PET Food Recall - 10 Deaths

Yes, they say it's rat poison in the wheat........so many angry people, so many deaths (16 at last count). So sad.

I don't know where they are getting their numbers but it's way more than 16... is that counting the 7 that died from their own testing in January? I know of one cat owner here ... but haven't begun to ask around or at the vets.

This is a tragedy. If I didn't know better (and I do) I would say this is terrorism. Our pets are a heartful but soft target. Of course it happened when they changed factories... but it wasn't done overnight or in secret you know? Rat poison in the wheat... I guess that means the wheat is grown in a 3rd world country that has no rules? Sorry I rant.

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Talulah said:
Yes, they say it's rat poison in the wheat........so many angry people, so many deaths (16 at last count). So sad.

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The NUMBERS are for Albany New York ONLY!!

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 23) - Rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists said Friday they still don't know how it got there and predicted more animal deaths would be linked to it.

I suggested it came from a 3rd world country ... probably hoping so. Otherwise, we in the USA have a two fold problem: that of the FDA not taking care of how our wheat is grown, and, what of the wheat consumed by humans??? If such things can happen to celery and spinach, and now a problem with wheat (glutin) in dog/cat foods??? I shudder to think it.

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Sky , I heard it came from overseas and we had a family lose a beautiful siamise (sp)

IDK now, but we used to buy wheat from the Soviets... and then sell them bread back. ( and vice versa?) Anyway... just shows we get complacent, yes? Poor kitty...and family.

I am so glad I went ahead and invested in the hospitalization health care program for Caleb...otherwise I would not have taken him to the vet so quickly... and returned when he was still ill days later! He would have succumbed, I'm sure. Already having paid that money for the year's policy has saved me nearly $400 in the first month! Who would have suspected a nation-wide food poisoning epidemic??? God knew I needed that policy (for a dog, no less! )

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After the announcement, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style food, regardless of when they were produced. The company also said it would take responsibility for pet medical expenses incurred as a result of the food.

The substance in the food was identified as 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, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.

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, but said no criminal investigations had been launched.

The pet deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. Some pets that ate the recalled brands suffered kidney failure, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and two dogs.

There is no risk to pet owners from handling the food, officials said.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation into the pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food. The gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated, the FDA said.

Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.

"It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.

Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by the manufacturer and found aminopterin in two of them. The two labs are part of a network created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation's animals and food supply safe.

"Any amount of this product is too much in food," Hooker said.

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.

"It's there in substantial amounts," Akey said.

Donald Smith, dean of Cornell's veterinary school, said he expected the number of pet deaths to increase. "Based on what we've heard the last couple days, 16 is a low number," Smith said.

Aminopterin is no longer marketed as a cancer drug, but is still used in research, said Andre Rosowsky, a chemist with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Rosowsky speculated that the substance would not show up in pet food "unless somebody put it there."

Paul Henderson, chief executive of Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods, said the company does not believe the food was tampered with because the recalled food came from two different plants, one in Kansas, one in New Jersey. Menu continues to produce food at the two plants.

I read about this yesterday. So sad. Very unsettling to say the least.

I sincerely hope it was a MISTAKE.

http://www.petconnection.com/

Pet connection has been having people add recall sickness and death. The death numbers there are over 1000 already. These are self-reported numbers, but it really shows the extent of this. Its just so sad.

This just makes me so very sad! I have 3 dogs and love them with all my heart. One of my girls is so special to me I would just die if I lost her. Thank the dear Lord they are all on dry food (Special early cardiac care food from Royal Canin). I can't imagine the grief some of these people must be feeling. And anger! I know I will be in bed for days with grief the day I lose my precious Blenheim girl. She sleeps with me and my husband every night - I have never left her ever for vacation except when we went to Hawaii and then would only leave her with the breeder/dog show judge who was so kind to let us have her!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recall of contaminated pet foods expanded Saturday to include a new brand, even as investigators puzzled over how a chemical called melamine would kill dogs and cats.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. said it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes.

Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China. (Read details of Purina recall)

The same U.S. supplier also provided wheat gluten, a protein source, to a Canadian company, Menu Foods, which this month recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly 100 brand labels.

Menu Foods and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the pet food industry, have refused to identify the company that supplied the contaminated wheat gluten.

Hill's Pet Nutrition said late Friday that its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food included the tainted wheat gluten. The FDA said the source was the same unidentified company.

Hill's, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co., is so far the only company to recall any dry pet food. (Hill's recall information)

Federal testing of some recalled pet foods and the wheat gluten used in their production turned up the chemical melamine. Melamine is used to make kitchenware and other plastics. It is both a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cyromazine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Melamine is toxic only in very high doses and has been shown in rats to produce bladder tumors, according to the EPA.

The federal pet food testing failed to confirm the presence of aminopterin, a cancer drug also used as rat poison, the FDA said. Cornell University scientists also found melamine in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating some of the recalled food.

Earlier, the New York State Food Laboratory identified aminopterin as the likely culprit in the pet food. But the FDA said it could not confirm that finding, nor have researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey when they looked at tissue samples taken from dead cats.

Experts at the University of Guelph in Canada detected aminopterin in some samples of the recalled pet food, but only in very small percentages.

"Biologically, that means nothing. It wouldn't do anything," said Grant Maxie, a veterinary pathologist at the university. "This is a puzzle."

The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food.

Menu Foods announced the recall this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the company's products. (Menu Foods recall information)

An FDA official allowed that it was not immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit. The agency's investigation continues, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Menu Foods said the only certainty was that imported wheat gluten was the likely source of the deadly contamination, even if the actual contaminant remained in doubt.

"The important point today is that the source of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system," said Paul Henderson, Menu Foods chief executive officer and president. Henderson suggested his company would pursue legal action against the supplier. (Watch the Menu Foods CEO discuss the case))

About 70 percent of the wheat gluten used in the United States for human and pet food is imported from the European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute, an industry group.

One veterinarian suggested the international sourcing of ingredients would force the U.S. "to come to grips with a reality we had not appreciated."

"When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed," said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University. (Watch pet owner talk about her beloved dog's death)

Sundlof said the agency may change how it regulates the pet food industry.

"In this case, we're going to have to look at this after the dust settles and determine if there is something from a regulatory standpoint that we could have done differently to prevent this incident from occurring," he said.

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 has received more than 8,000 complaints; the company, more than 300,000.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Cat Chow hasn't been included in this recall yet, has it?

(Yeah, I know, cheap cat food, but I'm poor, what can I say...)

AS

My Vet said I made my dog sick by changing his food so much I changed his food because IT made him sick!!! So finally they give him a clean bill of health (but he's still not eating and has diarrhea when he does) so they told me to buy some Pedigree, Mighty Dog, Alpo or Purina wet pouched food... and I think 2 of them are on the NEW list!! Like they didn't know they bought the poison wheat glutin before NOW???? No wonder my dog won't eat it!

I have returned so many packages of dog food during March I can't count! Poor puppy. Maybe I'll make him oatmeal for a few days?

Does anyone have the link for the newest wet foods recalled, I'm so confused over all this.

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also make him rice and chicken or rice and hamburg don't forget the veggies, really he'll love um

my cats have been vomiting lately. we had them on IAMS dry food.

i'm irritated.....i'm seriously doubting the safety of all foods........
<ul type="square">[*]i heard the kansas pet food supplier was never inspected by the FDA. [*]the wheat gluten originated from CHINA. why the heck are we getting our foods from a communist country who treats their citizens so poorly? why outsource wheat???? why aren't North American countries growing wheat??? what food safety standards does China have????[*]the FDA is uncertain that HUMAN FOODS may be effected by the bad wheat gluten.[*]how can a company claim their product is "safe" if they don't know who handles and how an ingredient is handled from point A to B??? For instance, IAMS claims their pet food is now safe. I'm wondering what other ingredients they purchase from shady states.[/list]
my cats won't eat the organic cat food. why are cats sooo picky?????

Why does the government and big business do anything?

MONEY.

I don't even cook for myself!

Well, what began the whole wet food thing is the vet told me to take him off beneful due to allergic reactions it causes etc etc ok so I tried the DRY Iams for large breed puppies... and it went right RIGHT through him. So I carted that back to the store and bought ..yep the Select Bites pouches...

I think he's shy on eating any dog food now... won't even eat the kibbles and bits he liked before. I'm giving him canned tuna fish but that can't go on for long.

We buy wheat from CHINA??? Why don't we pay our own farmers to grow it for us like in the 40s? Sorry, political rant not expected.

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Hi Sky,

My medium sized St. Bernard, Baby Girl, who has a black mask, and looks and acts like a burglar swiped a big can of tuna off my work table, when I was putting her sister outside for getting in the way. She ate the whole can. I didn't even know dogs liked tuna fish.

EJ

Sky,

Rice helps bind up their stools.

I'm so sorry you and Caleb are having such a hard time.

((((Sky and Caleb))))

EJ

One of my cats eats prescription food only, and I temporarily switched my other cat over to that. I shop at a hippie crunchy pet food store, and they said that it's mainly the low-end mainstream brands that contained the tainted ingredient. To be on the safe side, though, I'm not buying more than one of any given kind of food -- I'm rotating through a whole battery of them so that if a new one is discovered, Julie won't have been ingesting more than one can of it at a time. I'm also cooking for them a bit, although they definitely prefer canned food over my cooking ... (what's wrong with my cooking, I want to know!!!)