Pet food recall: Sunday news updates, open thread

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Two hours ago, Canada Free Press reported:

The pet food poison scare has just jumped from North America to the Caribbean Islands.

Associated Press is reporting today that two dogs in Puerto Rico died of kidney failure after eating dog biscuits that were among the 100-plus brands of pet foods and treats contaminated with an industrial chemical, according to a veterinarians' group.

Via catmanager at vetcetera, from William Booth in the Washington Post:

(W)hat, really, is that grayish brown reconstituted lump in the can? I assumed it contained lamb lungs and chicken brains. But there's a lot more. A 99-cent unit of "cuts and gravy" is the signal product of global industrialized food, where nothing is wasted, a brutal efficiency rules and ingredients are assembled from a relentlessly competitive international marketplace. There is no accident in a can of dog food. Just the opposite. The contents have been supplemented and fortified for nutritional, mineral and vitamin balance, the foods precisely engineered for smell, texture and palatability. (The makers want dogs to desire it, but not crave it, and they want its smell not to repulse owners.) And then they market it with all the cunning they can muster.

In the weeks since March 16, more than 100 dog and cat foods have been yanked. The recalls center on an outfit called Menu Foods and its plant in Kansas, and trust me, consumers were very surprised when they learned that Menu Foods makes din-din sold under dozens of pet food names, from the cheap generic store labels to the fancy "premium" offerings. A lot of familiar brands are on the recall lists, such as Alpo, Mighty Dog, Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Gravy Train, Paws, Special Kitty and Ol' Roy.

The recalls are unprecedented. There never has been anything as extensive before for animal or human foods. While the volume -- 60 million cans and counting -- is sizable, what is remarkable is the number of pet food makers involved. It's almost all of them.

Full story here.

Don't forget that Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, who appeared before the Senate at Thursday's hearing on the pet food recall, will be a guest on Steve Dale's radio show tonight, Sunday, April 15, on WGN. The show runs from 8-10 PM Central Time at 720 on the AM dial, and is streamed here.

We'll add more throughout the day. Did we miss something? Some news story or media release? Drop us a line.

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Comments

[Sharon]

ChemNutra is going after Menu Foods! Says they hhave been victimized too.



http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover041507.htm

[straybaby]

don't they check what they buy/sell from a new exporter? especially with that volume? quality control and all? wasn't there a report that it was fairly visable in the gluten?

[spocko]

Sharon. Thanks for that post. I found it very interesting. I was glad that the author didn't just take the word of the ChemNutra CEO.



Part of this issue is what does it mean that something has been inspected vs TESTED. You can say that 'we inspected the product' and all that means is that you checked the label. Technically true. But you are still counting on the company that shipped the product to have truthfully put what they say in the product. And do they have any responsibility for actual testing? Who does?

The first maker? The First distributor? And if they lie who is supposed to confirm that they are telling the truth? The Canadian FDA? The Chinese FDA? The US FDA?



And one thing to be clear, this linguistically simple dodge of "highly regulated"

doesn't mean to the industry what lay people think it means. Watch the questions that Durbin asks the head shill for the Pet Food Industry if you want to see what that is about.



Check out the great set up and questions that Durbin asked in the Senate Hearings.



Durbin has been great on this because as well as loving pets he knows that the human food supply also needs to be protected.



I hope we don't have to have 3,000 dead humans for people to say, 'We really need to keep a better eye on the food supply and we can't count on the industry to "self - regulate".



And if we Do start having humans die we can say, "We were given a chance to fix this problem, why didn't we?

WHO worked and works against protecting our food? Why did the fight effective regulation and what are their reasons?



Those are all questions to be asked, because until this is fixed this WILL happen again.

Only this time in humans.

[pat]

I lost my beautiful german shepherd, Max, to this travisty 3 weeks ago from renal failure. I have cried every day since. He had several cans of O'Roy Country stew a few days before the news broke. Just rips my heart out thinking about it. What's worse is the fact that it could be in human food so easy, especially foods produced and canned overseas. This was no accident.

[Maureen (Tulip, Cammy, Tigger's mom]

See Itchmo's website: Natural Balance announced they are pulling 2 dry dog foods (venison), but not because of wheat gluten...



http://itchmo.com/

[carly]

Why are we getting better researched and written news stories outside of this country? What happened to American journalism? Too busy waiting for the "news service" to fax them the story? The best stories so far I've read have been either Canadian, Asian, or from England.



And another stray thought. Why aren't the thousands of animal shelters and rescue groups speaking out about this? We've heard a couple of stories in Friday's(?) blog about shelters who've lost pets and need food, but what about all the rest? Most shelters run on donated food--the last time I was at my local shelter I saw bags and cans of what is now recalled food.



Why are they silent? If every shelter in the U.S. spoke out and stated how many pets they've lost, or pets currently being treated, the numbers would at least be a counterpoint to the ever-present "16". And the voices would not be from single pet owners, who are seen as not valid in the eyes of the pet food companies.



BTW, a previous link on this blog to a story about the problem with food safety in China talked about a company there who made baby food that was so bad and nutritionally empty that babies died of malnutrion. Now that's scary--what all are they importing here???

[Larry]

Pat,



I am so sorry for your loss. We have worried about our lethargic cat even before this recall was announced. When the toxic food was announced, we worried even more that we might have personally fed him toxic stuff. So I can just imagine what you're going through with the loss of your best friend Max.



I hear this crime dismissed as "not punishable", because there is no law in place that required notification of contamination in pet foods. I don't believe this crime is not covered by any laws, because three weeks passed between vetenarian and consumer notices to Menu Foods concerning food toxicity and the ultimate notification and food recall.



That elapsed time changes this matter from unfortunately and accidental contamination of pet food stuffs into the calculated act of animal cruelty.



Most every state has laws on the books, not against killing animals, but rather laws that forbid cruelty to any animal.



Sellling foods known to cause animals death by renal failure is an act of cruelty. It's no different than if I set a dish of antifreeze out on your lawn for your pet to consume.



I hope you will enter a complaint with your states attorney for animal cruelty by executives at Menu Foods who had authority and responsibility to recall foods much sooner. Contact your state senator and request enforcement and punishment under animal cruelty laws.

[Janette]

I lost my best friend Bo Jangles, a 7 lb Shih Tzu in mid february BEFORE the recall was made public. He was hospitalized for nearly 2 weeks trying to save him but the worst part about it was we were feeding him his favorite foods (Mighty Dog, Pet Pride) WHILE he was hospitalized. You can not imagine the intense grief I am still trying to overcome. This little guy fought like hell only to have bad food fed to him........ I live with that fact daily. Heart broken.

[VJ]

Carly

You're right. Just checked the websites for pet sanctuary in Utah and see nothing posted about the recall. Strange

[elizabeth R]

Oh yes, will the lawsuits start flying, now! Watch for: Menu foods against their suppliers, Pet store chains against pulled brands for lost sales and shipping tainted food, National brands against the manufacturer for breach of contract, brands suing to break contracts with Menu, Menu suing to prevent brands from breaking contracts, stockholders of various companies against the CEOs for malfeasance and loss of product value, government against Menu execs for insider trading,etc, etc. etc. But will there be anything for the people who lost their beloved pets and/or have enormous vet bills? No, of course not. We won't be able to "prove" cause and effect. Class action?----fuhgettaboudit---lawyers make millions and everybody else gets cents on the dollar, if anything.

[Nikki]

Carly wrote, "Why aren’t the thousands of animal shelters and rescue groups speaking out about this?"



A handful of smaller shelters have a notice of or page dedicated to the food recall. But most do not, for the same reason it took the ASPCA and HSUS so long to finally give some attention to this tragedy -- most shelters receive free food from pet food companies. In fact, many shelters have exclusive agreements with a given pet food company, e.g., Hill's, Royal Canin, Nutro, to use ONLY their food. Their agreement with these companies gets them free food. The return on the food companies' investments of free food is when a pet is adopted out, the shelter will tell the adoptee to use that particular brand.

[VJ]

So, the shelters will cover up the number of cat/dog deaths to protect this interest? Hmmm. Will have to rethink who I donate to if that's the case.

[petlover]

PEOPLE'S REPORTS OF IAMS DRY KILLING PETS



http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/pet_food_recall_strikes_fear_into_central_oregon/C509/L509/



Read some of the people's reports after the article.

SOME QUOTES: CORNELL WILL TEST FOOD? I don't know if these people are Cornell clients or not.



Comments

By Michael Keen Sr, 3-19-07

Please listen, the dog food recall in this country is insuficiant. The South Africans are pulling DRY FOOD from their shelves because of

contamination from NORTH AMERICAN PRODUCTS.



My 3 year old Airedale, friend and protector of my 5 children, is nearly dead due to the DRY IAMS product. The last bag we purchased was from Wal Mart and the sized and color of this new bag was diffent then from years past. She ate it for 2 days and then would not touch it. She did consume a very large amounts of water.





Please let everyone know that the dry food is not safe... Cornell Universtiy will be testing the 2 pounds of DRY IAMS that we have sent them. Our vet says this is a clasic case of a coverup.



DO NOT TRUST THE DRY PET FOODS!!!

If my Abby Gayle dies from this and the Dry Food I've sent to Cornell is responcible then we have a serios problem.



Mike and Sue Keen

[VJ]

North Shore Animal League's site reports on the story and claims that none of their pets are affected. They say the pets are exclusively fed Purina products.

[straybaby]

The ASPCA Poison Center has been involved in this from early on I believe. I doubt they aren't speaking out because they have donated/discount food. HSUS doesn't even shelter animals. Unless it's changed, SD offered *brown bag* bags of food to the shelter at a reduced cost. I don't believe they were restricted to feeding only that. Not sure if the ASPCA feeds one brand exclusively now, but i don't believe they did a few years ago. I'm pretty sure it was Iams the city shelter gave out samples to for the puppy and kitty packs, but that doesn't mean they were feeding that. We used them in grab bags at events, strickly donated for events (this was at a shelter that bought reduced SD). Iams and Hills donated to their events. They quit using Iams at the event's due to the animal testing issue, nothing more, nothing less.



I really don't see how a shelter could have an exclusive deal with a with a brand. Same with vets. Most vets I know will offer other options than just Hills prescritption as Hills is not the only one available. My vet carries it, but does not prefer it and gives the free samples of their regular food to those that need help with pet food, so I'm not seeing much of an exclusive deal there. Another vet by me carries 3 different Rx brands.

[Marry Ann]

the vets are always pushing hills rx

[Linda]

Sharon that was a very interesting article and confirms what I noticed several weeks ago when surfing the FDA website on their "Oasis list" of rejected items - disgusting to say the least and to think that's only one percent - who in the world knows what we are really eating most of the time and I wonder if some of our aches and pains are the result of digesting chemicals and vile putrid heaven knows what that we shouldn't.



It doesn't surpise me though that ChemNutra's office is non-descript as I have worked with many importers over the years, some doing business with China and abroad, and the money is not in fancy offices - that's a hollywood idea - most are small warehouses with a tiny office and the trucks roll on in.



Linda MS

[Linda]

I don't trust the dry so much - and I wish we'd make some progress one way or the other to find out what is going on. Can you imagine if children were dying, I wonder what the FDA would insist upon then?



Linda MS

[Linda]

ALERT NATURAL BALANCE VENISON DRY FORMULA BEING RECALLED - PULLED FROM SHELVES - AFFECTS PRODUCTS ONLY SOLD THIS LAST WEEK!



Of good grief - I've been feed Natural Balance Dry Duck and Sweet Potatoe using it up along with homemade on a few of my dogs. This is beyond belief.



Linda MS

[Marry Ann]

LINDA MS,no i don't live in the boondocks,i live in a very big town in ca. even though ca.naturals web site said these stores sold this,when i called most stores i was told they don't have it.my dogs are my life and i don't mind driving 45 min. to buy the food. i just hope the girls like it ,i'll by a chicken to mix it w/it nutro they are off that's for sure. oh go to www.loudobbs.com they did the re call tonite

[Linda]

This was on howl911 - sorry.



Linda MS

[Linda]

I guess it is just making dogs sick - they think it might be a bad batch but are taking no chances - it is not an official recall - no dogs have died, or so they say, and affects only products sold this week. In any event, it is not very comforting. As I put faith in Natural Balance and this just shatters it all to the moon and back.



Linda MS

[carly]

I just got back from the feed store--I've switched my cat to Innova Senior dry, and he liked the sample, so went to get a big bag.



I picked up some cans of "better" canned food for him--California Natural, Innova, etc., at over twice the price of Friskies.



I checked "Who Makes What" when I got home, and every can was made by MENU.



I am so disgusted. I think they sell Canidae and that's not made by Menu. Anyone have any other ideas?

[Linda]

Mary Ann,



Oh, seems odd you can't find it. I suppose you have checked small pet stores? Ummm...too bad really. I seem to sniff them out around me but there are tons of them about 10 miles away from my house.



Linda MS

[Linda]

Wish I could help you - but I don't have cats and just bought the Natural Balance wet and dry for my son and none have wheat gluten.



Linda MS

[Julia]

Carly,



Can you post a link to Who makes What website?

[DeeAnn]

I have been scouring websites to compile a list of dry foods that people have complaints about. Several brands of dry are standing out.



I have two cats and know nothing about dry dog foods, so forgive me if I don't have a complete name.



The List: Dog Foods--DRY

Iams Mini Chunks Dry

Iams Dry

Ol'Roys Dry

Nutro Max Dry

Nutro Natural Lamb & Rice Dry



If someone said they fed a can or pouch even once I crossed it off the list, by trying to stay with exclusive feedings of dry food.



Beneful and Eukanuba Dry dog food but not as many posting on those.



By no means is this scientific in any way.



Does one manufacturer make all those brands?

[Linda]

There is one that posts food not made by menu. I don't have the link at home here - it's been posted here before.



I'll try to find it.



Linda MS

[SL]

Larry,

I think you have something worth looking into further, on Pet Food Companies that knowingly continue to sell tainted pet food. I think that courts should consider looking at this as ANIMAL CRUELTY. I hope some lawyers can set some precedents, especially regarding appropriate punishments.

[Linda]

Food list link from howl911



http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/



Try this link.



Linda MS

[Linda]

For foods not made by Menu:



http://www.petsitusa.com/blog/



Linda MS

[Linda]

I bought a couple soup bones with meat to see if my dogs wanted to chew on them - not cooked - my Samurai guarded it but didn't chew on it. I had to bribe him to take it back. I think they just like the smell of cooked fat better.



There must be some dog foods out there that are perfect with no problems - but anymore I think nothing is going to be perfect. But at least they don't have to contain poison.



What do you think of ChemNutra's public statement? At least they are sorry, something Menu can't seem to bring itself to do.



Linda MS.

[StraysWelcome]

Carly,



I've been going with Felidae (cat version of Canidae), Blue Buffalo, and Natural Balance canned food for my cats. They aren't crazy about the Felidae though. I've also been giving deli turkey, tuna, etc. in addition to their dry Blue Buffalo. None of these are associated with Menu. Good luck!

[Laurie]

Heads up!



Anyone else listening to the WGN radio show that just had Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins? They NOW have Pet Food Institute's head, Eskedahl (sp?) streamed at:

http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6336&Itemid=160



Jump onto the stream and call in!!! The misinformation is flowing too fast from his mouth.

[Laurie]

WGN radio call in line: 312-591-7200

[Laurie]

WGN radio segment with PFI is over and was a total PR event for the Pet Food Institute, IMO. Apparently he wouldn't be on same segment as Dr. Hodgkins. Too bad, he was handled with kid gloves...

[elliott]

Laurie- I believe it was you who is smelling something with materials used in packaging. Someone brought this up several days ago, maybe you?

[Laurie]

Comment by elliott



I think maybe it was Laura but not sure...

[Karla T.]

TO JANETTE:

I am so sorry for you and your Mr. BoJangles. May you find peace and comfort; He knows you were trying to help him...You are in my prayers....Karla

[Kathi]

DeeAnn

you can add Iams dry Weight Management dog. symptoms for my friend's scotty was dry nose, lethargy, and drank very little water as opposed to others' complaints of excessive drinking.

Also Special Kitty DRY. Numerous pets in Wilmington, NC have died as a result. Complaints of blood in urine by five of them. All complained of vomiting and excessive thirst and rapid onset of illness to death.

[Maureen]

Kathi,



Note Mal's posting of an FDA warning to Iams and Eukanuba re: their weight management products on her Apr. 16th, 7 a.m. posting on the preceding blog (Pet food recall: Looking forward, looking back. She links to this which is now on an FDA site that isn't presently operable:



FDA warns about additive for obese pets



// 30 mar 2007



The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to pet food maker Iams Co. about an additive in some of its products for overweight dogs and cats.



The letter, dated Jan. 8 and recently posted on the FDA website, said that several Eukanuba-brand dry and canned pet food products made by Iams, a unit of Procter & Gamble Co., contain chromium tripicolinate, which is allowed as a source of supplemental chromium only in swine feed.



The company will take chromium tripicolinate out of future formulations of its Eukanuba Veterinary Diets Optimum Weight Control and Restricted-Calorie dry and canned products for obese dogs or cats, spokesman Kurt Iverson said. He said the FDA had not ordered a recall of the products.



Safety

Because chromium tripicolinate has not been tested for safety in dog and cat food, products containing the chemical are considered adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the FDA letter said. The letter issued by the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine also said Iams had earlier tried to demonstrate that chromium tripicolinate is non-genotoxic, but the agency determined that data submitted by the company did not sufficiently address its safety concerns.

[Don]

News is starting to hit on a recall in South Africa on food manufactured since the North American

recall. Of particular interest is doing some hunting, evidently there was another recall in SA last

December related to European ingredients contaminated with ethylene glycol.



This is also of interest: http://www.everypatent.com/comp/pat5022917.html



It's a patent claiming melamine increases the toxicity and longevity of a wide variety of poisons.

Fungus, plants, insects, rodents, you name it, the patent doesn't explain why melamine makes poisons

more poisonous, but claims observations have shown that to be the case. I don't know how much faith

can be put in patent claims, but it might explain what we're seeing. For example, melamine which isn't

especially toxic by itself, might be causing a laundry list of trace toxins in other ingredients to

be more deadly than they would be otherwise.



IMO, this whole gluten-melamine hype is a smoke screen to hide what goes on in the rendering plants.

In the mean time, it looks like the pet food lobbyists have taken over the "investigation" and the

politicians are lining up to collect their usuals. At this stage I think we can abandon any hope of

an honest investigation, unless it's conducted by class action attorneys. Of course, these days, the

judges are even more corrupt than DC politicians. It's kind of sad when lawyers are likely to be more

honest and trustworthy than those elected and appointed to positions of trust.

[Maureen]

Comment by Don — April 16, 2007 @ 7:51 am



Thank you for your thoughtful posting. The patent app. is a wonderful find and hope you are forwarding it to research labs. I don't think we should take for granted that they have the time to do a full sweep of research such as this.



I agree that we have more hope of honest investigation coming through class action lawsuits and the legal system, imperfect as it is. On one of the blogs, someone posted a list of the many incorporated cities in which residents are legally considered as pet guardians rather than pet owners. Class action lawsuits with plaintiffs that are protected by these laws stand to make a much bigger impact financially on the defendants, pet food-related companies and even the FDA. The results of such litigation could lead to fundamental change if the class action lawyers don't intimidate their plaintiff class into settling without making their investigative findings public. In other words, pet owners, if you become plaintiffs in one of these class actions, dont' take the early money offered in settlement to make you go away. Insist that the findings become part of the public record.

[Don]

Maureen,



I wouldn't put too much faith on the guardian vs. owner hype, or odds and ends of common law

related to vet malpractice suits. As close as I can tell, most of them amount to attorney

malpractice, or something close to it. Most of those appear to be related to claims for "pain

and suffering" on the part of the animal, where it seems to me the pain and suffering is on

the part of the owner. If the legal theory is pets are property, there is a ton of precedent

on loss of use, damage, unique value, "other valuable consideration", etc.. Yes, you can go to

a shelter and pick up a cat or dog for under $100, but even at shelters, many of them place more

emphasis on the ability of the new owner to provide quality care to the pet once adopted. You can

go to the pet ads in your local classifieds and find the majority of them place more value on "to

a good home", than on cash considerations. In other words, in typical arms length transactions

involving pets, there is a huge value placed on a pet's well being, care, and potential for a long

and happy life. I ran across one case where the actual value was placed at $10, but the special

value was assessed at $30,000. From what I've seen, most of the suits announced so far don't seem

to be focused too much in that direction, although I can't say for sure as I haven't read any

of the complaints. IMO, the question that has to be answered here is: In an arms length transaction,

what would one expect to pay a pet owner to poison their pet? I don't think such a deal would allow

the buyer to get off very easy (to put it mildly). From another angle, this situation is also

beginning to establish that a pet owner will spend considerable sums to keep their companion animals

alive, even when the prognosis in incredibly grim. Plus, I think this situation is unique enough

that a lot of previous common law will not apply.



There is a lot of stuff going on that looks like nothing more than collusion to control the damage

to the responsible pet food companies. Look at all the write ups telling people to return the

evidence to the store, so it may be returned to the company for destruction. What evidence will those

people have that the cause of death was poisoned food? The vet organizations are now working on

forming a definition for evidence of poisoning, and don't intend to release even preliminary results

for at least 6 months. For as long as that smokescreen continues, the official toll will be 16. And in

the meantime, no one appears to be looking for anything except melamine, which has been shown to

not be toxic in previous animal studies, and at levels considerably higher than anything found in the

food so far.



It's a safe bet the Pet Connection tolls include a substantial number of pets which died of natural

causes. It's an equally safe bet the majority of people who lost pets to poisoned food have never

heard of the Pet Connection and wouldn't enter their information even if they had. What we do know

is that 60 million servings of poison were on store shelves for close to 6 months. The propaganda

that only 1% of the pet food supply was affected is obvious nonsense. You can go into any store and

see the affected products take up considerably more than 1% of the shelf space. But, for the sake of

argument, let's use the 1% number. If there are 170 million dogs and cats in the US, 1% fed poisoned

food comes to 1.7 million animals.



The thing I find most amazing is that Menu Foods in not trading as a penny stock. If only 6% of the

affected pet owners prevail in a suit, Menu Foods will be bankrupt.