[rlpw]

I know a lot of people have pets that you are very attached to. They are putting out word about animals having kidney failure that are using pet foods made in Canada by a high-end and private label manufacturer. It is very disturbing that the company put out a press release that specifically stated not to be released over the US wire services.

This company produces foods for many of the higher end food lines like Eukenuba and Iams as well as many private labels. The list of recalled food items can be found here http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html

[Jeysie]

Eep!

Thankfully I feed my kitty Purina and Friskies, neither of which seem to be on the list. And I only feed him dry food, not the wet food mentioned.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[SnorkleCat]

I wonder what this mystery ingredient is. Fortunately we don't feed any of those brands, but who's to say they're any better?

[Jazhara7]

Good thing I feed my dogs Royal Canin dry pellets.




-

[Erwin_Br]

Pedigree's not on the list either, fortunately for our two dogs.

--Erwin

[Squinky]

I should probably stop eating pet food altogether.

[colpet]

Having access to the internet veterinary community, I have to say what a tragedy this is. Vets from all over the U.S. and Canada are reporting suspect cases, primarily acute renal failure in cats, though some dogs are affected as well. I, myself, have a case. There are heartbreaking stories where multiple cat households have more than one animal affected. Even the pets that are not sick now may have sustained some renal impairment.

[Melanie68]

That's awful.

They think it might be the wheat gluten (there was a new supplier). I wonder too if the cats who were most severely affected also had some kidney damage already (already had a chronic nephritis). It's scary for pet owners (I'd be scared too if it was one of mine).

[rlpw]

Worse thing is that several test cats died and they still put it out. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070319/wl_canada_nm/canada_petfood_recall_col_6

[undeaf]

I am looking forward to the ALF's response to this.

[undeaf]

So... how many people have been lynched for this so far?

[rlpw]

Well, ALF won't say much since it was a Communist countries fault. And every one says America needs more regulation.

Chinese Wheat Behind Pet Deaths

[undeaf]

Originally Posted by rlpw

Well, ALF won't say much since it was a Communist countries fault. And every one says America needs more regulation.

Just as the ALF or PETA wouldn't ever go against soviet canuckistan, right?

[SoccerDude28]

There's a new class action law suit against the pet food companies filed.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Just heard from the news that the contaminant in the foods turned out to be rat poison, which affects the kidneys of the animals.

[undeaf]

And there's not much reason for gluten to be in pet food in the first place.

It's outrageous that it affects so many different brands of cat and dog food. Outsourcing is such a scam. And I used to think all those CMC magnetics CDs were an outrage...

[SnorkleCat]

What really chaps my hide here is that one buys premium, vet recommended foods such as Science Diet EXPECTING that the product is guaranteed to be better quality, healthier food than a Walmart Special....yet it turns out they're all manufactured by the same company using the same wretched ingredients.

What do you want to bet this "new supplier" from China offered the company a really CHEAP source of the wheat gluten and the company took it without actually checking to see if there were any issues with the source- without testing for possible contaminants. This kind of crappy fact checking and lack of care would never happen with human food.

I am blazing mad and I hope the families who lost animals to this company's negligence sue and win. Let this be a big expensive lesson to other companies out there who think that cost cutting at any price is worth it.
We used to make our own pet food (a rather complicated, vet advised, viatmin/mineral balanced formula) but we got a bit too busy is the last few months and have been feeding commercial.
I think we'll go back to making our own now. I just don't trust others to look out for our pets with the same level of caring that we have.

[undeaf]

Today I saw most of the press conferance about this. Their excuses sound very good: melamine was used as a fertalizer by a supplier which they've had to add due to their other suppliers not being able to meet demand, and this is supposedly the first case ever of melamine poisoning from food. I guess that means that up until now, no one was crazy enough to try to use ceiling tiles for fertalizer.

I don't like how they're getting free publicity for doing damage control, I want to hear from everyone else that might be involved in this issue. ie. from other cat & dog food companies, where do they get their ingredients, how stable are their suppliers, what are their procedures for adding new suppliers, do they use glutten as much? And from any human food companies that used wheat glutten or wheat from the same source.

This could get really big if it affects human food too, eh? But, with human food at least people know when sometthing is really bad for them, animals can't really tell us when they have these kinds of problems.

[Melanie68]

Here's the AVMA home page with some info of what is known so far.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Did you hear the story about the woman who became violently ill eating pet food? I think it was dog food, and she was trying to coax her dog to eat. Perhaps the dog sensed it was bad. But the woman actually ate some and got ill.

I'm concerned because I had fed my cat the bits and gravy variety. She seems well--it might have something to do with the fact that she only liked the gravy. (I've since switched to pate type.)

The dried food is Royal Canin, which hasn't been tapped as bad yet.

And now for something completely different: maybe THIS is how the apes take over the planet!!