Health Diaries > Animal Health
March 22, 2007
Pet Food Recall: Menu Foods Knew Food Was Deadly
Filed under Pet Food
The pet food recall that has caused at least 16 deaths of cats and dogs is worsening by the day. These are the reported deaths, but I believe the number is much higher.
On message boards across the internet, people are reporting that their animals have died of mysterious kidney failure over the past few months. These animals were all eating foods on the recall list.
The sinister part of all this? Menu Foods knew the food was deadly as early as February but did nothing to recall the products.
In tests the company performed in February, one in six (!) animals that ate the food died! Yet the food was not immediately recalled! This is beyond criminal. People have lost their pets because of these greedy bastards. There is absolutely no excuse for this.
Veterinarians are angry. On one veterinarian blog, they are venting their frustrations and anger that they weren't informed sooner of the problem. One vet says:
It’s bad enough that the brands outsourced their production. It’s bad enough that Menu Foods bought from known poor quality suppliers. It’s bad enough everyone in-the-know sat on their heels for a month. It’s bad enough they released the information on a Friday. Did they also have to display their disregard so flagrantly as to fail to provide proper support for the vets who recommend their foods and the people that feed them to the pets they care for? (doolittler.com)
It has been hard for me to sit down and write about this because I have been personally affected. I feed my cat Innova Evo dry food and that isn't on the list of recalled foods, but every now and then I feed him pouches of Nutro Natural Choice as a treat. I was under the impression, as were many others, that Nutro was of a higher quality than most other pet foods. Given that I gave this to him as an occasional treat, I knew it wasn't as healthy as Innova, but I had no idea Menu Foods was the supplier. If I had known, I never would have given it to my cat.
The pouches that my cat ate are included in the date range that is being recalled. He last ate a pouch about 7 days ago. He is not showing any symptoms of kidney problems, but some vets are recommending all animals who ate recalled foods be tested just in case. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and see if he recommends testing, but I'm confident that he's okay. I'm so grateful that he wasn't affected by this disaster and my heart goes out to those who have lost their pets or whose pets are fighting for their lives right now.
Also upsetting are reports that Nutro and other companies are not responding to calls from customers whose animals are in kidney failure. A dog in California named Pebbles is suffering from kidney failure and her owner says Nutro hasn't returned his calls.
I am terrified to think about how many cats and dogs are going to end up affected by this. Nutro and the other companies really need to step up to the plate and start answering calls and acting like they care.
If they're doing this to our beloved pets, what are they doing to us? Think about it. Something like that would be less obvious with us. There's so much for them to blame our health issues on. It angers me our trusting pets are being poisoned. :(
I know how concerned everyone is about their pets, but I want to throw in my two cents and encourage everyone to take a DEEP BREATH. This recall is serious business, but 99% of pet food is unaffected by the recall. All foods that are on the recall list are listed at www.menufoods.com/recall.
Also important to note... no dry food is affected by the recall. Dry food is safe!! Knowing that simple fact takes a HUGE weight of my mind and should help everyone else tone done their worrying.
I love my dog (a mutt named Sunny) and want her to be happy and healthy, but all of us (including my pup) will benefit from keeping calm and avoiding spreading rumors.
I would like to echo Christine's comment: 99% of the food on the shelves is not being recalled and has not shown any sign of toxcicity. Menu Foods acted improperly/irresponsibly in their response to the contamination and the FDA will deal with them in an appropriate manner.
If your pet is eating any foods with gravy in it, please see www.menufoods.com/recall and check if the foods was recalled. If it is, return it to the place it was bought at or throw it out.
If your pet has eaten the recalled food and is not well, please save the food and see your veterinarian as soon as possible.
This contamination episode should never have occurred, but it did and measures will be taken to assure it does not occur again. The pet food companies are vigorous in assuring that their foods will be safe.
Dr. Dan, DVM
Washington, DC
Gee, this is awful! I just came across this article. I`d like to know if Betsy`s cat is okay now and wondering what the blood results showed.
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My cat is in the hospital right now fighting for his life, possibly from renal failure (I'll get the blood test results in the morning), but the thing is, he only eats Friskies and that's not supposed to be affected by the recall. I can't believe the coincidence of this, though. I can't help feeling this is somehow related and I'm afraid of my other cats getting sick. I guess there's no way to know until the tests turn up what is causing these animals to get sick and die.