Pet Food Recall

I have also noticed, Chi, that Feline Eukanuba & Science Diet Savory Cuts and Canine Ekanuba (all wet foods in cans) are also on the recall list according to the Menu Foods site.

Thanks Hat

I noticed my list was not complete after you posted, and just pasted in a newer one as of Monday 3/19.

The real shocker, of course, is the scope of the list... one hopefully already knows, or suspects anyway, that Win-Dixie, White Rose and Key Food brands might be bad, but low-nitrogen foods like Eukanuba and Science Diet? Well now you know.

And bear in mind that Iams is made by Proctor & Gamble, the industry giant that still conducts tests on live animals and has been known to keep those test animals in hellish conditions. And that includes animals at their "test kitchens" for pet foods.

A safer and more humane choice would be the smaller purveyors of nutritionally sound foods. Ask your vet or small, independent pet food store.

I took my mother to task for feeding her Rottweiler Iams kibble. Situations like this recall make a strong case for choosing humane, nutrional-holistic pet foods and not that crap most supermarkets sell.

Napoleon eats mostly canned food but only Merrick, which is not affected so far as we've heard. Fortunately none of the pets in my family or circle of pet owner friends appears affected thus far.

I found this email from Pet Food Express that very clearly points out which foods they consider safe, and which risky.

quote:

PFE's current sales policy on wet dog and cat food is as follows:

NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE

We are not selling:

* Any item that has been recalled.
* Any wet foods, recalled or not, from brands that were made by Menu Foods and that had a significant number of recalled products
* The brands affected are: Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Nutro

AVAILABLE FOR SALE ON A RESTRICTED BASIS

These are brands that are produced in whole or in part by Menu Foods but for which we have spoken to the manufacturer and been assured that:

* Their products are not produced in the suspected plants.
* None of their products are being recalled
* They have had no reports of sick, dying, or dead pets.
* Their products do not contain wheat gluten.

We are selling these brands only if a client is fully aware of the recall and the potential risk posed by feeding a product made by Menu Foods. Although we have been assured that there is no problem with these foods, we cannot and do not vouch that they are safe.

* The brands included are: Nature's Variety, Wellness, Castor & Pollux, Newman's Own Organics, Wysong, Innova

AVAILABLE FOR SALE WITHOUT RESTRICTION

We are selling without restriction any brand that is not made by Menu Foods at all.

The brands included are:

* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
* Canidae/Felidae
* Breeder's Choice/Pinnacle (except for Chicken and Oats formula which is made by Menu)
* Natural Balance
* Solid Gold
* Triumph/Evolve
* Merrick
* Kal Kan (Pedigree, Cesar, and Whiskas)

I know Merrick is popular with some of our dogs, including Nova, and Ive been holding off on giving him any "wet" food till they know the cause. But it is reassuring to see it it listed as "safe".

Breaking News: Rat Poison

quote:

ABC News has learned that investigators have determined that a rodent-killing chemical is the toxin in the tainted pet food that has killed several animals.

A source close to the investigation tells ABC News that the rodenticide, which the source says is illegal to use in the United States, was on wheat that was imported from China and used by Menu Foods in nearly 100 brands of dog and cat food.

A news conference is scheduled for this afternoon by experts in Albany, N.Y., where scientists at the state's food laboratory made the discovery a week after a massive recall of 60 million cans and pouches was issued.

The chemical is aminopterin.

What investigators can't say so far is whether this is the only contaminant in all of the recalled food...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2975912&page=1&US=true

hideous. here's more:

Rat poison found in pet food, official says
Story Highlights

ALBANY, New York (AP) -- Rat poison has been found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets said Friday.

Spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden would not identify the chemical or its source beyond saying it was a rodent poison.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation was focusing on wheat gluten in the food. Wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but the common ingredient could have been contaminated by heavy metals or mold toxins, the FDA said. (Watch why devastated pet owners are suingVideo)

State agriculture officials scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon to release laboratory findings from tests on the pet food conducted this week.

The deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of pet food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. There have been several reports of kidney failure in pets that ate the recalled brands, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.

Menu Foods last week recalled "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food. The recall sparked concern among pet owners across North America. It includes food sold under store brands carried by Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers, as well as private labels such as Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

Menu Foods is majority owned by Menu Foods Income Fund of Streetsville. The company also makes foods for zoo cats, but those products are unaffected by the recall.

The company's chief executive and president said Menu Foods delayed announcing the recall until it could confirm that the animals had eaten its product before dying. Two earlier complaints from consumers whose cats had died involved animals that lived outside or had access to a garage, which left open the possibility they had been poisoned by something other than contaminated food, he said.

A spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was not aware of any criminal investigation involving the tainted food.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was posted online by Menu Foodsexternal link. The company also designated two phone numbers that pet owners could call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The appalling thing is that this one manufacturer is the source for the vast majority of brand name products that are available. And if the source of the toxin is imported wheat, thanks goes to globalism's profit motive.

Anyone looking for a safe place to purchase food for their pets, I would feel safe at Whiskers Holistic Pet Products at 235 E. 9th St. between 2nd and 3rd Aves. They've been on top of the organic pet food niche for years.

The pet food recall has now greatly expanded and includes at this point Feline Prescription Diet m/d dry food manufactured by Hills.

Actually Hatches, I have only heard about the m/d variety, per Reuters below. If you saw C/D listed somewhere, would you share pls? That's what I feed my cat, but I have taken her off it for the time being-- it's hard to know what to do. We've put our dog on a mostly vegetarian diet (as dogs are omnivorous, it's preferable anyway for them to eat a lot of veggies) mixed with store bought cuts of meat. I'm giving my cat rice and other veggies along with store-bought meat and fish..until this blows over. And as Seven says, for NY-ers, Whiskers on East 9th is a great resource. I actually found a canned vegan dog food there last night, which smells yummy and my pooch is eating it up.

PETA had a news conference in Washington yesterday asking the FDA to recommend (they cannot force) a massive precautionary recall of most Iams and Hill's dry varieties until they are chemically tested and cleared. As a multi-billion dollar industry many times over, the pet food producers wield a lot of power, and it's looking increasingly like Iams and Menu knew at least a MONTH before the wet food recall that something was wrong and cats and dogs were getting sick and dying. A criminal investigation is underway to find out the facts.

Major pet food recall expands to dry food
Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:52 PM EDT136

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major recall of pet food in North America has expanded to two more companies and now includes dry food for the first time, U.S. federal health authorities and the companies said.

The Food and Drug Administration said late on Friday it notified Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc. that tests had detected byproducts of a suspect chemical in the wheat gluten it used to make Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food.

The FDA concluded earlier on Friday that melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and forbidden in pet food, had been found in some wheat gluten used by a Canadian company at the center of the recall two weeks ago.

Ontario-based Menu Foods makes pet food sold under several popular labels. The FDA and Menu said the suspect wheat gluten came from a Chinese supplier, which was not identified.

Menu recalled certain batches of wet pet food in mid-March after the products were blamed for the deaths of at least 14 animals -- mostly cats.

The FDA, which is continuing its investigation, found that wheat gluten from the same company that supplied Menu Foods was used to make the Hill's product, the first time a dry food had been implicated.

Hill's, a unit of Colgate-Palmolive Co. based in Topeka, Kansas, has voluntarily recalled the product sold through veterinarians. The company confirmed the recall in a statement.

Separately, Nestle Purina PetCare Co. announced in a statement it was voluntarily recalling all sizes and varieties of its ALPO Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes.

Nestle Purina, based in St. Louis, said it learned on Friday that "some quantity" of wheat gluten from the same supply company linked to Menu and Hill's was used on a limited basis at one of its facilities.

No Purina brand dry pet foods were affected by the recall.

I apologize Madge, it is Prescription Diet m/d. I have corrected the above.

The Menu Foods site is particularly confusing and mostly peppered with denials & disclaimers. And they only seem to manufacture wet food there, hence the confusion. The FDA site ain't great either.

I wanted to add what a GREAT job PETA is doing on all of this - and I think alot of pet owners are finally waking up to what PETA has been saying for years.

Now, the source of the tainted wheat gluten:

As some of you know, this whole affair was ratcheted up on Friday when the FDA announcedthat the same tainted wheat gluten had also been used in DRY pet foods coming from at least one major manufacturer. But they refused to name the manufacturer, preferring to use our animals as guinea pigs.

I thought immediately, what if this was human food, and they announced that one bread manufacturer had used potentially fatal wheat in their bread, but they wouldn't announce which one..Can you imagine the outcry? (For all we know, this is next anyway..)

So, the next logical thought is..who is the FDA protecting? And by last night, of the three major grain suppliers to the pet food business, two had issued statements strongly denying that they do business with Menu Foods.

The third company, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has been completely silent on this. They are also huge Bush and Republican party contributors...

Hmmmm..

Thanks Chi Chi.

SHIT!

Now looks like rat poison and melemine MAY NOT be the cause, but Vitamin D.. This story has been nowhere except 1 paper in Canada so far. The FDA has fucked us, and isn't being straight:

is it Vitamin D?

Barking up wrong tree in pet food recall?
Lawyer claims culprit is vitamin D

By ALAN CAIRNS, SUN MEDIA

As the poisoned pet food crisis widened yesterday with the recall of a dry food, a Toronto lawyer leading a $60-million class-action negligence suit against a Guelph company fears scientists might be barking up the wrong tree.

With suspicions in the Menu Foods poisoning shifting from animopterin rat poison to melamine used in Asian fertilizers, lawyer David Himelfarb said suspect food should be "immediately" tested for excessive vitamin D.

Himelfarb said the kidney failure seen in the Menu Foods case is "exactly" the same as symptoms that left a Whitby woman's dog seriously ill in 2005.

The woman, Janet Grixti, alleges in a statement of claim filed in Superior Court of Ontario that her chocolate Labrador Mocha became ill after it was fed Royal Canin pet food with excessive amounts of vitamin D.

10 TIMES NORMAL

"We have taken hundreds of samples of (Royal Canin) food from across the GTA. I can't give you accurate numbers ... but there is an awful lot of (vitamin D) ... some tests have shown more than 10 times the normal amount ... might even be more," said Himelfarb, who is on the class-action case with lawyer Joe Rochon.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received 8,800 complaints of dog and cats deaths or illness.

No corresponding statistics are kept in Canada.

But after receiving 1,000 telephone calls and e-mails from concerned pet owners, Himelfarb suggests that the poisoning tragedy is much bigger than it appears.

"There could be many thousands," Himelfarb said.

Vitamin D is essential to a healthy diet for dogs and cats, Himelfarb said, but excessive amounts cause "total (kidney) failure."

High levels of vitamin premixes are added to dog and cat food to offset vitamin destruction during heating and shelf storage, Grixti alleges in a statement of claim.

While most vitamins break down, vitamin D "remains in full strength," it is alleged.

None of Grixti's allegations have been tested in court. Royal Canin has not filed a statement of defence.

Royal Canin admits excess levels of vitmain D3 led to the recall of seven vet-only products in March 2006, but its web site assures its foods "are safe" and unaffected by the Menu Foods recall.

Meanwhile, scientists still seek answers to the lethal poison which two-weeks ago forced Mississauga-based Menu Foods to recall 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food.

CHINESE WHEAT GLUTEN

Nestle Purina Petcare Co. yesterday recalled batches of American-made Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food it says contains Chinese wheat gluten bought from the same American company which supplied Menu Foods.

Tainted wheat gluten also prompted Hills-Pet Nutrition to recall Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food, the first dry food recall.

Of course the very first thing I thought when the whole thing broke initially is, "What about the food supply for humans?"

And it does not appear anyone is looking in to this, or if they are they are not making it public yet.

The FDA has been a prime example of the Little Bush Idiocracy's croniedom, news for the last six years has been overabundant with reports of their ideology-over-science dictums regarding medical drugs so we can't expect protection from them on food either.

The only thing they are going to protect is that your money will continue to leave your pocket and

go into the hands of the people who poison us.