Attention Pet Owners

[irregularjoe]

Poisoned Pet Food

Iams Recall

Kidney disorders from dog food

Edited March 18, 2007 by irregularjoe

[martymas]

hi joe

i saw that news feed on tv

is it sabotage or just a bad batch

marty

[bozodog]

That's really sad, I never feed wet food to my doggies, but the cats get a little can shared over the week. I find that dry food keeps their teeth in better condition. And nice big "butcher shop" bones. When I lost my Punky, at two weeks shy of 17 years old, she had all her teeth in fine shape.

I hope we don't lose to many loving pets to this problem. They're like family to most folks.

[papa]

Latest list as follows>>>

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html.

Papa

[blim]

Thank you Joe and Papa for that info! And, phew! Sandydog is safe as far as her food goes! *Hugs Sandy* and feels happy that we didn't spoil her enough to feed her the canned stuff (its just too expensive!)

Marty, from what I've heard, I think it was just a bad batch, but oh, boy, what a BIG batch it was, so many brands! Can't imagine anyone so evil to intentionally cause an innocent dog harm.

Liz

Edited March 21, 2007 by blim

[irregularjoe]

Thank you Joe and Papa for that info! And, phew! Sandydog is safe as far as her food goes! *Hugs Sandy* and feels happy that we didn't spoil her enough to feed her the canned stuff (its just too expensive!)

Marty, from what I've heard, I think it was just a bad batch, but oh, boy, what a BIG batch it was, so many brands! Can't imagine anyone so evil to intentionally cause an innocent dog harm.

Liz

No, it wasn't intentional....at least I don't think.

Just another example of poor quality control management on the part of Menu Foods and Proctor& Gamble.

60 MILLION cans recalled!

The fallout from this hasn't even started yet.

[garmanma]

Thank you Joe and Papa for that info! And, phew! Sandydog is safe as far as her food goes! *Hugs Sandy* and feels happy that we didn't spoil her enough to feed her the canned stuff (its just too expensive!)

Marty, from what I've heard, I think it was just a bad batch, but oh, boy, what a BIG batch it was, so many brands! Can't imagine anyone so evil to intentionally cause an innocent dog harm.

Liz

No, it wasn't intentional....at least I don't think.

Just another example of poor quality control management on the part of Menu Foods and Proctor& Gamble.

60 MILLION cans recalled!

The fallout from this hasn't even started yet.

Here in Ohio, there's a big lawsuit against Land O Lakes. They produce feed for alpacas. There's a dozen farms here that raise them. Seems they sold contaminated feed and the alpacas started dropping like flies. The company admitted it was a bad batch. It's a big buck lawsuit. I had no idea alpacas cost so much.

Mark

Edited March 21, 2007 by garmanma

[irregularjoe]

Thank you Joe and Papa for that info! And, phew! Sandydog is safe as far as her food goes! *Hugs Sandy* and feels happy that we didn't spoil her enough to feed her the canned stuff (its just too expensive!)

Marty, from what I've heard, I think it was just a bad batch, but oh, boy, what a BIG batch it was, so many brands! Can't imagine anyone so evil to intentionally cause an innocent dog harm.

Liz

No, it wasn't intentional....at least I don't think.

Just another example of poor quality control management on the part of Menu Foods and Proctor& Gamble.

60 MILLION cans recalled!

The fallout from this hasn't even started yet.

Here in Ohio, there's a big lawsuit against Land O Lakes. They produce feed for alpacas. There's a dozen farms here that raise them. Seems they sold contaminated feed and the alpacas started dropping like flies. The company admitted it was a bad batch. It's a big buck lawsuit. I had no idea alpacas cost so much.

Mark

Sorry to hear that.

I'm thinking more and more about making my own pet food for my cat and dog.

[Pete_C]

I heard today that they found that the contaminant was an as yet unspecified Rat Poison.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17754681/

aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in some other countries

The federal government prohibits using aminopterin for killing rodents in the U.S. State officials would not speculate on how the poison got into the pet food

Highly toxic

Aminopterin is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system. In dogs and cats, the amount of aminopterin found — 40 parts per million — can cause kidney failure, according to Bruce Akey, director of Cornell’s diagnostic center.

The treatment for Aminopterin poisoning is FOLIC ACID

http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/137/2/167

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/...tract/4/10/1142

Aminopterin is extremely toxic and incites within six days anorexia, extreme diarrhea with atony of the entire gastro-intestinal tract, adrenal hyperplasia, atrophy of the thymus and spleen, and an inhibition to development of myeloid cells in the bone marrow.

Larger amounts of folic acid daily (30 mg.) proved effective in essentially inhibiting the development of the severe toxic reactions for the six-day period.

Although this will not indefinitely protect against toxic exposure it can be used to treat a one time exposure.

Edited March 23, 2007 by Pete_C

[irregularjoe]

I heard today that they found that the contaminant was an as yet unspecified Rat Poison.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17754681/

aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in some other countries

The federal government prohibits using aminopterin for killing rodents in the U.S. State officials would not speculate on how the poison got into the pet food

Highly toxic

Aminopterin is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system. In dogs and cats, the amount of aminopterin found — 40 parts per million — can cause kidney failure, according to Bruce Akey, director of Cornell’s diagnostic center.

The treatment for Aminopterin poisoning is FOLIC ACID

http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/137/2/167

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/...tract/4/10/1142

Aminopterin is extremely toxic and incites within six days anorexia, extreme diarrhea with atony of the entire gastro-intestinal tract, adrenal hyperplasia, atrophy of the thymus and spleen, and an inhibition to development of myeloid cells in the bone marrow.

Larger amounts of folic acid daily (30 mg.) proved effective in essentially inhibiting the development of the severe toxic reactions for the six-day period.

Although this will not indefinitely protect against toxic exposure it can be used to treat a one time exposure.

That's interesting. So how the heck did it get into the food? The last I read was that they were saying it was a wheat gluten problem.

What's so ironic about this is that a lot of the tainted brands ie: Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, are touted as very high quality foods. They are sold in veterinarian offices! And now it comes out that they are made alongside the cheap slop. Probably the same thing actually.

Edited March 24, 2007 by irregularjoe

[bozodog]

Someone tell me again why I pay $28-30 for 40 pounds of Iams, instead of $18-20 for Pedigree? My vet said my little dog had skin allergies because of the dies in food. Now, I ask, why color dog food if THEY only see in black and white?

[Pete_C]

Someone tell me again why I pay $28-30 for 40 pounds of Iams, instead of $18-20 for Pedigree? My vet said my little dog had skin allergies because of the dies in food. Now, I ask, why color dog food if THEY only see in black and white?

Few people realize how few major manufacturing facilities there actually are, nor do they realize how many different brands are actually made by one manufacturer and just the label is different.

The fact that this covers 95 brands would to me indicate that they are essentially identical ; although each individual formula may contain a pinch more of this or that or some additional ingredient.

Take milk for example. Next time you are in the supermarket check out the "expiration date and identification code"

Look carefully and you will find that the store brand has the stamp in the same location using the same font as one of the major brands. Check some of the other dairy products and you will soon notice that this store gets all of its dairy from one major supplier. Do you actually think that Bordon, Oak Farms, Shepps Dairy etc maintain two lines in their plants one for the milk with their sticker on it and one for the one they sell to your local grocery? No, they just change out the roll of labels or the container feed.

The same goes for things like bread; check the nutritional info label. What do you think the chances are that two different bakeries with different forumlae would wind up with the exact same nutritional values and same ingredients listed in the same order? Not likely at all. The same applies to most of what you buy.

So now you finally realize the power of a marketing campaign. Convincing people that a name stands for something and that they should not read labels just look for a "name they trust" . The whole premium pet food spiel is a marketing gimmick allowing them to charge more for the exact same product .

You also bring out an excellent point which I have long known that the color in dog food is for the benefit of the person and not the dog. Dogs do not see color as we do , they see it as a color blind person would, not a true black and white, but more of a three tone with black ,white and a minor color distinction between the red/yellow and blue/green ends of the spectrum.

Personally, if my dogs like it and remain healthy; it is the food for me.

And if they turn up their noses at it ; I am forced to wonder why.

And if my vet tried to blame food coloring for skin problems and tried to convince me to buy an overpriced product from him I would get a different vet.

Wheat, soy , or similar protein allergies? Yes. But food colorings are in very low amounts and they are tested for safety (do you really think they make one set of food colorings for dog food and one for people or is it more likely that they buy the same red from the same source???) But far more likely , skin problems come from a fatty acid imbalance. Not enough Omega 6 and 3 and a lack of linoleic acid in the diet, or something external like fleas, grasses , mites...

Edited March 24, 2007 by Pete_C

[bozodog]

Well, I'd have to say my vet was correct about the coloring. The little mutt has no skin problems when eating a non colored food. I started on Iams when I got my Dane pup, because at the time they were the only ones making a "large breed" puppy formula. I'm one of the few who do read the labels and what goes into my furbabies food. I trust my vet of almost 30 years. I do not, nor does he try to sell me "his" food. In fact I believe he only sells the prescription stuff, needed for critters with kidney or other real problems.

[Pete_C]

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul..../dogs/dry_food/

Personally I do not go for fancy stuff and marketing ploys but this comes highly recommended and is carried by the feed and grain store I use for all my "farm type" purchases.

They use the no preservatives ...

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul....dealer_locator/

has a list of dealers .

What I find really amusing is that on all the news accounts where they identify this contaminant as a Rat poison , most also note that it is only used as a cancer drug in the US; but I have not heard one newscaster do a double take and say "What the f***, a cancer treatment drug that is cheap enough to use as rat poison." or "must be some pretty rich folks with rat poisons to be able to afford using a cancer treatment drug to poison rats."

[bozodog]

I agree, Pete. I wonder what happened to the "lab tech" in charge of checking incoming shipments? In this day and age of NOT having any stockpile of incoming stock and using a "receiving and shipping" rotation as fast as the process allows.... Go figure if a lab inspector is off on vacation or sick leave. And why would they be checking for a "rat poison, cum cancer treatment" in an animal food plant? It must not be very pricey if it's used for rat control in other countries....

[thesidekickcat]

This whole pet food contamination thing has me so mad, sad, and angry!!!

Why didn't they learn from the previous nasty poisonous pet food and recall problem was it only last year? Whatever happened to quality control???

And why on earth would we be sending our wheat etc to third world countries, yes I think China is a third world country no matter what they think, and then they send it back refined down to products like wheat gluten? What's wrong with our flour mills here doing that and saving on all that wasted fuel to ship it back and forth across the world? Stupid trade agreements with other countries on many products like this one just don't make any sense at all to me! When are we in the U.S.A. and Canada going to wake up and see that this whole trade issue is stupid, and why aren't the global warming people like Gore (the hypocrite with the 10,000 sg ft house and 191,000 kwh of electricity per year use) and the sky is falling via global warming media not talking about this waste of petroleum products energy and creating more pollution etc to ship stuff all over the world not only endangers our food supply, and our pets food, our national security (how easy to just poison our food and kill us off without even touching our shores) but every other aspect of our lives? Why are we risking our lives and livelihoods to people in other countries, some of whom hate our very existence? The whole thing is stupid!!!

Maybe, I hope and pray, just maybe this pet food thing will so anger people that they will wake up and fight to get things made here again under strict quality control.

By the way there are people who eat pet food as it is cheaper than people food, some of it that is and even some of el cheapo store brands were on the 95 or more brands recall list.

And who knows if the ingredient that had the cancer drug/rat poison (so is that what the drug industry does with cancer products that don't get approved maybe?) in it wasn't also shipped to food manufacturers and added to people food???

And another thing, what the heck is with these greedy companies pretending their pet food is so much better than brand x or y or z, when it is all made by same outfit? I distinctly remember seeing an ad for Iams a few years back about the care they take in their factory to make the best pet food possible!!! Liars!!! And the other outfits too, especially Hills/Science Prescription Brands...some of which are also on this poisoned list!!! Considering the arm and a leg they charge for special diet foods for already ailing animals and then to poison those poor animals too? Makes me so angry!!!

Ok, I'd better get off my soap box before I really say to much about this whole nonsense of how little control anyone has over the products they buy as to where they are made and/or if they are safe to use/eat.

I still miss my little Siamese, Blue Eyes, alot, but am glad she isn't here now so I don't have to worry about the special expensive cat food I was buying her being full of poison. Our paper has had such sad stories of pets sick and dying in our area after eating the contaminated food...one a 15 year old cat....I cried over that one!!!

This is a wake up call that I hope and pray that people will listen to and do something about.

Pat

God bless everyone

[Pete_C]

I read that the official figures are lower than the FDA ones and those are lower still than the ones circulation on the veterinarians reporting network VIN

http://www.vin.com/

Of the cases reported on the veterinarians’ Web site, 292 included outcomes: 104 deaths -- including at least 11 dogs and 88 cats, with some reports not indicating species.

The vets reported 59 pets that survived the illnesses and 129 animals still under treatment.

Well that is a bit higher than 14 cases .

PetConnection.com, the Web site of a syndicated pet column, posted a note Monday that 1,792 owners had reported dead pets -- 1,018 cats and 774 dogs -- as a result of the tainted foods.

I think that this really shows that the Bush Administration has totally failed at protecting the nations food and animal feed supply.

What if it had been cattle feed or chicken feed which was contaminated? What if it had been a biological agent which could infect humans? Where was our government???

[mikex]

Ok I can agree with alot of what was said here. As for the latter posts, well....if someone is paid to do a job then give them ALL the tools to do said job, if job is not done said person is now labeled unemployed. Period. From a President down to an Inspector on a shipping dock, and everyone in between.

I will stop at this as I feel my rant meter climbing.

M

[bozodog]

AhhHemm, the last I heard critter food had a more stringent inspection process than people food. Maybe we ought to look at Canada and the "Fair Trade Agreement"? Who the heck is inspecting THEIR processes? And where are they getting the raw materials? Didn't t our first Mad Cow discovery come from Canada?

[Pete_C]

Two new developements today.

One is that the FDA is reportedly looking into the presence of certain plasticizers found in the recalled foods.

Edit additional info

The FDA has identified the plastic as Melamine; the plastic commonly used to coat fiberboard shelves and to make plastic plates, bowls etc. There is no history of Melamine being toxic.

Additionally it was found in Hills Science Diet prescription dry food, and appears to have been in the wheat gluten imported from China.

Investigations continue to see how it got into the gluten and if it poses a threat to the human food supply.

Secondly, as part of their testing they discovered that IAMS and EUKANUBA weight loss formula contains a banned genotoxic (causes mutations ) , carcinogenic , tumer causing compound which is banned in all but swine feed (for some reason pigs can metabolize it without the ill effects) . As of now IAMS is not issuing a recal but plans to reformulate their dog and cat food but have not specified when they will stop including this.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/iam_p....reut/index.htm

Side note, because of the push to use corn as a source of ethanol and soy for biodeisel wheat, rice and other grain production by US farmers has plummeted as the rush to move to these now more lucrative crops.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Pete_C

[irregularjoe]

Two new developements today.

One is that the FDA is reportedly looking into the presence of certain plasticizers found in the recalled foods.

Edit additional info

The FDA has identified the plastic as Melamine; the plastic commonly used to coat fiberboard shelves and to make plastic plates, bowls etc. There is no history of Melamine being toxic.

Additionally it was found in Hills Science Diet prescription dry food, and appears to have been in the wheat gluten imported from China.

Investigations continue to see how it got into the gluten and if it poses a threat to the human food supply.

Secondly, as part of their testing they discovered that IAMS and EUKANUBA weight loss formula contains a banned genotoxic (causes mutations ) , carcinogenic , tumer causing compound which is banned in all but swine feed (for some reason pigs can metabolize it without the ill effects) . As of now IAMS is not issuing a recal but plans to reformulate their dog and cat food but have not specified when they will stop including this.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/29/news/iam_p....reut/index.htm

Side note, because of the push to use corn as a source of ethanol and soy for biodeisel wheat, rice and other grain production by US farmers has plummeted as the rush to move to these now more lucrative crops.

Yummmmmm....Plastic.......I wonder if it's caged free and organic?

Edited March 31, 2007 by irregularjoe

[irregularjoe]

Purina recalling suspect products.

[blim]

Del Monte Recall Many brands of Jerky Treats. Codes and expiration dates are printed on the bottom of the packets.

And guess what Sandydog gets daily? AND to top it off, her "Tender Chops" Dog food is made by Delmonte as well. So far, so good on the codes on HER treats (she prefers Wavy Bacon) , but sure could use some finger crossing as I'm sure they'll expand the list. She's acting fine but I'm calling the Vet tomorrow

Liz

[Pete_C]

From the statistics so far the FDA has concluded that cats are far more susceptible to this than dogs.

Apparrently the melamine is somehow being digested and when excreted it crystalizes in the kidneys.

[garmanma]

They always say don't feed your animals table scraps but right about now that seems to be a viable option

Mark