emergency pet food recall
There has been a major —
Pet food recall including numerous major brands. The pet food contains a contaminant that is causing kidney failure in both dogs and cats. That is fatal. Please check the list and if you have this food, do not feed it to your animal:
MENU FOODS : LIST OF RECALLED PET FOODS
BOSTON HERALD : ANIMAL DEATHS SPARK MAJOR PET FOOD RECALL
FDA : RECALL OF PET FOODS MANUFACTURED BY MENU FOODS, INC.
*note : when i first saw that list of brands there, i thought this had to be a hoax, then i googled it and every major news outlet is picking up this story, so it is either very real or one hell of a hoax, pass this on please it might save an animal
EDITED MARCH 24 TO INCLUDE : UPDATE : EMERGENCY PET FOOD RECALL
EDITED MARCH 24 TO INCLUDE : UPDATE II : EMERGENCY PET FOOD RECALL
45 Responses to emergency pet food recall
Panic!
Whew, my dog’s food is not on the list. That is quite a list of contaminated foods. I wonder what was in it? The article didn’t say.
Dunno. My guess would be a chemical contaminant. Dogs and cats are immune to salmonella. But that is just a guess. Whatever it is has to be bad to be taking down both dogs and cats with total renal failure. Cats are especially hard to spot with that, they do not exhibit symptoms until it is way way too late. One of the signs though is eating litter. If your cat is eating litter? Put your cat in a carrier and run the red lights.
I am way glad your food is not on the list.
I have been reading more. They are attributing it to aflatoxin, which according to what I am reading is “a naturally occurring toxic chemical that comes from a fungus found on corn and other grains.”
I love that touch, “naturally occurring chemical.” God I love the press.
Yeah, “naturally occurring” if the corn rots, builds up fungus, and, like, through some strange violation of the space time continuum [did I spell that right?] reproduces the bacteria that populated the planet before oxygen became the primary atmospheric component, press boys.
My mother gave one of the recalled products to her puppy last week – who got vomited it up and did not eat the next day. I think it also got lethargic. I talked to her today and the dog appears to be fine – running around and eating again.
She should probably get a blood work up on the puppy to be sure, Michele.
“Naturally occurring.”
The bastards.
Michele, I hope the pup is okay.
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Okay, Cyb said over on the forum the aflatoxin is from a recall that happened last year around the same time, and this contaminant has not been identified yet.
Here is a good general article related to pet food. It is cat oriented but the information is good for dogs, too. It also has a list of pet foods that don’t contain by-products or corn, wheat or soy.
http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm
Thanks, Zee.
Is this where I put this? I don’t understand these blog thingies….
Okay, reposting this from seemaxrun with typo fix:
I can’t help noticing it involves all the varieties of Iams that include “by-products.” Always a good idea to scrutinize labels and make sure “by-products” is not listed as an ingredient. What that designation refers to is “DDD” classified meat (disabled, diseased, and dying), which has been deemed unfit for human consumption. It includes entrails and feces scraped off the slaughterhouse floor. It also, in some brands, includes euthanized dogs and cats (which aside from being gross, means the meat is laced with barbituates).
And to add… for the past couple of years I’ve been doing penance for all the time poor Sam ate crappy generic cat kibble, by feeding her AAA grade organic cat food. It is like 1.40 a can, yikes! (She is worth it, though.) Most of the brands, she loves — except for Spot’s Stew and some other brand I can’t remember, that has cranberries (!) mixed into the seafood. She is still making up her mind about “Pet Promise” from Wholefoods, but she loves “Castor & Pollux Ultramix” like candy… she even eats the dried fruit pieces, which I was absolutely sure she’d spit out. Who knew a cat would eat dried papaya, and why on earth is it in there? It’s not like she would ever eat that in the wild. Then again she also loves venison, and it’s hard to picture her taking down a deer. But I digress.
Thanks, Cyb.
Woa! Luckily the cat eats what the kid won’t. Pieces of chicken from a restaraunt that they usually put on their salads but sell just to Zach in pints. Zachary picks out perfect little pieces and gives the rejects to his Mon Chere. The cat won’t eat any canned food so I put out dry food and that he eats occasionally. Good thing I read your blog! Problem is I got stray cats in the area and a racoon or two that would get in the dumpster and eat the contaiminated food. Now I need a Has Mat team. LOL
Thanks Max! Zach and Mon are in a constant battle of sibling rivalry, it’s one war we don’t want to see end….
Take the food back to the store, Jennifer. It is a recall item. The store should reimburse you for it. Also, if the cat has eaten any of the food, you want to take the cat to the vet and get a blood test done. Cats do not exhibit symptoms till they have lost 70% or more functionality but vets can determine if there is damage by doing a blood test.
I thought you might have actually had new information to make a post about this. I want that minute of my life back.
Wow you are a slow reader.
For the last 9 years, I’ve been feeding my cats a raw meat diet, found at http://www.felinefuture.com. Other information can be found at http://www.catnutrition.org.
A good read about what goes on in the pet food industry is “The Food Pets Die For” by Anne Martin. If people knew what really went into pet food – feces, euthanized cats and dogs to name two “ingredients” they would never buy these products.
Cats are carnivores. Mother Nature never designed them to eat grains, which is a bowel-irritant for them, and has the long-term affect of drying out their internal organs.
If this pet food recall can get people questioning what goes in their pet food, and wake them up to what they’re actually feeding them, then hallelujiah.
I have to be honest, I only came here because in your avatar you have a picture of, what has got to be the most incredibly fabulous hot babe i’ve ever seen!
Holy MONKEEEEEEEEEEEES!
Congrats on the blog of the Minute Stat Max-
You should do more Public Service Announcements.
Ps
I haven’t fed my pets ‘wet food ‘ since the day I opened up a can of food and found dead maggots.
Wish I were kidding but I’m not.
All of this has definitely made me question what I am feeding my cat. I was feeding him Science Diet because the vet recommended it, but now I’m realizing that it is no better than any of the less expensive brands. Thankfully, he is in fine health. I had read the ingredients and thought it was strange that it included “byproducts,” but I guess I just trusted the vet rather than *gasp* using my own better judgement. I think it is horrible that vets get benefits to promote a brand of food that is more expensive, but still does nothing to promote healthy animals.
I agree that hopefully all of this will make people question the standard for what they feed their pets.
Thanks, Anita.
Wow, Poet, way to make points with the management.
LaBelle, thanks for those links.
Hello Max.
Greetings from Sweden.
You are #1: in the world.
Aww, thanks, Ebit. I have not seen you in a while I thought you wandered into the forest without bread crumbs.
Swing baby, you’re PLATINUM!
Well that was interesting. This post was blog o’ the minute, which got it viewed a lot. Which is good. The pet food sitch is not good. And hopefully the more the info gets out the more animals will not eat the contaminated food.
Thanks, WordPress.
Now I can stop being all socially conscientious [did I spell that right?] and can go back to my shallow as rain water ways. Woof.
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“except for Spot’s Stew and some other brand I can’t remember, that has cranberries (!) mixed into the seafood.”
That is the Wellness brand. I was thinking about trying it out on George and then I realized there is no way he would eat anything with cranberries and sweet potatoes.
I am trying to switch him to Trader Joe’s (only $0.49 a can and no byproducts) but he doesn’t like it as well as Fancy Feast. I think the Fancy Feast people are slipping crack into their cat food to get the cats addicted.
Max, I’ve heard they are adding food to the list. I’m going to throw out the stuff we have here just in case.
Cripes. There is more?
Give those dogs eggs and bacon. It is the only way to be sure.
I have been looking on the net for raw food sources for animal food. The raw food diet is hard to do at home because it involves so much preparation and also because you handle a lot of raw meat. Not exactly fun bleaching down the kitchen every day. But this looked interesting: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/index.shtml
According to this article: http://www.gothamist.com/2007/03/20/pet_food_maker.php the company fed the food to 40-50 dogs and cats as a test. Seven died and they still waited to issue the recall.
The FDA responding to one woman’s report told her over a thousand animals have died, and the ten being noted in news reports is only animals that died during lab experiments.
Other links to check:
howl 911: http://www.howl911.com/petfoodrecall.htm
pet connection: http://www.petconnection.com
Veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker of Pet Connection gives advice on what to do if you have the recalled product:
As an aside, do not just throw this stuff in the trash. Especially if the packaging is open or can be easily opened by an animal. Strays and other animals sometimes go through trash. It is a bad death. They do not need to get poisoned either.
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Another interesting article on pet food:
What’s Really in Pet Food? A Report by the Animal Protection Institute:
http://www.satyamag.com/jan04/api.html
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Eng Tech has posted on the pet recall:
Eng lists many brands being recalled:
Those brand names are expanding daily it is important to keep checking brands being pulled. Also note the dates of batches of food on recall: Dec 3, 2006 thru March 7, 2007.
http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/off-topic-news-massive-pet-food-recall/
I am picking this up in an update post at http://celluloidblonde.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/update-emergency-pet-food-recall/
I have posted the raw diet I’ve made for my cats for the last 9 years on my blog.
It’s easy to make, and you can order a bag of the supplement mix from http://www.felinefuture.com.
You add 1/2 cup of mix to 1 cup of water, stir and add the chopped organ and muscle meats.
I encourage people to feed raw – it’s so much better in every way than these Frankenfoods.
One thing I have found disconcerting is the number of people I have told about this who have just said, Oh that is okay I did not get the bad food my dog/cat is fine. And that is it. I am real glad to know someone’s dog/cat is fine, but I do not understand no impulse to try to make sure other dogs/cats stay fine too.
ABC news is saying the contaminant is now believed to be rat poison: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2975912&page=1&US=true
I wonder how much money Menu Foods “saved” by importing cheaper wheat from China? Something tells me, not the tens of millions the recall cost them. Something tells me, not enough to cover all the lawsuits they’re going to face, or the loss of revenue when people stop buying their products.
What really, really makes me angry is that these jerks sat on the recall notice so they could ‘make sure’ it was their product.
I wonder how many sick pets are out there now because these scum sucking corporate jerks sat on this info.
I don’t know if voodoo really works, but I’m willing to stoop to the dark arts now.
Blaming the Chinese, hmm?
If I was very cynical which of course I am not I am a delicate flower but if I was I would wonder whether that extra month was about making sure the food was the cause or about circling wagons and setting up misleading numbers and stories.
Hmmm…let’s see, Circling Wagons- that’s got my vote.
Of course as you’re circling the Wagons you have to hire a PR Firm to repair your damaged image once you get sued for millions and millions of dollars.
Pet Food Industry thy name is Evil.
I am getting worried here. I keep hearing about sick dogs and cats that were not on brands from Menu Foods. And they are coming down with liver failure too. I do not think at this point it is safe to be feeding animals any manufactured dog and cat food till something gets figured out here because something is very wrong and not just with the Menu Foods recalls.
For a continuation of this discussion please go to http://celluloidblonde.wordpress.com/2007/03/24/update-ii-emergency-pet-food-recall/
I would like to consolidate in one topic.
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