First, Tanya’s Feline CRF Information Centre (which is not a blog but a Web site devoted to providing information on feline chronic renal failure) has created an FAQ that among other things explains the differences between CRF and acute renal failure, which is the illness associated with the recalled foods. (Thanks to Tanya for sharing this link.)
Itchmo!seattle has started an online petition. Catmanager isn’t willing to take a position on this just yet, but I do strongly agree with the idea that “all pet foods include the name of the manufacturer, not just the brand under which it is sold.”
Animal shelters are being hit hard by the food recall notes the Pet Connection Blog: “The Colorado Humane Society, for instance, had to throw away 98 percent of its wet cat and dog food.”
Howl911 has information about a new class action lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin law firm.
An NYU marketing professor offers his thoughts on the “illusion of security” that the food recall has “shattered for buyers of expensive pet-foods.”
Radio host Tracie Hotchner (Cat Chat and Dog Talk) writes an interminable explanation of why she’s only now writing about the recall. Seems she didn’t really believe it:
As of Monday morning March 19th, the big picture was still very sketchy. Phil Padrid is a doctor closely connected to the national veterinary community, and despite press reports of 10 – even 20 – animals having died, Dr. Padrid said that to his knowledge only two young cats were confirmed to have died from eating the affected food. No dogs at all had been killed – there were reports of dead dogs, but no confirmation. As the day wore on, this apparently bona fide fact was never reported – nor has it ever been corroborated.
This confirmed my own suspicions about the vague nature of the press reports. If there were 20 deaths, where were these dead animals? If there were 10 deaths, where were their grieving and outraged owners and family members? Where were the photos of these pets?
Catmanager agrees that a cautious approach is necessary when assessing breaking news, but so much of this post just seems absurd (the FDA reported 14 deaths in this press release issued on Saturday; at one point Hotchner says that wheat gluten is only “technically” a source of protein) that it undermines Hotchner’s valid point that we do need to refrain from making snap judgments, vilifying the companies involved (though I stand by my earlier criticisms), and generally panicking.
The PetsitUSA.com Blog has a list of “safe” foods, by which they mean companies that have issued statements claiming not to be affected by the recall. Catmanager urges anyone considering switching to a new food to do some research and consult with a veterinarian if necessary. My wife’s veterinary practice recommends against feeding cats a number of the foods on the list. If you’re considering switching, do your research, use some common sense (have you ever seen a house cat catch a tuna? a cow? eat an ear of corn?), and consult with a veterinarian who has some knowledge of animal nutrition (surprisingly, not all vet schools cover small animal nutrition in depth).
For those wondering if genetically modified crops might be responsible for whatever is wrong with the wheat germ that is suspected of being the source of the recall, the Mostly Dogs blog offers some thoughts. (Basically, it’s unlikely.)
Several blogs (such as this one) are implying that Royal Canin is somehow implicated in the current recall because of the class action lawsuit filed against them in Canada today. For the record: The lawsuit is over a problem that occurred last summer. Royal Canin fixed the problem, and according to their Web site none of their foods are implicated in the current recall. Royal Canin foods are safe as far as we know.
An English vet asks “Who’s Guilty,” but she’s not writing about Menu Foods. Rather she’s addressing the issue of pet obesity. On her list: owners, food bowl manufacturers (hmm, that one seems like a stretch to catmanager; my cats don’t even have a food bowl), and pet food companies
that write rubbish on the side of their packs like Whiskers ”cats will regulate what they eat and can be offered as much food as they can consume.”
She gets no argument here. My wife (the vet in the family) argues that even the prescription weight loss diets overstate the amount of food cats and dogs need.
22 March 2007 at 1:20 am
People would stop feeding their pets commercial pet foods this wouldn’t be happening. Making some fat cat chemical company rich at the risk of our pets who trust us. Dogs and cat are carnivores, they don’t need carrots, rice, grains and the like ! They need raw meat and bones! Stuff that they’d get if they were in the wild. No matter what they may look like they’re all just Lions tiger and wolves, oh my !
22 March 2007 at 2:59 am
On the petsitusa site, you mentioned there were foods on the list you do not recommend feeding (for reasons other than recall).
Can you list foods that you DO like and recommend?
Or some homemade recipes and supplements as an alternative?
thanks
22 March 2007 at 3:38 am
I absolutely agree with you that people should do some research and consult their veterinarians if necessary before switching pet foods.
The list of foods on our blog – PetsitUSA.com – is by no means a recommendation to feed any of the products. As you mentioned, it is a list of foods reported *by the manufacturers* as being safe. It came about because of the many emails and phone calls asking if we knew what products were safe. The list is simply a place people can start with their research. I urge everyone with pets to check the recall list repeatedly, and get their pets to the vet if they’ve eaten any of the tainted food and are showing signs of illness.
Personally, there are foods on the list that I wouldn’t feed my pets, but I feed mostly raw, not commercial foods.
22 March 2007 at 3:53 am
Thanks for including the link to Tanya’s Feline CRF Information Centre. I shared the link with you. I just wanted to state that the site is not mine, though my name is Tanya. The site is named after the site owner’s cat who suffered from CRF. It’s a great resource for this recall and for CRF in general.
By the way, thanks for all the hard work you’ve been doing.
22 March 2007 at 3:55 am
Also, I have a question: What is going to happen to all of the food that is being recalled? How is the company going to effectively destroy it? I know you probably don’t have an answer, but it’s something I thought of today. It’s an ecological nightmare.
22 March 2007 at 4:08 am
Dogs are omnivores like you and me. They don’t necessarily need carrots, rice, and grains, but then neither do we necessarily need those things. Eating them certainly doesn’t do harm to either of us. Cats, on the other hand, are obligate carnivores. In general they can’t digest vegetables (when they eat mice, they’re getting small amounts of predigested vegetable matter that probably does provide necessary vitamins and minerals), but that doesn’t mean raw food is necessarily best for them (excepting food that they hunt for themselves; note that when they hunt they eat the entire body: meat and bones enough). I know some veterinarians recommend raw diets, but my wife’s not one of them and I tend to respect her opinion on the matter. Until someone figures out how to sell mouse-in-a-can (and by “figure out” I mainly mean figure out how to market it to a squeamish public), we won’t have a perfect canned diet for cats. Many diets now available are, in my wife’s opinion, far, far from perfect (they include all sorts of ingredients cats don’t eat in the wild without solid science to indicate that those ingredients won’t cause long-term harm). But we do have some good diets available that are far better (i.e., more nutritionally complete, more palatable, less likely to be contaminated during the preparation process) than what most people can achieve with home-prepared (including raw) diets. If you’re cat can’t catch its own food, a raw diet really isn’t the answer. Remember that any meat you buy at the supermarket has not been handled to be eaten raw. Cats in the wild kill and immediately (or within a very short time) consume their prey. If you are going to feed raw, are you sure you can mimic this? (If you can’t, then there are significant risks for food poisoning—both to your pet and to you.)
At my wife’s clinic we recommend Innova EVO and California Natural (made by Natura), Science Diet, and Max Cat dry (from Nutro). We looked for a long time for a high quality maintenance diet and the only ones that really impressed us were the Natura products. They produce their food in their own factories, they select all their own ingredients, and they avoid filling EVO and California Natural with nonsensical, faddish ingredients like carrots and blueberries (which in other foods are there primarily to appeal to you, the consumer). Neither food has wheat, which is a known allergen in cats. Innova EVO has no grain whatsover, and California Natural dry is a limited-ingredient diet containing chicken, brown rice, vitamins, minerals, and that’s about it.
Having said all that: a lot (an awful lot) is still not understood about animal nutrition, so thoughtful, well-meaning people will disagree about what is “best” for our pets. To catmanager’s knowledge, though, most board certified veterinary nutritionists recommend against feeding raw diets, as does the Companion Animal Parasite Council (a group whose main concern is the spread of parasites from animals to human beings). The American Veterinary Medical Association cautions that unless you are an expert in animal nutrition, it will be very difficult to home-prepare nutritionally appropriate food for your pet. If you are certain you want to try home-formulated food, proceed with caution and please consult with your veterinarian. Home-formulated diets and supplements need to be formulated on an individual basis for each of your animals.
22 March 2007 at 4:13 am
Therese: Thank you for clarifying. I didn’t mean to imply that your blog was recommending any or all of the foods, but I see how what I wrote could be interpreted that way.
Elderta: My wife suspects that the food will probably be incinerated. I’ll see if I can contact our Royal Canin rep tomorrow to see what he knows.
22 March 2007 at 4:37 am
Your post made perfect sense just the way it was. Although I didn’t think you were implying we were recommending the foods, I re-read my post, and saw how it could have been misinterpreted. I went back and made some changes to clarify. We need to work together to get through this crisis, so thank you!
22 March 2007 at 8:04 am
I’m glad you mentioned the possible drawbacks to feeding a raw diet, because I’ve heard an awful lot of people mulling over the (reactionary) decision to go raw over the past few days- and a number of others encouraging this.
My biggest beef with the idea of feeding my four a raw diet is the fact that human-grade meats aren’t intended to be consumed raw. (In fact, a few years ago, I had a cat contract food poisoning after stealing some uncooked meat I was planning on fixing for myself.) That and, personally, I don’t trust my ability to ensure that what I’d be making would be nutritionally complete for my cats. I find it hard enough to cook for myself!
Might work for some, but not for me. And, either way, the decision to produce one’s own raw diet is definitely not something to be done on a whim, sans research and an understanding of what you’re doing. (IMHO, anyway.)
22 March 2007 at 2:53 pm
Catmanager wrote: “…the only ones that really impressed us were the Natura products. They produce their food in their own factories…”
A phone call by a concerned pet owner to California Natural yielded the following information:
I called the company that makes California Natural, Natura 1-800-532-7261. Their website says they are not affected by the recall.
I was told they make their own dry food, BUT MENU FOODS MAKES THEIR CANNED PRODUCTS!!!
She said their canned food is made at the Nebraska plant, and therefore not affected by the recall. NOT good enough for me.
22 March 2007 at 5:21 pm
Nikki, Thank you for that bit of research! I was (obviously) not aware of that fact. Now that I think about it, in presentations I’ve heard from Natura, they do only talk about the manufacture of their dry foods.
23 March 2007 at 4:41 pm
I emailed Natura on Tuesday asking them to confirm or deny that Menu Foods made some food for them. Here is the email response I received from them on Thursday afternoon.
Definitely NOT good enough for me either.
From: Customer Service [mailto:custserv@naturapet.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:22 PM
To: ‘Kim Duke’
Subject: RE: Menu Foods makes your food?
Natura Pet Products owns and operates two manufacturing facilities, including a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Fremont, Nebraska. Our plants are AIB Certified “Superior”, Organic Certified, USDA APHIS Registered and ISO 9001:2001 compliant. Natura does utilize Menu Foods to manufacture canned products; however, Natura maintains final review and strict approval of all formulation designs, including the types and quality of ingredients included. Menu Foods is responsible for quality control in its facilities, based upon their Good Manufacturing Practice process; a copy of which is on file in our offices. Natura has a complete and documented Product Quality reference on hand detailing the quality standards for each formula and can size produced under Natura’s labels. Each of our canned products are routinely reviewed and compared to the standards set out in this reference material. It is important to emphasize that: 1) the Menu Foods recall is specific to “cuts and gravy” products WHICH NATURA DOES NOT SELL, and; 2) Natura’s canned products are made at a facility which has NOT BEEN IMPLICATED IN THE RECALL. Since being notified of the recall, Natura has been in direct contact with Menu Foods management and have a 100% confidence level that our canned products in the market are healthful and safe.