Menu Foods said Friday that the products in question were made using wheat gluten from a new supplier and that the company now is using a difference source for this material.
Cornell also supplied researchers in the earlier recall case, which began in the fall of 2005 and continued into 2006. In that episode, at least 76 dog deaths across the U.S. were attributed to contaminated food produced by Diamond Pet Foods Inc. In that instance, food had been contaminated by toxic and naturally occurring, produced by fungus on corn and other grains. These produced liver damage, unlike the symptoms in the current recall.
They need to be looking for Castor beans (ricin) accidentally or deliberately dumped into the ingredients.
Or more innocently, there may be some generally harmless ingredient that just a few pets are allergic to. Consider peanuts and people.
I am very curious as to why the identity of this mystery supplier is STILL being withheld. It's a little bit suspicious.
I'm also curious as hell about Menu Foods, specifically ALL brands that they manufacture. I really was shocked to learn that they make some foods under the Hill's, Eukanuba, and Iams' name brands, ESPECIALLY after seeing all of those generic/store bands on the recall list.
This whole fiasco has given me pause, for sure. I recently finished a book called "The Hundred Year Lie", about how our world has become increasingly synthetic, toxic and ruminant (I highly recommend it). Anyhow, there was one part of the book that I found very disturbing - a discussion on animal feeds.
Were you aware of the fact that euthanized animals from shelters are often processed, rendered, or otherwise included in a lot of commercial foods? Also, that some roadkill and deceased zoo animals are sent to processors for the same?
It would be easier to dismiss claims like these if, a few years back, it wasn't revealed to the public that cattle feed contained BOVINE by-products as a source of protein. And I'm pretty convinced that if diseases like BSE (mad cow disease), scrapie (similar to BSE but affecting sheep, and Creutzfelt-Jacob's disease (yep, in humans) were still unknown, it would have stayed an industry secret.
*sigh* My 2 pups (11 months and 10-12 weeks respectively) love their Beneful, so I would definitely know if something wasn't right. But I should be able to trust that the food I give them won't hurt them.