A Land Far Away

For those with pets, this is critical. Pet food is killing, causing kidney failure and other ailments. A massive recall is underway. If you have a pet, visit this site to determine if your pet food is on the recall list:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall


This is not a joke, not a scam, not a fake report. It is real, and my friend's pet is a victim.

The recall is limited to "cuts and gravy" style pet food in cans and pouches manufactured at two of the Fund's United States facilities. These products are both manufactured and sold under private-label and are contract-manufactured for some national brands.

Kibble 4tw!

Glad I give my cats canned tuna and chicken instead of canned catfood with their Meow Mix! The dogs enjoy the dinner leftovers to suppliment their Kibbles n Bits.

Whew, Purina is safe. Used to get them Iams, but that was months ago.
Edit: Err, never gave them the canned stuff anyway, just dry, lol'd. ;f

My dog gets the cheap dry food baught at the feed mill. Plus scraps from us.
If i had known about this before the wife i would have got her cat some "special" cat food.

*Update*

It was rat poison. I.e., an intentional act.

Sick person...

Baseball bat time...

Chinise wheat gluton is to blame.

White Warlock wrote:*Update*

It was rat poison. I.e., an intentional act.

Not necessarily, some ignorant but well-meaning employee could have been setting down rat poison due to a rodent problem and it somehow contaminated the production line, or it could have been a single contaminated ingredient imported from another country where a similar mistake could have happened, etc.

My point is, accidents can always happen, even in cases where it appears otherwise.

Zakharra wrote:Chinise wheat gluton is to blame.

In the end I think we'll find out it wasn't intentional but just sloppy and careless business practices. Aminopterin is illegal in North America for use as rat poison so I'm sure this will get traced back to contaminated wheat bought in China. It'll be curious to see if Menu Foods recently changed suppliers but it's no surprise that they bought the wheat from China since North America can't produce that much cheap wheat.

While it's easy to blame Menu Foods for not catching it, this sad event has cast a light on what many in the food industry have been saying for years. The food supply is an easy target for terrorists because raw ingredients are only tested for the normal set of pathogens so it wouldn't take much for terrorists to contaminate a base ingredient with something that wouldn't be caught until it's too late.

Imagine the fear if the wheat had been sold to bakery chains?? And this is probably just from using aminopterin to kill off rats around some grain silos and not intentionally dumped in volume within the wheat.

I'm hoping governments and food industries are watching this closely.

Kate

All I know is the Ol'roy I bought for my Polm wasnt on the list so im happy. Its a damn shame this happened and I hope some compensation to those who lost their pets will occur.

*Update*

For those of you with pets, check 'daily' for any changes to the list, because 'daily' new ones are being added. Also, please be aware, it's not merely Menufoods distributed pet foods.

FDA updates -- http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

Lists

http://menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html

http://menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html

http://www.delmonte.com/petfoodrecall.html

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu ... _en_US.htm

http://www.purina.com/Company/Press/2007/MightyDog.aspx

http://www.sunshinemills.com/press_release.html

And to let you know, i mentioned earlier my friend's pet was a victim. Well, now i add my sister's dog, a family pet for well over decade, to the list. I'm hoping he'll make it, but he's old and it is almost complete renal failure. And yes, it is confirmed by the vet, caused by one of the Purina products.

So, be diligent. Canadian pets are not immune. In Canada, Del Monte is known as DLM Foods Canada Corp and some of the other products can be found on Canadian pet food shelves. At this point, the safest thing you can do is locate a pet food line that provides confirmation of not obtaining ingredients from China.

I'd also like to recommend the American Veterinary Medical Association:

http://www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/default.asp

I do PR for a couple animal rescue orgs in Canada and it's really hit them hard since a lot of their food is donated. I'm sure the US is hit just as hard. It's now looking like the melamine use in nearly 800 tonnes of wheat gluten was profit motivated since it appears that the chemical boosts protein levels.

I'm also hearing that the number of dead animals in North America as a result of this is well over 1000 cats and dogs with nearly 10,000 injured enough to need the care of a Vet.

It's a sad story but it just as easily could have been people we're talking about.

Kate