Pet food recall: News and open thread
By Christie Keith
April 25, 2007
- If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.
- If you want your say on food-safety reform, Sen. Durbin’s office wants to hear from you.
- If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes links to recalled foods).
- If you’d like suggestions on what to feed, click here.
- If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.
Folks, there is definitely something wrong with our comments – mine aren’t showing up, and a lot of yours apparently aren’t either. PLEASE don’t keep posting over and over. Post once, then wait. We’re working on it. I have started this fresh thread as hopefully that will fix it for a while.
Also, on Thursday afternoon, the FDA is having a press briefing on the recall. Gina and I will be sitting in as usual, and I’ll probably liveblog it.
Macleans in Canada has published a really excellent story about the pet food recall, entitled “The Great Pet Food Scandal”:
The scope of the tragedy — emotional and financial — continues to widen. The recall has been expanded four times in the last four weeks, with 889 separate items under 100 different brand names yanked off the market. The company’s explanations raise more questions than answers, and there’s been predictable talk of reform at the government level. In Canada, talks between pet food makers, vets and a variety of federal agencies have already begun, with a view to imposing rules on an unregulated industry. In the U.S., members of the Senate’s agriculture appropriations subcommittee have held hearings into the Food and Drug Administration’s handling of the crisis, while the FDA itself continues to investigate the cause of the contamination.
But the economic model that led to the poisoning shows little sign of change. Even in the throes of a PR nightmare, the big grocery chains continue to support Menu, a production behemoth with whom they share a mutual dependency. Loblaw Companies, for one, which sells Menu products under its President’s Choice and No Name brands, has no plans to switch suppliers. “They’ve been a valued partner,” says spokeswoman Elizabeth Margles. “We do have confidence about them at this point.”
Loblaw may remain unshaken, but for the average dog or cat owner the entire affair has been a faith-testing experience. Little did pet owners know that, whether they were buying a budget supermarket brand or splurging on top-of-the-line fare at a specialty pet store or from a veterinarian, the food was being produced at the same factory and even shared some of the same ingredients. How could they? Menu Foods’ name appeared nowhere on the label. The company existed as an invisible cog in the food chain, churning out most of North America’s most popular wet food in cans and foil pouches to its customers’ blue-chip specifications — Science Diet for Colgate Palmolive, Iams for Procter & Gamble, Whiskas for Purina. It also manufactured an estimated 75 per cent of private label brands in Canada, including Wal-Mart’s, Sobey’s and Pet Valu’s. In the United States, where its customers include PetSmart, Safeway and Wal-Mart, Menu supplies between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of wet pet food.
The story of how a tiny, shoestring operation in Toronto’s western suburbs came to dominate its industry reflects the seismic shifts in the manufacturing food chain over the past three decades. Increasing power wielded by the margin-obsessed, cutthroat supermarket industry has forced manufacturers to source cheaper ingredients globally. Those forces have favoured faceless giants — players capable of supplying myriad products demanded by retailers, retooling and remixing recipes as the orders came in. But as the Menu case demonstrates, the system also ensures a continent-wide catastrophe when something goes wrong. Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, doesn’t see the Menu tragedy as an aberration. Rather she calls it “the tip of the iceberg.”
Check it out. Have tissues handy.
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|Technorati Tags: pet food recall, dogs, cats,veterinarian, veterinary
Test
Comment by Christie Keith — April 26, 2007 @ 12:28 am
test 2 ;)
thanks for all you guys are doing! MUCH appreciated here!!!
Comment by straybaby — April 26, 2007 @ 12:36 am
Testing…
There seems to be a lag in the posts. A post doesn’t appear until 2-3 other posts have been made.
Perhaps this post will get the previous 2 to appear.
$p[$i+1] = $p[$i-1];
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 1:01 am
No change.
Then it’s probably a hard drive failure caused by melamine dust…
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 1:10 am
Oprah had a really good show on yesterday about dogs. She had a dog trainer and a vet named, Dr. Marty Goldstein. Here is the link about the show.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pas.....0425.jhtml
Dr. Goldstein has a book out, The Nature of Animal Healing. He recommends feeding REAL food. It was a very good show. The dog trainer was great too! Her book is listed on the link above.
Dr. Marty Goldstein, author of The Nature of Animal Healing, is an expert on holistic pet medicine and the veterinarian caring for Oprah’s dog Sophie, who is suffering from kidney failure. Based on Dr. Marty’s advice, Oprah says she now feeds her dogs a mixed diet of chicken, beef, lamb, brown rice, potatoes and carrots.
Dr. Marty says most people feed their dogs diets that go against their animal nature. He says a dog that eats only dry food is like a person who eats nothing but carbs!
Dr. Marty says the best thing for a dog to eat is raw meat. Dr. Marty says his own dog, Danny, ate this diet and lived to be 19! “Danny lived on fresh cooked meat and brown rice and carrots, peas, lamb, potatoes. You know, real food. What did they eat in nature? They ate real food.”
To get Dr. Marty’s advice on what to feed your pet, visit http://www.drmarty.com.
Comment by Tammy — April 26, 2007 @ 1:18 am
Oh, and there’s a trailing slash on the RSS feed URL, which when removed, lets me see the posts. That, and the missing posts, makes me wonder there’s an autoindexing problem in the server, the thing which makes www/foo/ and www/foo/index.html work the same. The pages of posts and feeds are not picked up right, leading to some other default being picked up.
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 1:24 am
Confirmed. Trailing slashes is a part of the problem. If you can’t read a page, remove the slash / at the end of the URL.
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 1:34 am
Confirmed. Trailing slashes is a part of the problem. If you can’t see comments on a page, remove the slash / at the end of the URL, but before any #’s.
[Sorry for multiple posts. I had to try to diagnose the problem.]
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 1:46 am
You may need to add a slash, e.g.
http://www.petconnection.com/b.....n-thread//
I thing the blog postings may be off by one level of slashes. The problem starts at the main page of a thread, but gets worse. Comments get added to the wrong “directory”, which is why they don’t show up.
If a comment is posted to a URL with no slashes, it only shows up if you add a slash, which is where the main page takes you.
If a comment is posted to a URL with one slash, it shows up when viewing with two slashes, but oddly, sometimes also shows up when no slashes are used.
Someone needs to fix the comment system to strip all slashes at the end of the URL before deciding where to store comments, so that one slash is always enough and all comments in a thread get posted to the same place.
$dest =~ s#/+$##g;
I’ll stop spamming the board trying to diagnose it!
Comment by leek — April 26, 2007 @ 2:35 am
First thing this morning when I woke the first thought was gotta check and see if posting problem was fixed. Yesterday my posts took several hours before I saw them. Don’t know what several of you mean by removing the slash /. I’m typing this to see if it is still a problem at my end.
Comment by VJ — April 26, 2007 @ 3:06 am
the above site I just posted was not the one I intended. for some reason tinyurl screwed up and posted another site. this is not good. i’ve emailed petconnection folks directly to please have it removed. this will be the last time i use tinyurl for posting anything on a computer.
Comment by Mary — April 26, 2007 @ 3:39 am
One of the most disturbing things is that the media keeps referring to the case of spiking for profit that was mentioned in the hearing. I sure wish they would do their research. There’s been many more instances of that.
The Dairy Industry. Ours.
The Dairy Industry is well versed in the NPN affect on pricing of US milk which resulted in the Holstein USA paper (http://www.holsteinusa.com/html/trueweb.html)
“The new Federal Milk Marketing Orders, which went into effect January 1, 2000, pay for protein on a true-protein scale instead of the crude-protein scale that had been used previously in many parts of the country.
The change was made because true protein is more accurately measured in the lab and is more reflective of the nutritional and manufacturing value of milk.”
That article also indicated there are two ways to measure protein.
The for-profit use of crude protein is much more recent that was stated in the hearings today.
It is unfathomable to think that the Pet Food Industry, and Importers such as ChemNutra and Wilbur-Ellis were not aware of this - especially Wilbur-Ellis.
Ann
Comment by Ann — April 26, 2007 @ 4:26 am
Who is American Nutrition?
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — The state is testing hogs from three northern Utah farms to see if they ate pet food that was contaminated with an industrial chemical, agriculture officials said Wednesday.
There’s a possibility the hogs ate feed made from “scraps and sweepings” from American Nutrition, a pet food plant in Ogden that received potentially contaminated rice protein concentrate from China, said Leonard Blackham, commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
Remnants and leftovers from the manufacture of pet food are often used in feed for livestock. Investigators are looking into feed that may have come from pet food plants that could have received rice protein concentrate and corn gluten from China that was contaminated with the chemical melamine.
State tests of the rice protein from American Nutrition were negative for melamine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has done its own test and results should be back Friday.
A message left by The Associated Press for a manager at American Nutrition was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Blackham said a total of 60 hogs from the three farms will be tested for melamine. The three farms have a total of 1,000 to 2,000 hogs, he said. As a precaution, the farms have been asked not to send their hogs to market, but they are not under quarantine.
“There’s no reason to put off eating pork,” Blackham said.
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 4:50 am
OK, found American Nutrition. They are in Utah, if that matters. But their website says they are not affected by the recent recall.
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 4:56 am
“The company existed as an invisible cog in the food chain, churning out most of North America’s most popular wet food in cans and foil pouches to its customers’ blue-chip specifications — Science Diet for Colgate Palmolive, Iams for Procter & Gamble, Whiskas for Purina”
The last sentence, i’m a bit confused?
Whiskas is part of Mars Inc/Effem Foods NOT Purina.
Comment by anonymous — April 26, 2007 @ 4:58 am
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 4:56 am
I believe American Nutrition (along with Diamond) manufactures Natural Balance canned food.
Comment by karen — April 26, 2007 @ 5:01 am
If, as it sounds, American Nutrition is the “Utah connection” then it shouldn’t be left to State Ag Departments to decide quarantine issues. Especially if the FDA won’t have their test results (on melamine) back until Friday.
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 5:10 am
Thanks for doing all this you guys are great. I couldn’t post yesturday at all. Then when I can back on later in the evening, lo and behold there was at least 100 posts up that weren’t there two hours before, from throughout the day. Including mine. You guys must have had a traffic tie up on here that could make the 405 in L.A. look like smooth sailing.
Thank you,
Maudigan
Comment by Maudigan — April 26, 2007 @ 5:31 am
Karen,
Sorry…info is obviously redundant. I haven’t had time to keep up with posts the last couple of days. I AM curious to hear about the FDA’s test results on Friday. And I definitely think hogs should be quarantined until the results come back.
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 5:38 am
China bans melamine in food but rejects link to pet deaths
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....ional/home
Comment by Mike — April 26, 2007 @ 5:51 am
American Nutrition manufactures Atta Boy, Atta Cat, Basic Plus, Maintain Chunks, Vita Bones, Vita Snacks and, according to a website I found for the state of Utah, Kirkland and Prosource pet foods.
http://tinyurl.com/2hcvzs
Comment by Valerie — April 26, 2007 @ 6:16 am
re: Comments that show up after some other comments are made.
It could be a server load issue. I don’t know what software you’re using for your blog, but if it’s perl or php based it builds up and tears down a process for each comment unless you’re using fast cgi. Excessive traffic could crash the process before it’s finished. Check your error logs, if you have access.
Katherine the Lurking Nerd
P.S. Thanks for the great work you’re doing.
Comment by Katherine — April 26, 2007 @ 6:25 am
I was reading on another blog from yesterday that some of you are concerned about the phosphorus levels of the food for your CRF pets. Apparently, the phosphorus makes the disease progress more quickly. We were using only Eukaneuba k/d w/very low phosphorus, but Hunter’s phos levels kept rising in spite of that and the phosphate binders we were using. We tested our tap water AND the spring water that we had been giving him and the phosphate levels were extremely high in both. The week before he died, we switched to purified drinking water - too late.
You can probably find a phosphate test kit in a local swimming pool store. Hope this helps.
Comment by Cathy — April 26, 2007 @ 6:26 am
morning…… On USA Today it is reporting that in 2006, the USA imported 51.9 million pounds of wheat gluten from China, 112,500 pounds of cornmeal and 5 million pounds of soybean meal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture……..
Comment by marcy — April 26, 2007 @ 6:42 am
This is bizarre re: American Nutrition. They’re not too welcome in their home city. The following article is a recent AP story carried in “China Daily”:
Utah panel to stop bad odors(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-11 11:41
OGDEN, Utah - The city may be looking for a few good noses. When it meets Tuesday, the City Council is expected to set a public hearing for a law that would create a committee to sniff out objectionable odors.
Ogden’s chief administrator, John Patterson, said the city is not singling out a specific company for enforcement. But there have been complaints about a pet-food factory, American Nutrition Inc.
Despite promises, American Nutrition has failed to install an exhaust scrubber on three ovens that bake treats for dogs and cats, Patterson said.
“Stench is not the lasting memory that we want people to have in Ogden,” he said.
Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske said an ordinance is overdue.
“The odor from the American Nutrition plant may have hindered us from getting some businesses along Wall Avenue,” she said.
Company executive Bill Behnken was away from his office Monday and unavailable for comment.
American Nutrition last year said it had installed scrubbers on equipment used to produce kibble products from a mix of corn, wheat, rice meal and meat products, the Standard-Examiner reported.
(…)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/w.....848262.htm
Comment by Maureen — April 26, 2007 @ 6:42 am
There was an interesting article in the Charlotte Observer this morning on the hog situation.
Here’s a link: http://www.charlotte.com/115/story/99484.html
What really caught my attention was at the bottom where it’s discussing the NC hog farmer with quarantined hogs:
“The wait for answers has been tough on the owner of the N.C. farm, because he uses money from selling hogs to buy new feed, said Mary Ann McBride, assistant N.C. state veterinarian.”
“She said because the farmer hasn’t been able to sell his hogs, he has continued to use the tainted feed.”
Continued to use the tainted feed?? Good grief. Wouldn’t you think some group, any group, would step in and give the man some feed. Makes you wonder if others are doing the same thing.
Comment by Shannon — April 26, 2007 @ 6:46 am
Blog posts are not showing up and I posted yesterday and didn’t see what others had posted because it wasn’t on the screen. So it just makes us look stupid or something.
Comment by Sara J. — April 26, 2007 @ 6:56 am
I think that Whiskas must have been a typo. Whiskas is made by Mars, and I don’t believe they’ve had a single recall (I’ve used both Sheba and Whiskas, so I know those at least haven’t. And my Uncle switched his dogs to Pedigree, so I believe that’s fine. He’s very anti-any brand connected with the recall, esp since his dogs got sick from food on the very first recall list). Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, though.
From the Mars site: Mars provides pet care products, snacks, treats and complete diets for cats, dogs, cage birds, aquarium fish and horses. Our brands include PEDIGREE, CESAR, WHISKAS, SHEBA, KITEKAT, TRILL, AQUARIAN and WINERGY.
On a personal note, I’m thinking of trying raw, but have read reports of salomonella and stuff sometimes being found in raw. Does anyone know if this is an extra concern with heart conditions? My one cat has several heart conditions, and is on meds for them.
Comment by Krystal Kubichek — April 26, 2007 @ 6:57 am
Hoping someone can help with this. My Mom’s shih tzu is being fed Royal Canin Urinary SO. he supplements with Hill’s c/d. Lizzie has extreme urinary tract problems and crystalization. Two surgeries, meds, etc. She’s been doing really great on the restricted diet but neither Mom nor I feel safe with her eating products from these companies.
Can anyone make a suggestion on some other food for urolithiais in dogs?
Thanks.
Comment by Sharon — April 26, 2007 @ 6:57 am
linda k posted on another thread that “Wellness foods are being tested this week.” Linda, if you read this, please be specific as to (1) which foods (only those with rice protein?), and (2) where did you get this information? PLEASE don’t drop bombshells like this without as complete information as you have and where you got it.
Comment by Maureen — April 26, 2007 @ 6:57 am
ok castor and pollux where does your soybean meal come from?
Comment by maddy — April 26, 2007 @ 7:02 am
Sara J.,
They’ve said numerous places that they are working on the problem. Please…just be patient.
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 7:11 am
Article from this morning from the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/207488
“China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denying that the chemical was the culprit. “At present, there is no firm evidence to show that melamine was the direct cause of the poisoning and death of the pets,” said the faxed statement.”
Yeah, right, and I believe everything I am told to believe!
Comment by PJ — April 26, 2007 @ 7:11 am
Here’s another story:
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that hogs in Utah and five other states may have eaten food contaminated with an industrial chemical linked to a massive recall of pet food and animal feed. According to the FDA, it appears that some of the contaminated pet food was sent as salvaged feed to hog producers in Utah, California, North and South Carolina, New York and possibly Ohio.
The FDA tested hogs in California and the Carolinas, and levels of melamine were detected in their urine. Melamine is a non-protein nitrogen source with a variety of uses, including fertilizer.
Questions outnumbered answers Wednesday, as state and federal officials worked to identify whether animals had ingested the contaminated food, whether ingesting melamine affected hogs the same way it appeared to affect some pets, whether melamine had or could make it into the human food market, and whether it was harmful to humans.
What is known is that the six states in question all received feed from American Nutrition, an Ogden pet food company, according to UDAF Commissioner Leonard Blackham. American Nutrition reported earlier this month that its feed might have contained contaminated rice protein concentrate imported from China, launching an FDA investigation.
While the FDA continues its tests on whether the feed is contaminated, Blackham said the UDAF has ordered reagents from New Jersey to conduct its own urine tests to determine the presence of melamine. Sixty hogs from the three Utah farms will undergo urine tests, said state veterinarian L. Earl Rogers. The results likely won’t be available until next week.
No hogs have become ill or died under suspicious circumstances, Blackham said.
As of Wednesday, several questions remained, including:
• Whether animals at any of the three Utah hog farms ingested contaminated food. The UDAF declined to identify the farms but said each was under a voluntary “hold order” discouraging the sale of hogs into the market.
• Whether any contaminated animals have made it to market.
• Whether ingesting the levels of melamine in the contaminated feed has detrimental effects on the hogs, or humans.
Little is known about melamine, according to Utah Health Department spokeswoman Charla Haley. There is no substantive research on the health effects of melamine on humans.
“All of our actions are presumptive,” Rogers said. “We still don’t have any concrete test results.”
Rogers and Blackham downplayed the risks to human health, stating that the animals that had been sickened in the pet food incident were predominantly the vulnerable — small, either very young or very old, or with their health compromised already. The hogs are much larger, Blackham said, and the small amount they likely ingested, if any, means that the risk to humans if they consumed tainted pork would be minimal.
“There is no reason to put off eating pork,” Blackham said. “The likely possibility is that there no contamination out there.”
There are about 300 hog farms in Utah. The hogs under the voluntary hold constitute about 1 percent of the state’s total number, Rogers said. In total, the three hog farms under the hold order house 1,000 to 2,000 hogs.
Clell Bagley, a professor and Extension program leader in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at Utah State University, said Wednesday that melamine “has been considered relatively harmless in the past.”
“People in general thought it was fairly innocuous,” Bagley said. “But because it got into the pet food and caused such problem there, that’s grabbed attention. So we apparently still have lots to learn about it.”
Jeffrey O. Hall, a USU toxicologist and head of the university’s diagnostic toxicology lab, said melamine is thought to cause kidney damage because of the formation of crystals in kidney tubules, tiny tubes in the kidneys that act in parallel to filter blood and produce urine. That can lead to kidney damage and failure, Hall said.
“There is still ongoing work as to whether or not it would contaminate meat,” Hall said. “Because it’s a compound that there’s not much known about, there’s a lot of investigation being done about what type of concentrations might be occurring in other tissues that might be edible.”
However, Hall and Bagley agreed that at this stage, there’s no need for public panic or a ban on pork products.
“In the United States we don’t typically eat pork kidney, so the concentrations (of melamine) that might be in the skeletal muscle are likely to be quite low,” Hall said. “In which case, it would be of low to no concern. But again, there is a lot of ongoing testing being done.”
Bagley emphasized that the melamine contamination is toxic in nature, rather than microbial. As such, there isn’t the risk of illness spreading from animal to animal, herd to herd, person to person. And, Bagley said, it does appear that the FDA is “near the front of it, and will be able to get it stopped.”
But there is one other, broader point worth considering, according to Bagley.
“There are major regulations on our producers in the U.S., both plant and animal products,” he said. “Yet we’re accepting things from other countries because they’re cheap, things that don’t necessarily go through every regulation as rigorously as we have to go through. So we’re putting our producers out of business to buy cheap food, and we’re taking them with less than the quality control they ought to have.”
————————————————————————————————————————
E-MAIL: jnii@desnews.com
Comment by Eva — April 26, 2007 @ 7:23 am
Anyone see the newest from Menu foods? Press release.
http://www.menufoods.com/recal.....242007.htm
Comment by Maudigan — April 26, 2007 @ 7:27 am
Comment by Krystal Kubichek
You are right. None of Mars pet food products have been affected by the recall. Trust me, I call every week if not more making them guarantee to me that there products are safe. I switched to these after my two cats died and the other became so sick from the Special Kitty. I also switched my dogs to Pedigree products. I havent experienced a problem since switching.
Comment by Adrienne — April 26, 2007 @ 7:28 am
The FDA was told China would allow their admittance to inspect the plants.
??? WHAT IS THE HOLD UP ???
http://tinyurl.com/26lcap
China Says It Has Invited U.S. to Help With Investigation After Pet Food Scare
BEIJING Apr 26, 2007 (AP)— China said Thursday that it had invited U.S. inspectors to help in an investigation looking at possible contaminated food exports in the wake of the pet food scare in the United States.
Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will visit, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
The United States has said that wheat gluten contaminated with melamine was exported to the U.S. from China and was used in pet food that has been linked to the deaths of more than a dozen cats and dogs in the United States.
“The U.S. reported finding melamine in pet food. China attaches great importance to this case. The USFDA wants to send officials to China to exchange ideas and consult on inspection techniques. China will cooperate on this,” Liu said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
Comment by Kat — April 26, 2007 @ 7:39 am
I just want my cute, made-up story of Big Dog to either appear or be returned to me. I didn’t save it — so it’s gone. I posted it between 11 - 12 ‘ish CT yesterday. :(
Comment by Kat — April 26, 2007 @ 7:44 am
Would someone post the site for an article in Wednesday’s Washington Post titled “On China’s menu: a diet of uncertainty”? Thanks much.
Comment by elliott — April 26, 2007 @ 7:50 am
But the broader sentiment in the industry is best summed up in his prediction of Menu’s immediate future: “It will be a return to business as usual.”
http://www.macleans.ca/busines.....326_104326
Perhaps it’s time to get a list of all companies involved. If no major changes are enacted for our furry friends and us, we need to be willing to boycott EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT, by every company involved. UNCONDITIONAL.
Comment by mary — April 26, 2007 @ 8:07 am
“On China’s menu: a diet of uncertainty”
http://www.omaha.com/index.php.....id=2372468
Comment by Mike — April 26, 2007 @ 8:07 am
Well, Im going to try and post this information again as I havent seen this issue brought up yet. It is disgusting and hard to believe, but I think we need to face the truth. Yesterday in a link that appeared along with a story on the FDA hearings in Yahoo news, a man claimed that “in Los Angelos alone two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs are sent to a company for use in pet food in one month.”
We are all pointing the finger at China, but what is going on in our own country. Along with all the other reasons for stopping this practice, is the fact that the sodium pentobarbital that is used to kill these animals in the shelters is retained in the bodies.
What about the rat posion that no one is mentioning anymore. It may not of been the direct cause of the immediate deaths, but do you want it in your pet food?
sickened, chrystine
Comment by chrystine — April 26, 2007 @ 8:19 am
…and now i am more confused.
how can i find our if that mention of Whiskas
was indeed a TYPO?
I went to the link from the article and can’t figure out how to contact the writer to see if thats the case.
(my kitties are really sick again - and their main diet before we switched was Whiskas - so far not recalled - we stopped as a safety measure because they were vomiting)
~starr
Comment by starr — April 26, 2007 @ 8:23 am
Starr: You need to report to the FDA — good luck calling them. On Tues they never answered the phones..just messages enter 2, enter 8, enter 1…blah, blah, blah.
Your kitties probably need a Panel Test to check for BUN & Creatinine levels & possibly a urinalysis.
So sorry your kitties are sick! :( Good luck!
kat
Comment by Kat — April 26, 2007 @ 8:43 am
MIKE - Thank you.
Comment by elliott — April 26, 2007 @ 8:43 am
“On a personal note, I’m thinking of trying raw, but have read reports of salomonella and stuff sometimes being found in raw. Does anyone know if this is an extra concern with heart conditions? My one cat has several heart conditions, and is on meds for them. Comment by Krystal Kubichek”
Although I don’t have a cat, my-5 1/2 yr golden has been dx with DCM since he was 2 1/2. He also has Hip dysplasia, had skin alopecia/pyoderma, ear infections, multiple who knows what else. He is not currently on meds for his heart. I switched him to home cooking at 2 1/2 or so and then to raw by 3. Actually a conroversial tx for DCM is taurine and L carnitine(for dogs at least), which I supplement with. I weighed the options and wondered too. Thought on how when you cook food you lose nutrients including proteins. In the end I thought he was better off with more of the protein, uncooked. He does not do well with the bones, chokes on them trying to swallow whole, so I have to do my best to adjust calcium (egg shells ground) to his food. There is a group on yahoo, K9nutrition that has lots of info on both home cooking and raw, I think I have seen some info for cats, there must be groups for cats too, do not feed salmon raw, that must be cooked, only one I can think of right off.
Since he has gone raw, no more ear infections, no skin pyoderma, heart and breathing, though not improved is still not worse, or not yet. Hips a little worse, but he is a few years older and I supplement for that and give a little pain control. He has never had any worse stomach problems after we went raw, in fact he had lots more diarrhea before, now I add a little pumpkin, (not pie mix-has sugar, but plain pumpkin to assist at times), best I can do for him so far.
I looked at how he ran for the muckiest puddles and tried to drink out of them on our walks and always managedc to finagel a dead fish or two on the beach, and thought, hey, at least with the frozen and controlled raw I can’t be worse. It has worked, and nope the vets, he sees- two- don’t like it, but I learned with my other golden I lost to OSA, I am the one paying and losing my best friend, not them. I live with my decisions and I do research, and they are my best friends.
mary
Comment by mary — April 26, 2007 @ 8:50 am
Kat - Thanks for the well wishes.
I have been trying to report to the FDA all day yesterday and today - same thing….no answer, recordings…then it disconnects.
We are going to have the blood panel drawn.
What angers me the most is that they made it through being sickened in the first recall (by who knows which food - nothing they had was “officially” recalled),only to have been made sick again by the “safe” Blue Buffalo” food.
~starr
Comment by starr — April 26, 2007 @ 9:18 am
comment by mary - April 26, 2007 @ 8:07 AM
“It will be a return to business as usual.”
***Excuse me***
Not if we have something to say about it.
You’re absolutely right, Mary. We need to act on this right away. Let’s pick one company to start with and work our way through the entire list.
I, for one, do not want no “back to business as usual.” NO-no-no-no-no!
Comment by Kathi — April 26, 2007 @ 10:09 am
hmmm wonder what Menu plans to do when the products won’t sell? They really think the public is going to fall for this when the problem has not even been resolved yet?
I have a hard time believing people will by brands that caused so much death and illness!
Comment by KatieKat — April 26, 2007 @ 10:40 am
http://tinyurl.com/ypg7cf
Dozens Sick After Meal at Chinese School
Excerpt:
“Mass poisonings are common in China, which has been struggling to improve a dismal food safety record. Manufacturers often mislabel food products or add illegal substances to them.”
Comment by Pat — April 26, 2007 @ 10:52 am
Whiskas is made by Mars, and I don’t believe they’ve had a single recall
Actually, Mars owns Royal Canin, so that’s not correct.
Comment by Christie Keith — April 26, 2007 @ 11:14 am
You are right. None of Mars pet food products have been affected by the recall. Trust me, I call every week if not more making them guarantee to me that there products are safe.
Just to clarify, Mars owns Royal Canin - so this isn’t quite true. Were you asking them about specific products?
Comment by Christie Keith — April 26, 2007 @ 11:15 am
Looking at the list of pet food manuf. and wondering:
In human food manuf. it is my understanding - if a company has an increased need to produce product and not enough capacity of their own, they will contract out to a company who has a free line available. They provide the raw ingredients, and I believe they do this to prevent spoilage as well as keep inventory up. Does anyone know if this is done by the pet food companies??
When I called Eukanuba/Iams, they told me their dry food is all made within their own plants. But, knowing how the companies have all twisted words lately… I tried searching on the net, but can’t seem to find the answer. Maybe someone here works for or knows how things are done by the companies. Would ease my mind.
Last evening someone posted that Castor Pollux was checking their rice protein conc. and food was made at CJ - does anyone have confirmation that info was correct? I thought they were organic and a small company who made their own product ( I use their organic dog bones - thought I had made a safe choice..)
And, I can’t believe they are not quarantining the hogs! If that wasn’t bad enough..in NC he’s still feeding them contaminated product!
I keep hoping this nightmare will end -
Thank you everyone for all the information. You guys are great!
Katie
Comment by Katie — April 26, 2007 @ 11:21 am
“It will be a return to business as usual.”
***Excuse me***
Not if we have something to say about it.
You’re absolutely right, Mary. We need to act on this right away. Let’s pick one company to start with and work our way through the entire list.
I, for one, do not want no “back to business as usual.” NO-no-no-no-no! Comment by Kathi — April 26, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Something I had been thinking on, and Kathi you stated it clearly,
A man was walking on a beach one day when he saw a child picking up starfish that washed ashore the night before. ( I imagined them to look as many as the stars in the sky on the clearest night).
He watched as the child threw a starfish back into the water. The child then continued down the beach with the intense sun on his back, picking up another starfish and tossing it in the water, and then another, and another laughing in delight. The man followed and soon caught up with the child and told him, “The beach is covered with starfish, you cannot possibly hope to save them all. What you are doing does not matter at all” The child looked up at the man, sun shinning in his eyes, almost blinding him. Smiling, with another starfish in hand said, “but I saved this one.” The child then turned, sun intensely heating the back, all the while feeling the cool breeze reinvigorating the face, and so the child went on to the next starfish to assist him to his place. Waiting, to be returned to the ocean of life, it’s rightful place.
Something I read long ago, and ran across, not so long ago, and thought on through this deal, and I think it is fitting. Don’t remember the exact words or who wrote it,
mary
Comment by mary — April 26, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
Mary
Thank you, that’s a great story - a philosophy I like to live by. That’s how we learn to walk - one step at a time.
I’m glad you posted the article on Menu Foods. Good thing the Canadians know how to report a story. 8)
Comment by Kathi — April 26, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
Sorry for the length - just received this from Purina - different date from their website post. Looked the same though. I’m not buying though. I wonder what their attorneys are thinking. If you keep sending out and posting that your food is indeed safe - doesn’t that make you more liable in the end. . .??
April 25, 2007
Dear Valued Purina Consumer:
Nothing is more important to Nestlé Purina PetCare Company than the health and well-being of the pets whose nutrition has been entrusted to Purina products by their owners. The loss of a pet or a pet’s illness due to pet food contamination is unacceptable to us, and a tragedy for those involved.
We want to take this opportunity to provide you with some valuable information about the recent limited recall of two Purina products - ALPO® brand Prime Cuts wet dog food and Mighty Dog® brand pouch-packaged dog food - and the possible confusion surrounding wheat gluten as a safe and good ingredient used in pet foods.
Nestlé Purina associates, most of whom are pet owners, feed Purina products. All of us are working diligently and with a total commitment to address and resolve this situation; to respond to concerns of consumers, customers and veterinarians; and to take the necessary actions to protect the health and well-being of the millions of dogs and cats who eat Purina foods.
We want you to know that wheat gluten, in and of itself, is not the reason for the recent recall of ALPO Prime Cuts canned and Mighty Dog pouch products. According to the FDA, the recall was due to a contaminant, subsequently identified as melamine, which was found in specific lots of wheat gluten.
Wheat gluten is a rich natural protein extracted from wheat or wheat flour. Purina has been using wheat gluten in its products for nearly twenty years without incident. In fact, the same quality wheat gluten that is used in pet food products is also used in human foods. Because we believe you might be concerned or get asked about the role of this ingredient as a result of the recall, please click here for a summary of the current facts surrounding this issue.
On April 16, the FDA announced that a quantity of rice protein concentrate also was subject to melamine contamination. Purina does not use rice protein concentrate in any of its U.S. or Canadian products. We do know it as a commonly used pet food ingredient and normally another good source of protein when not inappropriately manipulated through contamination.
We also want you to know that our already rigorous evaluation and food safety program for our raw materials has been reviewed and enhanced to now detect melamine. Despite the fact that melamine is a completely foreign substance to food and should not be found in wheat gluten, we are now testing every lot of wheat gluten received for the presence of this contaminant. Further, we are implementing additional technology to further screen our pet food ingredients.
We encourage you to review “The Facts about Contamination and the Pet Food Recall,” and share it with those you feel may be interested in the information, in order to provide clearer information surrounding the recall, wheat gluten and its important role in the production of our pet foods.
We pledge that Purina is doing everything possible to continue ensuring each ingredient that goes into our products is safe for pets. Please know that nothing is more important to us than protecting the health and wellbeing of the millions of dogs and cats who eat Purina pet foods. We continue to cooperate fully with the FDA during its ongoing investigation and rest assured, we will continue to take the appropriate actions necessary. This is a responsibility all Purina associates take very seriously.
We are confident that consumers can continue to place their trust in Purina products.
For more information and answers to Frequently Asked Questions, please click here.
Sincerely,
The Employees of Nestlé Purina PetCare Company
Comment by ashlee — April 26, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Quote: “It will be a return to business as usual.”
***Excuse me***
Not if we have something to say about it.
You’re absolutely right, Mary. We need to act on this right away. Let’s pick one company to start with and work our way through the entire list.
I, for one, do not want no “back to business as usual.” NO-no-no-no-no! Comment by Kathi — April 26, 2007 @ 10:09 am
End Quote ———————————-
It will be only ‘business as usual’ if *we* allow it.
Dear Iams: you used my hands to poison my cats. I don’t think I’ll use your product ever again.
Dear other Pet Food ‘Manufacturers’: if you are somehow, anyhow connected to menu food INCOME fund, forget it. My memory is good, and I have all the two reasons with blue eyes and dark faces in the world to remember how you abused my trust. And I will remember this scandal to the stoneages and back, trust me.
Pet food Manufacturers not -yet- involved in this scandal: Does the word ‘probation’ mean anything to you?
The time when I believed you, and thought you would be better equipped to make the food for my cats is *so* over, you have no idea .
For the rest of my natural life, I will be weary, cautious and willing to believe the worst in a heart beat when it comes to pet food.
I accept this education, and it will help me make another big step towards mental independence and ‘unruliness’.
Comment by MaKo — April 26, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
Hey Katie
I have been feeding my cats castor and pollux for three months and somehow had got the impression they were this little organic company in oregon making their own food. LOL(bitterly)
Anyway you can go to castorpollux.com and read the statements concerning the recall. It seems like all their food is safe.
Interestingly they started their business after creating a “multi-million dollar business distributing Iams in China.” Check out “their story” tab.
Also, read the questions and answers. Who made their food——MENU!
Im still using it until I can figure out something better.
Thanks everyone, chrystine
Comment by chrystine — April 26, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
RESPONSE FROM DIAMOND and NUTRA NUGGETS (from Costco) RE: Corn Gluten
Dear Kerry:
I apologize for the confusion. We do have some temporary customer service
representatives who are helping us answer questions about the recall, we
will make sure that they get the correct information about corn gluten meal.
The corn gluten meal that is used in all of our brands is grown, processed,
and purchased solely within the United States. It is not imported by Diamond
Pet Foods or by our suppliers.
Please be reassured that the Diamond and Nutra Nuggets products are ok to
feed.
Sincerely,
—
Melissa Brookshire, DVM
Director of Veterinary Services
Diamond Pet Foods
573-229-4203 (office)
So I guess I can now open those bags that I have been holding on to. :)
Comment by Keryat — April 26, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Keryat - I think that Costco just recalled Kirkland wet food. Proceed with caution. Just posted.
Comment by ashlee — April 26, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
I just got this notice from the FDA:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 26, 2007 — Chenango Valley Pet Foods is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and voluntarily recalling pet foods manufactured with a certain shipment of rice protein concentrate. The company was informed by Wilbur-Ellis that the rice protein concentrate shipped to Chenango Valley Pet Foods may be contaminated with melamine, and instructed Chenango Valley Pet Foods to recall any pet foods manufactured with the rice protein concentrate. Melamine is an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers that may lead to illness or fatalities in animals if consumed.
The pet foods were sold to customers in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, who further sold the products to their customers through catalog mail-orders or retail outlets.
Only the following dry pet foods are involved in the recall:
DOCTORS FOSTER & SMITH CHICKEN & BROWN RICE FORMULA ADULT LITE DOG FOOD, NET WT. 5 LBS., 12.5 LBS, and 25 LBS; Code dates: Best Used By Jan 24, 09; Best Used By Feb 8, 09; Best Used By Feb 26, 09; Best Used By April 10, 09; Best Used By April 17, 09;
DOCTORS FOSTER & SMITH CHICKEN & BROWN RICE FORMULA ADULT LITE CAT FOOD, NET WT. 3 LBS. and 7 LBS.; Code date: Best Used By March 13, 09;
LICK YOUR CHOPS LAMB MEAL, RICE & EGG CAT FOOD, 4 LBS. packages,
Code date: Best Used By April 29, 08;
Bulk CHICKEN & BROWN RICE FORMULA ADULT LITE DOG FOOD sold to one consignee (SmartPak) in a 2000 lbs. tote, Ship date: Feb 9, 2007.
No illnesses or injuries have been reported to date.
Pet owners who purchased the pet foods should immediately discontinue using the products and return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Pet owners should consult with a veterinarian if they have any health concerns with their pet. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-610-821-0608.
I have totally lost all faith in food. My friend “treated” her guide dog with a few pieces of Sensible Choice after eading the ingredients and finding no rice protein in it-a few days later it was pulled and her dog is very ill. He has melamine chrystals in his bladder -kidneys and stones. she has an infectionin her artificial knew-a tear in her other knee -and her husband is in Iraq-He is a golden and had at the most 100 bits of kibble when she saw the recall and looked again at th ingrediants-funny it now had rice gluten-
We all need to raise this issue with our congress men or this willhappen again.
Carol
Comment by Carol — April 26, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
Comment by ashlee — April 26, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
The Employees of Nestlé Purina PetCare Company said:
“Purina has been using wheat gluten in its products for nearly twenty years without incident. In fact, the same quality wheat gluten that is used in pet food products is also used in human foods.”
Oh, thank you. Now I feel a lot better.
Sincerely,
The Employees of Nestlé Purina PetCare Company
Comment by ashlee — April 26, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Comment by Nadine Long — April 26, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
Menu is suing Chemnutra:
http://tinyurl.com/2k4mws
Comment by Elaine — April 26, 2007 @ 5:19 pm