Pet Food Recall Information
(Added 04/24/07) As many of us I've been following
the pet food recall news closely, through two websites
that have been doing a stellar job digging up information
and questioning what we've been hearing from the
FDA (and some manufacturers):
Itchmo
has an automatic pet food recall alert email list
you can sign up for, and last night's news was a
real bombshell. I just joined it myself
Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo just had to recall
a whole bunch of their foods -- as they were informed
that American Nutrition, their packing contractor,
put rice protein concentrate in some of their foods
*without telling them*. So "rice protein concentrate" is
not listed on the label (although "rice flour" may
be). And yes, American Nutrition got some of the
contaminated rice protein concentrate from Wilbur-Ellis.
Costco has also had to recall their canned dog foods
(same reason), ashes Diamond and their Chicken Soup
for the Pet Lover's Soul.
I think a lot of pet owners think the recall's over
and done with. But it's not -- far from it:
The recall now involves at least three contaminated
ingredients (wheat gluten, rice protein concentrate,
and at least in South Africa corn gluten).
There's some evidence that some of those contaminated
ingredients made it into the human food supply (although
the FDA quietly intercepted most of it before it
actually got to consumers) and definitely into some
hogs that have been slaughtered & sold and
not all have been tracked down (they were fed "scraps
and sweepings" from American
Nutrition's plants).
Importers may have been receiving contaminated ingredients
from China since last summer.
Three other contaminates have been found, all related
to melamine -- but the vets and researchers /still/
don't know why any of them would be causing so many
deaths and illnesses related to renal failure. So
testing continues, with no clear answers.
And the scope and severity of the situation has been
exacerbated by slow reporting on the part of packers
(during yesterday's congressional hearing it was
revealed that Menu Foods wasn't considering a recall,
despite several deaths among their test animals,
until Iams forced the issue after discovering problems
through their own internal testing) and some manufacturers.
And now we learn we can't even trust the labels on
our pets' food, so avoiding wheat gluten, rice protein
concentrate, and corn gluten altogether may not be
enough.
Feel free to pass along
Dee
General Food Information
Pet
Place - Dog food information and reviews by
veterinarians, Guide to dog food products and information.
Human Grade dog food and treats
Blue Buffalo, dry and canned (dog
and cat)
www.bluebuff.com
By Nature, Organics, dry (dog)
www.bynaturepetfoods.com
Canidae/Felidae, dry and canned (dog
and cat)
www.canidae.com
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul,
dry (dog)
www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com
Eagle Pack, dry and canned (dog and
cat)
www.eaglepack.com
Evolve, canned (dog)
www.evolvepet.com
Fromm Family, dry (dog)
www.frommfamily.com
Merrick, canned (dog)
www.merrickpetcare.com
Newmans Own, dry and canned (dog
and cat)
www.newmansownorganics.com/pet/home/index.php
Nutro Ultra, dry and canned (dog)
Nutro Natural Choice, dry and canned (dog)
www.nutroproducts.com
PetGuard, dry and canned (dog)
www.petguard.com
Royal Canin, dry (dog)
www.royalcanin.com
Solid Gold, dry and canned (dog and
cat)
www.solidgoldhealth.com
Timberwolf, dry (dog and cat)
www.timberwolforganics.com
Wellness, dry and canned (dog and
cat)
www.oldmotherhubbard.com
Wysong, dry and canned (dog and cat)
www.wysong.net
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