Pet Owners - Please Read!!! Pet Food Recalled

[LynneSin]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/business/19pet.html?ei=5089&en=892f0f457b1828b9&ex=1331956800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1174319138-MqiH+8p+3QmfLkXel38AFg

Pet Food Is Recalled After Link to Animal Deaths
By SAUL HANSELL
More than 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food sold under dozens of brand names were recalled on Saturday after being linked to the deaths of 10 animals.

The food was manufactured by Menu Foods, of Streetsville, Ontario, which makes wet food sold as store brands for companies like Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway.

The company also makes food on behalf of many brand-name pet food makers. Menu Foods said it had recalled some food made for the Iams unit of Procter & Gamble. Two other pet food companies — Nestlé Purina PetCare and Hills Pet Nutrition, the unit of Colgate-Palmolive that makes the Science Diet brand — recalled some of their products that were made by Menu Foods.

Menu Foods is recalling only certain gravy-style pet food in cans and pouches it made from Dec. 3 to March 6.

The company said in a statement that tests of its food had “failed to identify any issues with the products in question.” But it did associate the timing of the reported deaths with its use of a new supplier for wheat gluten, a source of protein. Sarah Tuite, a spokeswoman for Menu Foods, declined to name the supplier.

Menu Foods is providing information on what packages are being recalled at [phone] or http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html.

Here's the list of food recalled, if a brand you use is listed you can click on the link shown below and more details as to UPC codes and varities:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html
Recalled Cat Product Information
Recall Information 1-866-895-2708
Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
Authority
Best Choice
Companion
Compliments
Demoulas Market Basket
Eukanuba
Fine Feline Cat
Food Lion
Foodtown
Giant Companion
Hannaford
Hill Country Fare
Hy-Vee
Iams
Laura Lynn
Li'l Red
Loving Meals
Meijer's Main Choice
Nutriplan
Nutro Max Gourmet Classics
Nutro Natural Choice
Paws
Pet Pride
Presidents Choice
Price Chopper
Priority
Save-A-Lot
Schnucks
Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans
Sophistacat
Special Kitty Canada
Special Kitty US
Springfield Prize
Sprout
Total Pet
Wegmans
Western Family
White Rose
Winn Dixie

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html
Recalled Dog Product Information
Recall Information 1-866-895-2708
Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
Authority
Award
Best Choice
Big Bet
Big Red
Bloom
Bruiser
Cadillac
Companion
Demoulas Market Basket
Eukanuba
Food Lion
Giant Companion
Great Choice
Hannaford
Hill Country Fare
Hy-Vee
Iams
Laura Lynn
Loving Meals
Meijers Main Choice
Mighty Dog Pouch
Mixables
Nutriplan
Nutro Max
Nutro Natural Choice
Nutro Ultra
Nutro
Ol'Roy Canada
Ol'Roy US
Paws
Pet Essentials
Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
Presidents Choice
Price Chopper
Priority
Publix
Roche Bros
Save-A-Lot
Schnucks
Shep Dog
Springsfield Prize
Sprout
Stater Bros
Total Pet
Western Family
White Rose
Winn Dixie
Your Pet

[dropkickpa]

1. Thank god I only feed dry food!

[LynneSin]

2. I so feed some wet but my variety is not on there

They only get Purina ProPlan

So my furballs are ok

BTW - I use to feed my cat Nutro products until I found out the CEO was a Bush Supporter

[AirmensMom]

14. This time it's not the dry food.

Last time, it was dry and wet. It's a shame that this recall will reinforce the opinion that dry food is better for pets.

[Fran Kubelik]

18. yes, us too.

I panicked at first.

[dropkickpa]

19. Same here!

As soon as I saw it was just wet, big sigh of relief (I don't feed any of the listed brands anyhow, but still). My mom was real panicked until I sent her to the website, she feeds her bitchin freeze (bichon frise)half wet half dry food.

[reyd reid reed]

3. Please, please....

pay attention. If you feed your babies any of these and they start to act differently, get them help.

Now that I've heard about this, I'm convinced that this is what happened to our Patches. She died last Thursday.

[LynneSin]

4. Oh shit!

:hug:

[reyd reid reed]

7. ...

:hug:

[skygazer]

5. Oh, that's so sad!

When I first heard about this, I immediately checked the list and saw that my brand wasn't listed. But then I started thinking about how awful it was to have a pet get sick or die just because you were trying to take good care of them and feed them. :cry:

I'm so sorry about Patches. :hug:

[reyd reid reed]

8. I work nights, so I didn't hear about it until after we'd lost her.

She was 19 but she had been in good health -- the Iams was easier on her digestive system so she'd been eating it for the past year or so. This morning they were talking about symptoms...and they fit what happened to her.

I had thought it was her age.

The rest of the cats just get dry.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Our local TV station talked about this today and interviewed a

family who had lost a young dog who was suffering from the same symptoms. They aren't positive that it was her dog food, but she died of kidney failure.

[Kajsa]

13. I'm so sorry, RRR!

That's terrible!

May Patches rest in peace.
She was a beautiful cat.

:hug:

[Roon]

15. Awwww!

:hug:

[slj0101]

6. I didn't realize the list was that long.

Thanks!

Fortunately, my cat eats dry food, and isn't on the list (costco's Kirkland cat food- excellent stuff, btw.).

[thethinker]

9. I had to take my cat to the Vet

I noticed on Friday she was sick. I was at the Vets at 8:00 a.m. Saturday. She is a very finicky eater so I feed her a wide variety of canned cat food. I am trying to cook for her and she doesn't like anything I am trying to feed her. I guess she will get used to it eventually. They ran blood tests. I should have the results today. She is taking antibiotics.

The manufacturer is saying they think it was from a new wheat gluten they used. I am thinking that wheat was gentically modified. I understand that gentically modified foods killed the lab rats but is safe for humans. Our cats and dogs, which are small, may be the canaries in the coal mine.

[dropkickpa]

10. I wouldn't necessarily jump to that conclusion

there's been several issues lately with wheat crops and fusarium blight, which is toxic to people and animals. I'm leaning more towards an unacceptable batch of blighted crop contaminating things, as this is much more likely and common.

[AirmensMom]

12. The big question is

why are we putting wheat gluten in pet food? Especially cat food? :shrug: Genetically modified or not, it doesn't belong there.

I hope your kitty gets better soon. It's always heart breaking when our furbabies get sick. :hug:

[Kajsa]

16. Thank you, LyyneSin.

I'm glad you posted the list of tainted pet foods.

My kitties both eat a RX food for maintaining a healthy
urinary tract. This came after one of my cats, Darwin
almost died from a blocked urinary track.

That food isn't on the list, thank God.

Thanks, again for posting this list.

:hi:

[AirmensMom]

17. We feed raw ...

since we stopped trusting the pet food companies (including the Rx diets) almost 2 years ago. People thought we were nuts to suggest that the food made our kitties sick, even after they got well when we took them off the commercial food and put them on raw. And that was before there were any recalls.

I'm afraid we'll be seeing more and more of this. :(

[terrya]

20. Thanks.

My cat, Chess, only eats Fancy Feast canned food and Deli Cat dry food. Neither of which is on this list. That's good to know.

[Ramsey]

21. Thanks for posting

I came here especially looking for this. I should have known you would post it Lynne!

My cats have ben eating Wellness dry food, and I guess I won't feel as bad about giving them Purina Fancy Feast canned food now! They love it so.