Del Monte Pet Products Voluntarily Withdraws Specific Product Codes of Pet Treats and Wet Dog Food

Del Monte Corporation ^ | 3/31/2007 | Del Monte Press Release

[Political Junkie Too]

Del Monte Pet Products Voluntarily Withdraws Specific Product Codes of Pet Treats and Wet Dog Food Products

SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2007—As a precautionary measure, Del Monte Pet Products is voluntarily recalling select product codes of its pet treat products sold under the Jerky Treats^®, Gravy Train^® Beef Sticks and Pounce Meaty Morsels^® brands as well as select dog snack and wet dog food products sold under private label brands. A complete list of affected brands and products is below.

The Company took this voluntary recall action immediately after learning this morning from the FDA that wheat gluten supplied to Del Monte Pet Products from a specific manufacturing facility in China contained melamine. Melamine is a substance not approved for use in food. The FDA made this finding as part of its ongoing investigation into the recent pet food recall.

The adulteration occurred in a limited production quantity on select product codes of the brands below. This recall removes all Del Monte pet products with wheat gluten procured from this manufacturing facility from retail shelves.

No other Del Monte Pet Products treats, biscuits or wet dog food products are impacted by this recall,and no Del Monte dry cat food, dry dog food, wet cat food or pouched pet foods are subject to this voluntary recall. The affected products comprise less than one-tenth of one percent of Del Monte Pet Products' annual pet food and pet treat production.

Del Monte Pet Products has proactively engaged and fully cooperated with the FDA since the start of its investigation. The adulterated ingredients were used in limited production over the last three months for those items identified by specific product codes. Del Monte Pet Products has not used wheat gluten from this manufacturing facility in China in any other pet products except those described below.

Consumers should discontinue feeding the products with the Product Codes detailed below to their pets.

Del Monte Pet Products are 100% guaranteed and all returned product will be refunded.

Del Monte Pet Products customers can visit our website or contact our Consumer Hotline at (800) 949-3799 for further information about the recall and for instructions on obtaining a product refund.

BRANDED	Production Code/Best By Date
Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks	Code: Best By:	TP7C05 Aug 05 08	TP7B07 Aug 07 08	TP7B08 Aug 08 08	TP7B09 Aug 09 08	TP6B10 Aug 10 08
		Code: Best By:	TP7B15 Aug 15 08	TP7C05 Sep 02 08	TP7C06 Sep 03 08
Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks	Code: Best By:	TP7B19 Aug 19 08	TP7B20 Aug 20 08	TP7B21 Aug 21 08
Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7C07 Sep 04 08	TP7C12 Sep 09 08

PRIVATE LABEL	Production Code/Best By Date
Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Jerky Strips Dog Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7B06 Aug 06 08	TP7B07 Aug 07 08	TP7C05 Sep 02 08	TP7C06 Sep 03 08	TP7C07 Sep 04 08
	Code: Best By:	TP7C08 Sep 05 08
Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Snack Sticks Dog Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7B19 Aug 19 08	TP7B20 Aug 20 08	TP7B21 Aug 21 08	TP7C08 Sep 05 08	TP7C09 Sep 06 08
Ol' Roy Bark'n Bac'n Beef & Bacon Flavor Dog Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7C14 Sep 11 08
Ol' Roy with Beef Hearty Cuts in Gravy Dog Food	Code: Best By:	BC6M21 Dec 21 09
Ol' Roy with Beef Hearty Strips in Gravy Dog Food	Code: Best By:	BC7A19 Jan 19 10
Ol' Roy Country Stew Hearty Cuts in Gravy Dog Food	Code: Best By:	BC6M15 Dec 15 09
Dollar General Beef Flavored Jerky Strips Dog Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7C06 Sep 03 08
Dollar General Beef Flavored Beef Sticks Dog Treats	Code: Best By:	TP7B20 Aug 20 08	TP7B21 Aug 21 08
Happy Tails Beef Flavor Jerky Strips	Code: Best By:	TPY7B08 Aug 08 08	TP7B09 Aug 09 08
Happy Tails Meaty Cuts with Beef in Gravy Dog Food	Code: Best By:	BC7A29 Jan 29 10

[Political Junkie Too]

My dachshund has never liked the store treats. At first, we used to give him the smallest bulk treats from PetCo as potty treats (he's litterbox trained), but now we give him a Science Diet Prescription Diet t/d small bite piece as a treat. He doesn't know that it's still dog food and not dog candy.

He also gets his daily dose of Trilostane in a cheese cube.

-PJ

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Keep an eye on lil Harley. Hopefully, your batch is fine. My sister gives her dog those strips also, but the code # was different. Thx for everything. It means alot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi,,,He's doin' great,,, as long as he's kept away from
Lady,,,(12yo.springer),,,she don't like puppies,,,ain't
gunna play with the puppy,,,chased him under the bed for
his run-by-n-bite-her-Nozz-when-she-was-asleep game,,,;0)
Hope your lil'fella is doin' better today...;0)

[Arizona Carolyn]

So he has Cushings Disease? How is he doing on Trilostane? You know there is an excellent list on yahoo for pets with cushings -- there is two lists, one is much better than the other and a lot of people on the list use Trilostane. I tried and tried to get my vet to prescsribe it for our cocker that died last year, could not get him to read the literature.

[mplsconservative]

Hi Carolyn,

My vet told me that my big female lab mix might have Cushing's Disease. Due to the fact that I had my crabby Jack Russell at the clinic at the same time, I didn't get to ask the questions I had in mind.

I'll be there next week for their annual checkups, but to me, forewarned is forearmed,

Could you please tell me what the symptoms are from your experience?

Thank you!

[Publius6961]

I won't feed my dog what I wouldn't eat ... she eats Nutra Nuggets which is primarily lamb and rice .... no wheat or corn products or chicken, period. She's a Border Collie.

You eat Nutro Nuggets?

Kidding aside, since there seems to still be mass confusion, I wonder if there is a site where people who have lost their pets in the last couple of weeks can talk to the rest of us about the symptoms that led up to the loss of their pet.

One of the things that disturb me about keeping a running "pets killed" is that pets, specially dogs, die often and regularly from ingesting things they shouldn't eat or drink. No allowance is ever made for this, so far as I can tell.

[SkyDancer]

Nope, don't eat the stuff not even as a snack LOL
But the stuff that's in it I do ....lamb, rice, etc.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Ohhhh.... well, her fur started getting really thin. This was a cocker with a beautiful coat and then all of a sudden... she got a pot belly, had to pee frequently, was very thirsty... didn't sleep well, would pace at night, started getting black on her skin, some dogs get skin infections (look like bacterial infections due to low immune system caused by the cushings..

Those off the top of my head. There is two types of Cushings, Pituitary (most common) and adrenal (surgically treatable).

Unfortunately, along with Cushings she also came down with Ehrlichia (TBD) and we had two diseases to deal with. She did very well for quite a while, but the tick disease took a toll on her kidneys and she ended up dying from acute renal failure.

I don't know where you live, but tick disease are horrible and all too prevalent... in many cases the Lyme vaccine is even worse than the disease. Many dogs with renal problems if tested (not the snap test, the long test) are found to have a TBD.

If your vet thinks your dog has cushings insist on the testing for the disease and then if it turns out to be positive email me and I'll give you the link to the good cushings list on yahoo... you will get expert guidance there and know what to look for from your vet.

[mplsconservative]

You're right about dogs ingesting things that are undigestible. We dog-sat for my sister-in-law's six-month old lab pup this week. The dog would eat anything, including pulling up my dormant Oriental lilies by the old stems and ripping off the canes of the climbing roses. Yikes!

I'm wary of the dried food now because my pampered 7 year old lab mix drank copious amounts of water on Thursday and had seizures for the lack of a better word. The dog we were sitting for vomited and our Jack has been lethargic.

I put all of them on a chicken and rice diet on Friday and they are all back to normal dog behavior.

Dogs have been some of my best companions for 46 years. This recall has made me rethink the way I feed them.

[Arizona Carolyn]

You didn't say what you are feeding these dogs, but the symptoms you describe cry out for a vet visit ASAP. There is a lot of people on Pet Connection (where the dead and dying dogs are being reported in much greater numbers than on FOX) reporting their dogs are sick and they eat kibble, not canned.

[mplsconservative]

Thank you so much for your reply! It is very appreciated.

Weight loss is not a problem for my girl. She's a fatso. :(

We live in Minnesota, land of mosquitos and deer ticks. The dogs are on heartworm pills and Frontline for ticks 8 months of the year.

The pacing and panting hits home. That is exactly what my dog is doing.

[chessplayer]

This is getting ridiculous. We can`t trust any pet foods anymore. I feed my cat Purina Indoor Formula (dry), which does`nt contain wheat-gluten, but does have corn-gluten in it. I suppose I should`nt trust the corn-gluten, either. I also feed her Friskies gluten-free wet food.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Then you definitely need to join this list. Heidi,the list owner is very, very well-versed and there is a lot of very high caliber vets on the list.

Here is the link to the group

[Arizona Carolyn]

Last year there was a huge recall from Diamond Foods due to corn gluten that was contaminated with a toxic mold. No one knew at first what the cause for so many dead, sick and dying dogs was until finally Cornell figured it out.

Cats are Carnivores. They need zero grains in their diets.. even more than dogs, they need a meat-based diet. Baby food meat would be healthier for your cat than kibble.

There is two good-caliber canned cat foods that are meat-based. One is made by Nature's Variety and the other is made by Natures Logic.

Something a lot of people don't know is you spend more on food or you spend more on vets. IMO it's better to opt for spending more on the food and nothing on the vets.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Here is additional information released today

Barking up wrong tree in pet food recall April 1, 2007

Lawyer claims culprit is vitamin D
By ALAN CAIRNS,
SUN MEDIA

As the poisoned pet food crisis widened yesterday with the recall of a dry food, a Toronto lawyer leading a $60-million class-action negligence suit against a Guelph company fears scientists might be barking up the wrong tree.

With suspicions in the Menu Foods poisoning shifting from animopterin rat poison to melamine used in Asian fertilizers, lawyer David Himelfarb said suspect food should be "immediately" tested for excessive vitamin D.

Himelfarb said the kidney failure seen in the Menu Foods case is "exactly" the same as symptoms that left a Whitby woman's dog seriously ill in 2005.

The woman, Janet Grixti, alleges in a statement of claim filed in Superior Court of Ontario that her chocolate Labrador Mocha became ill after it was fed Royal Canin pet food with excessive amounts of vitamin D. "We have taken hundreds of samples of (Royal Canin) food from across the GTA. I can't give you accurate numbers ... but there is an awful lot of (vitamin D) ... some tests have shown more than 10 times the normal amount ... might even be more," said Himelfarb, who is on the class-action case with lawyer Joe Rochon.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received 8,800 complaints of dog and cats deaths or illness.

No corresponding statistics are kept in Canada.

But after receiving 1,000 telephone calls and e-mails from concerned pet owners, Himelfarb suggests that the poisoning tragedy is much bigger than it appears.

"There could be many thousands," Himelfarb said.

Vitamin D is essential to a healthy diet for dogs and cats, Himelfarb said, but excessive amounts cause "total (kidney) failure."

High levels of vitamin premixes are added to dog and cat food to offset vitamin destruction during heating and shelf storage, Grixti alleges in a statement of claim.

While most vitamins break down, vitamin D "remains in full strength," it is alleged.

None of Grixti's allegations have been tested in court. Royal Canin has not filed a statement of defence.

Royal Canin admits excess levels of vitmain D3 led to the recall of seven vet-only products in March 2006, but its web site assures its foods "are safe" and unaffected by the Menu Foods recall.

Meanwhile, scientists still seek answers to the lethal poison which two-weeks ago forced Mississauga-based Menu Foods to recall 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food.

CHINESE WHEAT GLUTEN

Nestle Purina Petcare Co. yesterday recalled batches of American-made Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food it says contains Chinese wheat gluten bought from the same American company which supplied Menu Foods.

Tainted wheat gluten also prompted Hills-Pet Nutrition to recall Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food, the first dry food recall.

[Political Junkie Too]

Yes, he has Cushings. I've also been to a site called Canine Cushings Disease Forum. They've been very helpful.

-PJ

[mplsconservative]

Thank you for the link!

My girl and I appreciate your effort.

[Arizona Carolyn]

I've been in your shoes and had to search out these resources; best of luck to you and your dog.

[JACKRUSSELL]

This is just heartbreaking. Might I suggest that everyone check out Wysong pet food products (http://www.wysong.net). As far as I know, they are not part of any recalls, and my cats and dog love their food. You can order online and have everything shipped right to your door.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Wysong has an excellent reputation, you are correct.

[chessplayer]

"Cats are Carnivores. They need zero grains in their diets.. even more than dogs, they need a meat-based diet. Baby food meat would be healthier for your cat than kibble."

"There is two good-caliber canned cat foods that are meat-based. One is made by Nature's Variety and the other is made by Natures Logic."

Thanks for the tips. I called the feed mill store in my town this morning. They don`t carry Nature`s Variety or Nature`s Logic, but they do sell Felidae cat food. I`ve been reading up on it, and Felidae`s ingredients are much more "holistic" and natural than the junk that is put in brands sold at super markets. It does`nt contain any meal or meat by products, etc. And the carbohydrate content is much lower than store bought brands.