PET FOOD ALERT

Reyn, I may be sick, I don't think that article says what you say it says. Doesn't it just say all of it's cuts-n-gravy products?

Reyn, second only to clowns, I am freaked out totally by ventriliquist dummies.

Pet Food Recall Worsens, FDA Only Tip Of Reported Animal Deaths

By Staff
Mar 27, 2007

A new report is circulating that the recent number of deaths allegedly due to the Menu Foods pet food poisoning scandal may be just the tip of the iceberg. Many more deaths have not been officially reported, and that the problem may be more extensive than originally thought, as many as 471 deaths may be likely.

Some pets that ate the food suffered kidney failure, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog. The FDA has reported more than 4,400 calls from concerned pet owners, reports Fox.

Menu Foods pet food recall has reportedly been expanded to include all varieties of its wet dog and cat food amid mounting fears that the tainted products are still for sale.

Menu Foods, an Ontario-based company, has asked retailers to remove all wet food items as a safety precaution, regardless of the date code, reports the Globe & Mail.

In a weekend release, Menu Foods said that even brands not on the official recall list should be removed from the shelves.

The safety precaution comes just days after the initial discovery that some of the pet food products Menu Foods had processed were contaminated with rat poison.

Menu Foods has stated from the very beginning that it would take responsibility for pet medical expenses incurred as a result of the tainted food.

Menu Foods does not believe the food was tampered with because the recalled food came from two different plants, one in Kansas and the other one in New Jersey.

The company, already facing lawsuits, said Friday it is testing all the ingredients that go into the food but it will continue to produce food at the two plants.

Aminopterin is illegal to use as rat poison in the United States but is used as a cancer-fighting drug -- but according to the EPA, it's not registered for use in the United States.

Woman, dog both sick after eating recalled pet food

Canadian Press
Mar. 26, 2007 10:31 AM

OTTAWA - An woman says she became violently ill after eating some of her dog's food.

It's a case that could be related to the tainted pet food that has killed several dogs and cat's and sickened dozens more across in Canada and the United States.

Elaine Larabie tells the Ottawa Citizen that for three days she suffered symptoms that included loss of appetite, vomiting, foaming at the mouth and trouble urinating. She went to an emergency room on Tuesday and is now awaiting test results from blood work.

After noticing her dog, Missy, wasn't eating, Larabie said she took bites of Iams pet food in order to trick the terrier into thinking it was people food.

The ploy worked and the mealtime routine continued for about two weeks until both dog and master became sick on March 17.

It wasn't until she saw a TV news story about the Menu Foods recall that she became aware of a possible connection.

Last week, the Toronto-area company recalled 60 million cans and pouches of food made under 95 different brand names.

On Sunday, Menu Foods asked retailers to immediately remove all affected varieties of the company's wet pet food regardless of the date code.

The company said the request was made amid concerns that some recalled lots of "Cuts and Gravy" style wet pet food were still on store shelves.

The company said in a release Sunday there is no known risk from items not on the recall list, but an "abundance of caution" was called for.

.... The company had received reports of potential problems almost a full month earlier, on February 20. But instead of alerting the public, it initiated "tasting trials" on 40 to 50 dogs and cats. Seven of the study animals died of renal failure, beginning on March 2, five days after the testing started. The company still did nothing, waiting over two weeks longer before finally taking action....

.... The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that the lethal concentration of the chemical is three parts per million (ppm) for rats; the amount found in the contaminated food samples was 40 ppm. There is speculation that the poison got into the chow because Chinese farmers sprayed their crops, including wheat, with it to protect them from hungry rodents....

Wow. I just read what I wrote last night and I must say that I sounded like a real conspiracy freakoid Zippohead. Well, Im not. Im just playing with some conjectures about whether someone in a govt lab could delay crucial environmental or health data frm becoming public so that they (the lab techies) could do some stock trading on the "puts and calls" angle.

Pet Food Recall: Dry Dog & Cat Food Now Scrutinized, One Recalled

By Nancy Streets
Mar 31, 2007

The pet food recall now includes dry food. That has caused pet owners even more panic for worried pet owners and according to CNN, the company that makes the popular 'Science Diet' dog and cat food, Hill's Pet Nutrition, has added it's Prescription Diet M-D Feline dry cat food voluntarily to the recall list. Take note, it is a very specific food used to control weight loss in cats. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

CBS is reporting that the latest recall comes after an announcement by the Food and Drug Administration Friday." We are announcing today that the FDA laboratories have found a substance called melamine in samples of pet food manufactured by Menu Foods," Stephen Sundlof of the FDA said. Initially, experts say they found a cancer drug also used as rat poison in the recalled pet food.

***

The FDA says the chemical was found in imported wheat gluten used in wet-style products manufactured by Menu Foods at their Emporia plant. The Hill's cat food that's being recalled contains wheat gluten from the same supplier.

Earlier this month, Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food, sold throughout North America under nearly 100 brands after several animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints; the company, more than 300,000.