How long does a recall take?
By Christie Keith
May 20, 2007
Gina commented yesterday, in her post about Bark Magazine’s coverage of the pet food recall, that it would have been hard to predict back in March that it would still be a big story more than two months later — or that we’d have just had eight more pet foods recalled in the last three days.
The photo on the right is from the website of Pets Need a Voice Too, the folks with the great “FDA: We make FEMA look good” t-shirts. And it asks a very powerful question, about something I’d really like to know: how long does a recall take?
I’m sure everyone who believed the assurances they were given that “foods not on the recall list are safe” would like the answer, too, especially the members of one Florida family, whose story is in Monday’s St. Petersburg Times:
It’s 7 a.m. and Debbie Cmar and her husband, Al Montes, are scrambling. Cmar will take their cats, Libby and Bobby Socks, to the vet. Montes will watch their two children. This is the dance the couple performs almost weekly now as the preservation of their cats controls the rhythm of their lives.
If it’s not trips to the vet, it’s the nightly ritual of injecting a feeding tube intravenously into the animals. Without the daily fluid pack that hangs above the laundry room dryer, Libby faces certain death.
Two of their four cats already have died. All four have suffered kidney disease their veterinarian attributes to contaminated pet food.
The food, Nutro Max Gourmet Classics, did not appear at first on the ever-growing national recall list, and Cmar thought all was well. But then Nutro Max’s manufacturer issued a recall, and Gourmet Classics joined hundreds of other products being blamed for the illness and deaths of thousands of cats and dogs nationwide.
Cmar has already spent over $10,000 trying to save her cats, most of it on a credit card, and is struggling with both the financial and emotional impact of their illnesses, and questioning if she’s doing the right thing fighting so hard to save her her “special” pet:
While Cmar has had a heart for all of her cats, 7-year-old Libby is unique.
Cmar and Montes picked up the three-legged, white-and-brown domestic from PetSmart after she was abandoned. Libby always had been the most playful.
Two of the family’s other cats, Petunia, an 11-year-old Siamese, and 16-year-old Princess, a Persian, died April 18 and 19 after their kidneys failed. Since then, Libby’s been trying to make it.
It’s 8 a.m. when Dr. Don Woodman arrives. Libby and Bobby Socks, a short-haired domestic, are first on his list.
Bobby Socks appears fine. But Libby has lost 2 pounds in about a week, down to 7 pounds, 15 ounces. A year ago, she was more than 10 pounds.
Woodman concludes the family’s cats clearly suffer from contaminated pet food.
“The Cmar’s case is basically a slam dunk, ” Woodman says. “We had four cats in the same house that had kidney disease at the same time. It’s a heartbreaking case.”
What does the pet food manufacturer say?
John Canel, of Nutro Products Inc.’s customer service department, says pet owners who believe his company’s food may have poisoned their animal should file a claim. Nutro Products’ insurance company will reimburse costs for substantiated claims.
Cmar, who has filed a claim, said the company has been helpful. She’s still waiting to see whether she will be reimbursed.
Meanwhile, she’s fighting another battle – her own feelings of guilt.
“I stay sick to my stomach, ” Cmar says. “We were feeding them direct poison. Even though you know you didn’t mean to, it’s hard. It’s hard to shake it off.”
When this first began, Gina and I both pretty much set everything else in our lives, both personal and professional, aside, and lived and breathed the pet food recall. I was motivated to a large extent by sadness and horror at what happened to people and their animals. Having lost a dog to acute kidney failure due to other causes, I was haunted by what I knew these people and animals were going through.
After a while, though, anger replaced grief, and I found myself focusing more on the regulatory issues, the international trade crisis, food safety issues. I’ve always been more comfortable with anger than sadness. It’s just part of who I am.
But I guess there’s always grief under the anger, because when I read this article tonight, for the first time in a long time, I cried. And I wondered, seriously: how long does a recall take? Because this is one is taking way, way too long.
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My new morning routine, get up and read the recall list first thing to make sure the dry food I am feeding has not been added.
We still mainly feed our cats people food (but I can’t even be 100% sure that is safe for them or us) with a little dry food for them to snack on throughout the day.
Comment by Alasandra — May 21, 2007 @ 3:28 am
That’s why I switched to home-cooking, even though I’m lousy in a kitchen and I don’t even feed MYSELF that way. The daily “Pet Food Russian Roulette” routine was destroying my nerves.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — May 21, 2007 @ 4:52 am
L.A. Times article today featuring Itchmo and PetConnection:
http://www.latimes.com/busines.....crosspromo
Comment by Maureen — May 21, 2007 @ 5:36 am
Ditto… every am. i awake wondering if another
pet,or people food isn’t going to be recalled?
it’s taken awhile for it to finnaly sink in..
the two-legged rats that allowed this, are still
hopeing we’l grow tired, and negilgent, then
they’l go back to importing communists poisons
and more profits made while my animals suffer.
i have news “gentlemen”? (corporations, communists, and assorted lackeys),
i a only patient so long.. for years i’ve listened , and watched while you grew rich
and other suffered? your day is comming..
Comment by johnypaycut — May 21, 2007 @ 5:46 am
Ditto, here too. That story brought me to tears again. I lost a cat named Petunia too. The day my Petunia stopped eating, my other cat Fluffy ate his leftovers. Fluffy has renal failure, I do the IV fluids as well. My other 2 cats did not eat the tainted Iams ‘Select Bites’ are fine.
2 weeks ago, my 8-year-old cockatiel ‘Luna’ died. Part of his diet was ‘Kaytee” seed. I was shocked to see ‘corn gluten’ on the ingredients list. I called Kaytee and they said their testing showed no melamine. After being lied too over and over again by the cat/dog food mfgs, I can’t think of one good reason why I should believe my ‘Luna’ bird didn’t die from tainted corn gluten, can you?
Comment by Annie — May 21, 2007 @ 8:29 am
I am glad the news is getting out and sad that it has taken so long to get there.
The delay of three weeks by Menu Foods cost me dearly, 3, dead another sick and, oh yeah, more than two months of my life and staggering vet bills.
Not quite what I had in mind when I fed my pets a treat.
And the shameful delays in the media and the dismissive and insulting 16 deaths “big lie” that the pet food industry and the FDA tried so hard and so long to sell.
Gina and Christie and Ben and Therese have been real heroes in this disaster and the situation was not crowded with folks trying to do the right thing.
The pet food industry betrayed the people and the pets.
The government betrayed the people and the pets.
The mainstream media betrayed the people and the pets.
And in doing so, the fact that the entire food chain of the country has been poisoned for years, came to light.
Been a heck of a ride.
Comment by E. Hamilton — May 21, 2007 @ 8:34 am
What the other Pat said. I couldn’t play Russian Roulette with my cats’ food any more. My nerves couldn’t take it. We’d already had a horrible rash of kitty cancer and lost most of our elderly cats; I just can’t go through that again. (I’m also not happy that melamine is apparently a carcinogen and has been in their food for years. Not that I can prove a connection, of course.)
I have a really demanding job, my boyfriend is a college student, we’re both aspiring fiction writers. Before this I was the nuke queen, dinner-wise. Because something’s got to give when you have that much stuff to shove into your life.
Cooking for them isn’t really that time-consuming, though. I make big batches and freeze it. And it’s actually very satisfying; I wish I’d done this a long time ago. They seem so much healthier on my home-cookin’ that I’ll probably never go back.
Comment by Katherine — May 21, 2007 @ 8:40 am
Soon everything in the supermarkets will be “recalled”.
I stopped at a large outdoor farm/market on the way back from the mountains yesterday (Davis Ranch) and bought a few fresh items - and I asked them? Is this all from your farm. He said no, some of it isn’t. And then I asked, do you get it from the supermarket? No, he said, other sources.
Other sources - markets that sell to our “big chain stores?”
Now, I ask specifically - “Did you grow this” and if they say yes, I buy it. And by the way, it cost me twice as much as in the chain stores and (bananas were 90 cents a pound - and I know they didn’t grow them.)
Next thing will be the “big American Rip Off” - we will pay dearly for non-toxic food and maybe gouged by greedy corporations.
Comment by Linda — May 21, 2007 @ 8:51 am
What another heartbreaking story. One of many.
We tend to put more weight of the pets that already have died but thousands must still be suffering. Their pet parents facing bills that many of them can ill afford. All due to the greed/ineffective quality procedures by the pet food companies plus recalls at a snails pace. Something is very wrong with this picture.
If the PFI has any decency left they would establish a common fund( they should be forced to) among all of their members, that the veterinary community could access for claims on behalf of their clients.
Comment by Serijna — May 21, 2007 @ 10:14 am
Comment by Serijna — May 21, 2007 @ 10:14 am
The fund to pay bills was what I asked for weeks ago, a sign of good faith that someone, anyone in the pet food industry had some common decency.
There was none to be found.
Not a single big pet food company stepped up and told the non internet users what the symptoms to look out for were, what they spent money on was Duane and insults and spin and more delays. Ad budgets got the money and the thought and pet owners got dead or dying pets and insults.
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?
Comment by E. Hamilton — May 21, 2007 @ 10:33 am
Tears, again, and for every story we read here there are over a hundred we don’t see…
Some good news: Our Maine Coon Mix broke up through the 7 pound barrier this weekend…
Almost more astonishing, our Vet has agreed to investigate more agressive fluid therapy - and any potential downside if, in fact, her kidney damage is not due to the food recall…
That’s two small items of good news, anwyay.
More bills coming up, and my contract job is about to expire… I guess that balances out the good news before even leaving the house…
Comment by steve a — May 21, 2007 @ 11:39 am
I had a question from my aunt the other day. She has a “few” cats and feeds multiple stray cats in her area. She can’t cook for everyone and can’t afford to buy the maybe safe premium foods. She has been lucky that the stuff she feeds now hasn’t been recalled: Friskies canned and the Special Kitty canned. None of the foods she uses thankfully are the ones that are cuts in gravy. She asked me if I thought the foods she was feeding were safe and I really couldn’t say yes or no at this point.
Comment by Maureen (Lilly and Lucy's mom) — May 21, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Comment by E. Hamilton
I hope everyone will keep the pet food scandal in the news till some meaningful changes have been made.
Either at Fed. level or State level.
On human foods there is a big legal stick(liability, pain and suffering etc) behind the door for distributing dangerous foodstuff. Voluntary recalls are addressed very promptly because of this.
These pet food manufacturers only think in money, profits, risk assessments and will only change if they can be held legally accountable for shoddy practices resulting in big payouts.
There must be legal(human pet parents pain and suffering) liability in excess of vet. bills, value of animal.
The veterinarian community should be exempt from such lawsuits or only restricted to value of animal. The last thing we want is a high malpractice insurance for vets. The majority of our vets are our friends/compatriots in this battle.
Vet. visits should remain affordable for pet parents. Not like those many uninsured people who cannot afford their doctors.
Yes, I know I am dreaming again. Just afraid that when this finally over, it will be business as usual as it applies to pet food safety.
Comment by Serijna — May 21, 2007 @ 12:27 pm
This is a press release about food safety. I think the coalition is http://www.americansforlabeling.org
Points in this press release would be good ones to make in our letters to congress
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America
For Immediate Release Contact: Shae Dodson, Communications Coordinator
May 21, 2007 Phone: 406-672-8969; e-mail: sdodson@r-calfusa.com
Coalition Urges Congress to Fund
Country-of-Origin Labeling
Washington, D.C. - R-CALF USA has joined dozens of other organizations to request that Congress include in the FY2008 appropriations bill sufficient funds for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to immediately implement mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL).
Today, the coalition sent a formal letter that includes this request to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, and to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. The letter also provides documentation to show food imports have more than doubled since 2000, with the percentage of inspections falling by nearly 40 percent.
“The integrity and safety of the nation’s food supply is in serious jeopardy with our citizens eating an amalgam of food produced elsewhere, with no idea of its source,” the letter states. “It is critically important that our food consumers be provided with information on the source of the food because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA have not established a food safety inspection system sufficient to deal adequately with the tidal wave of food imports included in our food supply.
“Mothers and fathers in the U.S. want to feed their children wholesome and safe food, but cannot do so when the food industry fights origin information,” the letter continues. “Our domestic food safety system, with all its flaws, exceeds that of virtually all other countries.The industry’s claim that labeling is irrelevant to food safety has now become absurd. Many other countries simply do not have our food production and processing regulatory standards, nor do they have the regulatory capacity to enforce even those laws that do exist.
“Consumers do not want to, and cannot, rely entirely on the government,” the letter states. “A meaningful first step is to immediately implement mandatory country of origin labeling for meat and produce. Consumer choice is irrevocably connected with consumer safety.
“Mandatory country of origin labeling was approved by Congress in 2002, has been implemented successfully for seafood, and should no longer be delayed by special interests,” the letter concludes. “Now is clearly the time to fully implement this measure to provide U.S. consumers with critically important information about the integrity and safety of their food choices.”
R-CALF USA members have repeatedly voted to support mandatory country-of-origin labeling so consumers can be informed of the origin of their food.
Note: To view the letter to DeLauro and Kohl, visit the “Country-of-Origin Labeling” link at http://www.r-calfusa.com.
# # #
R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization and is dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on both domestic and international trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA has more than 60 affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit http://www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516.
Note: To remove yourself from this list, reply to this e-mail and include the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
rs to congress.
Comment by Elaine — May 21, 2007 @ 12:43 pm
Ditto for me too. I look every AM. to see what’s recalled next. And, on quiet days like today - I think, some company is hiding somewhere. It would have been so much better if they had all recalled at once. So many have suffered and are still suffering. Pets still showing up in ER’s sick.
Many,many thanks to PC,Itchmo and Howl for keeping the story alive and giving us all a place to come and exhange and find info. so we can make safe choices as well as push for change.
Katie
Comment by Katie — May 21, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Comment by Maureen,
I feed many cats also including outside strays/ferals. About 45 total.
Cannot afford premium foods either. I do feed Special Kitty cans(made by Del Monte and the same as 9 lives in like flavors).
Have no so sick cats. For dry food I use Whiskas o meaty flavors and Friskies feline favorites.
As a treat I buy fresh chicken quarters in 10 lbs bags at about 40 cts a lbs at Wal-Mart. Bake and cut it in small pieces and add to the Special Kitty. Use 20 lbs a week.
Hope this helps.
Also hope your aunt had all her cats spayed/neutered.
Comment by Serijna — May 21, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Steve,
Nice to hear the good news on your Main C. Mix.
Hope kitty keeps improving. Sorry to hear about the contract job ending. I thank God every day that my brood is healthy and well but still I’m about the number one biggest worry wart around fretting, and I’m driving my vet nuts with tests and more tests and gotta make sure phone calls.
Pray for the best for your kitty.
Comment by Linda — May 21, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
A timely Article on our Bee Friends - they are probably lurking out there somewhere - just trying to survive like the rest of us folks..We need to fight for them too..
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbo.....ukBees.pdf
Comment by Bee — May 21, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Bee,
Good article. I don’t use poisons around my house at all. I dig up weeds and lay down shredded cedar bark to help hold in water and also it helps the mess the dogs track inside - as I don’t have a lawn anymore - just trees and redwoods and bushes. I also have lot of bees and noticed too this weekend the many many bees while I was out and about with the dogs. Guess they are just finding better places to hang out!
Comment by Linda — May 21, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Inspirational and hopeful dreams for our survival:
http://www.kitchengardeners.or.....tch_1.html
Comment by Bee — May 21, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Well, just got back from some grocery shopping(Wal-Mart) and people still reading avidly labels.
Especially elderly people. Kind of breaks your heart , since many have such a hard time reading the small lettering. Had one elderly gentleman ask me if anything wrong with tuna in olive oil. Told him nothing, just donot buy the white albacore tuna(high in mercury).Also told him , the less ingredients , the better.
Such a crying shame that such people have to worry about what to safely buy in their old age.
Comment by Serijna — May 21, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
If you want to know where the bees all went, check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/2rkk3q
Comment by Linda — May 21, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
I have to agree, Christie. How long does a recall take? This is a story of such incredible ineptitude of the agencies (USDA/FDA/HLS) who are supposed to protect us from these things, that I am only stunned at the totality of this recall, and the lack of oversight and safety from the governmental agencies who are given the task of protecting us. What this means to me, personally, is that my government is more committed to trade agreements, profits for corporations, etc, than the health of me and my pets. If this isn’t an extreme violation of all that democracy stands for, then I am completely in awe at the power of those who have vs. those who have not. Take note: through history,the common man has stood up and said ‘enough is enough.’ If the corporations can’t see the the tide has changed, then they are fooling themselves. The tip of the iceberg? Yep. And the sea flows both ways, in and out. We won’t be silenced this time. There will be a change. Count on it. 11-million households with pets. We vote.
Comment by Cheryl Hansen — May 21, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
When checking emails after being away all day surprised to see another one from my senator, Carl Levin. He had replied a couple of weeks ago to one I’d sent him the first or second week all this began. This email he referred to Sen Durbin’s bill on Health and Pet Food Safety S1274. I emailed back and requested with his long-time influence that he impress on the other Michigan congressional representatives as well as others in Congress to support this bill to passage. Also asked that he and others work against companies such as Monsanto to stop the production of GM products.
Comment by VJ — May 21, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
I, too, never thought I’d be so involved with this blog. Never read one before. Ever since this has happened, I spend hours reading everything here.
Almost as soon as I get up and late into nights, I continually check the messages. Have even turned down a few events when there has been a tremendous amount of messages just trying to keep up with it all.
Comment by VJ — May 21, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
Same with me, VJ.
I had never blogged before, and I am a technogeezer so I had quite a time learning. :)
But this threat to our food supply is consuming a lot of my time!
It is so good to see so many others becoming politically active and writing to congress demanding Country Of Origin Labeling and accountability from our agencies.
Comment by Elaine — May 21, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
I had chatted on forums but never been a blogger. Spend enough time at work on PCs. But this is different. I have not lost any of my three cats, but the article brought tears to my eyes. I agree - just how long does a recall need to take? Who will be next?
I’m catching up on a couple of days reading - I’m also no activist but this has made me one.
Thanks to Gina, Kristie, Itchmo, Howl - and all the bloggers for keeping this story alive.
Comment by Jenny — May 21, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
Jenny and Elaine, I’m right there with you, never blogged before coming here, broken hearted and lost as to what to do. Doing something to honor not just my dog, but the many others, people and pets, who suffered in this recall nightmare.
I am grateful petconnection has here for me in these weeks of need. Don’t even want to think about going through all this without you all here.
*crying*
Comment by Maudigan — May 21, 2007 @ 6:46 pm
(((HUGS))) to you Maudigan
I was fortunate in that I didn’t feed any of the recalled food, and I still have my 2 dogs and 2 cats, but I cry too—just at the thought of all the tragic losses.
One night I stayed up late doing Google searches which proved that Tyson was going into the chicken business in China, and that is why USDA had written the rule to import cooked chickens from China!
I didn’t just fall off of the turnip truck and am well aware that our govt agencies are corrupt, but for some reason the extent of this awful corruption with no concern for our food supply really got to me that night, and I cried over that because it seemed so hopeless!
Comment by Elaine — May 21, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
Elaine - “… and that is why USDA had written the rule to import cooked chickens from China!”
And are those chickens grown in the US and sent to China in order to be cooked and sent back??Didn’t I read something about that several threads/days ago? Part of the ‘you buy our beef,we’ll buy your chicken’ plot???
Lorna
Comment by Lorna — May 21, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
Comment by Elaine — May 21, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
Wow, I had missed that before, thanks for mentioning it again!
Comment by Nabiya — May 21, 2007 @ 7:55 pm
Lorna,
I think the proposed rule reads that the chickens must be owned by a U.S. company, and I found that Tyson is going into chicken farming in China in fiscal year 2007.
Others found that night that Mission foods also has built a plant in China, so both companies saying they were not using Chinese ingredients in their foods, was just a shell game.
That was a very informative blog, go to archives and it was on May 17th.
Comment by Elaine — May 21, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
How Long Does a Recall Take?
Just long enough for most of us to NEVER buy from these companies again.
Comment by Marcy — May 21, 2007 @ 10:06 pm
Maureen –
God bless your efforts on behalf of our feline friends; I have a dozen of my own.
Please note that “Special Kitty” is on the recall list…
Comment by Heather Wilson — May 24, 2007 @ 10:07 am