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babybee
 Posted:
Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:21 pm |
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DRY PET FOOD ALERT
New Errant Chemical Found In Pet Food
Melamine Is Used To Make Plastics, But Unclear If It's Responsible For Pet Deaths
RECALL INFORMATION
Menu Foods Web site
(866) 895-2708
Tainted Food Pet Deaths Put At Over 100
Founder Of Vets' Web Site Gathering Data Says Toll Likely Much Higher
Veterinarian Michael Fusco at the Adams Veterinary Clinic in Miami checks Bella, March 19, 2007, after her owner brought her in fearing the canine was fed a tainted brand of pet food. (GETTY)
Quote
"I wouldn't put much credence in it, but it's not out of the realm of possibility."
(CBS/AP) Recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests failed to confirm the presence of rat poison, federal officials said Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products. The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food, but was not aware of any risk to people.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit in the deaths of more than a dozen cats and dogs and the illnesses of hundreds more, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.
In a news conference, FDA officials said that the apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten also was shipped to a company that manufactures dry pet food, but they would not name the company.
Animal rights advocates are calling on federal food safety regulators and pet food companies to expand a nationwide recall of dog and cat food to include dry varieties, claiming it also makes pets sick. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it has received complaints from pet owners who claim their animals suffered kidney failure after eating dry pet food.
The FDA is attempting to determine if that company used any of the wheat gluten, imported from China, to make dry pet food, Sundlof said.
Veterinarians aren't seeing a trend of pets getting sick off dry food, said Paul Pion, founder of the Veterinarian Information Network. He said since so many people use dry food, many more ill pets would be expected if the food were tainted.
"I wouldn't put much credence in it, but it's not out of the realm of possibility," Pion said.
Wheat gluten, a source of vegetable protein, is also used in some human foods, but the FDA emphasized it had found no indication that the contaminated ingredient had been used in food for people.
The FDA said it would alert the public quickly if the melamine was found in any foods other than the recalled pet food.
Cornell University scientists also found melamine — used to produce plastic kitchen utensils and countertops and used in Asia as a fertilizer — in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company's wet food.
Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after 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 Veterinary Information Network reported Tuesday that at least 471 cases of pet kidney failure have been reported since the recall, and more than 100 pets have died. Menu Foods has confirmed 16 pet deaths.
Pion, a California veterinarian, said only 10 percent to 20 percent of the people who belong to his Web site had responded to a request for information.
"If we're only getting 10 percent of the veterinarians, you can do the math," he said.
CBS News Early Show resident veterinarian Dr. Debbye Turner said Wednesday, "Pretty much every vet you talk with has one or two cases."
She adds that another Web site, PetConnection.com declares nearly 2,000 pets have died from eating the recalled food.
Turner says nobody really knows the actual number. "We don't know that some of the pets reported on PetConnection aren't some of the same pets reported on VIN or reported in other series."
The new finding comes a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a rat poison and cancer drug called aminopterin as the likely culprit in the pet food. The FDA said it could not confirm that finding.
New York officials have detected melamine in the recalled food as well. Yet New York remained confident in its aminopterin finding, said Patrick Hooker, commissioner of the New York state Department of Agriculture and Markets. Hooker added that neither aminopterin nor melamine should be in pet food, but that it was unclear why the latter substance would be poisonous to the cats in which it was found.
"While we have no doubt that melamine is present in the recalled pet food, there is not enough known data on the mammalian toxicity levels of melamine to conclude it could cause illness and deaths in cats. With little existing data, many questions still remain as to the connection between the illnesses and what has caused them," Hooker said.
The recall involved nearly 100 brands of "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food made by Menu Foods. The recall covered products carrying names of major brand-name and private-label products sold throughout North America.
Menu Foods used wheat gluten to thicken the gravy of its pet foods, FDA officials have said.
Menu Foods spokesman Sam Bornstein did not know whether company testing had found melamine in its products. The company planned a press conference later Friday.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported the melamine finding in Friday's editions.
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: State of Confusion
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| castlerocklives
Posted:
Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:08 am |
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Maybe I should start a new thread with my comments, but I can seperate it later if needed.
I am not big on conspiricy theories, but this has all the markers of one. It just hit me the other day that this was planned and executed to lower the pet population...no, that is not a joke, I really believe this.
Think about it for a minute. If thousands of pets die from this, it could go a long way in reducing the number of unwanted animals. While most shelters (that I know of) use dry food, they could benefit by people adopting a new pet to replace the one they lost.
I know I am not saying this very clearly, it is still fresh in my mind. But, my gut tells me this was done intentionally. If there is no logical reason for these contaminates to have accidently gotten into the process, then you are left with one option...someone(s) put the contaminates in the process somewhere along the way.
Maybe I'll post again when I work it out more in my head, right now I am so happy my 3 dogs are still healthy!
CRL
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The crown fits, NOW I am the Princess!
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 523
Location: where IT lives
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:11 am |
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| castlerocklives wrote: | Maybe I should start a new thread with my comments, but I can seperate it later if needed.
I am not big on conspiricy theories, but this has all the markers of one. It just hit me the other day that this was planned and executed to lower the pet population...no, that is not a joke, I really believe this.
Think about it for a minute. If thousands of pets die from this, it could go a long way in reducing the number of unwanted animals. While most shelters (that I know of) use dry food, they could benefit by people adopting a new pet to replace the one they lost.
I know I am not saying this very clearly, it is still fresh in my mind. But, my gut tells me this was done intentionally. If there is no logical reason for these contaminates to have accidently gotten into the process, then you are left with one option...someone(s) put the contaminates in the process somewhere along the way.
Maybe I'll post again when I work it out more in my head, right now I am so happy my 3 dogs are still healthy!
CRL |
PETA.
I don't put ANYTHING past PETA.
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 21291
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| babybee
Posted:
Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:28 pm |
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I'm inclined to believe your theory CRL, but what about the people who are going to be suing because of the death of their pets? I would think a pet owner would have grounds considering that their pet was poisoned, willingfully or not. I also just can't understand how this could happen. What really is terrifying is what if it was the human food supply that was poisoned, and it was one of our children? What a sad world we live in that we have to worry about everything we do, or what we put in our bodies. When I was younger I always thought about what was going to kill me, an accident, a stroke, a heart attack or cancer, surely one or the other would get me. There are so many other possibilities anymore that I quit worrying about it because there are so many unknowns anymore..
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| dithers
Posted:
Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:28 pm |
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I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
I had a can of Iam's last week that wasn't part of the recall but threw it away saying to myself that odds are the recall would be expanded. Even though they didn't expand it to that can of Iam's - it has now been expanded.
OMG. Can you imagine the poor people who started feeding their dogs Alpo to replace the other stuff only to discover Alpo is bad.
And now we hear the first shoe dropping on dry foods being included. A couple of my cats have been throwing up the past week or so - it seemed like hairball stuff but still more than normal. They have been eating Science Diet WD and even though it's only Science Diet MD that's recalled - will we hear next week that WD is recalled?
I've decided to scour the labels and anything with wheat gluten IS OUT! I'll feed them our food and baby food even though the vet screams it lacks the proper nutrients until all of this is worked out.
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Pretty in Blonde
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| Siddalee
Posted:
Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:04 pm |
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| dithers wrote: | I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
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At the risk of sounding paranoid I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea a company in Canada was making pet food for so many companies. Look how many pets died before they even knew what the problem was.
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Ya-Ya!
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| babybee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:03 am |
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| Siddalee wrote: | | dithers wrote: | I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
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At the risk of sounding paranoid I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea a company in Canada was making pet food for so many companies. Look how many pets died before they even knew what the problem was. |
Thanks for the suggestion Dithers. I too am throwing out any food that I feel is questionable. I honestly think the best thing we could all do for awhile is to cook for our pets since it doesn't appear totally safe to feed them pet food. I'll keep everybody's pets on RU in my prayers. I know how I'd feel if one of mine got sick and died from this insanity.
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: State of Confusion
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| babybee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:06 am |
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By the way, if any of you know of someone on RU (or elsewhere) who has a pet/pets, please make sure you pass the word on to all of them about the dry pet food. People get busy and involved with other things and may not have checked on here lately. Thanks for your help!
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| pax
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:19 am |
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Thanks babybee!
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| babybee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:26 am |
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| pax wrote: | | Thanks babybee! |
You are so welcome Pax. I would feel terrible if everybody wasn't aware of this and their pet got sick or died.
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Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: State of Confusion
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| Siddalee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:27 pm |
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Someone just mentioned both the rat poison and the chemicals in the plastic originate from China. This reminded me of something I read on MSNBC recently:
SHANGHAI, China - China slaughtered 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered crackdown after three people died of rabies, sparking unusually pointed criticism in state media Tuesday and an outcry from animal rights activists.
Health experts said the brutal policy pointed to deep weaknesses in the health care infrastructure in China, where only 3 percent of dogs are vaccinated against rabies and more than 2,000 people die of the disease each year.
The five-day slaughter in Mouding county in Yunnan province in southwestern China ended Sunday and spared only military guard dogs and police canine units, state media reported.
Dogs being walked were seized from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. Led by the county police chief, killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then beat the animals to death, the reports said.
Owners were offered 63 cents per animal to kill their own dogs before the teams were sent in, they said.
Pet activists call for boycott
The killings prompted calls for a boycott of Chinese products from the activist group People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“We are urging everyone to actively boycott — not a word we use lightly — anything from China given the bludgeoning killing of thousands of dogs,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said.
She said the group had canceled all orders of merchandise it sells that are made in China. Will Wright, at PETA’s European office in London, said the orders were worth about $300,000.
“We believe other groups will join us in expressing outrage over the blatant cruelty to animals the world is witnessing,” Wright said.
Could it be possible that this is China's way of fighting a boycott of their products? They have absolutely no regard for the lives of pets as shown in their sadistic way of controlling rabies.
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Ya-Ya!
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| Kay_The_Kitten
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:15 pm |
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| Siddalee wrote: | | dithers wrote: | I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
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At the risk of sounding paranoid I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea a company in Canada was making pet food for so many companies. Look how many pets died before they even knew what the problem was. |
Ummm Actuially to be precise it's a Canadian company.... But the plant that makes the wet food is in The United States employing US workers (and maybe some Mexicans ttoo for good measure) using raw material that was bought in the US or imported directly into the US, under US rules and regulations.
In the case of the Suspect Wheat Gluten to quote the press releases "Menu foods recently changed suppliers of Wheat Gluten in the United Stated......"
So please don't Canada Bash for the hell of it
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Geek
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 713
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| jacqueline
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:57 pm |
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| Kay_The_Kitten wrote: | | Siddalee wrote: | | dithers wrote: | I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
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At the risk of sounding paranoid I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea a company in Canada was making pet food for so many companies. Look how many pets died before they even knew what the problem was. |
Ummm Actuially to be precise it's a Canadian company.... But the plant that makes the wet food is in The United States employing US workers (and maybe some Mexicans ttoo for good measure) using raw material that was bought in the US or imported directly into the US, under US rules and regulations.
In the case of the Suspect Wheat Gluten to quote the press releases "Menu foods recently changed suppliers of Wheat Gluten in the United Stated......"
So please don't Canada Bash for the hell of it |
You are quite right Kay as it was the American Menu plant that the food was produced from the wheat gluten from China, it was imported directly into the States and it looks that certain measures were not taken to assure the change of suppliers.
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"Petit Chou"
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| Siddalee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:12 pm |
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| Kay_The_Kitten wrote: |
Ummm Actuially to be precise it's a Canadian company.... But the plant that makes the wet food is in The United States employing US workers (and maybe some Mexicans ttoo for good measure) using raw material that was bought in the US or imported directly into the US, under US rules and regulations.
In the case of the Suspect Wheat Gluten to quote the press releases "Menu foods recently changed suppliers of Wheat Gluten in the United Stated......"
So please don't Canada Bash for the hell of it |
No offense meant, Kay. I was surprised that one company ANYWHERE manufactured pet food for so many different companies! Also, please note: Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China. . Also, today one of the networks said that a contaminant in the plastic originated from China, too. There is a lot to discuss about the pet food problem, but I have not heard anyone badmouthing Canada.
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Ya-Ya!
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| dithers
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:57 pm |
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| Kay_The_Kitten wrote: | | Siddalee wrote: | | dithers wrote: | I think it was a dry-run for the same kind of assault on human food.
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At the risk of sounding paranoid I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea a company in Canada was making pet food for so many companies. Look how many pets died before they even knew what the problem was. |
Ummm Actuially to be precise it's a Canadian company.... But the plant that makes the wet food is in The United States employing US workers (and maybe some Mexicans ttoo for good measure) using raw material that was bought in the US or imported directly into the US, under US rules and regulations.
In the case of the Suspect Wheat Gluten to quote the press releases "Menu foods recently changed suppliers of Wheat Gluten in the United Stated......"
So please don't Canada Bash for the hell of it |
I don't see how you interpret that as Canada bashing. Kooks are all over the place doing any number of kooky things - has nothing to do with specific countries.
I personally feel it could be Islamic terrorists and they have probably infiltrated every country on the face of the earth. And even if it's simply a homegrown terrorist or kook it still isn't a reflection on any one country as a whole.
Sheesh - try living in the good old U.S. of A. for awhile if you want to know what bashing feels like.
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Pretty in Blonde
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| Kay_The_Kitten
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:10 pm |
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Sorry if I was a bit thorny, but the talking heads on both Fox and CNN have been their usual xenophobic selves, and I am getting a bit sensitive...
The increasing factory type production of food (be it human or Animal) is indeed of concern.
One mistake be it accidental or otherwise is of immense effect. When the neighborhood Butcher was unsanitary there were maybe a couple of hundred people at risk. Now it is in the hundreds of thousands.
Look at this 1997 Hamburger recall....
www.cnn.com/US/9708/21/beef.update/index.html
as an example. 25 Million pounds recalled and destroyed....
and it waasn't an accident, someone was trying to maximise return on expense.
or this one ...
E. coli: Tyson Ground Beef (Hamburger) Recall
March 2, 2007 - Tyson Fresh Meats has voluntarily recalled approximately 16,743 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Learn more about the Tyson ground beef recall.
http://www.pritzkerlaw.com/Food_Recalls/ <-- for the above and many many more recalls.
One of the scary parts of this recall is that now not only is it menu foods, but other manufacturers as well that were using the same wheat gluten supplier that are also in the same boat.
I don't want to be alarmist, but I hope that the suspect wheat gluten wasn't used in that other great market for wheat gluten.... (as a thickener for baby food)
Kay
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Geek
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
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| Siddalee
Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:10 pm |
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| Kay_The_Kitten wrote: |
One of the scary parts of this recall is that now not only is it menu foods, but other manufacturers as well that were using the same wheat gluten supplier that are also in the same boat.
I don't want to be alarmist, but I hope that the suspect wheat gluten wasn't used in that other great market for wheat gluten.... (as a thickener for baby food)
Kay |
Exactly, Kay. The government shows a great deal of concern about who is crossing our borders, but what about our food? If, in fact, several thousand pets die because of something that contained a deadly ingredient, or was packaged in a contaminated container, and possibly originateed from China maybe through Canada, then why couldn't it happen to our food supply? Look how long it took and how many pets died before they even admitted there was a problem. Pretty darned scarey, if you ask me.
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Ya-Ya!
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| BhamMom
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:08 am |
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At this point, table food might be the best for our animals. Their diets can be supplemented and they can receive a balanced diet. This is scary as crap.
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** Banned **
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Location: Posting with bitter people
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| Schmerty
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:00 am |
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| BhamMom wrote: | | At this point, table food might be the best for our animals. Their diets can be supplemented and they can receive a balanced diet. This is scary as crap. |
If it gets any worse I will have to breast feed my doggie.! I dont trust anyone!!!<a>  </a>
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Skipping along my own path.
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| tulsad
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:06 am |
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| Schmerty wrote: | | BhamMom wrote: | | At this point, table food might be the best for our animals. Their diets can be supplemented and they can receive a balanced diet. This is scary as crap. |
If it gets any worse I will have to breast feed my doggie.! I dont trust anyone!!!<a></a> |
Good grief, Schmerty, you are wild tonight!  If you start breast feeding your doggie, would you put it on "youtube" for us? Cover yourself up discreetly, of course!!
It really is scary; I have a 7-month old puppy - I've always fed her dry food and don't want to switch her to "people food" because she needs the nutrients in puppy food to grow, but I worry.
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
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| Schmerty
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:25 am |
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| tulsad wrote: | | Schmerty wrote: | | BhamMom wrote: | | At this point, table food might be the best for our animals. Their diets can be supplemented and they can receive a balanced diet. This is scary as crap. |
If it gets any worse I will have to breast feed my doggie.! I dont trust anyone!!!<a></a> |
Good grief, Schmerty, you are wild tonight! If you start breast feeding your doggie, would you put it on "youtube" for us? Cover yourself up discreetly, of course!!
It really is scary; I have a 7-month old puppy - I've always fed her dry food and don't want to switch her to "people food" because she needs the nutrients in puppy food to grow, but I worry. |
I promise to cover up! Mocha is 10mths old. She is a sweetie . I couldn't bear to lose her!
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Skipping along my own path.
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 3335
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| dithers
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:52 am |
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I started a thread last week looking for pet food recipes that anyone here has tried and where it's been shown your pet will actually eat them. Of course I realize the little darlings all have their own particular finnickyness but I'd rather use a recipe someone here at RU said they'd used and it worked than just find one on the Internet. You can Google tons of them.
I just worry about getting all the proper nutrients but then again, they sure don't get that in the wild. I do know taurine - which is very important for cats - is found in poultry, particularly turkey.
Yikes Kay! What you said about the baby food. That had crossed my mind too. When I took my dry-run scenario to the next step I thought of baby food. At least one thing if that happened - you can bet they'd get to the bottom of it one helluva a lot faster.
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Pretty in Blonde
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
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| pax
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:59 am |
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Consult a qualified veterinarian or animal expert to see what your dog or cat needs to be healthy and happy.
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Location: Wish You Were Here
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| Kay_The_Kitten
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:27 am |
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well you can always use the old farm recipe for dogs....
Grind up all the really tough parts of the old cow (or any other meat you don't want to eat yourself) into hamburger add as much oatmeal as the dog will tolerate(if you are a bit short on meat, but 100% meat is best) and any old eggs that you don't need (this assumes that you have laying chickens and a continual supply of incoming eggs) and feed it to him.
On the down side there are no preservatives so you have to mix and feed as you go in quantities that he will eat. The other real big problem is that today because of factories grinding the complete cow into hamburger and occasionally adding a helping of (e coli or Listeria), you need to cook the hamburger first to sterilize it, and that removes nutrients and vitamins which would then need to be supplemented......
So to do it really right, you would need to find a butcher that buys their complete sides of beef and butchers it right there where you can see that it is clean., so you can feed it to him raw
I am fortunuate in that we have a local abattoir / butcher, so it is possible to load Bessie in the back of the pickup truck and bring her back home in butcher paper a week or 2 later...., so I can know my meat is clean.
Kay
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Geek
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
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| pax
Posted:
Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:33 am |
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LOL, Kay. That's an interesting story, too.
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