pet connection

The recalls keep rolling. A notice sent by Wysong to its distributors and retailers today, identifying additional foods that are being recalled:

To: Wysong Distributors and Retailers
10.27.2009

Dear Valued Wysong Distributors and Retailers,

In light of our recent recall, we have been conducting thorough retesting on all dry products.

Some additional products have been found to be suspect in terms of moisture and water activity and we wish to recall them just to be on the safe side. These lots include:

Maintenance™ (lot#090817)
Senior™ (lot#090811)
Synorgon™ (lot#090629)

The in-house examination of many bags from these batches has turned up no sign of mold. But we believe there is that potential and so we would like you to help us recall these as a precaution.

As with our previous recalled batches of product, we have no reason to believe that these products present an imminent hazard to animals.

Nevertheless, please do not sell any of these products that you have in stock, and withdraw the products from store shelves as soon as possible.

A credit for all such product that you have in stock and withdrawn from stores will be issued. As possible, customers should be told not to feed the product.

We ask that you please act promptly. Let us know if we may be of any assistance contacting stores. The number one complaint we have received thus far is from customers who were not notified.

It is important to note that although the issuance of further recalls may give the impression that this is a current or going to be an ongoing problem, please understand that the subject of all of these recalls are past Wysong batches of product from a defined time period. And although we cannot be certain, we are confident that this will be the last of our recalls pursuant to this past summer’s mold problem. With the measures we have put in place we have no reason to believe there will be problems moving forward, just as there have not been for the past 25 years at our facility.

We know this is a great inconvenience and certainly not something you need with the current economic state of affairs. We are devastated in the thought that we have troubled and disappointed you. As we move forward and this is behind us, we will figure out a way to make it up to you.

Thank you for your continued efforts.

Sincerely,

Linda Sue and staff,
Wysong Corporation

Looks like they took down their original recall notice, but never fear… on the Internets, everything is forever. The update to that page is still there, but I couldn’t find this new one even with a lot of poking around the site. It might be there, but if a recall notice is posted in the woods and there are no bears there to see it… does it make a sound?

[UPDATE:] There is a link to info on the new recall on the front page of their site now — it goes to an expanded version of their last update.

In an epic example of missing the point, Wysong pet food company has updated its recall information to include the following Q&A (h/t to reader Sandi Shaw):

I am seeing many bad and scary comments on the Internet. Who am I to believe?

The Internet provides a means for anyone to say anything without regard to merit. We have provided the facts with regard to this incident. We are the only ones who know them.

Is that not totally awesome? I mean, how many companies really are willing to come right out and say something like that?

It seems Wysong took exception to some earlier internet reporting (including, apparently, ours) about its handling of the recall and what some saw as inadequate efforts to notify those who might have purchased the affected foods. And just who was the authority the company invoked to demonstrate it had handled the matter with the highest standard of responsiveness?

The FDA.

No, really:

We did all we could think of to do as fast as we could. This includes contacting the FDA. After days of review by them at our corporate and manufacturing sites, they advised that we could not have reasonably done more than we did. The matter was of small enough consequence that we have even been told by the FDA that a news release is not necessary.

Yes, the villains of the pet food recall themselves, whose efforts to track sick and dead pets were called out in Congress as a national disgrace, who completely failed to keep melamine and related compounds out of the human food chain, who still don’t inspect imported foods even after the seemingly unending series of contamination incidents involving human foods and drugs as well as pet food.

Let me be blunt here. The fact that processed foods can become contaminated is not exactly breaking news. And even companies with good practices and strong quality assurance systems can have problems. In fact, sometimes food we make ourselves at home spoils or becomes contaminated. That’s not the issue here.

The issue is transparency. The issue is rapid and effective corporate communication and good citizenship. The issue is protecting your customers. It’s an issue that’s bigger than the pet food industry — in fact, it’s bigger than industry itself, as it applies to corporations, government, and all kinds of communities.

Do you have a problem? Did something, big or small, go wrong? Be honest. Be fast. Be open. When things go wrong, stand up and make them right. That’s what sets the great institutions apart from the rest.

Whining that bloggers are mean? We call that FAIL.

A week after notifying retailers, Wysong Pet Foods just put a notice on their website about a recall. Via Therese at PetSitUSA.com, from Wysong:

The following batches of Wysong Canine Diets Maintenance™ and Senior™ have shown above acceptable moisture levels and may contain mold.

Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090617
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090624
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090706
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090720
Wysong Senior™: lot #: 090623

We ask that if you have received any of these Wysong products to please not feed them, and contact Wysong for product replacement.

Email: Wysong@Wysong.net
Subject: Product Replacement

Alternatively, please return or exchange at the store from which you purchased the product. Credit will be issued via our Distributors to the Retailer.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

How about apologizing for taking a week to tell pet owners about this risk to their dogs? When are pet food companies going to understand that every single day they delay has the potential to harm or even kill pets, and is destroying, buried press release by buried press release, consumer confidence in the pet food industry?

Premium Edge, a line manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, is withdrawing (one of the words du jour that pet food companies use to avoid the word “recall”) its Premium Edge Finicky Adult Cat and Premium Edge Hairball formulas due to a dangerous thiamine deficiency in the foods.

One of my readers wrote me about this yesterday, but I couldn’t find anything about it on the company’s web site. I phoned them, but they didn’t return the call.

So I tried again today, and was directed to this new online statement:

Diamond Pet Foods has withdrawn from distribution the following date codes of Premium Edge Finicky Adult Cat and Premium Edge Hairball cat: RAF0501A22X 18lb., RAF0501A2X 6 lb., RAH0501A22X 18 lb., RAH0501A2X 6lb. The calls from pet owners or veterinarians regarding this issue have been centered in the Rochester, NY area. All retail outlets shipped the above lots were contacted, asking them to pull the product from the store shelves. The retailers were also asked to contact their customers via email or telephone requesting them to check the date code of the food. However, if you or anyone you know has these date codes of Premium Edge cat food, please return them to your retailer.

Symptoms displayed by an affected cat will be neurological in nature. Any cats fed these date codes that display these symptoms should be immediately taken to a veterinarian.

Product testing proved no contaminants were discovered in the cat food; however the cat foods were deficient in thiamine. Diamond tracked the vitamin premix lot number that was utilized in these particular cat foods and have performed testing on another lot of Premium Edge cat food that used the same vitamin premix, and it was not deficient in thiamine. No other neurological signs have been reported on any other product manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods.

The affected cats were quite ill, mostly with neurological symptoms. The first sign was a lack of interest in eating, followed by symptoms including muscular weakness, vomiting, lethargy,rigid posture, circling, increased respiratory rate, lack of recognition of their owners, dilated pupils, and seizures.

Fortunately the cats have responded to thiamine supplementation and hospitalization, and my reader reported that Diamond is footing the bills for treatment.

This is just one more example of companies not getting it. Don’t hope these things won’t leak out; they will.  The minute a product problem is suspected, be open about it. Stop trying to call it something other than a recall when you pull your product off store shelves, and if animals are getting sick, blast it all over the PR channels, and make sure veterinarians are aware of the problem.

Otherwise, these endless small stories, buried on corporate web sites and dragged into the light of day by grieving pet owners, will turn into nothing but death by a thousand tiny cuts for the pet food industry, eroding consumer confidence and damaging companies’ reputations beyond repair.

It started out as a rumor, but one of Nutro’s “Ambassadors” just confirmed it on her Twitter feed: Nutro is “voluntarily withdrawing” — or, in plain English, recalling — some puppy food sold through PetSmart and Petco stores:

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Hi! I’m with Nutro. Re: plastic-During a maint. shutdown, a bump cap inadvertently made its way into our mfg. process equipment….

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Nutro audited 3000 bags of potentially affected finished product that never left our mfg site.

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Out of abundance of caution, Nutro voluntarily retrieved pot. affected product in a small number of PS/PC stores.

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Consumers who have purchased pot. affected product should return it to their retailer or contact Nutro’s Consumer Care @ 800- 833-5330

My favorite question for Edna, and one I’d like to see an answer to from the company:

kittymadgrrrr @EdnaAtNutro perhaps Nutro should post this at their website?

Indeed.

One of our readers emailed PetSmart about the recall, and received this reply:

Thank you for contacting PetSmart. Nutro has done a voluntary product withdrawal. This was done by the company for certain Nutro products and size. The affected items were Nutro Ultra Puppy 4.5 lb bags and Nutro Natural Choice Chicken, Rice and Oatmeal Puppy Small Bites in 5lb bags. While we have not been notified of any injury or illness related to these products, Pet Parents who have purchased these products should immediately stop feeding the food to their pets.

Because the withdrawal of these items only affects certain sized packages, you can return these to your nearest PetSmart to exchange the affected product for an alternate-sized package of the same food or a full refund.

If you have any more questions about this withdrawal, please contact Nutro customer service at 1-800-833-5330 or visit www.nutroproducts.com.

Again, we would like to reiterate that this is a voluntary Nutro product withdrawl.

I find the whole “voluntary.. withdrawal” thing so aggravating. Since FDA does not have the authority to order pet food recalls (or human ones, for that matter), all recalls are voluntary.

Including the ones that get spun into “withdrawals.”

Long story short: Companies, stop parsing words. Announce clearly and early, and don’t fantasize that you’ll be able to bring this in under the radar. You won’t. It just makes you look like you have something to hide, and erodes consumer confidence.