Posted on 04/03/2007 4:34:03 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying after eating canned and pouched foods manufactured by Menu. The foods were recalled -- among them some of the country's best-known and biggest-selling brands -- and while it was certainly a sad story, and maybe even a bit of a wake-up call about some aspects of pet food manufacturing, that was about it.
At first, that was it for me, too. But I'm a contributing editor for a nationally syndicated pet feature, Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, and all of us there have close ties to the veterinary profession
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
He's been great- but off his feed today, so naturally Mrs. B & I are watching him like a hawk. And she's having some problems- blood pressure is up. Doctor tomorrow. Every grey hair I have is come by honestly.
This evening, Menu Foods has extended the recall backwards to "to pet food made between Nov. 8 and March 6," per Bloomberg.com. Wasn't Menu's rationale for its original cutoff date of March 6 the fact that that was the date the wheat gluten in question was added to the food? And now food produced up to four months earlier is being recalled, after pet owners may have been feeding this food for the past few weeks, thinking it was safe?
If the pet food industry (with the assistance of the FDA) intentionally set out to bankrupt itself, they couldn't have done a better job than they're doing right now, IMO.
In addition, according to the same report, the FDA is now modifying it's position on melamine being the sole contaminant:
``We still have a lot of work in understanding why melamine is involved,'' said Stephen Sundlof, the director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, today in a news conference. ``We are relatively certain there is a connection here someplace.'' (Well, that's reassuring/sarc)
>>snip<<
Melamine may be linked to another substance that hasn't yet been identified that could have contributed to pet deaths, Sundlof said.
Since the Chinese supplier in question also exports other grains, including, IIRC, corn gluten, which is also used extensively in pet food, I can't help wondering if this will turn out to be a matter of cumulative poisoning over a period of months, with more than one contaminated ingredient and/or toxin involved.
What are you feeding him?
We’ve had our dogs on human food since the recall.
You can get a doctor on Good Friday? Wow.
I hope Mrs. Backhoe feels better soon.
I don’t quite get the dates you’re citing. The earliest reports of pet illness and death from Menu Foods products were back in late December. I would think that anything made AFTER March 6 is what would be safe (at least as safe as anything is). Menu Foods has said from the start that they had already stopped using the new wheat gluten supplier at the time the recall started. Perhaps they’ve extended the date further back for some reason, but I don’t think they extended it further forward. In this era of “just in time” manufacture and delivery, there’s probably little or no food left on store shelves that was made as far back as November, though there’s likely to be a bit more in people’s cupboards. So the AVMA statement that food being SOLD NOW is safe would be generally true, as long as you steer clear of foods in dusty packages that look like they’ve been on the shelf for an unusual length of time.
Re the “is it the melamine?” question, veterinary experts have been saying since the first day melamine was mentioned that it really couldn’t account for the severe effects seen in dogs, and that it was unknown whether it could produce such severe effects in cats. I’ve never thought for a minute that it was established that melamine was the responsible agent, and I’ve never seen any statement from the FDA that suggested they thought so. The FDA found melamine in pet food that shouldn’t have been there, and MIGHT be responsible for at least some of the food-related kidney failure cases. Foods believed to contain melamine were recalled because the melamine shouldn’t have been there, and because there was at least some known risk from it (of mild and non-permanent kidney damage in dogs), not because a conclusion had been reached that it was THE explanation for all these pet illnesses and deaths.
My point throughout this has been that we don’t really know what the contaminant is, so we clearly don’t know how it got into this batch of wheat gluten (and now there’s even some question as to what country the wheat gluten originated from), and so we really have no idea what else the contaminant might be in. Some of the over-the-top panicking over “pet food”, when there’s very real reason to be concerned about human food, just strikes me as seriously misdirected. There’s no reason to think that a non-recalled brand/flavor of pet food is less likely to be safe than any human food on the market containing wheat gluten (and there are a LOT of those), yet many people are steering clear even of non-recalled brands that don’t contain any wheat gluten, and taking up home-cooking for their pets.
This whole thing is looking like a step-by-step instruction manual to al-Qaeda on how to generate a mass panic and serious economic damage in the US, very easily and inexpensively. That’s the main reason I’ve felt it’s worth the effort to chime in and try to inject some reason and perspective when people start making irrational statements.
What have you been feeding him? Any treats from WalMart? They were added to the recall today? Seriously check out Natures Logic. Prayer for puppy..
Menu foods extended the dates of the recalled products today. Treats from OleRoy (that is crap food anyway you look at it) was added today also.
Backwards or forwards?
Well, I had written out a reply, but my computer decided to reboot while I wasn’t looking.
I think what I had said was that, without actually reviewing all of the self-reported reports, I don’t think it’s valid to say “it’s pretty clear to me” that the self-reported numbers “include a lot of deaths unrelated to the food.” The self-reporting form asks for Veterinary info, food that was being fed, lot numbers, etc.
Regarding FDA: Yes, I’m well aware of their regulatory limitations, as I work in regulated community myself. However, with over 10,000 complaints, one would think that in the 3 weeks since the recall, they would be able to “confirm” a few more than the original 16 reported deaths. I was personally called by FDA last Sunday - SUNDAY - and they had many many people on the phones returning phone calls to people who have made complaints/reports. Even I could have confirmed a few dozen cases by now.
What! I'm talking about China. What country are you referring to? China has had intentional food contamination problems using rat poison for a few years now.
If the Chinese people don't mind killing their own, why would they care about us or our pets? Considering that, the poisoning of the Haitian children and China's lack of quality control, it's irresponsible of any company to use ingestible items from them. IMO, we should not allow ingestible products into our country from any country with lower quality controls than ours.
After Waco, would you say it just isn't safe to be a Christian in America?
No. The ACLU and Muslim terrorist taught me that. What Waco taught me was that Democrats were not pro choice.
Panic mongering's not smart.
You must be heavily invested in China.
bookmark for later
What are you feeding him? We’ve had our dogs on human food since the recall. You can get a doctor on Good Friday? Wow. I hope Mrs. Backhoe feels better soon.
He's been getting Pedigree- they swear on the website "they aren't part of the problem..."
In retrospect, he seems to be cutting one last puppy tooth, which may account for the "off his feed" attitude-- he snarfed down homemade rice and beef soup OK.
Mrs. B had her face swell up Tuesday night, and during "fun at the Emergency Room," we learned her blood pressure was up. Called her Doc the next day to see about it, twerp at the front desk gives us the "since you haven't been in in more than three years, we consider you a New Patient, and there's a three week waiting list for them!"
I assume Command Voice, explain that high blood pressure is not something to be put off, and offer to call the Doc's cell. She and wife are best friends in private.
Five minutes later, we get an appointment. Had not thought of the Good Friday angle.
Arizona Carolyn?
What have you been feeding him? Any treats from WalMart? They were added to the recall today? Seriously check out Natures Logic. Prayer for puppy...
Thank you. We've been giving him Beefeater's freeze dried beef liver for snacks, since that's what the dog trainer used. At least that's one less thing to worry about.
Happy Easter, and good luck today.
:-)
The same to you and yours...
Fingers crossed...
Eyes crossed...
( Bad joke from an old cartoon )
Knock on wood...
( strikes head repeatedly- Dad always said I was wooden-headed... )
Why do you rely on the government to protect you ? Is there anything the government does well ?
Stop relying on processed foods and you’ll be just fine - human or animal foods included.
Make your own pizza, macaroni & cheese, etc, and you’ll have a lot less to worry about not to mention it’s a whole lot healthier.
In this day and age that is pretty hard to do unless you live on a farm iwth your own cows. get real, we are not in Amish country.
Not all that difficult if you shop the fresh food aisles only, stay away from fast food, food in a box, look for organic fruits and vegetables.
Notice once again they say: "NOT FOR RELEASE OVER US NEWSWIRE SERVICES"
That is exactly the sort of irrational paranoia that has me concerned. You read something like that and immediately assume it's evidence of some conspiracy to conceal the true extent of the problem from the American public. Pretty silly assumption, since it would obviously take very little time before US media outlets noticed if information was being released to the Canadian media and not being released to the US media (especially since many major US media outlets have offices in Canada and receive all the Canadian newswire releases), and so the company obviously wouldn't use such an approach if their intent was to try to conceal info -- they either conceal from everybody or nobody.
In fact, Menu Foods simultaneously released virtually identical press releases to US and Canadian media.
US: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/Press%20Release%2004052007%20US.htm
Canada: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/PRESS%20RELEASE%2004052007%20CAN.htm
There is one little extra sentence in the Canadian version, which has no bearing on the situation in the US: "A further seven varieties for Europe have been added to the recall list." The header information for the Canadian version also contains the Canadian stock exchange trading symbol for a related security "Menu Foods Income Fund (TSX:MEW.UN)"; this security does not trade on any US exchange. The byline for the US version shows the name of the US PR service that distributed that release, PRNewswire. The byline for the Canadian version shows the name of the Canadian PR service that distributed that release, CCNMatthews. The two releases are otherwise absolutely identical, including every detail of the recalled brands/flavors/dates. Companies with international operations normally have ongoing contracts with different PR distribution services in different countries. These contracts remain in force during a business crisis situation, and there is nothing sinister about that.
That's why I always
make my own cell phones. Can't trust
manufacturers
in Asia and our
government regulators
to keep store-bought phones'
emission levels
of radiation within
a safe power range!
If they confirm some specific deaths, they have to confirm all of them, or pet-owners will be suing because the FDA confirmed some other specific pet’s death, but not their pet’s, leaving the other pet owner with an advantage in court when suing the manufacturer. This just isn’t the FDA’s job, and it’s having a hard enough time doing the things that ARE its job.
They are gathering data and analyzing it with the knowledge that the data is very imperfect. In many cases, it is simply impossible to determine whether or not a contaminated food was to blame, or some other factor, or a combination of the two. Few vets have been willing to confirm contaminated food as a cause of illness or death in specific animals they’ve treated themselves, because such certainty simply doesn’t exist — especially when there has not been a definitive identification of the contaminant or contaminants responsible for the overall problem. The FDA is confirming the deaths which can be confirmed by virtue of the fact that they occurred under controlled lab conditions. They are clearly acknowledging and investigating a much wider problem, but there’s no benefit to their changing their public statements from “We have confirmed food-related deaths in 16 lab animals and believe that there have been many more food related illnesses and deaths among pets” to “We have confirmed food-related deaths in 16 lab animals and 27 pets and believe that there have been many more food related illnesses and deaths among pets”. Who cares what tiny subset of pet illnesses and deaths they might have specifically confirmed? It doesn’t help solve the larger problem, and whatever number they could give would be much smaller than the actual number, and much smaller still than the owner-claimed number, and just set off another round of people howling that the FDA is greatly under-reporting the numbers.
The counts on that Pet Connection self-reporting site do not purport to be even remotely confirmed, and include everyone who has made a report, even those who answered “No” to the question “Has your pet been seen by a veterinarian?”, and who answered “No” to the question “Did you check the code number to confirm that it was from a recalled batch?” , and who left blank the answer box for the question “Which of the recalled products did your pet eat?” It’s unlikely the data being collected there would even be helpful to FDA investigators, since it does not even ask for specific batch numbers. I assume the FDA is attempting to collect that information when it takes reports, but frankly, most people throw out empty pet food cans and pouches pretty quickly, so I’d be surprised if more that half of the people making reports can cite a specific batch number that the pet definitely ate.
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