. or RAT poison… WE need the Truth, and Safe Healthy Foods for Our Pets….
Even though mine died!!!
God, I am peeved!

Comment by kelly B — April 6, 2007 @ 11:21 pm
Of course it’s about money. They cut costs on the food to rake in huge profits. What are the Brands Marketing Evangelists going to try to sell us next? How many Brands use by products to cut corners when it should be 100% human grade?
“Hey boss we just ran out of human grade.”
“Oh, well just throw in by products, the Brand will never know”

Comment by Steve — April 6, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
From the AC360 segment

“Banfield [with 600 hospitals nationwide -L] says it has seen a thirty percent increase in the number of pets diagnosed with Acute or Chronic Renal Failure over a normal period.”

And here we thought it was just 16. Right?

Interesting report, though more theory than proof…still, at least they’re talking about it.

Comment by Laura — April 6, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
I am really counting on congress to do something about this, don’t let the people down I beg you.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 6, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
I think CNN360 should be commended and thanked (in droves) for that crawl running during the show. I am certain the crawl could open more than a few people’s eyes as to how widespread this pet food recall really is. CNN360 gets it!

I’ll keep watching CNN because they went the extra mile in typing in that crawler of all the boycotted products as of today. (And also told viewers where to find the complete list and other information.

I went to a Petsmt. today and I saw people buying foods of the involved companies without even pausing a moment to inspect the labels. You’d think with this recall going on every pet owner/consumer would be inspecting the cans and bags more closely at the very least.

Right now I would not trust the pet food companies word as to which brands are supposed to be safe for my pets. They lost my trust when they allowed valuable time (and the poor lab test animals) to pass before announcing the recall.

Because of this pet food recall, I also learned that one big pet food brand (I wan’t say the name here, go to PETA to check the video out or youtube) has been very cruel towards their animals and allowed them to suffer needlessly imo. I will not forgive that company for what I saw on that film and I will never buy any of their products. I will never buy from companies that carry out cruel tests on animals.

Tonight I pray that changes will come about so that the animals and also us humans will be better protected against contaminated foodstuffs.

Is it too much to ask that all pet food be made safe enough for any living being (animal or human) to eat it? Is it too much to ask that the labels have to say where the food ingredients came from? Is it too much to ask that when a problem arises that the information be given with a better to be safe than sorry attitude—- that at the moment a product seems very suspect that an alert be issued?

May those of us who had pets die or become ill, be able to feel that their pets suffering has not been totally in vain. I still wish they had told us all sooner that there may be a problem with their pet food products. I miss my two cats, may they RIP. I wish I had known to consider the possibility of tainted pet food when they were dying.

I have questions with no answers now. How many pets might have been saved had the vets been told to be on the watch for possible cases of tainted food ingestion? How many pet owners would have been able to avoid their pets being sick if they had known their pet’s usual food was suspect in death or illness of other pets? How many deaths/serious illnesses will there be of both humans and pets until the our food industry/ food supply gets needed changes?
Food bourne illnesses of all types are preventable illnesses. More needs to be done, yesterday! This latest problem at Menu Foods is just one of many wake up calls about our nations and world’s food supply (from Mad Cow Disease to E. Coli etc., etc.). JMO

My prayers go out to all pet owners and their fur babies (to those still here and those no longer with us).

Comment by Grace — April 7, 2007 @ 12:28 am
Well said Grace! I know I feel the same way you do I have a feeling most of us here do.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 12:50 am
Dearest “Grace”,

The precious name of one of our dearly beloved, departed, resplendent felines of recent years past, still horribly missed, a magnificent, unparalleled, black beauty; this will be a long and grueling fight. ;(

We must stand together, overcome all differences, and support each other in this unique, historical event.

We are in unchartered territory. WE have the power to rewrite history and change the course of our precious “charges.”

Comment by Lois Kimball — April 7, 2007 @ 12:54 am
For the fun of it over the weekend, buy a jar of Gerber Stage 1 Baby Food, Chicken, Turkey, etc. It has corn starch.

Then, find, if you can, (for some strange reason it’s not readily found in the SF area), Beechnut, which is only the meat, same stage, same flavor. Unbelievable (!!) difference.

Like the scrapping cats referenced above with the fresh chicken parts.

Something up with the grains? DUH!!! Taste it yourself. It IS baby food so it shouldn’t kill you. :)

Comment by Lois Kimball — April 7, 2007 @ 1:06 am
BILL PUTS PET FOOD INDUSTRY ON HOOK

Has this article shown up yet in the blog?

http://www.nj.com/news/glouces.....amp;coll=8

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:37 am
Toronto Canada: NDP YouTube video pushes for pet food regulation in wake of Menu Foods recall
http://tinyurl.com/2ncnk4

How true and applies to many industries and many countries.
Dog control ahead of meat industry
http://stuff.co.nz/4015030a20417.html

Comment by Stefania — April 7, 2007 @ 4:20 am
cnn is doing the story now

Comment by Mary Ann — April 7, 2007 @ 5:38 am
I think the high number of pet deaths is intentional, not just because of higher protien wheat theory, but because of over crowded adoption shelters driven too. This recall is not like the recent recalls (i.e. peanut butter or spinache). Those recalls affected certain states and certain reigions. This pet food recall affects ALL OF THE U.S., CANADA, MEXICO and who know where else. With more shelters becoming “no-kill” over crowding is happening EVERYWHERE! People who lost their beloved companion(s) will probably seek out a new friend at the shelter to help heal the hurt or emptyness. I wonder how many sick animals are the shelters reporting. Are the shelters throwing out contaminated food? I don’t recall in the local news and requests for pet food donations to the local shelters. You would think they would have to throw out a lot of food, thus leaving their supplies either low or critical for donations. Has any one heard of cries for help from their local shelters for donations due to the recall? Any sick or dead animals at these facilities are probably not being reported to the proper lists or agencies. I’d hate to think this contamination is a way to get more people to adopt new pets or a justification on how to thin out the populations in our animal shelters. Anderson Cooper CNN should look into this theory. I think I tried to submit it but I’m not sure if it went through. My heart goes out to anyone with a loss or vigil over a sick pet. God bless you all.

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 5:51 am
So our pets are “just” possession??? Then why did Eli Lilly drug company get an approval from the FDA to use (yet another) drug:

Date of Approval: January 19, 2007

“For the treatment of canine separation anxiety in conjunction with a
behavior modification plan.”

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/FOI/141-272o011907.pdf

I have yet to see my car or my couch or my house or any of my “possessions” show any sign of separation anxiety!!!!

Does this mean that animals are actually more than “possessions”, since they are being treated for pyschiatric problems. Something for those of you with law suits to keep in mind.

Comment by mal — April 7, 2007 @ 5:58 am
GRACE,don’t be scared to say the name it’s IAMS ,THAT Video on peta’s web site was done at a menu food testing plant. peta sent someone undercover to show the abuse these poor dogs and cats suffered. did IAMS PET Food stop useing IAMS No. alot of pets have died from IAMS. the fact that IAMS Knew what menu food did to them dogs and cats and they still gave menu foods a 10 year deal to make their foods.I wonder if any of these pet food CEO’S even care about our pets. when they start seeing their sales Drop then maybe they will see the light. 360 Is doing a great job covering this. oh i sent cnn that video it’s on peta’s web page.that video was done over 4 years ago!!

Comment by Mary Ann — April 7, 2007 @ 6:05 am
It may be a legal web site but at least some places are showing the scope of the deaths.

As of March 27, members of a Web site for U.S. veterinarians had reported at least 471 cases of kidney failure among pets in the previous 10 days. Experts and veterinary organizations estimate the final death toll could exceed 10,000.

http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=11553

Comment by mal — April 7, 2007 @ 6:35 am
Send CNN a thank-you email for running the “ticker” or “crawler” at the bottom of its screen non-stop at least since 4 p.m. EST Friday, that I know of, maybe longer. I sent an email last night.

Devoting this ticker space (where other headlines could be placed) solely to the recall brands and running it non-stop is a powerful statement in and of itself and places CNN at the forefront of covering the pet recall issue.

All viewers look to the bottom of the screen while watching the current story, so just seeing this staggering list of each individual brand (A - Z) and type of pet food will cause people to see the magnitude of this horror, without CCN’s having to devote as much live or replay coverage to this, although they have done a tremendous job with that as well. Kudos to CNN! Send those emails please.

P.S.: I hope the CNN person in charge of creating the ticker was able to “cut and paste” the brand names/types of food instead of typing in everything — a monumental effort, for certain. I’d like to donate some Ben Gay and an ice pack to the typist if it’s the latter. Thank you.

Comment by petlover — April 7, 2007 @ 6:44 am
CNN has really come through for us. the ticker with all the recall pet food has been running since 9am est fri. non-stop. i agree cnn needs lots of THank You from everyone they are on top of this story.Big Time

Comment by Mary Ann — April 7, 2007 @ 6:52 am
since 7AM EST CNN has done this story at least 12 times. they are on top of this.

Comment by Mary Ann — April 7, 2007 @ 7:15 am
The investigation of just exactly what happened in the situation of the pet food will most likely take a long time. There are many ideas flying around, some that seem to make sense, and some that don’t but still we have no proof of anything and unfortunately we are going to have to be patient. The numbers on pet connection seem to be the more accurate ones but my guess is that in order for the animal to be counted officially it would have had to have been tested and that is why the official numbers appear low in comparison. People are working on it and maybe someday we will know what actually happened and have an idea of how many were affected but for now we will have to wait and that can be frustrating. At least CNN has the ticker tape of the food in the recall running so that more people can check their pet food. Thank you CNN.

Comment by jm — April 7, 2007 @ 7:26 am
A POSSIBLE CONSPIRACY AS TO WHY OUR PETS OUR DYING— PLEASE HELP THE CONCERNED PET OWNERS UNCOVER AN ANSWER FOR THEIR LOSSES.

I have no inside secrets just web postings to show what I’ve found and then just a thought (A SICK THOUGHT!!) “What if the Mars Corp. (That’s right Mars)or some other corporation has purposefully poisoned our pets so that grieving owners may replace them with new ones thus helping to lessen the over crowding in our nations shelters.”

Pedigree has had some heartfelt commercial out lately where this poor dog in a shelter cage is saying “How did I get here? I am a good dog…..” ect.. It goes in to this heart tugging poem about wanting to finally go home, and at the end, it says “Pedigree will donate xx-amount to shelter pets.”

Our local news lately talks about its overcrowding and what type of restrictions it will be going on when it reaches the 300 mark and what animals they will accept in or pick up, and when we hit the 400 mark its restrictions— ect… With more and more facilities becoming a “no-kill” animal center, I’m sure the shelters are maxed out all over the country. TOO MANY PETS AND NOT ENOUGH ADOPTABLE FAMILIES!!

Now I use to use Hill Country Fare cat and dog food. This is a product on the recall list a brand manufactured for the Texas grocery store chain H.E.B. (H.E.Butt). I was worried about the dry line since that is what I used, and I did some research online for recalls on the HCF dry product Line and came up with this:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/.....i_53188769

H-E-B Intensifies Hill Country Fare Dry Dog Food Recall
SAN ANTONIO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Nov. 6, 1998—On Monday, November 2, Doane Products Company announced the recall of all dry dog food packaged between July 1 and August 31, 1998, at their Temple, Texas plant.
The recall announcement stated that this dry dog food product, which is sold under 17 brand names, may contain an excessive amount of aflatoxins, which can cause serious illness to your pet after consumption over time. Hill Country Fare dry dog food product is one of the 17 brands and is the only product manufactured by Doane that H-E-B carries.
H-E-B is urging all its customers not to feed their pets any Hill Country Fare dry dog food product, regardless of package date.

Now sure that was in 1998 but this made me decided to look up Doane Product Company. Interestingly I found out that they were the first to start a pet food product line back in 1959… later on they grew to providing private label food for grocery labels in 1969. Check it out here:

http://www.doanepetcare.com/history.htm

“Growth in the dry pet food and the biscuit and treats segments has exceeded the growth of the overall pet food industry by capturing market share from other segments, including canned pet food.”—a quoted from homepage pet care industry link.

Importantly read the homepage products link, our vision link, and questions link. – This is where it all starts.

Also, check out Hoovers.com on for more business facts about the company, and how it branched out to the Europe, and Asian markets. They even bought/merged with Hill’s Products in 1998. This is the company that makes the pet foods for Wal-Mart, Kroger’s, Safeway, ect.. Doanes are the makers for the 17 out of 20 major brands that Menu Foods claims to be makers of… Now, “How is Menu Foods involved with Doane Pet Products?”—-I was just getting to that!

In January 2000, Doane wants to set up a merger with the Menu Food Corp. In their annual report Doane Pet Care Enterprises Inc · 10-K405 · For 1/1/00 (cached with the phrase “doane pet care purchase menu foods limited”) they make two references about Menu Foods Limited. See here:

Menu Acquisition. In January 2000, we signed a letter of intent to purchase
Menu Foods Limited (“Menu”). Menu is a supplier of wet private label pet food in
North America.

On January 10, 2000, the Company signed a letter of intent to purchase Menu
Foods Limited (“Menu”). Menu is a supplier of wet private label pet food in
North America. This acquisition will be accounted for as a purchase with the
purchase price and direct acquisition costs allocated based on the fair value of
assets acquired and liabilities assumed. The Company intends to finance this
acquisition with debt.
http://tinyurl.com/ysjk6a

The Nashville Business Journal backs these findings with web post:

Doane sets up merger
Nashville Business Journal - January 10, 2000— Brentwood-based pet food maker Doane Pet Care Co. has signed a letter of intent to merge with Menu Foods Ltd., which manufactures primarily wet food for pets. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. When the deal is finalized, Menu would assume responsibility for Doane’s existing wet food facility. Robert Bras will continue as Menu Foods president and CEO and become a senior Doane officer.
http://nashville.bizjournals.c.....aily1.html
And Later the Nashville Business Journal published this:

Doane Pet Care sells wet pet food business
Nashville Business Journal - May 3, 2001— Brentwood-based Doane Pet Care Co. has sold its Deep Run, Penn., wet pet food business. The Deep Run transaction between Doane and Menu Foods Limited includes the sale of all equipment, certain intellectual property and inventory for gross proceeds of nearly $15 million, subject to certain adjustments. Doane retains ownership of all real property and fixtures. Production will be moved to Menu Foods Pennsauken, N.J., manufacturing facility during the next two months. Doane Pet Care manufactures dry pet food, and is the largest global provider of private label pet food. The company manufactures food for dogs and cats. http://www.bizjournals.com/nas.....ily39.html

NOW, Menu Foods has obtained all of Doane’s clients and manufactures the wet food line for them. I’m guessing with the Doane’s original ingredient suppliers. This now leaves Doane to only produce the dry line of pet foods for the same clients.

A few years later Doane sold off some of it’s over seas companies. It talks about it in Hoovers.com and Doane’s official web sight. I didn’t dig too deep as why, I will leave it to the next soul who wants to continue this ever expanding story. BUT WAIT!—my investigation gets even better!

In 2006, the candy bar company Mars Inc, buys the Doane Pet Products Corp. Mars already owned brands like PEDIGREE, CESAR, GOODLIFE, WHISKERS, SHEBA for cats and dogs. Plus the ROYAL CANINE brand from Europe which Mars bought in 2003.

Mars, Incorporated Announces Completion of Acquisition of U.S. Operations of Doane Pet Care Company
McLean, VA and Nashville, TN, June 13, 2006 — Mars, Incorporated (“Mars”) and Doane Pet Care Company (“Doane”), a Nashville, TN-based store brand manufacturer of dry pet food, announced today that Mars has completed the acquisition of Doane’s parent corporation, Doane Pet Care Enterprises, Inc…. The acquisition by Mars did not include Doane’s European business, which has been sold to a third party.
http://www.doanepetcare.com/Me.....061306.pdf

So, is Mars Inc. the true owners of all this Pet Food stuff? Doane is listed at Hoover.com, as a subsidiary of Mars Inc. Menu Foods Inc. was once or may still be associated with Doane. So, does that make Menu Foods somehow possibably affiliated to Mars Inc also? I think the wet and dry ingredient suppliers for Doane’s original clients (Now Mars Inc. clients) are one in the same or come from the same locations. Probably ingredient supplies for the wet and dry lines come from companies in Asia or overseas that either Doane once/stills owned or were affiliated with. This could explaine the bad wheat glueton they say they got from China. They don’t want to name the supplier because it’s probably them (one of their own overseas company)!! The”Doane European division is sold off to a third party” still needs to be pick over with a “fine tooth comb”. The Europe franchise is probably all one in the same like the American merging/buyouts/what ever they claimed happened now Monopolized pet food market.

I wouldn’t trust any product made by Mars Inc, associated with Doane Pet Product, Menu Food Limited or Hill Pet Foods. Oh, yeah—- back in 1995, Doane bought out Hill Pet Food Co. Are they the makers of Hills-Science Diet foods? That I don’t know maybe someone can find out if you want to further research this story.

How do you know who you can trust any more? Since all these companies are changing hands, and still keeping products labels in the names of the old manufacturing companies, You have to be a P.I. to trace it to the responsible owners.

Again, back to the real reason I am writing this- with our shelters maxed out… animal rights activists screaming different concerns… facilities converting to “no-kill shelters”… Who’s to say that this whole rat poisoning and now melamine and future toxins TBA in our pet foods was not intentional? It’s not just one brand you notice… and not just one location of the country either— But Nation wide including Mexico and Canada!
Peanut Butter didn’t cover all 50 states… and neither did the spinach scare— Only certain states and locations!

NOW GREIVING PET OWNERS WILL SEEK OUT A REPLACEMENT FOR POOR FLUFFY OR FIDO—-WHERE YOU SAY? — AT THE SHELTER!!

THE SHELTERS WHERE PEDIGREE WILL MAKE A DONATION TO IF YOU BUY THEIR PRODUCT!

PEDIGREE A PRODUCT OWNED BY MARS INC. WHO SUBSIDERARY OWNES DOANE PET PRODUCTS WHO IS or WAS AFFILIATED WITH MENU FOOD INC.
This is all I know through research on the net. I investigated the Hill Country Fare manufacture story because my cat and dog have been sick for years and I think it was from the food

Please inform others of the possible Mars Inc connection to Doane and Menu Foods. I think it is important that the public know who is really providing their pet food to them. It’s NOT just a company called Menu Foods Inc that we should be concerned about!!!!! Who really owns or is affiliated with Who??? The Public has a Right and Now NEED to Know!!!

Comment by fellow pet owner — April 7, 2007 @ 7:58 am
Linda — yes, three of the animal shelters in our area are begging / pleading / crying for food help! One of the shelters had 37 animals die last week due to food. The situation is critical beyond reason.

We have always donated food to the shelters and do our best to keep up with some of the demand. Now, with food the way it is, what are these places going to do?

Another organization that I was going through for another dog is also in critical mode. This whole thing is awful awful awful.

I started cooking for my one dog that survived and after a week, the small tumor on his head is gone — interesting. Connection, yep I think so.

Comment by Sunshine — April 7, 2007 @ 8:00 am
Someone posted under their name Linda at 5:51 am this morning and it is not me so I will use Linda MS as I have been posting about the GM Wheat Gluten and that something could have been added that made the wheat heavier - and also that I don’t like the FDA.

I will try to find the article about the wheat weight. Good Job CNN.

HI Nadine and Steve and Sandro and everyone. Lets not feed this toxic waste garbage anymore to our pets.

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 8:03 am
Guess I better change my comment name line!

Comment by Linda MS — April 7, 2007 @ 8:04 am
I think I need to repost some of this to clear up some facts that seem to get lost from blog to blog. Please see my comments in the “Where’s the Wheat” blog here…

I am an X dairy farmer in Wisconsin and in reading the info about this “Biologic” company I instantly recognized what they are doing.
In cattle farming of any kind for many decades it has been standar practice to use urea based supplements as protien substitutes when the price of soybean mean goes up. Right now all grain prices are at record levels because so much corn is going into ethanal production.

Until now this has only been used for ruminants (bovines) since their 4 stomach systems are particularly adapted to this chemistry. Even then this is considered a “hot” feed since using too much can cause nitrogen poisoning. It has never been used for pigs for example because they are more like humans (or dogs or cats) and cant handle the urea in the gut.

Take a careful look at the website for this company or any information you can find about it. This is NOT an ordinary grain processor. They have at least 3 US patents for slow release urea used in cattle feed. Beyond that, all or most of their other products are variations on that theme… ie. Using petro-chemicals to simulate protien in the gut lowering the cost of feed/food.

I am not a bio-chemist, just an old cattle man but whatever the role of melamine was its pretty clear that they had worked out some chemical combination to supplement protien in non-ruminants (dogs, cats and yes, humans).

This was NOT an adulteration event. This is in fact the product they sell. Look at the denyal issued by the company which said in effect that there was no contamination to the product. At first glance this sounds like a lie. But it is technically true. What went into that food is in fact their highest tech product available for replacing “expensive” protien with chemicals.

Also, look at the detain order from the FDA andother comments they released. They said specifically that this was a poisoning event. They held the gluten because it contained “unapproved” components.

The question then becomes, how did Menu and “Biologic” get this product thru customs if it was not an approved FDA import?

THAT my friends, is where the conspiricy lies and nowhere else.

Beyond that the lies still continue. A week after this broke it was released that all of the lots were produced after Dec 3rd when Menu shifted to this new supply. They are not recalling food produced on Nov. 8th. My old friend Brandy died on March 15th after eating 11 cans of Sprout with an expiration date of Oct 25th 09 which I take to mean it was made on Oct 25th 06 calculating from other recalled lot dates.

No no no, they did not add this stuff from some nefarious conspiricy to kill pets. This stuff was in fact…. THE PRODUCT!

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 8:06 am
Just a personal note on adpoting a “replacement” pet.

I have filled out the paper work to adopt a nice young Springer (?) dog.
It will never replacemy old pal Brandy but me heart goes out to all dogs cast asside or lost.
There are older dogs there too but I cant take them for one reason or another. I would take them all if I possibly could.

Our local shelter sells food to help support themselves and I expect that that is where I will buy it from now on and I may do some volunteer work there too.

In memory of Brandy, my best friend.
Lost March 15th 2007
Where there were tears let us find resolve.

Bernie

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 8:12 am
I simply don’t believe that killing our pets is intentional in any way shape or form. I believe that Menu acted recklessly with grave indifference and they should be prosectuted -

I still can’t get my name tag to change here. Oh well. And I don’t like that Pedigree ad either. Believe it or not many show dog breeders feed Pedigree and add supplements to make the coast shiny.

Linda MS now.

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 8:16 am
Oh, Bernie, good for you!! I’m so sorry for your loss, but I’m glad you’ve saved another life and found a new friend.

And thank you for all the time you’ve put into explaining the nitrogen-boosting in domestic feed. In my opinion, something involving urea etc seems like most plausible explanation so far.

I just hope to God they figure something out soon. I’m not an alarmist by nature, but I really don’t feel safe buying any of this stuff until there’s an answer.

Comment by Laura — April 7, 2007 @ 8:22 am
I was curious to see how Menu Foods Income Fund ( MEN-UN )was doing. Here’s Yahoo Finance charting a 3-month history & the closing for 4-5-07:

http://tinyurl.com/3yvsky

On March 15th, the fund high was $7.40. That’s when the bottom dropped out.

March 16 — the day of the recall, low 5.31 close $5.50

March 19 — low 3.05, close 4.15

I set a Yahoo Alert to see when they drop to $2.00 & another for $1.00.

You know & I know that when things get REAL BAD for them — financially — they always have the TONS of POISONED recalled pet food to eat. You know — so they won’t starve….

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 8:26 am
They Genetically Alter the wheat to absorp more water:

Abstract

Increasing crop water use efficiency (WUE) and drought tolerance by genetic improvement and physiological regulation may be one means to achieve highly efficient use of water. In this paper we discuss the molecular mechanisms, physiological principles, strategies and future perspectives of plant biological water-saving and highlight some approaches of plant biological water-saving which could contribute not only new water-saving techniques but also scientific base for application of water-saving projects.

And I think I read where they also spray something on the crops - and I wonder if the melamine or something could have been sprayed on to help keep water in? Just a thought.

Here’s the link http://www.cropscience.org.au/.....dengxp.htm

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 8:46 am
What does Menu Foods South Dakota to do with all this?

Menu Foods South Dakota Inc Krull, Peter NORTH SIOUX CITY South Dakota 57049 Feed 12/31/2007

South Dakota Department of Agriculture
Feed/Fertilizer License Search

http://www.state.sd.us/doa/das.....order=Name

http://www.siouxlandchamber.co.....ecordid=20

Menu’s production facilities are located in Emporia, Kansas; Pennsauken, New Jersey; North Sioux City, South Dakota; and Streetsville, Ontario. The plants produce wet pet food in aluminum and steel cans at a rate of 1,000 cans per minute, or 1,110 85-gram pouches per minute. Jointly, the plants are able to produce over one billion containers a year.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_Foods

Does the South Dakota Plant only produce for Iams or do they produce for other suppliers as well. Why has this plant not been mentioned in all the news especially since a lot of Iams product was recalled? When Menu Foods bought this plant from P&G (Iams) in 2003, they acquired the 10 year contract to produce all the Iams pet food. As this is where P&G made all their Imas would it not make sense that the Iams is all still being produced there?

The more I look into this the more ??????? I get

Comment by mal — April 7, 2007 @ 8:56 am
Linda (or is it Linda MS?)

I too have my concerns about genetically altered plants (or animals) but I want to say that in connection with this dissaster, it is merely a distraction.

No, they do not spray melamine on crops although I understand it can be used as a slow nitrogen release fertilizer but then mostly in forestry applications not food crops. The slow release is not an advantage to a crop that is an anual and matures in just a couple months.

But the SLOW RELEASE is in fact the connection. Slow release nitrogen is the key to the research that the Chinese company was doing but adapting it to food protien replacement. Look for the tern NPN on their website and the bio for the chief bio-chemist. This stands for Non Protien Nitrogen. You will see the phrase “slow release” in reference to his patents for urea based products.

What this product was attempting to do was get away from using urea and put the nitrogen in a form that could be used by non-ruminants such as humans…

The information I have provided here is in fact the smoking gun with no speculation. Menu imported a product that was not FDA approved and put it into their products probably figuring that since it was pet food nobody would ever know the difference.

Its that simple and we know this because that is what “Biologic” says they do and that is what the FDA in effect said about the imports. No speculuation or other theories are needed.

What we do not know for certain is how long this has been going on OR what the government or the courts are going to do about it.

Id encourage everyone to go back and re-read the “Where’s the Wheat blog”.

Bernie

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 9:06 am
I just want to say something, I don’t want to upset any pet owners or claim this IS reason for our pets dying. It was just a thought—I should have posted my menial research first before my first blog to explaine why I posted the first blog.

Again, I am sorry if I insulted or upset anyone. I have no proof that Companies are tainting food to purposly kill pets. I just thought it was odd how Doane Pet Products the creators of pet food and private store labels is linked to so many companies and brands. I don’t trust Doane’s and its affiliates. Which dosen’t leave much to chose from.

Our shelters are over crowded—this is a known fact. Sadly many animals never are adopted or find loving homes. This is why spaying and neutering is so important. Most pet owners don’t own pedigree pets, one’s with a bloodline recorded and bred for. Most are owners of the “Good Ole Lovable MUTT!!” The kind I grew up with and still own and cherish.

The thought of corporations hurting our pets is far fetched, just like any theory (i.e. Rosie O’Donnald take on 9-11). I don’t claim it as fact or my opinion to which I stand on. It was just a thought, a thought I would hope and pray is not true. I will say I don’t like how corporations sell and merge to the point where it is a shock when you find out how names and brands are really connected.

I hope the investigation to exactly what and why is found so that we as pet owners will not have to repeat this terrible tradgey again.

Peace to you all,

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 9:07 am
RE: Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 8:06 am

This substantiates Bernie’s post. I know they add all types of boosters to feed.

I found this last week:

http://www.twaynet.com/trade/t.asp?ID=1408247625

Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.,
Profile Products Trade Leads

Address:
Wangdian Country Fair Pei County., Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China, 221623

Contact:
Mr. Lijun Mao (Others) Phone:
86 - 516 - 4741888

Fax:
86 - 516 - 4741156

Website:
http://www.xzay.com

[Sell] “esb Biologic Protein Powder”
Post date : 5/14/2005 Country: China
The content of rough protein in ¡°ESB Biologic Protein Powder¡±, latest researched, developed and produced by Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd, is 160%—200%. This initiates a new way to solve the problem of shortage of protein resource. Making use of NPN resource reasonably and reducing the production cost of feed factors, ¡°ESB Biologic Protein Powder ¡± is the good complementary agent for shortage of thick protein in current feed field.
Kinds of indexes of ¡°ESB Biologic Protein Powder ¡± conform to the corporate standard. After eating this, phalli protein will be transformed into inside the alimentary canal. Upon the effect from digestion enzyme, it will be normally digested, absorbed and used by the livestock and poultry. It is safe, nonpoisonous, without bad reaction.

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 9:13 am
Yes Kat, you are right and this in fact is the main source of my information and was previously posted by someone else in the “Where’s the Wheat” blog.

I think it was attributed to Sherlock Holmes to have said that the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one.

Menu went to this stuff because it was cheaper and evaded FDA import and testing rules to do it.
The biologists and nutritionists there are not idiots and certainly knew what they were buying but almost certainly did not expect the effect it would have on animals since the company was selling it as FOOD grade and not FEED grade (read human vs. animal).

What exactly is the bio-chemical connection to melamine must be left to organich chemists to explain - not some old cattleman from Wisconsin. But I think it is enough for us for now to simply read the promotional material from the company to see plainly what it is that they thought they were selling. As in Kat’s post, it does not leave much room for doubt.

Bernie, Brandy’s old pal

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 9:29 am
I know they don’t spray melamine on the wheat but they might spray something on it - that uses the encapsulation properties of Melamine and this “X” is causing the problem. It is just a thought.

I know about the fertilizer etc.

I don’t know about smoking guns and it is just too early to know for sure what is going on - some very bright people are after this and not everything is some big coverup by the FDA or the press. I am not a fan of how the FDA is handling this, but who is?

I’ve read the articles too and understand the process.

It’s simply tragic that our pets are dying while the FDA and Pet Food companies get their act together.

Linda MS.

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 9:34 am
As there is continuing interest in the urea angle, this is the simplest explanation I’ve seen on the internet:

Many years ago, researchers recognized that nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) compounds are used by bacteria in the rumen of cattle and sheep. Since that time, studies show that these compounds are broken down to ammonia during the normal fermentation process in the rumen. Microorganisms in the rumen combine the ammonia with products of carbohydrate metabolism to form amino acids and hence, proteins. The proteins formed in this manner (from NPN compounds) are similar in amino acid content to the proteins available to the animal when the principal source of dietary nitrogen is intact protein.

The bacteria and protozoa, and the protein they contain, are digested by the animal farther on in the digestive tract. In this manner, the ruminant animal makes use of certain NPN compounds even though it does not possess enzymes of its own for their breakdown. Animals with simple stomachs (pigs and chickens) cannot make use of large concentrations of NPN compounds because of a lack of enzymes and bacteria to break down the NPN to ammonia and synthesize it into protein.

Many common feedstuffs fed to livestock contain some NPN. Forages generally are higher in NPN than are concentrates. Corn silage may contain as much as 50 percent of its total nitrogen as NPN. Alfalfa hay may contain 10 to 20 percent of the nitrogen in this form. Since many feeds contain some NPN, it is not a foreign substance in ruminant rations.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 9:37 am
Thank you Bernie for putting it so clearly.

And it could have nothing to do with the protein content and just simply that they added some byproduct of like color and texture to make it heavier and hency weigh more - maybe even a melamine by-product or something that had the same properties.

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 9:40 am
From what Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski said.

“What went into that food is in fact their highest tech product available for replacing “expensive” protien with chemicals.”

Vitamin manufacturers also replace Vitamins A and E with cheaper synthectic chemical versions too.

Our wholesome life sustaining food has been morphing into chemical concotions at the hands of the food companies.

Comment by DeeAnn — April 7, 2007 @ 9:42 am
More “poop” on the pet food business. In 2002 Conagra, who owns the name brand Nutura Pet Food recalled almost 19 million ounds of beef containing e-coli infection.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/re.....5-2002.htm

DAVID MIGOYA, DENVER POST: At least 68,000 pounds of
E. coli-tainted beef linked to an 18.6 million-pound recall by ConAgra
Beef Co. may turn up on dinner tables as ready-to-eat canned chili,
meat spaghetti sauce, beef ravioli or some other meal. Or, it might end
up as pet food. Or fertilizer. And no one has to tell you it’s there.

http://www.organicconsumers.or.....080702.cfm

The more I look the more “poop” I seem to find in both the human and pet food industries.

Comment by mal — April 7, 2007 @ 9:49 am
I noticed Xuzhou Anying’s website isn’t selling Vital Wheat Gluten any longer — online. I can’t find it on the World Market websites either. I can find ESB, rice, etc: http://www.xzay.com/english/Product.asp

Here is China Daily reporting on China’s investigation:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/c.....845391.htm

“The administration in charge of quality inspection and quarantine of imports and exports carried out tests Monday targeting aminopterin, a rat poison previously suspected of causing the deaths but later cleared by FDA tests.”

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 9:59 am
Just saw this on the FDA’s newest “recall update”. Are you guys reading it the same way I am? More contaminated gluten? Different suppliers?

FDA’s investigation identified the distributor of the contaminated wheat gluten as ChemNutra, of Las Vegas, Nevada. FDA worked with the firm to trace the suspect product, and identified its Chinese source.

FDA has asked the Chinese government to help us with the investigation which continues to determine how the melamine may have gotten into the wheat gluten.

FDA is currently sampling 100 percent of all Chinese wheat gluten being offered for import;
FDA Field laboratories confirmed the presence of melamine in shipments of wheat gluten received from a source from China. This was done through testing of samples of finished product and raw materials. Melamine is a product used as a fertilizer with other industrial and commercial uses.

FDA laboratories have conducted over 400 sample analyses, and to date have found 21 samples that were positive for melamine.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 10:00 am
Hope that someone from Senator Durbin’s office, Reps DiLauro and Kucinish’s offices are reading Pet Connection’s comments. There are many interesting facts pointed out here. We surely hope all the right questions will be asked at the hearing.

Comment by VJ — April 7, 2007 @ 10:06 am
Just checked my emails. Received response from CNN. Although it is a standard reply it says that viewers comments will be presented to the news division for the next day. So everyone don’t forget to send CNN a note thanking them for keeping this story out there.

Comment by VJ — April 7, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Again, I may be reading this wrong, but it sounds as though (having begun testing ALL wheat gluten from China) 21 of 400 samples tested positive for melamine.

If my reading is accurate, what are the chances that ChemNutro’s gluten was the first contaminated gluten to have found its way into the food supply?

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 10:10 am
Mal, thanks for the heads up. All this is simply terrible and worse than some nightmare horror story.

Linda MS

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 10:16 am
Here’s more news from Las Vegas, the home of ChemNutra:

http://www.fox5vegas.com/famil.....etail.html

Eva: The FDA has a post that they will HOLD all shipments from Xuzhou Anying. The FDA isn’t doing the testing in any upcoming shipments — they are or will be HOLDING — pending FIVE independent lab test, among other criteria — prior to entry.

http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/o.....a9926.html

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Frankly, if indeed the FDA has continued to find contaminated gluten coming in from China, it explains something that’s been bugging me for the last week.

When they posted the protocols for testing wheat gluten (for melamine contamination) I kept thinking “Who the HELL is this FOR?” If the offending gluten has been discovered, traced and confiscated…why would anyone need to know how to test for it?

It makes perfect sense if they now have reason to suspect that adulterated gluten is, and has been, imported for some time. Maybe the protocols were a way of telling the industry how to test their Chinese gluten, regardless of the supplier.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Yes, Eva you have it right.
At this level the farm community has known about this for a very long time. I farmed back in the 70s and 80s and that is why I recognized it so quickly.

When you know something that well you dont have to go trolling around for other explanations.

What these guys have done is taken the next step and say so… Notice that in your post it states (as I did) that this is not something for single stomached animals.

Thats where the slow release idea comes in. If you can slow down the amonia production you can make this process usable for humans and other animals (at least in theory). Thats what these guys are doing - because that is what they say they are doing in all of their promotion material.

Melamin is used as a slow release agent for Nitrogen (ostensibly amonia NH4) and somehow they at least attempted to implement it into a similar strategy instead of urea which as I posted before is considered “too hot” for use by non-ruminants.

What we really need here is to have an organic chemist to step in and at least offer some fact based speculation on what the chemical process might be like. Note that this company has a Chinese patent on this and is not releasing any technical data on it since they regard it as a trade secret - something that is apparently only valid for Chinese companies in China…

Maybe petconnection.com can contact an expert and offer some more specific information about this.

For my part, the mystery is solved. You dont need to be an expert in balistics to be a witness to a shooting. I know a bullet hole when I see one, we all know who was holding the gun and now we see the weapon in plain sight. The experts can now go to work and match the bullet to the gun and find out who bought the gun and the bullets but thats pretty much accedemic from my point of view.

What we need to do is get the word out and let people know that we now understand the facts and demand that a few heads roll in connection with it.

The more that public officials know that we know is key. What we have here is yet another Enron where deliberate decisions were made to cut cost by evading FDA import and testing rules in order to deliver better profits to investors. Anybody who thinks that these guys did not know what they were buying needs to go shopping for a bridge.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 10:30 am
That sounds about right Eva. I worry that we may have been eating this junk toxic waste in most of our foods - I simply won’t buy anything premade to the best of my ability and am now calling the name brands of all things to make sure the raw ingredients do not come from China.

Be careful of all vitamins and even our meds are from there. Scary thoughts of how large this is and could be when the truth gets out.

I for certain will not use Gluten anything as an additive corn or wheat in any food or thing for me, my family, or my beloved pets.

Linda MS

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 10:30 am
Bernard if you are right I sure hope we get confirmation of this soon. Yes, makes sense this melamine is a slow release for something else and it is killing our pets and maybe even us too!

Linda MS

Comment by Linda — April 7, 2007 @ 10:33 am
Bernard,

Hi. Yes, I’ve actually made a couple of posts on melamine and it’s role in time-released fertilizers and pesticides (through microencapsulation) It has also occurred to me that urea might be similarly dispensed but I haven’t found anything to indicate this on the internet. If you do, could you post here? I only have time to check periodically, but I can scan pretty fast and will look for your posts.

Thanks!

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Kat, just saw your post…sorry. The FDA “update” I was referring to was posted today (a Saturday, naturally). It states specifically that the FDA is testing “100 percent of all wheat gluten” being offered for import from China.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 11:16 am
Thanks Eva, I will do..
If you like Im sure you can google me up and find my email address… Im a little reluctant to publish it here.

Like I said, Im not a chemist but I have plenty of field experience in agriculture and can read the publications from this company on their website and can instantly identify what they are trying to do and in fact advertize what they are selling.

I think we need to get everyone here to stop using a couple words in connection with this.

The fist is “contamination”. This is NOT a contamination event. It is a product liability issue created when Menu and their broker in Las Vegas evaded FDA import rules for food products distributed in the U.S. These animals died because this company used a product that had never been approved much less tested prior to its use.

The second word we need to take out of our vocabulary is “deliberate”. This implies that someone dumped some chemical (ostensibly some melamine compound) into this product as some kind of intentional act of malice.

Not so. From all appearances, owing to the lack of testing safeguards the product backfired on Menu and had the unintended consequence of killing their own customers.

We need to begin using words like “product liability” and “illegal imports” or “unapproved substances”.

Just as we eventually learned that the trail to the California energy crunch a few years back lead to Enron’s door by their manipulation of energy trading Im now certain that illegal importation of an illgal, unauthorized, untested substance is at the root of this and nothing more.

But, as it turns out… that is quite enough.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 11:24 am
To clarify an earlier post, I am not saying that the idea of melamine being more toxic to cats than dogs is a wrong finding, that may turn out to be true and I in no way ever mean to criticize individuals for their findings or statements. I was only considering the idea that if the pet connection numbers turn out to be more accurate in the end of this whole thing then that may just be an observation that may need to be reconsidered. No offense intended to anyone.

Comment by jm — April 7, 2007 @ 11:29 am
Bernard,

Melamine (UF) is not a contaminant in ruminant feed. It is, most assuredly, a contaminant in pet food.

One other point of clarification…I’ve seen a couple of posts which refer to melamine as a “protein source”. It is not, straightforwardly, a protein source. Because of ruminant physiology, urea “creates” protein during the digestive process. In nonruminants, it “creates” uremic poisoning.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 11:42 am
Eva,

All the links explaining this are on this blog. I posted many of them.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 11:56 am
Nadine,

Wasn’t trying to steal your thunder, just responding to Bernard.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 11:57 am
I for certain do not think that anyone meant to hurt the pets. No not at all.

Comment by jm — April 7, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
My heart goes out to all who have have their pets die because of the mess made by these greedy negligent companies. I am the owner of three dogs and two cats - all who are doing fine now, but my one little girl did have some vomiting problems last week. There was nothing I could find as the cause except some dry kibble that I had gotten from my neighbor (her dog is extremely fussy and she changes foods very often, giving this last bit to me instead of throwing it out). After she vomited the third time in three days (yellow bile only), I immediately put her on a diet of rice and ground chicken and threw out the kibble. In 24 hours she seemed back to her normal self and I started all the pets on “Chicken Soup for the Lover’s Soul”. Since then she and all are doing great and they all like the food, even the cats.

In doing some research, I did happen to find some information written by Michael W. Fox on April 5, 2007. It can be found here:

http://tedeboy.tripod.com/drmichaelwfox/id74.html

I don’t know if this article had been posted here, so sorry if it’s already been said, but here’s a little bit of his thoughts.

LARGEST PET FOOD RECALL EVER

A Genetic Engineered Food Disaster?

By Dr. Michael W. Fox

I have received several letters from dog and cat owners thanking me for ‘saving their animal’s lives’ because they were feeding them the kind of home-made diet that I have been advocating as a veterinarian for some years. These letters came after the largest pet food recall in the pet food industry’s history.

On March 23, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets announced that rat poison in contaminated wheat gluten imported from China was responsible for the suffering and deaths of an as yet uncounted numbers of cats and dogs across North America. The poison is a chemical compound called aminopterin.

Veterinary toxicologists with the ASPCA and American College of Internal Veterinary Medicine shared my concern that there may be some other food contaminant (s) in addition to the aminopterin that was sickening and killing many pets. Experts were not convinced that the finding of rat poison contamination was the end of the story.

On March 30, the FDA reported finding a widely used compound called melamine (formed by dehydration of urea and used in the manufacture of plastics, as a wood resin adhesive, and in slow-release urea fertilizer), in the suspect pet foods. The FDA claims the melamine was the cause of an as yet uncounted number of cat and dog poisonings and deaths. The FDA could not find the rat poison, aminopterin, in the samples it analyzed; however a lab in Canada, at the University of Guelph, has confirmed the presence of rat poison. There may be other substances of a hazardous nature not yet discovered in these manufactured pet foods that include other ingredients considered unfit for human consumption, and from around the world.

The Associated Press cited the Environmental Protection Agency as having identified melamine as a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cryomazine. People began to question if there is also pesticide contamination of the wheat gluten. Is there a possibility of deliberate contamination, or is it the result of gross mismanagement and lack of effective food-safety and quality controls that accounts for levels of melamine reported to be as high as 6.6% by the FDA in samples of the wheat gluten?

A brief internet search quickly reveals that the widely used insect growth regulator cryomazine is not only made from melamine, but it also breaks down into melamine after ingestion by an animal. Wheat gluten is wheat gluten, fit for human consumption, so the question remains, what was wrong with this gluten that it was only bought for use in pet food?

On April 3 Associated Press named the US importer as ChemNutra of Las Vegas, reporting that the company had recalled 873 tons of wheat gluten that had been shipped to three pet food makers and a single distributor who in turn supplies the pet food industry.

What of the uncounted number of people whose cats and dogs became sick, and even died? Several letters that I have received indicate costs of in the thousands of $ per animal; and what of long-term care costs for animals suffering from chronic kidney disease?

While Congressional hearings are now being called for by grieving pet owners, and class action suits put together, this debacle could have catastrophic consequences not only for conventional agribusiness, of which the pet food industry is a lucrative subsidiary, but also for the agricultural biotechnology industry, with its millions of acres of genetically engineered crops around the world.

I reach this conclusion, until there is evidence to the contrary, for the following reasons:

1. The wheat gluten imported from China was not for human consumption, because, I believe, it had been genetically engineered. The FDA has a wholly cavalier attitude toward feeding animals such ‘frankenfoods’ but places some restrictions when human consumption is involved (yet refuses appropriate food labeling).

2. The ‘rat poison’ aminopterin is used in molecular biology as an anti-metabolite, folate antagonist, and in genetic engineering biotechnology as a genetic marker. This could account for its presence in this imported wheat gluten.

3. The ‘plastic’, ‘wood preservative’, contaminant melamine, the parent chemical for a potent insecticide cyromazine, could well have been manufactured WITHIN the wheat plants themselves as a genetically engineered pesticide. This is much like the Bt. insecticidal poison present in most US commodity crops that go into animal feed.

4.So called ‘overexpression’ can occur when spliced genes that synthesize such chemicals become hyperactive inside the plant and result in potentially toxic plant tissues, lethal not just to meal worms and other crop pests, but to cats, dogs, birds, butterflies and other wildlife; and to their creators. (For details, see my book Killer Foods: What Scientists Do to Make Food Better is Not Always Best. Lyon’s Press, 2004).

How else can one account for samples of pet food containing as much as 6% melamine? It was surely not mixed in such amounts when the wheat gluten was being processed, but rather was already in the wheat, along with the aminopterin genetic marker. My suspicion is that the FDA was aware that the gluten came from genetically engineered wheat that was considered safe for animal consumption.

I could be wrong. But a greater wrong is surely for the pet food industry to use food ingredients and food and beverage industry by-products considered unfit for human consumption; to continue to do business without any adequate government oversight and inspection; and for government to give greater priority to agricultural biotechnology and the patenting of genetically engineered crops and animals, and not to organic, humane, ecologically sound and safe food production.

I believe that there is evidence of gross negligence, not simply on the part of the pet food industry, but by all who are responsible for food quality and safety in the global market that is clearly dysfunctional. The Pet Food Institute should start an emergency fund to compensate all veterinary expenses incurred as a result of this—-and any future—-mass poisonings of people’s beloved animal companions.

Comment by Susan B — April 7, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Eva,

There is much information and links that many here have pulled up and posted going back to the first days of this crisis. I’m not a scientist at all and hope those who have the ability to do so, will volunteer to disseminate the information, adding to the other work now being done on the outside.

In the beginning, no one was paying much attention to the crisis and we were all trying to explore all theories and possibilities, thus lots of links and guesses.

I’ll go back to writing letters now.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Has anyone here looked into the “cryomazine” he talks of?

Comment by Susan B — April 7, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Thank you Nadine. In fact your post from the other day was the one I must credit for turning on the lights for me! It was the first time I had seen the term NPN in reference to this issue. For that I give you all the credit. Im just trynig to run with it.

I will disagree on one point though. As far as I am aware, melamine is not approved for use in livestock feed in the US either. I believe that urea and then only in certain formulations is the only substance approved for that use.

As far as the particular toxicity of melamine to pets, I think its pretty obvious that SOMETHING in this product is killing them but I will leave the specifics to the scientists to discover.

Eva, yes, you are right. It is a “contaminant” as far as our use of it is concenred. But it is also part of the product as advertized. The technical definition of a contaminant is a substance that is not part of the identified profile of the product in its pure form. Since this is clearly not the case you cant describe it purely as contamination. It is however, the innapropriate application of a substance for a particular use. Semantics perhaps, but I think a better description of the facts.

But if you want to say that the food was contaminated with an unapproved ingredient, Im OK with that.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Nadine,

Wasn’t trying to steal your thunder, just responding to Bernard.

Well i too have to admit that this site has alot of people in it trying to be headline grabbers and straying away from the point at hand, and trying to add more hysteria to an already bad situation, i have seen alot of post here and nobody really knows what there talking about some more than others, most just quoting from what they read from the net.
i have never seen such a conglomeration of wanna be chemists,marketing experts,commodity traders all in one place.i come here to get info on what to feed my pet and what not to feed him NOT to stir up panic or try and make a name for myself. who cares who posted what and how many times you have done it!!!

Comment by Carolyn — April 7, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
In response to: Comment by jm — April 7, 2007 @ 11:29 am — and the theory cats are more sensitive than dogs…that COULD BE TRUE…

However, I think it has more to do with the dosing & the size/weight of the subject. Many prescriptions have dosing requirements based on the kgs of the subject/patient.

A crude analogy: If I were to come up & hit you in the jaw with my fist — it would hurt. If I used the same force & hit a little canary (which I wouldn’t) — it would most likely kill it.

Well, most dogs far outweigh a cat. Now, granted there are small dogs & big cats, but overall a dogs weight is more than a cats.

That could be a reason humans are not sick — yet. With toxins, many times there has to be a buildup.

Also, the PetConnections questionnaire does not address the weight issue to even have a clue. They have the largest database, it appears….except for the one the FDA is building — and perpetually stuck on 15!!!!

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Just heard this: At 4 p.m. EST today, CNN is going to answer viewer emails about the pet food recall. IT showed an email address to write to, but I didn’t catch it.

Comment by petlover — April 7, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
Eva, Bernie -
I had the opportunity to talk to someone from the FDA and did the best I could in asking questions. As I posted earlier, her comment was that the FDA had no data available from the FDA guidelines to determine that melamine was toxic to dogs and cats. If I interpreted her comment correctly, that was the reason they did not call it the effective toxin and that they continued to search. That meant seeing what other substances in combination could create the toxicity. She was adamant that they were doing all they could with what they had to work with in terms of manpower and equipment. I guessed that they are very much overworked there.

I have posted my notes all along…just common sense like Bernie…the simple stuff. I think there’s a molecular answer to the problem. I’m frustrated because I can’t explain it but can see how it is possible after looking at all the poly combinations, methyl, etc. etc. Mind boggling.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
Bernard,

Yeah…sorry. Was talking about the possibility that Melamine was used to deliver the urea (urea wrapped in urea)—which is still pretty speculative on my part. Just “chasing rabbits” as they say.

Didn’t mean to sound confrontative.

Comment by Eva — April 7, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Comment by Carolyn — April 7, 2007 @ 12:24 pm

I am stunned by your reaction to our heartfelt desire to resolve the problem and make the world a better place, for you and your pets as well. No one person here is trying to be famous.

Perhaps you should save yourself the agony and just read the blogs referring to your subject of interest if you think that is the better way time should be spent.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
Comment by Carolyn — April 7, 2007 @ 12:24 pm

Carolyn, if the FDA and pet manufacturers were telling the truth, we wouldn’t be working to figure it out on our own. And if you think they ARE telling the truth, then use their lists. Why come here?

I hope you find the answers you’re looking for. But don’t come here for help, and then knock the people who are trying, right or wrong, to provide it.

Comment by Laura — April 7, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
TO Eva, Bernie, Nadine et al - no worries. Lots of us have posted the same info as others on other strings. This is NOT a bad thing - most of us don’t have time to keep up with all the post on all the strings, all the time…

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to post at all!

Comment by Laura — April 7, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
Laura,

Thanks for your encouragement. It’s appreciated.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
Wish we had a list of links and subjects.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
PetLover: I found this post on another string:

weekend@cnn.com for questions to the vet

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
Nadind: Links & subjects to what?? The PetConnection’s blogs? Click Blog at the top. Each blog has a starting subject.

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 1:05 pm
Plus, there’s a list of blogs on the right column.

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
You can search the ‘Justia Federal District Court Filings & Dockets’ website for the latest lawsuit filings. On April 4, 2007 a lawsuit was filed against Del Monte Foods Company, ChemNutra, ChemNutra LLC, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Ltd., Suzhou Textile Import and Export Company. “Amount Demanded: $5,000,000.00”

Comment by Sue Dunn — April 7, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
Links - that have been posted here by all of us. It’s hard to keep digging back two weeks for some of the info that came up early on and seems to still apply. With the tiny urls it’s impossible.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 1:14 pm
I could care about how much money we get. What I want is the laws to change. I think thats what most people want.

I almost hope Menu Foods doesn’t go out of business since they can’t be sued. Keyword almost.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 1:14 pm
Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 1:04 pm

the address is actually weekends@cnn.com (I tried it without the “s” - no good)

And I think what Nadine’s getting at is that the “topic” of the blog doesn’t help you find info about what people posted as comments.

It’s not a perfect solution, but if you’re looking for something specific, try the search box in the left margin…

Comment by Laura — April 7, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
Every form of communication has pros and cons. A blog really isn’t meant to be an online forum, with threads that connect. :(

The text-wrap issue will not be resolved this weekend, by the way. The Black Dog guys deserve a holiday weekend with their families. The problem with the database took up all their time yesterday, getting that fixed. (Which they did, with no loss of entries.)

Sorry about the text wrap. We’ll fix long URLs as we see them, but we can’t catch them all.

Please … folks: Use tinyurl.com

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 7, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
Carolyn, I have to contradict you.
Yes, I think sometimes there is a bit too much speculation here. I cant speak for everyone else but I have worked in and around agriculture since 1967 - mostly with large animals and mostly with dairy cattle. I have worked on balancing rations for them and fed them and been in feed mills and dealt with their salesmen and attended a technical school for farm management certificate.
I have worked with vets and as an instructor of artificial insemination and route inseminator for the Carnation Genetics Co. and at one time aspired to be a vet but no vet school was open in Wisconsin at the time and could not get accepted to the out of state schools but I do have enough college credits in the sciences for a pre-vet med status. I operated my own dairy farm from 1971 to 1987. Today I work as a computer programmer and still work in ag related industries. From that I know a great deal of how business gets done. While I have stated that I am not a bio-chemist, I am an expert at how agri-business works and I know and understand the history of and how to use these products and largely whats legal and what is not.

When Nadine posted her info about what Xuxiou (sp?) was selling I instantly recognized the products they were into. Other products just like them can be purchased at any feed mill or distributor throughout the country.

But when I also read that they were trying to use a similar process in human and other foods I did not have to have a degree in organic chem to know that they could not be using urea to do this. I also knew (also aided by Nadine) that melamine is in fact a potential source of nigrogen that could replace urea but that it is also more inert just by reading a few poison control cites. It is therefore not a far jump to see that if a nitrogen source is in the product along with some other yet unidentified compounds and that the stated benefit of the particular product is enhance protien value - you can make a logical jump to understand what they are doing without knowing the specific chemistry involved.

Unless you are prepared to believe that this is some kind of terrorist act against our pets you have to go back to Menu and logically realize that they bought into the very advertized advantages that Xuxiou offered… increased protien value for a lower price.

Unfortunately, the only way to obtain it was to skirt FDA regs.

Like Nadine I also spoke to an FDA rep out of LaCrosse Wi. who told me essentially the same thing. And I believe them. While I think the FDA was in fact lax on its initial reaction the fact that they clamped down on all of the imported gluten was a pretty good first step - just late.

I dont really see anyone here promoting hysterics. Frankly Im impressed at the real thrist for getting at the truth.

Now, if you have anything to refute what Ive offered that would be welcome. Good science requires all of the evidence to be evaluated. But until someone can show me where I am wrong, Im going with what I do in fact know and have the background to stand on.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
FYI: NPR jsut reported 2 new lawsuits but I didnt get the details…

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 1:38 pm
Nadine, Keep trying to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.

This whole problem could have/would have been swept under the rug by big powerful influential (greedy) players, if it were not for many contributions here who have kept eyes open to this tragedy.

I am impressed with the sleuthing on this board. Let it be known to all the players that be in the pet food industry: you grossly under estimated the passion and fiercely protective nature people have for their pets… as well as their intelligence and research skills.

Comment by DeeAnn — April 7, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
I think the fact that everyone is feeling the need to speculate speaks volumes. Its just human nature to fear the unknown and right now we have a lot of unknowns out there.

This could have been prevented if the FDA and Menu Foods et. al. would have been more proactive and not reactive. It seems everyday I see the “story” change. I find that in itself very suspect and it does leave it open for speculation. For a long time they weren’t even telling us what was going on, people were just reporting that their pets were getting sick and dying.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 1:35 pm

Thank you for this, Bernie. Well said. We definitely have knowledgeable people on this blog such as you and your and their contributions are so appreciated. The thirst on the part of participants in the dialogs here is amazing. 100 different heads are better than 1, any way you look at it.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Has anyone actually thought of testing the food ourselves. We have enough people that could put their funds together and fund it.

Have no idea how much it would cost however I am willing to put money in.

Shouldn’t have any issues finding the food to test:)

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
TITLE AT THE TOP OF EACH COMMENT

Suggestion: If you start each comment off with a concise title, it would make the “back-reading” go a lot faster.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Comment by DeeAnn — April 7, 2007 @ 1:45 pm

Thanks for that, DeeAnn. “Power to the people” it is said. The unity and momentum we’ve demonstrated here from the first day has been so very worthwhile. None of us are alarmists or kooks at all. Just intelligent people who can see the bigger picture. Our world is in a preservation state right now. We have proven here that even individual and small contributions, no matter what they are, ultimately have the capacity to make a a major impact on the well being of our world.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Re MonkeyKitty’s comment:

I believe the problem may be the limited number of labs that have the state-of-the-art equipment. They’re most likely backlogged with work. [Just a guess.] Though, there is such a thing as old-fashioned bench-style lab testing. Sadly, these tests take quite some time.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Re Lynns comments;

It can’t take any longer than what it is now. Perhaps a lab in Europe could be used or a university. I know Purdue Univerisity has a good lab just because thats where I graduated.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/vcs/vcs.html

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
CONSUMER POWER CAN EFFECT CHANGE

RE Nadine’s and DeeAnn’s comments regarding pet owners’ power:

Margaret Mead said it very well:

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
Bernie in Wisconsin, I think you hit the nail on the head.

Comment by Kristi — April 7, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Please pursue this!!!

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 2:21 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Perhaps we should start a new thread on this. We will need someone trustworthy to set up the details and a site to collect funds. I pledge 100 bucks to get us started.

Bernie has my vote! Since it is the holiday we won’t be able to locate anyone over the weekend. Perhaps howl911, Itchmo, or pet connection can help set up the site using pay pal or a service like that.

Just need to make sure our donations will go where we want.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
Could a respected (staff) member on this site accept PayPal donations to put toward the testing costs? I’m sure a lot of us have PayPal.

Comment by petlover — April 7, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

As far as I am concerned at least it will be better that just stewing and waiting for the FDA to disclose the truth.

Let us know,

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
Oh, boy, my friends … if you knew how bad I was at balancing my check book, you’d never ask to give us any money.

And indeed, we’re not taking any. :)

This is an issue between all of us, our elected representatives, our regulatory bodies and our power as consumers. This is where the action needs to go now.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 7, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Before we collect any money we will need to find a lab and get the details. Can we set up a new thread to start researching contacts that we can call on monday?

I have no clue how much it will cost. Its worth a shot!

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Ya I understand Pet Connections stance, can you check with Ichmo and howl911?

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

I can also make some calls on Monday to see if any universities will be willing to help us pro bono.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:44 pm
Why not try at what is considered the top veterinary teaching hospital in the U.S. - Cornell University. There is a separate division for testing/diagnostics, I believe.

Comment by petlover — April 7, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

[I’m all for this, but I’m just playing devil’s advocate to identify any problems.]

Re using Purdue lab: do they have one of those $350K mass spectrometers? I think there are relatively few of these due to cost.

If you examine only the food, this may not tell the story. It could be that whatever chemicals are in the food need to be combined with other chemicals in the very recently deceased pet’s body in order for it to detect final chemistry.

Nadine:

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
Cornell is already working with the FDA, conflict of interests.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

RE comment by “petlover”:

I think using Cornell might, for us, be a conflict of interest.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS
I believe they do, will make some calls monday. I will make some calls. I hear there is issues with the wet food since the Mass Spectometers don’t work well with the wet food.

Can’t hurt to look into it, no promises. Beats sitting here stewing on what could be or may be.

We may need somone to donate pet tissue as well.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:52 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Re: Purdue University mass spectometer

Not only do they have one but they invented a small one.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.....104038.htm

Cool stuff!

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
Would a better idea be to have a number of universities with no biases collaborate on this as a “project?” Many are very well-funded in these areas, or could be with establishment of a special fund. They have lots of people out there wanting to donate to a good research cause. I feel it would take us too long to gather the level of financing we would need to support an effort such as this.

By Monday, we will all be hearing about the wheat gluten in the human food supply anyway. Perhaps we won’t have to beg then.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

To MonkeyKitty:

Didn’t the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University offer to do pro bono work if you sent certain tissue samples of your deceased pet?

Check out their link:
http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/departments/vdpam/

For what it’s worth, they and Univ of Guelph are really digging into this - but it will take a while for results.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Hey at least I got a few peoples mind off of speculating what it could be for 30 minutes:)

I will still make some calls, perhaps they are already on the case and we don’t know it.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Actually you are correct. Sorry, my heart is in the right place.

Hate seeing all these people suffer like they are.

Hope they are testing Dry food as well.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
MASS SPECTROMETER: HOW IT WORKS

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/ana.....works.html

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
Something to think about…

You can just request that a lab test food samples unless you know exactly what you want them to test for.

If you are looking for melamine,ing that’s one thing - but if you’re looking for other things then you need to know what you are looking for. Each contaminant needs different test set ups and chemical additions.

Comment by Carole — April 7, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
Sorry, that should have you ‘can’t just request’

Comment by Carole — April 7, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Nothing we can do until Monday anyway except come up with some funding ideas in case we will need to. If they won’t test the dry, I’d like to… remember, I’m the one who lost my dog to renal failure back in September on dry food. I’m not done with this yet!

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Good point Carole, perhaps this is why its taking so much time.

Still no excuse for why Menu Foods and Del Monte didn’t pull the foods much sooner.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

To Carole:
I don’t know how requests for testing works; perhaps you don’t need to be specific about what chemicals to test for. Again, I don’t know.
In MY mind the answer is not going to come from testing the pet food. It’s going to come from testing the liver and intestines for chemical contents in a pet very recently [no more than 24 hours???] deceased as a result of ARF.

If I had to name chemicals to look for [and mind you, I am not a biochemist] then I’d start with aminopterin, urea/melamine, vitamin D3, alfatoxin, 2,4,5,6-tetraminopyrimidine……..

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Lynn:
I agree with you testing the organs of a recently deceased pet would be a much more rapid way to get better insight into the cause. It could take weeks to test the food and several varieties at that then they would have to compare the findings…too many pets could die in the mean time.

Comment by Pam — April 7, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
I have finished several more letters to my elected officials including Sen.Durbin who I had contacted about this situation even before he announced his press conference. Bernard’s earlier comments really resonated with me on many levels and I thank him for his reasoned posting here on the site.

Upcoming Senate hearings have got to focus on changing the structure, mission, priorities and funding of the FDA not merely attacking them for what they could have done better (things such as much better and earlier communication with consumers.) What the FDA officials should not be subjected to are defending themselves against not doing things that sound intuitive to us, but that earlier Congresses had not given them the authority to do with respect to pet food safety. That is to say I hope the FDA won’t have to spend so much time providing photo ops on Capitol Hill that they are taken away from the lifesaving resposibilities they do currently have the authority for….continued (hopefully) open minded investigation, leaning on pet food companies to disclose where their recent purchases of gluten came from to see if further brand recalls are warranted, ongoing testing of suspect product and on deceased animals…. and most importantly halting Chinese wheat gluten imports at the port of entry level. The Senate hearings cannot alter the past but they can make the future better and I sincerely hope our elected officials of both parties will act on that principle. I will be watching closely to see how our lawmakers behave.

I have become quite convinced that existing government regulations related to foreign food imports, additives and ingredients are sorely inadequate. I have also become convinced that ChemNutra and Menu Foods and perhaps others actively sought to avert some of these regulations and succeeded in doing so for a yet undetermined period of time. This and only this resulted in the poisoned food that is killing our pets. There must be a criminal investigation launched with the ferocity of the Enron one.

Comment by elizabeth — April 7, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
Elizabeth

Great letter. Don’t you wonder how long this has been going on and how often they have been getting away with it, and that would apply not only to pet food?

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
Lynn,
I doubt that you would be able to find many recently dead animals to test since I doubt that any new product has been put on the shelved and the older stuff is probably already pulled or eaten and has done its damage some time ago. If you did find any recently dead animals it would be few and far between and might tend to give people the idea that there were lower percentages than there actually were.

The University of Mi. was doing testing at the behest of some vets who reported suspicious deaths. Look for links here at petconnection.com to vet sites to that effect.

On a personal note, when I tried to have our vet do a post mortem on Brandy I was met with quite a bit of ire that I already posted and dont want to get into again…

Beyond all of that my confidence is pretty high that the FDA already has a pretty good idea of what is going on and that I have a pretty good sense of myself. If we had the old Republican Gongress in charge I would be worried that this would get swept under the rug but Im not as concerned about that now.

Mind you, Im not saying to do nothing! I think the pressure has to be maintained on all of our legislators that the days of limited government is over and that we WANT these State and Federal agencies to protect us and ours.

I think the broader message has to be that when corporations mis-behave like this they have to be held accountable even to the end of closing them up and selling off the assets.

More good that may come out of this could be that we can try to put an end to private labeling or at least require the actual manufacturer to identify themselves on the label. Here in Manitowoc we have a company that cans vegetables and I know they put the same cans out with multiple lables that get sold for different prices depending on the brands. If you had a bad experience with one label and both the other thinking you were getting a better product - well - the joke is on you!

If a company is proud of their products they should put their name on it. Then when something like this happens again (and it will) identifying the bad product wont take weeks and you wont have to read the fine print to figure out if you might die if you buy it…

Finally, some of the retail stores behaved pretty badly too. The store that I bought Brandy’s food at put all of the remaining stock of Sprout ON SALE the week after I personally advised them of her death and the recall. Who knows how many dogs suffered from that.

No, I think we already know everything we have to for now. We just need to keep the presure on to get the FDA to acknowledge it in the post neo-con era and work in a larger sense for better corporate citizenship and protection from lesser regulated corps on foreign soil.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
And don’t forget this.

Country-of-origin labeling. 2002 Farm Bill.

Passed by Congress and signed into law almost five years ago by the president as part of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (a.k.a. the 2002 farm bill), COOL is mandated for many food products. ACGA, as part of The Americans for Country-of-Origin Labeling (ACOL) coalition, maintains its commitment to seeing COOL implemented for fruits, vegetables, peanuts and red meat.

“Opponents to country of origin labeling have been successful in past congressional sessions in postponing the original 2002 implementation date,” Bolin said, “even though every poll conducted on the issue has shown at least 80 percent of America’s consumers want to know where their food is coming from.”

In the letters to Congress, the coalition of 215 organizations urged Congress to “change the date of implementing mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef, pork, lamb, produce and peanuts to September 2007.”

The Americans for Country-of-Origin Labeling (ACOL) Coalition
http://www.americansforlabeling.org/

Comment by Steve — April 7, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
This is the right idea

New Jersey On-Line

Bill puts pet food industry on hook
Friday, April 06, 2007
By Trish G. Graber

TRENTON In reaction to recent pet food recalls prompted by the poisoning deaths of pets across the country, a state lawmaker Thursday announced plans to craft legislation that would hold responsible companies that distribute tainted foods.

Under the proposal, pet food manufacturers would be required to certify with the state that their products are safe and free of contaminants.

“Having pet food producers officially declare pet food safe for consumption’ sets a legally binding standard,” said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer County, who is proposing the legislation. “If producers fail to live up to their declarations, then the state has a clear course of legal action to hold them accountable.”

The measure, to be called “The Pet Food Safety Act,” comes after Ontario-based Menu Foods Inc. pulled 42 brands of cat food and 53 brands of dog food late last month following reports that 13 cats and one dog died after eating their products nine of those cats during routine taste trials conducted by the company, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

more. . .
http://tinyurl.com/2cfqys

Comment by Steve — April 7, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
The comments on this post are incredible. Thank you all for your contributions.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 7, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
A cartoon from todays Washington Post.

Change the headline on the paper to “Consumer furor over a national pet food recall continues to mount.”

http://tinyurl.com/awy2d

Comment by Steve — April 7, 2007 @ 6:00 pm
AMINO ACID L-ARGININE DEFICICENCY

L-Arginine deficiency plays a role in acute renal failure of people. Both experimental and clinical data show that L-Arg deficiency and endothelial dysfunction are pathomechanistically relevant in ARF.

Something to look for in regard to how soon symptoms appeared ?

Comment by Stefania — April 7, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
I live in Washington DC and on the news it was reported that all pet foods, regardless of company eventually go through 2 main manufacturing plants. Therefore, even if the smallest impurity is found it could potentially infect every supplier in the market as they all cross through the same facility at some point.

Does anyone know anything about this or know where I would be able to confirm this information?

Comment by Leigh — April 7, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
I found this site that closely parallels my own conclusions but with a little more information.
It also reminded me with the sources they listed that Brandy’s symptoms were spot on with aminopterin poisoning - something that has NOT been resolved especially since her food pre-dated the now revised Nov 8th cut off.

http://mparent7777.blogspot.co.....ed-as.html

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
90% INCREASE IN CALLS
Per ASPCA Poison Control Center

These numbers are staggering! Are they sure it’s from meds? Perhaps it’s the food! (Or food combined with meds.)

Cause for investigation!

From Dr. Pollen:

Poison Calls to ASPCA Poison Control Center in 2006
The ASPCA released a report on the calls received at the Poison Control Center for 2006. They note that there was over a 90% increase in calls that involved pet medications. Most of these involved pet medications. The number of pets poisoned from human medications also increased sharply—up 65% compared with 2005.
The top 10 poison categories were:

* human medications
* insecticides
* pet medications
* plants
* mice and rat poisons
* household cleaners
* chocolate
* chemicals
* choking and physical hazards
* home improvement products

Dogs continue to be poisoned more frequently than other pets. Over 80,000 reports of dog poisonings occurred in 2006. Almost 12,000 cat poisonings were reported in 2006. The ASPCA Poison Control Center also received hundreds of calls for poisonings in birds, horses, ferrets, rabbits, rodents, and fish.

There were over 12,000 calls just on vet meds, especially nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) commonly used for arthritis and pain. In addition, wormers, and nutritional supplements caused poisonings.

Comment by Nadine Long — April 7, 2007 @ 8:06 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Stefania,
Determining what causes L-ARGININE DEFICICENCY, as it is relevant to the pet deaths, should be checked, too. I daresay this list could be horrendously long.

Bernie,
I agree with many of your points. I am definitely in favor of stringent legislation to enact laws that will have the welfare of our pets in mind. All animals, for that matter.
I have a few comments regarding your message:[1] The FDA has lost any credibility with me.
[2] That your vet met your request for a necropsy with ire strikes me as unusal.
[3] I definitely disagree with your statement, “I think we already know everything we have to for now.” Many people can accept things and move on. I’m not one of them. I need to know WHY, WHAT, HOW….. I particularly think it is important to show the entire chemical trail in order to support future legislation. Without that conclusive proof of how the animals died it may be difficult to pass any legislation at all. Too, if someone is re-engineering chemicals at the expense of our pets, livestock, or humans, then I want to know who.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
I just ran across this on the FDA’s site:

The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act), section 305, added section 415 to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which requires domestic and foreign facilities to register with FDA by December 12, 2003, if they manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the U.S. The purpose of registration is to provide FDA with sufficient and reliable information about food and feed facilities.

China is our greatest supplier….at least by the Food Facility Registration numbers on this listing: 15,141 Registered Food Facilities in China

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/prodregulation.htm#uscode
~~~~~~~~~~~
Also, here’s a good site for info & links. Has PETA highlights too.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....all14.html

~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the FDA’s link to the CVM’s Policy & Procedures:

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/FOI/ppindex.html

Lots of rules - wish they’d followed a few…

nite all!

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
I’ve been reading the Menu Foods Annual Report and the Annual Information Form (AIF)on http://www.sedar.com and there seems to be some unusual coincidences to me. Look at the dates that their reports/forms were submitted and the press releases. Could this explain the reason for the ‘Friday’ press releases?
The AIF is full of specific information which means more now than ever. The more I read, the more questions I had. Hopefully others could take a look at these reports and see if Menu Foods knew more than we think they did?
Their Annual Special Meeting is on June 29/07 in Toronto. I hope a protest is being put together that maybe PETA could attend too? I’m sure the Recall will a topic.

Also, I too fed my cat Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classics 3oz cans but stopped the day of the Recall in March…and kept the cans as evidence. No sign of an illness yet but I’m going to take him to the vet for tests anyways to be sure. After reading other people’s comments about Nutro, I tried to email Nutro but can’t get through…Hmmm. Seemed too strange to me that the pouches are recalled but the cans are not. Especially after reading these reports on what Menu Foods manufactures in their factories.

Keep up the good work Pet Connnection! You are my homepage now. At least CNN is helping keep the word alive. Too bad our pets are not.

Comment by Sindy — April 7, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
Here are a few links for anyone with the “stomach” to read about the rendering process. It’s been discussed here & thought about by all…. This is what goes into our animal feed & pet food:

Here’s the EPA’s: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/a.....9s05-3.pdf

http://www.jivdaya.org/rendering_plants.htm

This one has quotes from the book “The Dark Side of Recycling”:

http://www.purehealthsystems.com/render.html

Yep! And, we are duped into believing the BS vets, TV ads & pet food sales people that the food they are selling is nutrionally sound. Don’t buy THAT crap — buy ours. Yep! They’ve squirted the kibble with a few shots of vitamins & minerals, BHT & anything else they can throw in the pot!

What I want to know is what are they going to do with all the recalled product??? Dump that back into the rendering vat??

!!!!!Pathetic!!!!! Are we THAT LAZY to not have stood up to these manufacturing cons & government criminals for so long????

Someone earlier today said they were not purchasing anything processed — well everything is processed: flour, coffee, corn meal, tomatoes, meat, fish, milk, juice, seeds. It is impossible to escape!

We’ve allowed it to happen. Everything comes from — somewhere else. Even when you THINK you are buying locally — THAT usually comes from somewhere else. Import-export…that’s all we do any more. Jacking up the prices of everything along the way with shipping charges & high wages. Yep, we did it to ourselves.

You reap what you sow.

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 10:11 pm
Stefania,
I certainly did not intend to imply that we should sit still. I simply meant that we probably dont have to have all the details to know that Menu knew what it was doing (whatever that turns out to be) and that the root cause of the problem is the importation of an unapproved import of an NPN (protien substitute) product.

That right there is (or should be) enough to hang them!

Thanks to the excellent slueth work like Kat provided above the details will come out.

I do not forget that My pal Brandy died with symptoms consistent with aminopterin poisoning and until I see her lot number listed or the remaining samples absolutely cleared I will not and cannot absolve anyone.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Where the big shots will be.

Petforum 2007
April 16-18, 2007
Hyatt Regency O’Hare Hotel
Chicago, Illinois, USA

http://www.wattnet.com/petfoodforum/PetForum.cfm

Comment by Steve — April 7, 2007 @ 10:18 pm
Wish I still lived in Chicago, would make for a nice protest.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 10:35 pm
Bernie - have you told the FDA about Brandy being sick & dying eating the food outside of the recall periods? I saw you posted that they want the cans.

I’m sure she was a great companion for you & you were for her, as well. I’m sorry you lost her, esp. for such a tragic reason.

I found a lot more links on rendering — just didn’t want to overload this string with all that pathetic stuff. But, here is another good one:

http://www.earthisland.org/eij.....urnalID=58

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 10:42 pm
The FDA lags just a bit with their recall update email notifications. This just came in about the latest recalls:

All Menu Foods Pet Food with ChemNutra Wheat Gluten Voluntarily Recalled
Del Monte Pet Products Modifies Voluntary Recall List

They want people to sign up for the email alerts so that the public is notified in a timely manner — yet they wait days to send the email.

Comment by Kat — April 7, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

Bernie, I think you meant to address your most recent comment to me rather than Stefania.

One of the best things about this blog is that we can focus on what we feel is most important as it relates to the pet food recall. And, by golly, ALL the issues discussed here are very important. If we all focused on the same thing we’d be ignorant of other dimensions of this problem. Thank goodness for diversity.

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 10:49 pm
http://www.regulations.gov/fdm.....onent/main

Just found this website. It says: Your voice in Federal decision making.

All the Federal agencies are listed. I will learn how to utilize it. Hope others will to and share.

Comment by DeeAnn — April 7, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
SOUTH DAKOTA PLANT

MAL - you asked if the Menu Foods South Dakota plant only manufactured for Iams - it does not. They manufacture for Natura Pet there too, for the Innova and California Natural brands.

I didn’t realize that’s where they made Iams, according to your link 100% of Iams canned food is made there. But if that’s true, then it means that plant received the ‘bad stuff’ too, since Iams HAS recalled cans, not just pouches.

Yet, supposedly for Iams just plant code 4197 is affected. And every recall talks about it ONLY being the Emporia Kansas plant. Weird.

Comment by Kim — April 7, 2007 @ 11:20 pm
SOUTH DAKOTA PLANT

Does anyone know offhand how many plants there are in the US that manufacture dog food [major brands]? And the cities they are located in?

Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 11:28 pm
4 comes to mind as far as Menu Foods go. Who knows about the other plants.

Comment by MonkeyKitty — April 7, 2007 @ 11:47 pm
More information about FDA Cuts

http://www.capitalpress.info/m.....M=11895.83

“Inspections also look for sources of possible contamination, such as flies. For instance, inspectors are asked to count flies, as well as how often they land on a food product. They’re also told to look for any open doors or damaged window screens that could allow the insects to flit back and forth between the product and, say, a toilet, floor drain or garbage can, according to agency documents.

The shrunken ranks of inspectors have left the nation once again vulnerable, especially to problems in imported food, Thompson and others said. Doyle, whose center studies ways to improve food safety, called the nation’s growing appetite for imported foods the “coming threat.”

The United States last year imported about $10 billion more in food, feed and beverages than it exported, according to Census figures. Even as imports grow in volume and diversity, the number of FDA inspections is shrinking: Agency inspectors physically examined just 1.3 percent of food imports last year, about three-quarters as much as in 2003.

The FDA, meanwhile, says it is concentrating its efforts on areas where the potential threat to the public’s health is greatest.

“We’re applying resources to targeted areas. So in a way, it’s not a matter of ‘Are you inspecting one out of 100 or 10 out of 100?’ The real issue is if you can define risk. Are you applying the 10 inspectors to the 10 areas of concern? Then it’s essentially you’re covering 100 percent of your problem, which is not covering 100 percent of the universe,” FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said.

FDA inspectors, for example, visited the ConAgra plant on Feb. 14, a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the agency it suspected the company’s peanut butter was the source of the outbreak. For one member of Congress, that’s not good enough.

“We are reacting to crises rather than preventing or minimizing them,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chairwoman of the House subcommittee that oversees the FDA and its budget. DeLauro said she worried food inspections were becoming a “stepchild” of the regulatory agency.

Von Eschenbach said the agency’s food safety system can be reactive but is aggressive nonetheless.

“What you saw with the spinach and certainly what you saw with the peanut butter, is when we see those signals we’re going to act to protect the public health,” von Eschenbach said.

In the meantime, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is investigating the adequacy of the FDA’s efforts to protect the nation’s food supply, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said.

A recent Government Accountability Office report noted that most of the $1.7 billion the federal government allocates to food safety goes to the Agriculture Department, which is responsible for regulating about 20 percent of the food supply. The FDA, responsible for most of the other 80 percent, gets about 24 percent of the total.

When the FDA finds violations with a food product, it asks companies to voluntarily fix any problems. The agency also can request a company to recall a product or it can ask that a product be seized by law enforcement.

The Agriculture Department said this month it also would switch to a “risk-based” inspection plan for plants that process poultry, pork and beef. Plants that make products with a high risk for contamination, like hamburger, and that have had past violations would face greater scrutiny. Others that make less risky products, like cooked, canned ham, and have clean records would be inspected less.”

Linda MS

Comment by Linda — April 8, 2007 @ 8:25 am
Re: CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS
Labs are set up and certified to be part of FERN (Food Emergency Response Network)
http://tinyurl.com/3dbblp
There’s also CDC’s LRN - Laboratory Response NEtwork which in some cases are the same labs.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/lrn/partners.asp
My guess is Iowa State is part of one or both, as would be most large universitites. I could not find anything past 2005 for a listing of labs in FERN at the USDA/FSIS site: http://www.fsis.usda.gov
You’d have to find an independent commercial lab to do this. Looking for an unknown in food and a body might encompass two different types of labs. And would cost a fortune. And it would hardly be definitive to look at one of each. Multiple samples would need to be looked at. A very expensive endeavor. Someone posted many moons ago they were having a legal and toxological necropsy done - at the tune of $500. It seems to me that this makes more sense. Look at what happened to the body and take samples.

Comment by CathyA — April 8, 2007 @ 8:29 am
Kat,
Yes I was very certain to make that point and discussed the fact that all the data had to be gathered. He responded by saying that they had not determined what the actual active agent was and were systematically (my characterization of his words) going thru it to determine the actual cause.

I also authorized the FDA to review Brandy’s vet records.
My vets resistance to a post mortem is weighing on me now. Perhaps I should have insisted or taken her body to another vet. While in the end she did agree to do it I had lost confidence in her objectivity and she was extremely persistant in pointing out that I would bear all of the expense. While I had not expected anything else, I was offended by her pointed comments to that end. My son also objected to “… having her all cut up.” Certainly lots of second thoughts all around.

I think my case is a good example of how difficult it is going to be piece together all of the facts and I worry that since this is just dogs and cats the will to follow up simply isnt there.

But like I said before, I think I know enough to not get bogged down in the details and un-recalled lot or not I know what she went thru and little else makes sense. Without exculpatory evidence I would vote to convict on the basis of what I have, thats for certain.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 8, 2007 @ 8:34 am
I don’t trust the recall dates - not at all. They are just guessing here and what if we find out it is something else that acted on the wheat gluten in the plants here in the U.S.

I don’t trust any of it. We need some real answers.

I am all in favor of truth in labeling: Let’s begin with Toxic Waste Junk Garbage from the trash bins at our rendering plants and then add toxic vitamins and whatever imported - our poor pets.

Linda MS

Comment by Linda — April 8, 2007 @ 8:39 am
CONSUMER FUNDING TO TEST FOODS

I’m in. Have over 40 pounds of poison for further testing. I was already tricked into testing it on my pets and we all know how those test have turned out. It’s very deadly and no one knows, for certain, why. I’m not going to begin to accept what we have been told as factual. Please keep up this fight for our pets sake and don’t let anything fall through the cracks. Our pets don’t deserve this. We are only trying to understand that which no one knows for sure. Anyone got a cure for lung cancer?

keen suffering without Abby Gayle

Comment by MikeKeen — April 8, 2007 @ 11:26 am
Bernie: Do you know when you should have the post-mortem results back? Someone posted a link to one of the Univ’s that had done a post-mortem on her cat. I’ll see if I can find the link — ah…here it is. They have no way of verifying aminopterin:
http://www.animalhealth.msu.ed.....mpress.pdf

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 11:35 am
Eight years ago I read a book titled “Food Pets Die For” by Ann Martin. She did 7 years of intense research into the commercial pet food industry after her dogs became ill eating it. Another eye-opener is “The Nature Of Animal Healing, by Dr. Martin Goldstein. He devotes an entire chapter to the commercial pet food industry. I switched from Iams (which is crap) to Wysong, Azmira and Nature’s Variety. All three of these are human grade quality.You can check out their websites. You won’t find these brands at Wal-Mart or Petsmart. I have been convinced the pet food industry has been killing our cats and dogs, and all they care about is the almighty buck.

Comment by Karen Murphy — April 8, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
In response to Lynn:
Comment by Lynn — April 7, 2007 @ 11:28 pm

I used to use the book set for Thomas Register, as a purchasing agent, long ago.
Here are a few links to the pet food companies:

http://tinyurl.com/2klzz5

http://tinyurl.com/33q23f

http://www.thomasnet.com - for broader searches.

kat

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
RE: Bernie’s post
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 7, 2007 @ 5:11 pm

“Finally, some of the retail stores behaved pretty badly too. The store that I bought Brandy’s food at put all of the remaining stock of Sprout ON SALE the week after I personally advised them of her death and the recall. Who knows how many dogs suffered from that.”

You need to let the FDA know about this. That store should be fined! Even if it is a voluntary recall — it is NOT voluntary for the retailer. The FDA gives the mfr the opportunity to get the product back. The mfr recalls & the retailer is obligated to return.

Everyone who has a cell phone camera needs to be taking pictures of this stuff. Evidence!
k

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
Plus, plug your local TV stations email addresses into your address book on the phone and email them the photos.

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
WHAT DOES MENU FOODS USE IN ALL ITS PRODUCTS:

“Nine of those deaths were cats that became ill during a routine, quarterly taste test Menu Foods conducted with 25 cats and 15 dogs to test the products’ palatability, the FDA said March 20.”

“The taste tests, which began Feb. 27, were unrelated to consumer complaints the company received. The consumer complaints of pets becoming sick after eating the products began Feb. 20, according to Stephen Sundlof, DVM, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.”

Now this may be a naive question, but how on earth can Menu do palatability tests for ALL the product it produces with only 40 animals???

Does this mean that there is a central “mash” or “base gumbo”that is used in common with all the different pet food companies and it only varies in what “extra” ingredients are added.

There were 95 different types of cat/dog food recalled each with different cans/pouches and flavors. There are many many hundreds of individual products that were recalled.

Again how can Menu foods do its “routine, quarterly taste test” with 40 animals and be able to cover the palatability of all its products??

Something does not make sense here!!

Comment by mal — April 8, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
Something does not make sense here!!

Comment by mal — April 8, 2007 @ 2:26 pm

Menu needs to show proof—a long standing history that they do quarterly taste testings before I would even remotely consider believing one word that come from them, and that would be only on that issue.

I have several issues with them.

Comment by DeeAnn — April 8, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
I would seriously doubt that they do quarterly testing on all products, rather they roll out new flavors/flavor combinations every quarter and test them against “standards” or against the animals usual feed.

Also — having participated in some of these (not for Menu, I don’t think), taste tests are also performed through consumer testing companies and persons who volunteer their own pets to take part in taste tests.

Comment by GingerTom — April 8, 2007 @ 2:43 pm
The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission has very detailed information on the pet food companies. If you go to their http://www.sec.gov website and hit the search button in the upper right, you can search the following screen by SIC No. 2040 (grain mill products) and look at the companies’ 10-K Annual Reports. They describe things such as the brands companies make, who they make them for, aquisitions, mergers, exchanges, how their products are marketed, etc.

Comment by Sue Dunn — April 8, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
..and I am assuming that since Menu does animal testing that they have an IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee), and that they would have been required to file an adverse event report with APHIS/USDA (or may be in the process of doing so) in which they would have had to provide details of the incident and details regarding how they would prevent similar from happening in the future.

Comment by GingerTom — April 8, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
RE: Comment by GingerTom — April 8, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
IACUC - does this apply to taste testing by pet food companies?
To be AAFCO approved (1999 regs) they only need to do feeding trials for 6 months (for adult cats and dogs) with a minimum of 8 animals. Not too long ago they expanded this - foods in the same “families” of foods already AAFCO certified need not go through the 6 month feeding trial. I would imagine taste testing is just that - especially for cats, who are liable to turn their nose up at all kinds of stuff. It may be nutritionally sound, but won’t sell if cats won’t eat it. So perhaps that’s the first step - taste testing a new formulation. Don’t know though. Do you know GingerTom?

Comment by CathyA — April 8, 2007 @ 3:22 pm
Cathy -

I believe that animal research involving species covered by the animal welfare act (Basically all vertebrate animals excluding birds and rodents bred for research) requires an IACUC to be in place. Also, to buy dogs/cats for research, they would have to have an animal welfare assurance on file. There may be some loopholes re farm animals, etc…but dogs and cats should be covered….

re the second …..really not sure of the and outs…. there should be standard operating procedures available for taste testing/feed trials

Comment by GingerTom — April 8, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
For some insightful, sick humor:

http://www.meatrix.com/

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Thanks Sue Dunn! Lots of info to be explored!

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
Kat,
The store responded by saying the same thing my vet did…. Those lots were not ont the recall list [then].

Since then many of the lots they had on the shelves were in fact added.

As I posted earlier Brandy’s lot was Oct 25 09 exp date.
At that time they were still saying that nothing before Dec 3rd was affected.
On Friday they moved it back to November 8th.
How long do you think it will take them to get to Oct 25?
BUT, they did advise stores to hold all lots that same Sunday.
I dont know if they did that or if they released any of it since then either.
I have not been back there since - I just got fed up arguing with them.

Store name: Mills Fleet Farm - Manitowoc Wi.
The Chain is based in Wisconsin and has stores all over.
It used to be one of my favorite stores.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 8, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Kat,
Maybe I muddled the post but there never was any post mortem. By the time I got done with the shouting match with the vet I had lost all confidence in her judgement and did not feel that I would get an impartial result.

I considered taking her to another vet but by then it had been several days (albeit in cold weather) and the first vet claimed that organ deterioration would have prevented a proper analysis.

Finally, my son objected to having her “all cutup”. By then we were getting into a warm spell and I was ready to bury her and I needed to get it all behind us.

The whole experience pretty much dropped my confidence on a lot of people and instututions I would have thought were on my side. Apparently not.

Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 8, 2007 @ 6:11 pm
I read someone’s comment that pet food companies can substitute ingredients, such as using wheat gluten for corn gluten if the wheat gluten happens to be cheaper, but not changing the labeling for 6 months. If this is true, could lots of food that does not indicate wheat gluten as an ingredient in actuality have wheat gluten in it? Maybe lots more food is contaminated even though it does not list wheat gluten as an ingredient? Are the pet food companies required to disclose this substitution to the consumer at any point (like if we call the company) if indeed this has happened? This may be why so many more pets continue to become ill and/or die even though their food does not indicate it contains wheat gluten. Whoever posted regarding the possible substitution—could you please respond?

Comment by Janice — April 8, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
DISCOVERY CHANNEL - PLANET EARTH 8pm ET/PT

To everyone who’s spent endless hours posting, researching and voicing their opinions on this subject, I thank you! I have learned soooooo much! Now it’s time for you all to take a much needed break. Please tune into the Discovery Channel and watch the wonderful 11 part mini series called Planet Earth. This is the third week and it starts at 8pm (may have already begun in the East, but I’m sure it will repeat) Photographer’s spent the past 5 years filming wildlife all around our planet. The first 5 hours (previous two weeks) were absolutely breathtaking! I promise you will enjoy it! Be sure to look for repeats of previous episodes throughout the week.

Comment by Barb — April 8, 2007 @ 8:25 pm
Thanks Bernie, for the clarification. So sorry all those people failed you. Very disheartening. It does seem your vet really let you down.

Comment by Kat — April 8, 2007 @ 10:27 pm
PET FOOD MANUFACTURING COMPANIES: LOCATIONS, NUMBER

To Kat:

I’m getting a late start reading the blogs tonight. Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out in the morning.

I did happen to read that “The Missouri Department of Agriculture says it works to ensure that the 15 pet food plants in the state are inspected two times a year. The department randomly pulls product samples from all pet food and livestock feed manufacturers, with an aim of 20 percent of those being from pet food makers,” according to the article.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/63059.html

Jennifer Mann goes on to write, “Tim Tyson, director of the agriculture commodities assurance program, the Kansas department charged with overseeing pet food, said he wasn’t certain exactly how many pet food plants there are in Kansas, but that over the past year, five or six facilities have been inspected.”

Don’t you love the use of the words “randomly” and “aim” in the statement from Missouri Dept of Agriculture? And it warms the cockles of my heart to know who should, don’t know how many facilities they have in their state.

Ah yes, guess it goes to show that you can have nanotechnology and highly sophisticated product development, but without a definitive process to ensure meeting standards of safety with accountability, why bother?

Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 2:25 am
CO INFO, 10-K REPORTS; INST OF ANIMAL CARE AND USE COMMITTEE

Thanks, Sue Dunn and Gingertom for the info.

Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 2:33 am
Lynn, Cathy - IACUC minutes should be public record, although most likely not of the walk right in and sit down and read kind… If they do have an Assurance, their animal quarters are inspected twice a year and their animal protocols/IACUC minutes reviewed by a USDA vet. These would be unannounced inspections.

Comment by GingerTom — April 9, 2007 @ 5:40 am
RE: Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 2:25 am
WRT the use of the word “random”, it’s not meant as sloppiness. I think the use is scientific. Inspections should be unexpected (not the same time of year) and what they’re going to sample (flavor and batch) shouldn’t be predetermined.

I agree that he should know how many plants there are. If this interview was recent, with all that’s going on, one would think he’d be on top of it.

Comment by CathyA — April 9, 2007 @ 7:15 am
Just a thought!! Food?? Poisons ..what about the kitty litter.. is there harmful chemicals in that tooo ?? Just an Idea??

Comment by kelly B — April 9, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
For first time ever just saw a cat food commercial for The Good Life. Just curious, is this a new product and made by whom.
Also someone mentioned that Purina should be recalling Benevil (sic) dry dog food. Can you tell me the website that has the stories about peoples’ pets dying from this dog food. Have a friend I need to advise and possibly run a copy as she doesn’t have a computer.

Comment by VJ — April 9, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
VJ,

I’m pretty sure Good Life is made by Mars.

Comment by Julia — April 9, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
This is heart breaking:

Stories upon stories of pets dying. Hey FDA — come read this. Maybe this will help with your number problem.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Dog_Fo.....r_Dog_SICK

Here are some horror stories about Beneful:

http://quikonnex.com/channel/item/26568

That’s what my dogs have been on mostly, for a long time. Not now tho.

Comment by Kat — April 9, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
Good Life is what my cats were throwing up about 6 weeks ago. They were on their 2nd bag & started avoiding it & getting sick. I still have it, but they’re getting homemade & NaturalLife now.

I’m trying to formulate my own kibble now.

Comment by Kat — April 9, 2007 @ 10:27 pm
APRIL 28TH MARCH

Just a thought:

Wouldn’t it be something if those marching wore t-shirts with their occupations on the back of the shirt? Why? To send the message that many pet owners are educated professionals. I mean no disrespect to anyone - I would just like to send the message that we’ve got a ton of brain power here and won’t tolerate this incompetence and deception. Examples:

WE DESERVE THE TRUTH
I am an Attorney

WE DESERVE THE TRUTH
I am a Veterinarian

WE DESERVE THE TRUTH
I am a Microbiologist

Etc., etc.

Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
MFG PLANTS: THE NUMBERS:

To KathiA:

While it’s perfectly scientific to do random lot selection testing, when it comes to food [human or pet] my feeling is that “random testing” needs to be defined in the test plans. Who knows if they were? The REAL questions should be:
1 - How many units comprise each lot?
2 - How many lots were tested?
3 - How many units within each lot were tested?
4 - How many aggregate units were tested?

The questions sound redundant, but they are designed to find out if they really had a testing plan for quality control. If they are honest, their answers will explain if they only tested one unit. Period. Or one unit per lot. Or one unit haphazardly……

Of course, the operative word here is “honest.”

Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 10:56 pm
POST THE STORE NAME AND LOCATION

RE Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 8, 2007 @ 6:01 pm

Bernie, thanks so much for having the courage to post this information regarding where you purchased unwittingly the tainted food. Everyone should be posting this. If the the stores won’t take the food of the shelves, then I guess we need to “help” them.

Comment by Lynn — April 9, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
There’s lots of food out there still not on the list. Purina, Nutro and Fancy Feast. Dry and canned not just those pouches. I’m checking lot’s of small town newspapers and tv stations around the country who have comment columns and blogs that don’t usually show up when googling for news. I’ve lived all over the country so I check back from time to time. Anyway pet parents are complaining about many brands and flavors not on the list. I have friends all over the country who don’t have computers (my age - old) so I called them to warn them and I’m glad I told them not to trust any of the recalled brands dry and treats and canned not on the list. They called back the other day and thanked me for the warning I gave them 2 weeks before the biscuits and treats were recalled. You’re right Lynn. We are all smart. And we care deeply for not only our own babies but everyone’s baby. That’s why we now know one another. I’m sure we have something else we could be doing but this is top priority right now.

Comment by Kathi — April 9, 2007 @ 11:14 pm
I’m reading all over the place about Beneful, which really has me concerned. My dogs started not wanting to eat it about 6 wks ago — maybe longer. People have been calling Purina since Jan. about sick & dying pets.

All my 5 animals seemed “under-the-weather” about 6 weeks ago. They all seem fine now. Happy & peppy again.

Comment by Kat — April 9, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
Kat
Please don’t use any brand connected to the other brands that are on the list. Try to find the parent company of your brand to see if they have other brands on the list. I’m currently using Natural Balance. At time of recall I had been using Nutro and my baby was vomiting from it. Her can was not on list until I read a post here of today a university found it contained melamine.

Comment by Kathi — April 9, 2007 @ 11:58 pm
Kathi:

I haven’t been using anything on the recall list or brands associated. I think I had, back in Feb or early Mar, but all packaging is gone. I gave the dogs one bag of IAMS instead of Beneful, back in early Mar, because I couldn’t get the Beneful. I’ve been cooking for them for nearly a month, except for a little of the NaturalLife for both cats & dogs. I have a 110 lb dog with quite an appetite.

Just found this listing - interesting with lots of info. Note their sick/dead pet count: http://www.michvma.org/index.cfm?id=278

Comment by Kat — April 10, 2007 @ 12:45 am
Really-
If people are going to own pets they need to be feeding them better food. This crap cheap food, which was what was mostly affected, is the stuff that is killing peoples animals reguardless of tainting or not. With by-products and cancer causing agents in them. And the stuff on TV that says its good, like Purina and Iams and all those “premium” foods you can get at the grocery store, well they lie. Put it this way, everyone knows ol’ roy right. You are paying sometimes 4 times the cost for those “premium foods” when its the same stuff in it as the 5 dollar ol’ roy. If you cant afford to feed your pet good food and really take care of it, then you shouldnt own one.

Comment by Audrey — April 20, 2007 @ 1:07 am
You know what, Audrey? As someone who has fed a homemade diet for over 21 years, I think that’s a load of self-righteous crap.

We’re talking about ACTUAL poison. A contamination of the food supply. Government and corporate ethics, transparency, and accountability.

The choices people make about how to feed their pets, and themselves, are their own. They have the right to walk into the market and buy food with accurate labels and oh yeah… not containing actual poison.

Comment by Christie Keith — April 20, 2007 @ 1:15 am

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Pet food recall: AC360 digs into the contamination, the numbers

By Christie Keith

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