Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall

SF Gate ^ | April 3, 2007 | Christie Keith

[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

[mom4kittys]

It shocked me as well.

[ArtyFO]

What amazes me is that the world’s largest and second largest wheat producing countries are importing wheat products from China. I wonder if ADM is somehow involved in this mess.

[arbee4bush]

Well, I certainly wouldn’t consider this a political issue then.

That was the point I was trying to make earlier. It WILL beoome a political issue because the FDA will be blamed (they were not ready to handle something of this scope-SURPRISE!) so that means the political hacks and lawmakers in DC will of course put more bills, laws and govt restrictions, red tape and guidlines. Which of course will make things worse..for our pets and for us.

[Arizona Carolyn]

I don't know but they were just advertising soy they are growing in China on TV this afternoon. I've never paid attention before, this recall made me pay attention.

We are selling off land so fast here in this country that I was shocked, too, to know we are importing wheat from China.

[Shyla]

We are on the fresh road kill (deer only) list with several police depts.

Check my page......some are not exactly dogs, but the house ones are now on the same diet.

I do give the little one some Iams dry. Now I am wondering and will prolly stop.

Most people think that chix necks and backs are bad for dogs, but there are no brittle bones in that “cut”.

Also, we have a few butchers near us that save all the trimmings for us and pack them away in their freezer.

I think the animals eat better than we do!

[Arizona Carolyn]

I'll just float this thought -- if the companies self-regulated there wouldn't be any need for government regulation, I am very anti-regulation, it is regulation that is causing our pets to be over-vaccinated (kids, too)..

Look at this year and last -- all the e-coli recalls alone... the whole food industry is becoming a hourse of cards and people are actually finding out the FDA is a farce.

They are an inept organization full of nepotism. They approve drugs based on testing done by the very companies looking for approvals, they are obviously not looking at the safety of the food being imported into this country while at the same time putting organic food growers here in the states through the hoops due to pressure on the FDA from big companies not wanting competition.

This isn't a Democrat/Repuiblican issue. This is shades of movies in by-gone days.

[Arizona Carolyn]

I see no problem with chicken necks and backs,but I mostly feed goat, rabbit, beef, pork and green tripe to my dogs. They get some Raw Instinct for breakfast.

[La Enchiladita]

My take on this article is that it is more about “conspiracy” than about information. Oh, the scandal of unreported deaths! Oh, the slow response! But no real information about what exactly tainted the pet food and how it brought about illness and death. More MainSlimeMadness.

I read and posted on the very earliest threads on this subject, when it was Breaking News... immediately began cooking chicken for my cat. She was eating a new cat food line called Prime (?). I don’t know if I’ll ever feed her canned again. Other than that, her kibble seems to suit her fine.

[Shyla]

What is Raw Instinct? Curious.

Raw pork, not good, I can not quite remeber where I read it but I believe that is poses some type of meningitis threats to canine. I have fed it, but usually boil it first.

Green tripe? Please clue me in. Always loooking for new items to add to the menu!!!

What types of dogs?

[mom4kittys]

I just wish these companies could be trusted to police themselves and set high quality standards of their own.
It just seems every kind of pet food ismade at Menu Foods and just slapped with a different label, including what we think is prescription food from Science Diet FGS!

[mom4kittys]

I just wish these companies could be trusted to police themselves and set high quality standards of their own.
It just seems every kind of pet food ismade at Menu Foods and just slapped with a different label, including what we think is prescription food from Science Diet FGS!

[girlangler]

Thanks for posting this Carolyn, I appreciate it. Both liberals and conservatives love their pets, and this is not about personal politics.

This story correlates with what my vet told me yesterday. They cancelled (here in my rural county) all routine and vaccination appts., because they have five animals in there with symptoms of kidney failure.

They told me they think this is going to get a lot worse. This article explains why, people were continuiing to feed their pets this tainted stuff and it was allowed to be sold after the company knew there was a problem.

I emailed this article to all my friends with pets, and I appreciate you providing it.

Oh, and a friend of mine called today from another county near here. Her sister has a new bijon (sp) puppy, and it is in the vet hospital there with these symptoms, and yes, she was feeding it food that has been recalled.

[Ditter]

Don’t have time to read this now but I was just wondering if the animals deaths are spread all over the US. My brother is a veterinarian in Houston and as of last week he said his clinic has not seen suspicious animal deaths that might be cause by this food.

[Arizona Carolyn]

I have three cockers. A lot of us feed pork. I buy mine from Hare-Today -- a family farm in PA. I get my green tripe from them as well as from Greentripe.com. Both have grass-fed green tripe so it doesn't stink like the tripe from cows fed corn and other feeds. Wanna see your dogs get excited!

What do you have (I assume large).

[Caramelgal]

“For God’s sake...this is an excellant article.”

As the “mommy” of three kitties, I too think it was a very informative article. But the article made it sound like the FDA was entirely to blame and not Menu Foods, while the FDA sounded a bit like they are trying to pass the buck by saying they don’t have the jurisdiction or manpower to ensure the safety of pet foods - I’m not sure who’s wrong or right or if the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

If the FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods - human and animal and promptly notifying the public of problems, then something really failed here – either they have oversight or they don’t - and if this failure doesn’t concern some of you because you don’t have a pet, then consider that the same rules and oversight goes into the animal feeds that ultimately effects the human food chain – what your steak or chicken breast ate ultimately goes into you.

I don’t want to sound Chino-phobic but I’m very concerned about food products from overseas, especially China and I’m very concerned about the FDA’s ability to oversee what goes into the food we eat.

And for those of you who are so sensitive to read any criticism of our government as a personal attack on GW, then all I can say is we have tradition going back well over two hundred years of criticizing the government starting with King George. Sometimes the government and its agencies need and deserve our criticisms.

While GW is the Chief Executive, I don’t hold him personally responsible for everything – I do however hold the career bureaucrats in charge of these agencies accountable to deliver what they promise and what my tax dollars supposedly pays for.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Oh, I hate to hear that. Did you see the owner of the company on the news? They asked if people would be reimbursed and he hemmed and hawed about it. The news people on Headline News commented that he skipped answering.

I found it interesting the number of dead dogs from the dogs AT Menu Foods that have died, not the actual number.

BTW, for some reason the mod moved this to chat, I have no idea why since the others are still in News/Activism. This wasn't posted to be political, but to inform.

[conservativegranny]

Alot of those bloggers are the same ones that forward every stupid hysterical warning that filters into their inboxes. I can’t tell you the number of hoax emails that claim their dog was killed by one thing or another from clorox bleach, swiffer mops and dog food is one of them most frequent.

You can only cry wolf so many times and then people stop paying attention.

[browardchad]

I read and posted on the very earliest threads on this subject, when it was Breaking News... immediately began cooking chicken for my cat. . .I don’t know if I’ll ever feed her canned again. Other than that, her kibble seems to suit her fine.

Same here: chicken for both cat and small dog. As far as the kibble goes, just make sure it doesn't contain wheat gluten. I'd say that's an ingredient to be avoided until this is finally sorted out.

I also agree about the tone of the article. I googled "pet food recall" every morning during this mess and found whatever new info or recalls there were, after checking the ingredients in both the cat and dog kibble on Nutro's website. Given the enormity of the first recall, the inherent inefficiency of any Federal regulatory agency, and the initial suspicion about Chinese wheat gluten (which proved correct), a healthy ounce of prevention and skepticism by pet owners about the safety of any pet food containing wheat gluten might have saved a lot of heartache.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Interesting... wonder if it’s a distribution thing. It was when Diamond had their problem last year, it was all their food East of the Rockies.

[HungarianGypsy]

Personally I think this should be a wake up call to those who think it’s fine to import foodstuffs from nations like china.

Even without this it's not fine. Especially when farmers aren't making the money they should because imported things are being bought instead.