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.
You may well have saved some animals' lives by drawing our attention to this serious situation.
Haven't seen it on any of the lists.
Only certain varieties of these brands are affected. The links open spreadsheet files that list the bar codes on the cans. I just went through my pantry and only one can is on the list.
I'm sure your retailer will have a complete list.
Of course, you can always go by the saying: 'If in doubt, throw it out!'
One of the foods on the iei list, Diamond Foods, had a similiar recall not too long ago.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10771943/
My dogs get Canidae, http://www.canidae.com/ , but I am thinking of switching to Blue Buffalo, http://bluebuff.com/ , because the feed stores around here don't have really convenient hours for me, and that is the only place I can get the Canidae. Both of these foods do well on comparison.
Yes, that was the first thing they did. Test him for those and since I got him at a shelter, I think we were both convinced that would be the problem. They both came back negative so they did a blood test, his temp was high (105 normal cat about 101) and his white blood cell count was very high but according to vet not alarming. He's on antibiotics now and way better. Back to his normal self but it took a couple days and I had him scheduled for another visit because 48 hours later, he was still terribly sick.
I noticed that too and was commenting to my mother. Very strange.
I have to admit I'm really irritated that IAMS had nothing up on their site about it. I saw on another thread that IAMS is now not included. So it's confusing. They should have something up one way or the other since it appears to involve so many brands. For the safety of the pet or for peace of mind for the owner.
I buy Nature's Variety. As I said in an earlier post, I chose this food because of the quality and the fact that a store nearby stocks it. There are a number of great dog foods on the market and I put links to some great sites in post #193.
Nature's Variety is what I feed now. I have also considered Honest Kitchen and Life's Abundance.
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/index.shtml
http://www.healthypetnet.com/petsystem/default.asp?realname=10042285
I have also heard good things about Oma's Pride.
http://www.omaspride.com/products.htm
We feed our cats Wellness kibble and wet food.
I am just trying to provide information about the different foods that are available. Even though I use a certain brand I know that it isn't right for everyone and I don't want to be seen as endorsing one product over another. I just want my furry children to be healthy.
Bingo! Found the culprit!! "Priority" is one of the recalled foods.... I just started feeding that to my cat about 2-3 weeks ago and she was really sick this past week.
She was doing fine with Whiskas wet food, or so it seemed, but that has been discontinued in all the local supermarkets. Guess who is taking all the Priority back to Vons market today?!!!
I will continue preparing the chicken for her: no more canned food. Feh!!
Thank you, spectre, for posting the list in your post 183.
They came close to killing my cat... she was horrible sick this past week...
:((
Damn. I know how you feel.....
Seems that IAMS is doing a voluntary participation in the U.S. recall, and mandatory in Canada...
Thank you. She is a wonderful girl.... smart, sweet, and loving.
Ridgebacks were originally bred in Africa to hunt lions and protect property. They shed very little and they are generally very clean animals, no rolling in the mud or anything like that.
The worst thing about them is that they are very food motivated and they will swipe stuff off the counter if you aren't paying attention.
Ol'Roy is on the list
Usually I avoided that stuff but occasionally accidentally picked up a can of it, always tried to buy a variety of flavors, knew a few to avoid.
I was thinking of dark meat chicken, too. I like the broiling idea, would be good enough for me to eat that way, love thighs, but mine seems to need the extra fluids for awhile although I've seen her drinking water again.
Just went through the list, all I've bought for years and years were Whiskas and Friskies, always supplemented by dry if they would eat it, don't see them on there, never tried Iams canned and always shied away from store brands. Mine used to love Mealtime, and I haven't been able to find it lately.
This is a mega serious matter, could shake up the entire pet food industry, probably will be class action lawsuits, not pleasant to contemplate the magnitude of it.
I remember my dad picking up horsemeat when I was young as a supplement/treat for my grandmother's dog. It isn't in the stores now, so must be illegal, never liked the idea of eating horses anyway. I remember somebody got busted for selling it as ground beef when I was a kid, and I remember the nasty taste of whatever it was we got from that place. We quit going there. That was in Illinois, but I remember seeing packages of it in the meat section when I was a kid in Iowa.
Until this gets sorted out, there will probably be a shortage of brands not on the list so we'd better be prepared for who knows what? Somebody mentioned the health food store. I did pick up their dry cat food which my cats seemed to like, but it's an extra stop and added expense to go there too often.
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