Pet Food update

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I just got an email from Nutro saying they have expanded the dates for the recall and are now asking customers to return ALL wet food irregardless of the date and not feed any to their pets.

I heard they found rat poison in the food they tested!!!!

Nancy
 

I was on the phone with the lab at Cornell today (nice having friends in the right places).

Yes, it was rat poison and it was one that is banned here in the US. Darned if I can remember the name of it.


This is my opinion and my opinion only but I think this is a form of bioterrorism.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
"aminopterin"

They claim it came from China on the wheat they use. I think it's more likely that the processing plant uses rat poison to control rats and somehow the raw materials got contaminated. But don't we test food products coming into the U.S.?

Nancy
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
I don't think it's bio-terrorism. I think it's cutting corners. They went with a wheat gluten supplier in an unregulated country (China) probably because they were the lowest bidder. The substance (aminopterin) is not allowed here but is available in this country. I think this is yet another example of how our food chain (& that of our beloved pets) is vulnerable to all sorts of problems.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
This is REALLY scary.

It's bad enough that pets have gotten sick or even died. I have three dogs and it would break my heart of anything like this were to happen to any of them. But what if this imported wheat gluten had been used in foods for humans and it was people that were getting sick and dying!!! It probably could have just as easily been used in human food as in pet food!

I'll bet too that this poison was used for rodent control in the pet food factory, and they're just not admitting it. What would be the point in having this substance mixed in with wheat products that were going to be used for pet food? Could that happen by accident? It doesn't make much sense to me! In our rural area we have co-ops and feed stores and in the spring they sell different kinds of garden seeds - corn, beans, etc. - that have been treated with insecticides and fungicides, but they're certainly not intended to be eaten, either by animals or by people. That's the only way I see that it could be considered an "accident" and I seriously doubt that this is what happened here.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I agree with TM. I don't think it is bioterrorism. I think they wouldn't waste their time on pets ~ they would have gone after the human food supply.

Cutting corners and poor oversight seems more likely to me.

~Kathy
 

dreamer

New Member
well I have no idea what to think about how or why the food got contaminated but I am quite angry and upset over how the entire recall was handled.....by the media, but the manufacturer and by the stores. ANd I am scared whitless for my pets.
How many toddlers may have been at risk, too? I know some toddlers crawl around and get into pets food dishes=------------I know some very elderly or poor people who diet on pet food due to cheaper price.......how come it took so long for the media to get word out, why did the stores go so slow pulling it off shelves? In our culture, in many families pets are considered memebers of the family.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I agree this is horrible but we also have to be reasonable. I am a huge animal lover and I own dogs and cats so dont think I dont care. How fast can people make these links? From what I understand there have been 16 cats and 1 dog that have died. I dont know how many are sick. From when those animals first started getting sick and dying, they had to figure out that it wasnt something that they were getting into at the owners homes or a disease. Then they had to figure out what the link was...food, shampoo, flea dip? It could have been anything. That takes time.

Heck it could have been some toy they all played with or a laundry soap the families all used in common or just about anything or the fact that everyone just got their houses sprayed for termites...who knows.

Once they knew it was the food, they started testing and started the recall from what they found. Now they are trying to figure out how it got in the food. Like they said they are still not sure it got in the wheat in china...that aminopterin is also used in very small doses in cancer medication. Maybe somehow some cross contamination occurred here. Probably not but we dont know yet. Its too early to tell. They still havent ruled in or out sabotage. I would hope not. Maybe someone wants to put that company out of business.

Like the doctor said on the news today...the best idea for right now is to feed dry food.
 

dreamer

New Member
I understand it takes time to figure out it is pet food. That is not my complaint. This recall was first announced on a Thursday nite on TV. The following MONDAY- at 10 PM......... the recalled foods were still on the store shelves at all 3 of the stores in my town. (there are 2 other threads in this forum about the recall) My local paper and our local TV channel for news did not say a word, I read about the recall online and saw it on CNN, but my local news did not say one word!
That is far too long after the recall.
Now today I read in my local paper THREE pets in MY county- a tiny county in midwest IL have died so far that they KNOW about.......from tainted pet food. 3 in my county. How many bought the food between the Thursday nite the recall was first announced and whenever it was my local stores decided to be bothered to pull the food off the shelves? 1 person I know personally and another I know as an aquaintance lost their pets. One ran up a $1,500 vet bill for their pet before throwing in the towel.
My local paper says one pet was fed the offending food March 5 but did not get any symptoms till March 17 and then the pets kidneys failed completely. From working in healthcare, I can understand that outward obvious signs of kidney failure can be unnoticed for awhile, until death is imminant....especially if you have more than one pet, a job outside the home, pets who go outside etc. It is easy to not notice a pet who may not be eating or drinking or eliminating waste easily or properly.

My issue is with the fact that our media did NOT get the word out....our stores did not take action......
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Aminopterin is banned in the US for treating cancer.

I too am upset with how this was handled. I don't think it was intentional or a terrorist plot, but I do not think it was handled correctly or expeditiously. How do they know it just started and hasn't been a problem for years, only now to come to light. They did not get the information out quick enough and people don;t know what to do. The brands are still on the shelves. How do we know they are safe? If they are doing quality control testing then they should tell us that. Why is dry food safe but not wet?

My dog has been acting starnge now for several months. Funny how ever since last week when I changed her food she is a lot perkier and back to her normal self. You can't convince me nothing was wrong with her food.

Nancy
 
Actually Nancy,

December of 2005 there was a massive recall of Diamond brand dog foods that was contaminiated with aflatoxin, a toxic byproduct of a fungus. I believe a couple of dozen dogs died from the resultant liver failure.

Back in 1995 Natures Recipe had a recall due to food contaminated with a toxic byproduct called Vomitoxin.

Point being that dry food is just as much at risk as wet food.

Only way to ensure that the food you are feeding is safe is to make it yourself. I could dig up some good recipes for you if you like. :laugh:
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
From what I understand, it's only the canned foods that are the meat chunks or meat slices in gravy. The same foods are sometimes sold in little pouches instead of cans. The contaminated wheat gluten is what they used to thicken the gravy, so there should be no problems with any of the dry dog or cat foods.

Even so, I still wouldn't feed my dogs any of the pet foods from those brand names, even the dry dog foods. They're just getting started figuring all this out and I'm taking no chances.
 
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