Dog & Cat Food Recall

[Homer]

See if your dog or cat's food is being recalled.  :;'  ;::

www.menufoods.com/recall

[gator8_24]

Well there goes dinner! :xx

[Homer]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pet owners were worried Saturday that the pet food in their cupboards could be deadly after millions of containers of dog and cat food sold at major retailers across North America were recalled.

Menu Foods -- a major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands -- recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, the company said in announcing the North American recall.

Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer.

However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

'Cuts and gravy' food sold in cans, pouches recalled
The recall covers the company's "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between December 3 and March 6 throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Co., Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Menu Foods said it makes pet foods for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

Proctor & Gamble announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods' three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kansas, and Pennsauken, New Jersey, Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

"To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product," Henderson said.

FDA also working to target brands
The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority-owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.

Below are lists of specific brands recalled by Menu Foods, in addition to Proctor & Gamble's recall of certain Iams and Eukanuba products. Menu Brands lists the brands on its Web site, www.menufoods.com, and advises consumers to call 1-866-895-2708 for more information.

Recalled cat foods
Americas Choice; Preferred Pets; Authority; Best Choice; Companion; Compliments; Demoulas Market Basket; Fine Feline Cat, Shep Dog; Food Lion; Foodtown; Giant Companion; Good n Meaty; Hannaford; Hill Country Fare; Hy-Vee; Key Food; Laura Lynn; Li'l Red; Loving Meals; Main Choice; Nutriplan; Nutro Max Gourmet Classics; Nutro Natural Choice; Paws; Presidents Choice; Price Chopper; Priority; Save-A-Lot; Schnucks; Sophistacat; Special Kitty; Springfield Pride; Sprout; Total Pet; My True Friend; Wegmans; Western Family; White Rose; and Winn Dixie.

Recalled dog foods
America's Choice; Preferred Pets; Authority; Award; Best Choice; Big Bet; Big Red; Bloom; Bruiser; Cadillac; Companion; Demoulas Market Basket; Fine Feline Cat; Shep Dog; Food Lion; Giant Companion; Great Choice; Hannaford; Hill Country Fare; Hy-Vee; Key Food; Laura Lynn; Loving Meals; Main Choice; Mixables; Nutriplan; Nutro Max; Nutro Natural Choice; Nutro; Ol'Roy; Paws; Pet Essentials; Pet Pride; President's Choice; Price Chopper; Priority; Publix; Roche Bros; Save-A-Lot; Schnucks; Springsfield Pride; Sprout; Stater Bros; Total Pet; My True Friend; Western Family; White Rose; Winn Dixie and Your Pet.

[swamp]

   O0  thanks homer for the info.im glad my garors eat  well hummmm  other thangs  !@!  :##

[kandykitty20012]

Chit.......now i have to go check all my pet food....i use some of the ones mentioned..... !@#$ :;' ;::

[Kearney]

You should keep checking the website for menu foods daily if you feed your pets canned or foil packed food.  I work as a Vet Tech, and they are adding new brand names to the list almost daily.  I think it was around 5 more added today.  They have been able to determine that it is an unknown compound within the gravy that is causing the kidney failure.  Most likely due to a recent ingredient change in how they "thicken" the gravy.  Signs/Symptoms of kidney failure include changes in water consumption and urinary output, lethargy, weakness and coordination issues to name a few.  If your pet exhibits any of these symptoms and you have in the past (within a few weeks) fed your pet (the canned and or foil packed) from any of the brand names on the list, see your Veterinarian IMMEDIATELY.  We can run blood tests to check the renal function, and if caught soon enough, a chance to reverse the damage.  There are zero reports of this recall effecting and DRY food.   ;:: :;'

[minniewinnie]

Heard this just today about the recall.  They found out that is it rat poisoning which is causing kidney failure for these pets that have died so far.  So sad!

[Homer]

That's terrible about the poisoning.

The person responsible should be forced to eat the food they contaminated. ;:"

[minniewinnie]

That's terrible about the poisoning.

The person responsible should be forced to eat the food they contaminated. ;:"

I agree and maybe they should have to use some type of chemical to help wash it down!

[Ms.Behavin]

Well they are saying now, that some of the food came from Asia. And that over there they use rat posion to spray crops because of the rat infestation. I think they are looking for a way out of all the law suits.

[minniewinnie]

Well they are saying now, that some of the food came from Asia. And that over there they use rat posion to spray crops because of the rat infestation. I think they are looking for a way out of all the law suits.

Rat poison to spray crops? Have they lost their minds?? OMG it doesn't take Einstein to figure that one out! Is it William Hungs relation doing the spraying? lol

[scorpio]

You know it is so sad what is happening to these pets. I believe I am a fortunate owner. A few months ago, I woke up and had seen that one of my cats was very sick for they left me about 10 piles of stomach contents to clean. Being that I have 2 cats I had to wait for it to happen again to know which one was doing it. It was my black male cat (Midnight). I took him to the vet and they couldn't figure what was wrong, put him on antibiotics and told me if it doesnt stop to bring him back. The very next day we was back for everything continued, and now he wasn't eating, drinking, nor using the litter box. The vet decided to do surgery to make sure he didnt have an obstruction. After 2 hours he called me and told me he found nothing. Midnight had to stay at the vets for 5 days to recover from surgery but also to keep him on iv fluids since he wouldnt eat. When the first recall came out I didn't think anything about it, but then they moved the food dates back even further and puts my cats in that time frame. Thankfully everything turned out just fine for me and my babies, and Midnight is back to his ole playful self, but it disgusts me that there are so many other people that weren't as fortunate as me, and these poor pets are suffering a great deal.

[minniewinnie]

You know it is so sad what is happening to these pets. I believe I am a fortunate owner. A few months ago, I woke up and had seen that one of my cats was very sick for they left me about 10 piles of stomach contents to clean. Being that I have 2 cats I had to wait for it to happen again to know which one was doing it. It was my black male cat (Midnight). I took him to the vet and they couldn't figure what was wrong, put him on antibiotics and told me if it doesnt stop to bring him back. The very next day we was back for everything continued, and now he wasn't eating, drinking, nor using the litter box. The vet decided to do surgery to make sure he didnt have an obstruction. After 2 hours he called me and told me he found nothing. Midnight had to stay at the vets for 5 days to recover from surgery but also to keep him on iv fluids since he wouldnt eat. When the first recall came out I didn't think anything about it, but then they moved the food dates back even further and puts my cats in that time frame. Thankfully everything turned out just fine for me and my babies, and Midnight is back to his ole playful self, but it disgusts me that there are so many other people that weren't as fortunate as me, and these poor pets are suffering a great deal.

I'm glad everything turned out fine for you and "midnight". We love our pets as if they are a family member. He's lucky to have such a caring owner.   :;'

[Homer]

You know it is so sad what is happening to these pets. I believe I am a fortunate owner. A few months ago, I woke up and had seen that one of my cats was very sick for they left me about 10 piles of stomach contents to clean. Being that I have 2 cats I had to wait for it to happen again to know which one was doing it. It was my black male cat (Midnight). I took him to the vet and they couldn't figure what was wrong, put him on antibiotics and told me if it doesnt stop to bring him back. The very next day we was back for everything continued, and now he wasn't eating, drinking, nor using the litter box. The vet decided to do surgery to make sure he didnt have an obstruction. After 2 hours he called me and told me he found nothing. Midnight had to stay at the vets for 5 days to recover from surgery but also to keep him on iv fluids since he wouldnt eat. When the first recall came out I didn't think anything about it, but then they moved the food dates back even further and puts my cats in that time frame. Thankfully everything turned out just fine for me and my babies, and Midnight is back to his ole playful self, but it disgusts me that there are so many other people that weren't as fortunate as me, and these poor pets are suffering a great deal.

Sounds like you are one of the lucky ones.  :;"

[Kearney]

WASHINGTON - Federal testing of recalled pet foods turned up a chemical used to make plastics but failed to confirm the presence of a cancer drug also used as rat poison. The recall expanded Friday to include the first dry pet food.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food involved in the original recall and in imported wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the company's wet-style products. Cornell University scientists also found melamine in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating some of the recalled food.

Meanwhile, Hill's Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food. However, melamine is toxic only in high doses, experts said, leaving its role in the pet deaths unclear.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food, sold throughout North America under nearly 100 brands, earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints; the company, more than 300,000.

Company officials on Friday would not provide updated numbers of pets sickened or killed by its contaminated product. Pet owners would be compensated for veterinary bills and the deaths of any dogs and cats linked to his company's products, the company said.

The melamine finding came a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a cancer drug and rat poison called aminopterin as the likely culprit in the pet food. But the FDA said it could not confirm that finding, nor have researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey when they looked at tissue samples taken from dead cats. And experts at the University of Guelph detected aminopterin in some samples of the recalled pet food, but only in the parts per billion or trillion range.

"Biologically, that means nothing. It wouldn't do anything," said Grant Maxie, a veterinary pathologist at the Canadian university. "This is a puzzle."

Meanwhile, New York officials stuck to their aminopterin finding and pointed out that it was unlikely that melamine could have poisoned any of the animals thought to have died after eating the contaminated pet food. Melamine is used to make plastic kitchen ware and is used as a fertilizer in Asia.

An FDA official allowed that it wasn't immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit. The agency's investigation continues, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

In a news conference, Sundlof and other FDA officials said the melamine had contaminated a shipment of wheat gluten imported from China and purchased by Menu Foods from an undisclosed supplier in the United States. At least some of the that wheat gluten was used in all the recalled wet pet food, according to Menu Foods.

Menu Foods said the only certainty was the imported Chinese product was the likely source of the deadly contamination, even if the actual contaminant remained in doubt.

"The important point today is that the source of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system," said Paul Henderson, Menu Foods chief executive officer and president. Henderson suggested his company would pursue legal action against the supplier.

New York remained confident in its aminopterin finding, said Patrick Hooker, commissioner of the state        Department of Agriculture and Markets. Hooker added that neither aminopterin nor melamine should be in pet food, but that it was unclear why the latter substance would be poisonous to the cats in which it was found.

"While we have no doubt that melamine is present in the recalled pet food, there is not enough known data on the mammalian toxicity levels of melamine to conclude it could cause illness and deaths in cats. With little existing data, many questions still remain as to the connection between the illnesses and what has caused them," Hooker said.

Wheat gluten, a source of vegetable protein, is also used in some human foods, but the FDA emphasized it had found no indication that the contaminated ingredient had been used in food for people. The FDA said it would alert the public quickly if the melamine was found in any foods other than the recalled pet food.

About 70 percent of the wheat gluten used in the United States for human and pet food is imported from the        European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute, an industry group. Menu Foods used wheat gluten to thicken the gravy of its "cuts and gravy" style wet pet foods, FDA officials have said.

One veterinarian suggested the international sourcing of ingredients would force the U.S. "to come to grips with a reality we had not appreciated."

"When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed," said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University.

The FDA's Sundlof said the agency may change how it regulates the pet food industry.

"In this case, we're going to have to look at this after the dust settles and determine if there is something from a regulatory standpoint that we could have done differently to prevent this incident from occurring," he said.

[Kearney]

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said Saturday it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China.

Also on Saturday, Del Monte Pet Products announced it was voluntarily recalling some of its dog and cat treats with certain date codes. The affected brands are Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks, Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks and Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats. The company said two other products sold under private labels also are affected: Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Jerky Strips Dog Treats and Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Snack Stick Dog Treats.

Del Monte said it was recalling the food after learning that the wheat gluten supplied to it from a Chinese plant contained melamine.

[viveeee]

 :xx

[ICER]

updated:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17689821/

[kandykitty20012]

There was also alpo treats and olroy dog biscuits recalled also.......they also contained wheat gluten in them........everyone needs to check ingredients before they purchase any WET or Dry dog food......anything containing wheat gluten DONT BUY..... ;:" :;'

[ICER]

Killed by GREED!

updated news on this topic:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18210224/