Posted on 03/16/2007 2:53:30 PM PDT by Dysart
WASHINGTON - 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, Menu Foods 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.
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 Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Company, Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.
Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and lot numbers covered by the recall, saying they would be posted on its Web site — http://www.menufoods.com/recall — early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.
The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies. Its 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, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., 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.
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.
Billinghurst I think does a superb job explaining how no commercial dogfood can do what the raw diet does; the raw diet is not just food/nutrients, its how its fed... in that its balanced NOT in one meal, but over time. Commercial foods by nature are balanced within each meal, but that is a bad thing - eg some ingredients cancel out others. Also, commercial stuff has to be cooked/heated, neutralizing or changing its components.
Consumers who have product which is being recalled should stop using it and return it to Menu Foods in accordance with the procedure found at http://www.menufoods.com/recall. This procedure will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007. If your dog or cat is showing any signs of kidney failure, consult your veterinarian.
The recall includes an extensive list of brand names and lot numbers. In order to determine whether cat and dog food is subject to recall, consumers should refer to the comprehensive list of products at http://www.menufoods.com/recall. This list of products will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007. Menu Foods voluntarily recalled the products after learning of complaints of vomiting and renal failure in dogs and cats following their consumption of product produced between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. FDA has been apprised of this action. Following feedings of the product, some cats and dogs refused further feedings, while others exhibited signs of renal failure (signs of renal failure include loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting) and others died from renal failure. Menu Foods has undertaken extensive testing of the products in question, employing both internal and external resources, but to date has been unable to confirm any causal relationship to our product. Specifically, tests of some affected products have not revealed the cause of sickness, and testing will continue until a better understanding of the facts has been achieved.
Menu's products are distributed to supermarkets, pet specialty stores and mass merchandisers across the United States. It can best be identified by reference to the list of products found at http://www.menufoods.com/recall. This list of products will be available from 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007. Menu Foods is notifying its customers by telephone and mail and is arranging for the return of all recalled products. The products were distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
While the number of complaints has been relatively small, Menu Foods is taking this proactive step out of an abundance of caution, because the health and well-being of pets is paramount to Menu Foods. Consumers with questions may contact Menu Foods at 1-866-463-6738.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-16-2007/0004547812&EDATE=
Me too. I give my dogs a high quality food, Innova. Nevertheless, I'm calling tomorrow morning to see if it's among the foods affected.
I'll switch them to canned tuna until I can get them to the vet
MG, please don't do that - there are trace mercury levels in tuna that can be fatal to a cat if given as a "daily" food. It's ok every once in a while, but not as the staple.
We can't do that because my wife threatened to throw me and the dog out on the street if one raw piece of chicken got on her carpet.
We feed Nature's Variety kibble mixed with milk, yogurt, or cheese supplemented with whatever we happen to be cooking that day. Our dog is a garbage disposal and she will eat just about anything.
We give her whole hard-boiled eggs once a day and she just wolfs them down shell and all.
Innova won't be on that list ;) It's probably the best food out there for pets - human grade, too.
Isn't that disgusting? I'm no animal rights activist but I love my animals and I would never feed them this crap.
Does anyone believe this? I think what is paramount to Menu Foods is their continued existence.
Thanks for the info. Puts my mind at ease.
What brand of dog food do you use? My last dog had serious allergy and kidney problems even though we were feeding him expensive lamb and rice formula dog food.
nope, it is kibble made from humans!
The dog loves it.
We feed Nature's Variety.
http://www.naturesvariety.com/
We have been very happy with the food and the dog loves it. We mix healthy table scraps in with the food to add variety and the dog will eat what she likes and just ignore the rest.
My dog had awful allergic reactions to all other dog food(red itchy feet that he would chew causing bleeding), and I finally tried this stuff. Problems solved. My other dog got a taste of it and refused to eat her food. Now they both are on the diet. Cost-- about $100.00/mo for both of them, or 42.00 bucks for a 20lb bag.
My wife's cat likes his venison the same. He does not like it still on the hoof. Thankfully, it's not much of a problem at home but we took him up north, and he went nuts every time a deer went past the cabin. He doesn't like any animal, four legged or two, near his house (we get cats, rabbits, woodchucks, kids, raccoons, skunks and dogs in descending order of frequency), but deer cause a fur covered rocket to bounce off the windows.
There are other excellent brands of food available and depending on the type of dog you have one of the others might work better for you.
Whatever you decide to feed your dogs, take a look at the first 5 ingredients listed and if you see wheat gluten, corn gluten, or any type of by-products you might want to consider another brand of food.
This site has some good info to help you make decisions.
http://www.dog-food-zone.com/compare-prices.htm
BTW, I have to buy the food from my Vet. I'm fairly certain that it's only distributed this way. A bit of an unseemly scheme, but the food has been great for them and I wouldn't feed them anything else now.
Thanks. I'll google Billinghurst. I presume he has a book.
We were originally feeding this dog (a Viszla) Science diet, but the trainer recommended Nutra-grain because he said that our dog was too hyper and he thought that the Science diet may have been too rich for him. So, we changed his diet, he didn't like it at first, but he got used to it. We have never fed him anything else, no table scraps, nothing, because our other dog had irritable bowel syndrome and got sick everytime he ate anything but his regular lamb and rice formula kibble. So, while I don't think that this recall will affect us, I don't want this dog to develop the allergies that our other dog had.
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