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(TORONTO)--Canadian pet food maker Menu Foods is cutting its workforce by as much as 15 percent and raised the estimated costs of its tainted-pet-food recall by 22 percent. The largest maker of wet cat and dog food in North America said Wednesday the volume of customer returns and associated costs are greater than originally anticipated. It now estimates the costs at 55 million Canadian dollars (US$56 million; €39.59 million), up 10 million Canadian dollars (US$10.2 million; €7.21 million) from earlier estimates. Menu Foods Income Fund had 924 employees at the end of last year. Company spokesman Robert Merrick said the...

AVMA, ACVIM offer opportunities to review the situation. Successes and failures in responding to the recalls of pet food were the subject of a panel at the AVMA Annual Convention in July. The recalls also were the topic of a panel during the June forum of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Earlier in the year, ingredients from China that contained adulterants went into pet food in the United States. The manufacturers of the pet food, starting with Menu Foods, issued recalls after finding an association with renal disease. The situation has contributed to calls for more resources to...

Two of the pet food samples that tested positive for the painkiller acetaminophen are Menu Foods’ Pet Pride "Turkey and Giblets Dinner" and Pet Pride "Mixed Grill,” ConsumerAffairs.com has learned. As we reported last week, a Texas laboratory discovered acetaminophen in about a half dozen samples of pet food tested in May. The lab did not disclose the pet food brands because of a confidentiality agreement. After our story was published, however, we heard from a consumer who paid ExperTox Inc. of Deer Park, Texas to analyze samples of pet food. That consumer is Don Earl, who says his cat...

See for example this thread first. Menu's stock falls twenty-five percent Well I wonder where the value went? Proctor and Gamble said "Like a hole in the head!" Killing pets was just NOT our intent!

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman has ordered Menu Foods and/or their agents to have no further contact with consumers of the pet food recall products without the involvement of the consumers' attorneys. Judge Hillman called the endless telephone calls to consumers " abusive and harassing." As if pet owners had not already been put through enough with this pet food recall nightmare. Most consumers' pets who ingested the contaminated pet food have become seriously and permanently ill and thousands have died. Now, it seems, representatives of the insurance company representing Menu foods, Crawford and Company, think nothing of calling and...

Menu Foods has posted claims information on its Web site for pet owners whose pets were killed or injured by contaminated feed. The Canadian-based company in March recalled more than 60 million containers of melamine-tainted pet food -- linked to the deaths and illnesses of thousands of dogs and cats nationwide -- and now says it will “address any reasonable expense incurred by pet owners that we can identify as being caused by contamination of Menu Foods’ products.” The company also advised pet owners of the ramifications of settling directly with Menu Foods instead of joining one of the more...

See the post below to read of all of the cat and dog foods which are being recalled. This is the latest in a long line of recalls and Menu Foods is now concerned about cross contamination from the the original plant to all of their other manufacturing plants.

In Tuesday’s four-hour session of live-blogging the food-safety hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives – work from which her wrists have yet to recover – Christie found herself typing something we at the PetConnection first heard weeks ago, but couldn’t get confirmation on until it came up in the hearing: Without Iams, there might not have been a recall at all. In sworn testimony, Menu Foods CEO Paul Henderson admitted that his company called the recall because Iams told them they’d had enough, that their own quality internal systems had revealed a problem, and that they were pulling their...

WASHINGTON // Federal investigators are probing whether Chinese producers laced a key ingredient in pet food with an industrial chemical in order to boost the price of their shipments snip Referring to the contamination that has prompted the recall of more than 100 brands of pet food, investigators are trying to determine whether Chinese producers purposely added melamine to their wheat gluten shipments to Menu Foods. more.....

The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund says it was a "horrible coincidence" that he sold nearly half his units in the pet food company less than three weeks before a massive product recall. Insider trading reports confirm that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units, or 45 per cent of his stock, for $102,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, reports The Globe and Mail. The shares would be worth $62,440 at current prices. Wiens still owned 17,193 units and options to purchase 101,812 units after the sale. "It's a horrible coincidence, yes . . ." Wiens told The...

Dr. Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine and kidney specialist researching the outbreak's health impact on pets, and other researchers saw what they believe is a second contaminant in the gluten and the urine of infected animals, but have yet to identify it. Xuzhou Anying's Website said it also exports carrots, garlic, ginger, corn protein powder, vegetables and feed. Chinese officials have not responded to the U.S. government's question about whether any products other than wheat gluten were shipped here. Under the microscope and even to the naked eye, the contaminated gluten looks...

The revised recall includes cat food brands from Nutro, Publix, America’s Choice, Pet Pride, Winn Dixie and more. What was that FDA? We’re done with the recalls? We can’t wait to hear what you have to say at the Senate hearing. Menu Foods voluntarily recalls additional pet food made with ChemNutra wheat gluten TORONTO, April 10 /PRNewswire/ - Prompted by reports from the US Food and Drug Administration as to the presence of melamine in cans of cuts and gravy pet food produced in Menu Foods’ Canadian production facility, Menu Foods undertook an accounting of all recalled wheat gluten supplied...

Pet food insider sold shares before recall CFO calls sale a 'horrible coincidence' Keith McArthur Toronto Globe and Mail (Business Section) Tuesday, April 10, 2007 The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund says it's a "horrible coincidence" that he sold nearly half his units in the troubled pet food maker less than three weeks before a massive recall of tainted pet food. Insider trading reports show that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units for $102,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Those shares would be worth $62,440 today, based on yesterday's close of $4.46 a unit. That represented...

Del Monte Pet Products Voluntarily Withdraws Specific Product Codes of Pet Treats and Wet Dog Food Products in the United States » Recalled Products in Canada Click Here April 6, 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 from...

The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying after eating canned and pouched foods manufactured by Menu. The foods were recalled -- among them some of the country's best-known and biggest-selling brands -- and while it was certainly a sad story, and maybe even a bit of a wake-up call about some aspects of pet food manufacturing, that was about it. At first, that was it for me, too. But I'm a contributing editor for a nationally syndicated pet feature, Universal...

Topeka, KS (March 30, 2007) - In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill's is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, WHEAT GLUTEN for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to MENU FOODS. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of MELAMINE. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent...

IA #99-26, IMPORT ALERT #99-26, "DETENTION WITHOUT PHYSICAL EXAMINATION AND INTENSIFIED COVERAGE OF WHEAT GLUTEN DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF MELAMINE" TYPE OF ALERT: Detention Without Physical Examination (Note: This import alert represents the Agency's current guidance to FDA field personnel regarding the manufacturer(s) and/or products(s) at issue. It does not create or confer any rights for or on any person, and does not operate to bind FDA or the public). PRODUCT: Wheat Gluten PRODUCT CODES: 02F[][]08 Wheat gluten 02E[][]06 - Wheat flour gluten 71M[][]01 wheat gluten PROBLEMS: Poisonous or deleterious substance Unsafe food additive PAF: PES FAD PAC FOR...

"Testing by the FDA and at least one lab independent of the agency found melamine, a chemical used in plastics and household textiles, in samples of the recalled pet food and in one of its ingredients -- wheat gluten -- said an FDA official and another source close to the investigation. Neither wanted to be identified prior to the FDA's formal announcement this morning." "The FDA has not determined how melamine got into the pet food. Melamine is used as a fertilizer in Asia and has several commercial and industrial uses."

Hold the MSG Please!March 29, 2007 As a growing number of dead cats and dogs amply prove...the Department of Homeland Security will not keep you safe.  It will: create a burgeoning federal bureaucracy; give the Democrats a fertile field for unionization and even create the illusion of security.  But...it is reactively defensive and it will not keep you safe. If the U.S. doesn’t stop worrying more about ways to protect the “rights” of potential terrorists than it does about actually killing terrorists...it will be raining more than the dead bodies of cats and dogs on American soil in the future.  Have you...

More brands added to pet food recall STREETSVILLE, Ontario, March 19 (UPI) -- Pet food manufacturer Menu Foods of Streetsville, Ontario, has added seven brands to its list of potentially dangerous pet foods. The manufacturer issued a recall "cuts and gravy"-style cat and dog food brands including Americas Choice, Iams and President's Choice sold at stores across North America after it was revealed that the foods may contribute to kidney failure and death in cats and dogs, ABC News reported Monday. At least 10 pet deaths have been linked to the recalled foods. "It's very possible other companies will have...