Why is this recall not on the FDA site or on the Natural Balance site?
Chronologically challenged.....
My wife tried to buy some this weekend at PetCo. To PetCo’s credit, even though it was on the shelf Saturday, the cash register would not let the sale go through (and indicated a recall). By Sunday, PetCo had pulled it from the shelves.
Thanks for the alert.
The Science Diet Prescription m/d dry cat food is given for diabetic/pre-diabetic cats. In other words, the cats consuming the melamine contaminated food were already compromised animals.
I don't think my dog likes her cats with green peas.
excerpted from,
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover041507.htm
Chemnutra, Wheat Gluten, Wal-Mart
Mystery clouds poison pet food animal deaths even as it jumps continental U.S.
By Judi McLeod
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The pet food poison scare has just jumped from North America to the Caribbean Islands.
Associated Press is reporting today that two dogs in Puerto Rico died of kidney failure after eating dog biscuits that were among the 100-plus brands of pet foods and treats contaminated with an industrial chemical, according to a veterinarians’ group.
The same Ol’Roy dog biscuits recalled from North American shelves last week, killed the two Puerto Rican dogs.
Amigo is the name of the supermarket chain where the poisoned dog biscuits were purchased. The chain is owned by a Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse:WMT-news-people), according to Victor Collazo, chief of Puerto Rico’s Veterinary Medical Association.
Islamist dry runs?
Jeepers. Is there any pet food left that’s safe?
from http://www.petconnection.com/blog/category/2007-food-recall/
“I’m not sure why it has taken a month for a lot of people in the media to get that having the pet-food recall isn’t “just” a pet story, you know, something to fill space with “what are those silly pet-loving people doing now?” between the latest Anna Nicole Smith is still dead update and whatever the Runaway Bride or Diapered Astronaut is doing now.
As we’ve pretty much said from Day One here on the Pet Connection, this is a story about what consumers have a right to know, about how veterinarians deserve to be respected and better integrated into the public-health system and, finally, it’s a story about global imports and food safety.
The Associated Press takes up the last thread (thanks, several readers):
WASHINGTON - Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.
Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on.
Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you’ve got a real international pickle. Does the United States have the wherewithal to ensure the food it imports is safe?
I'm not sure if this is related to the wheat gluten poisonings or not, but my dad's previously healthy eight-year old white Persian cat had to be put to sleep this morning because of sudden illness and kidney failure. He had been feeding it Purina and Nine Lives cat food. These two products are not currently on FDA's recall list, but does anyone else know about other potential problems with these two brands? I've told my dad to document everything and to hold on to the cat food just in case this blows up further, and it turns out his cat was in fact poisoned.
So that tells me they don't make their own stuff. Kind of curious if this isn't another Menu foods thing with some cross contamination going on.
The scary thing about this is that animals are suffering from kidney failure from these Natural Balance products, and none of them contain wheat gluten, ostensibly the culprit of the earlier recalls.
So......what’s going on?
I believe my complaint was the first if not one of the first when I called them on Thursday, April 12 to ask them if it was normal for my dogs to be gulping water after eating their Venison and brown rice formula. I purchased the bag on Tuesday, April 10 and started feeding that evening and my 5 dogs went into the pet hospital on Friday morning, April 13 with varying drgrees of kidney failure. I called the company again on Saturday and at that time they told me they had had several other complaints about the product. I let my feed store know about the tainted product and on Monday morning, April 16, they went to the Natural Balance website and it showed the company was voluntarily recalling the dog & cat food. I then called the Dallas office of the FDA(which oversees a three state area) to file a complaint and the man told me that I was the first to complain on that particular dog food , dry kibble. I called Texas A&M and spoke to someone in their diagnostic lab of the small animal hospital and she read me an in-house memo(her words) that they(?) were still developing a diagnostic test for the dog food and were only accepting tissue samples from the kidneys and livers after a necropsy but not accepting any of the dog food itself because I wanted to have my own testing done on it. The veterinarian from Natural Balance contacted my vet yesterday and spoke to her about my dogs’ conditions and it seems to me they are doing everything they can to find out the cause of the problem although I don’t think I will ever use their product again. Anyway, one of my dogs came home yesterday but I still have 4 others in the hospital so be very careful.
I`ve switched to Felidae food for my cat. It`s produced by Canidae. They are`nt affected by the recall, and claim all the ingredients in their cat and dog foods are grown in the US.