ASPCA : other contaminants in Menu pet food may be involved.

[femmedem]

http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_032707_2

Today the ASPCA reports that, based on these data, clinical signs reported in cats affected by the contaminated foods are not fully consistent with the ingestion of rat poison containing aminopterin that, according to Menu Foods, is at the “root” of the contamination issue.

snip

Although Menu Foods announced last week that aminopterin was at the “root” of the contamination issue, the FDA, the agency leading this investigation, has not corroborated this finding.

“There are so many inconsistencies in the purported link between aminopterin and the animals affected, that we urge veterinary toxicologists and veterinary pathologists at diagnostic laboratories to continue looking for additional contaminants,” said Dr. Hansen. “Only continued rigorous testing will uncover the real reason or reasons for this crisis among our pet population.”

The ASPCA strongly recommends that pet parents should have their pet examined by their veterinarian if any signs of illness occur following consumption of the recalled foods, including loss of appetite, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, changes in water consumption or changes in urination. Adverse effects or deaths of pets conclusively linked to eating the contaminated foods should be reported to the FDA at http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html. Additionally, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has a wealth of resources at http://www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/default.asp.

Thanks to Nicknameless for first posting this in the Pets group. I thought it deserved a wider audience.

[whistle]

1. Who are the owners of Menu Foods?

[fasttense]

There is some info on them at this post

by AZBlue.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x496517

[femmedem]

2. Answer here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=496517

[whistle]

3. So, the guy in charge over at Menu Foods is one Robert Luba

<snip>
Robert W. Luba
President
Luba Financial

Prior to establishing Luba Financial Inc. in 1994, Mr. Luba was President and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Bank Investment Management and the Royal Bank Group of Mutual Funds. Prior to that, he was President of Crown Life Insurance Company and in his earlier years, he spent 17 years at Labatt in various executive positions including Chief Financial Officer, Senior VP Development and Senior Vice-President, Package Food Group. Bob is also a director of AIM Trimark Investments, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, MDS Inc., Menu Foods Income Fund and KPC Income Fund.

He is chairman of the Sunnybrook Foundation Investment Committee, a member of the advisory boards of Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Lewar Centre of Excellent, the Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, and the advisory council of John P. Robarts Research Institute. Bob is past director of Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, John P. Robarts Research Institute, and Dora Mavor Moore Awards Board.

He is past president of Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and past chairman of the World Presidents’ Organization (Ontario Chapter), Theatre Plus, and Orchestra London Canada. He was also a member of the Health Science Policy Council, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. A chartered accountant, Bob graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business with a Master of Business Administration in 1967. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario where he received the Fellowship award in 1988.

As for Menu Foods it seems that he has been playing the role of corporate raider:

Robert W. Luba

Robert W. Luba of Toronto, ON has been a trustee of the Fund and a member of the Board of Directors of Menu Foods GenPar Limited (administrator of the Fund) since July 2002. He was appointed the chairman of the Board on August 31, 2005. Mr. Luba is the President of Luba Financial Inc, a mid-market merchant bank investing in selective special situations. Mr. Luba was President and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Bank Investment Management Inc. from 1991 to 1993 and President of Crown Life Insurance Company from 1986 to 1988 and Sr. Vice-President of John Labatt Limited from 1976 to 1983. Mr. Luba is also a director of AIM/Trimark Mutual Funds, ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., KCP Income Fund, MDS Inc. and Softchoice Corporation. Mr. Luba is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Luba is an independent Trustee and Director, and is a member of the Compensation and Corporate Governance Committee.

<snip>
What is this guy up to? He spent years ruining American’s health, now he is targeting our pets.March 21, 2007 at 1:59 am · Filed under luba, pet food, hazardous waste, menu foods, recall, cat, food, Blogroll, dog, Uncategorized

The director of Menu Foods Inc., (the company that makes the pet food that is killing your pets) Robert W. Luba, was the director of Safety-Kleen Corp. (the nation’s largest hazardous waste operator) when that company filled for bankruptcy in a June 2000. It was discovered that there were “problems” with the way the “top officers reported financial information internally and to shareholders.” Safety-Kleen settled with investors for $284 million.

It looks like Robert W. Luba left Safety Kleen bankrupt (owing investors $1.6 billion) and tones of hazardous waste strewn about for citizens and state governments to contend with.

This is the guy feeding our beloved pets.

<MORE>

http://lethaldose.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/what-is-this-guy-up-to-he-spent-years-ruining-americans-health-now-he-is-targeting-our-pets/

[woodsprite]

4. Just dropped Silver off for her kidney/liver ultrasound.

The vet requested a sample of her food even though it's a mix of Science Diet WD (bought at that vet) and Pedigree dry w/ about 1/4 c. of Pedigree canned beef mixed in. He said the food's probably fine, and the timing of all this is just a coincidence, but he's not taking chances. I'll let you know what they say.

Her pee has been totally clear the last few days and we noticed her breathing was more rapid last night. Needless to say, hubby and I are worried.

[femmedem]

5. I hope Silver will be okay.

Let us know. :hug:

[TZ]

7. you should talk to lizerdbits about this

Her cat Max, had issues with bloody pee that sounds like what might be the problem with yours. I think it was crystals in the urinary tract or something like that. He was pretty sick. He is on a special diet now.

[woodsprite]

8. We picked her up last night a 8pm.

The vet said that the food mix was fine. The ultrasound showed slightly smaller than normal adrenal glands, so we had an ACTH test done for Addison's disease. Results should be back Friday. Poor girl easily drank a gallon of water when we came home. I had to take it up at intervals so she'd slow down. If it Addisons', as long as we watch her closely and are aware of any stress she comes under to adjust her meds, she should live a relatively long, almost normal life.

After the results come back on Friday, they should be able to determine if it's just the adrenals that are affected, or if she could have a problem with or tumor on her pituitary gland (which could throw a monkey wrench into the mix).

[femmedem]

6. Here's something from the press release of importance to veterinarians:

Dr. Hansen continued, “Aminopterin has been used to treat cancer in people, since it is able to disrupt rapidly-growing cells. In animals, it should result in effects that mimic this function, and these include bloody diarrhea, bone marrow suppression, abortion and birth defects. Further, renal damage—which has been seen in the affected animals—can occur at high doses.

“However, to be consistent with the effects of aminopterin, we should also be seeing a significant number of affected pets showing the accompanying signs of severe intestinal damage, as well as bone marrow suppression, including ‘leukopenia,’ which is a serious reduction in white blood cells.

“This is the missing connection that we want to alert veterinarians around the country to. We are asking all veterinarians treating cats affected by these products, to report their findings to the U. S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).”

[Hidden Stillness]

9. Yet Again, Media Does Not Investigate Its Own Sponsors

This is part of what I am disgusted about, concerning the corporate media "coverage" of this issue--that is, that they are, as always, not covering the issue, by having invented a phony "angle" first, which they all follow, as if it were established thinking on the situation: 1) Because it is about animals that are family pets, the story is "cute," "trivial" ("Thank God it isn't humans!" etc.), "sympathetic" a condescending way, or "personalized" that impersonal way the sponsored corporate media does it ("Will Fluffy survive?" etc.). This completely derails your ability to even remember what the original probelm was. 2) They play this game where they pretend it was all an "accident"--whoops, rat poison fell in, how did that happen!, rather than investigating how these huge, multi-national/trans-national corporate cartels do business every day. It is not an "accidental" departure from their usual behavior; this is what global capitalism is nowadays--deregulated. The media is not INVESTIGATING; they are pretending the facts have already been discovered and told--they have not.