I am so peeved right now! Maybe I’m just cranky from trying to update a list I compiled of where folks can register their complaints regarding the Menu Foods recall (btw, new recalls of Science Diet dry feline m/d AND ALPO Prime Cuts in gravy wet food) the deaths and the illnesses, or maybe I’m just UNBELIEVABLY annoyed and saddened that it seems we are NEVER going to get solid answers to why in the heck so many things seem to be showing up in the recalled pet food (today the FDA said melamine was found in the wheat gluten used to make the food…let’s see, that makes rat poison AND an Asian fertilizer in the food!), or maybe I’m just disappointed in two kids that apparently set that fire in my neighboring county of LA today. Who knows what it is that’s really got my goat, but regardless, I am peeved to the nth degree, and can only imagine the incredible frustrations pet owners with sick or even worse, dead pets, are feeling. Why on EARTH are we not getting conclusive answers to all of this Menu Foods recall chaos?
I read someone else say (sorry, don’t remember where) that the lab which first discovered the aminopterin (rat poison) in samples of the recalled food (btw, the FDA and Menu Foods are now saying aminopterin was NOT found in the food after all…the lab who found it is sticking by their findings), is one of the labs set up as part of Homeland Security after 9/11, and SHOULD have been able to diagnose what was in the food MUCH sooner than it did since this IS a lab that is suppose to be on the cutting-edge and front line of OUR protection against possible acts of terrorism with our food supply. If anyone thinks that our government is always looking out for OUR best interests, you really need to take a hard look at why it is that we STILL haven’t been given the name of the company that provided the wheat gluten to Menu Foods, and now are we going to find out how melamine got into the products? Not holding my breath. Just look at the slow response with Katrina. Disgraceful. And since this recall (at THIS point) was not with the human food supply it doesn’t seem that anyone is in any huge rush to discover the real causes. Although I suppose if our government wasn’t too interested in helping our own citizens during Katrina, they aren’t going to be in a huge rush to help our pets. Sorry, but I’m obviously still pretty bitter about Katrina.
So why IS it that we are not being told which company gave Menu Foods the wheat gluten, which is OBVIOUSLY the lead suspect in all the deaths? Comment posters on this blog did a lot of detective work and discovered that the offending company is “more than likely” ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), yet no “official” word one way or the other. Hmmm… Make no mistake pet food companies, big business, media, and our government, animal lovers are getting pretty fed up with your lack of answers, your excuses, and what seems to be a concerted effort to NOT let us know what’s really going on. We consider our pets to be members of our family and when you mess with a member of our family you are in for a big fight. Trust me. Pet owners are not about to let this disgusting situation be swept under the carpet, and there are far too many interested parties out there who will continue to push into the reasons behind this recall and the subsequent deaths. We do not want to have to constantly worry if the food we give our pets out of love and care, is in fact turning around and being what kills them. Yes, we can make our own food at home, but if these dangerous items can find their way into the animal food industry, is there really ANYONE that thinks they won’t find their way into the human food industry?
Rant done…for now. Who knows, maybe I’ll just end up deleting this post because when I’m not so upset it won’t make much sense. But for now I’m using this blog to unload and vent. Still peeved, though. Sigh.
***Added 8PM: Here’s a link to the Menu Foods conference today about melamine. Sorry, but all I hear when the President of Menu Foods opens his mouth is that Charlie Brown teacher sound, “Waa-waa-waa-waa, waa-waa-waa-waawaa!”***
13 comments
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March 30, 2007 at 11:38 pm
breederx
Isn’t this just all so scary??!! I am terrified now of ALL foods. It better be a closed issue soon. . . .
March 31, 2007 at 8:58 am
Teresa Holladay
I hate the sad, sad impact on pets and on the families who love them.
But I LOVE your title! Amen. I will link to your article from my blog, http://IsYourPetFoodSafe.com
Great work.
Teresa Holladay
http://HealthfulPetZone.com
March 31, 2007 at 2:00 pm
First Aminopterin, Then Melamine. How About Trying to Put FOOD Into Our Pet Food? « Are You Feeding Your Pets Safe Pet Foods?
[...] 31st, 2007 · No Comments There is a great blog article written by SoCalMuchacha under this title, How About Trying to Put FOOD Into Our Pet Food? They go [...]
March 31, 2007 at 7:57 pm
SoCalMuchacha
Breederx, it is BEYOND scary, isn’t it? And I sure do hope they come to some concrete findings, soon, but I’m not counting on that…sigh.
Thanks for your compliment, Teresa…guess being frustrated leads one to just “put it all out there”, eh?
And yes, the sadness is just so frustrating and heart wrenching. I’ve dealt with euthanasia and sickness with the pets I’ve had in my life, and in the years I worked at animal hospitals, and while ANY death of a pet is a sad experience, there’s just something that makes it all so much WORSE when it is a death that could have been avoided.
April 1, 2007 at 3:58 pm
jogger
A little confusd here. The Purina contact re: Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy is conveniently closed this weekend as usual, despite a life-threatening emergency for our dog pets. And despite this conflicting information:
NY State Dept of Agriculture running tests through the Cornell testing division claims to have pinpointed Aminopterin, not wheat gluten, as the cause of kidney failure in affected dogs, yet the Purina Press Release of Friday clearly states that their recall is only because of contaminated wheat gluten found in only a particular processing plant. So does this mean that aminopterin is found in melamine which is found in wheat gluten, or that aminopterin is a separate poison from melamine and wheat gluten. Which is the poison and which is the stuff that contains it?
Maybe someone can break this down, and meantime I wish Purina would explain in greater detail. I still have (but am not feeding) some Alpo cans, supposedly from plants not involved in the recall.
April 1, 2007 at 4:16 pm
SoCalMuchacha
Jogger, confusing stuff, isn’t it? Unfortunately there are NO clear cut answers, but from what we can gather the NY State Dept. of Agriculture and Markets is still standing by their claim that they found aminopterin (rat poison) in the samples they tested. However, the FDA is saying those findings haven’t been corroborated, and that instead what HAS been found in recent tests is melamine (used mostly in plastics in the USA, but used as fertilizer in Asia). So there are now two different labs saying they’ve found two different things that should NOT be in pet food, BUT what IS apparently tying them all together is the wheat gluten.
It is my understanding from reading the press release from Nestlé regarding their ALPO product, is that the company is recalling it because they used wheat gluten supplied to them by the SAME COMPANY that supplied it to Menu Foods. Of course the consumers are being kept in the dark BY EVERYONE as to who the company is that has supplied the wheat gluten. What confounds me is that apparently Nestlé and Menu Foods can know who this supplier is, but neither of those companies feel compelled to share this VERY important information with consumers. ARGH!
April 1, 2007 at 5:13 pm
jogger
Thanks for rapid reply, SoCalMuChaCha. So far, then we can summarize:
NY Dept of Agric. Animal Health Diag. Cntr at Cornell actually identified melamine AND aminopterin. The former was detected in the urine and kidneys of dead felines, but apparently was from sources other than the Menu Foods produced cat foods which were found to contain amiinopterin. There is still some lack of clarity here.
Nestle Purina spoke only of melamine contamination, but it seems clear that melamine is found in plastics AND in pesticides, and, of course, pesticides include rat poison, including the poison, aminopterin. So if we bundle all the information, it appears that wheat gluten may be contaminated with both melamine and
aminopterin, that such contaminated wheat gluten was supplied from China to the Purina plant in Crete, Nebraska, and it was from that plant that the substance appeared in contaminated Alpo canned foods. The plant code for Crete Nebraska is 1159. Plant
#1157 and others are supposedly not implicated.
One concern is that if one eliminates any 1157 plant food now is it possible or likely that a pet ingested it at some earlier time, and if so did it or does it continue to do damage on a residual basis. In other words can or should a pet be given medical treatment for prior ingestion, even if not obviously ill now? This could reach
many thousands of beloved pets before we’re all through with this.
Triple ARRGH!
April 1, 2007 at 5:18 pm
jogger
Correct former reply to last paragraph beginning “One concern is that if one eliminates any [REPLACE # 1157 with # 1159] plant food now . . . .”
Sorry.
Jogger
April 2, 2007 at 1:03 am
SoCalMuchacha
Jogger, your question asks if a pet should be given medical treatment for prior ingestion even if not obviously ill now. If it were my pet I would most definitely take him in to be checked out by my veterinarian AND have at least some blood work done, if not even more diagnostic measures. Considering the fact that this recall seems to be expanding every other day, with no clear-cut answers being given, I’d rather err on the side of safety. Hope that helps.
April 8, 2007 at 9:00 am
James
Dear People:
After reading about the contaminated pet food and the tragic stories told by pet owners I did some research and I would like to tell you what I found.
Everyone at one time or another has been bitten by a dog or cat. Last week, my sister`s little dog gave me a nip and I jumped(she laughed). It’s no big deal where we live.
But, if you live in China, get bitten by a dog, you could become one of the 200 people that die every month from rabies.
It seems some people in China have been breeding dogs and cats for a long time for their skins. I guess they make fur hats or something that they sell and export. This and other factors has led to a dog population in excess of a 150 million dogs. This has enabled rabies to proliferate to the point where China has 80% of all human rabies cases worldwide.
Last summer the authorities started a campaign to kill all dogs, usually by clubbing them to death even in front of their owners. Perhaps someone got a little tired of swinging clubs and thought of a more efficient approach to the culling of the dogs.
The pet food poison.
I hear a lot about melamine, but after reading the MSDS sheet on melamine it looks like it is not anything more than an irritant and carcinogen. It certainly does not block an enzyme necessary for protein synthesis upon which kidney function depends but Aminopterin(the rat poison) does. (Aminopterin was also used in chemotherapy but was discontinued because it was too toxic.)
The 2008 Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing China. If people find out about the rabies epidemic they may think twice about attending, investors may think twice about investing in a would-be profitable venue.
I`m not aware of how Menu Foods got the poisoned wheat gluten; maybe it was thought to be a very economic purchase or the supplier was having a going-out-of-business sale or a shipment mix up: We got their gluten they got ours by mistake.
My heart goes out to the owners of the pets that are sick and dying. The only thing sicker is that when the slime and destruction is finally scraped away, there`s the dollar.
Best Regards,
James
April 22, 2007 at 5:41 am
Tanya
I believe that this is not just in wet foods and I believe that we have only begun to see the scope of this serious problem. 4/18 I lost a 7 year old boxer/mix then 1 hours later our 4 year old lab/mix died. On 4/20 our 9 week old boxer/mix puppy died. All eating Nutro Max dry food (large breed and puppy food). ALL died of kidney failure. All died of renal failure. Doing autopsy won’t know for 4-6 weeks. Purchased all new bags of food on 4/9 – isn’t that strange that within 10 days my dogs are dead? Vet is helping us with FDA and other issues. She’s testing the foods and testing the vomit. Everyone (chain food store and Nutro) say it’s just us…everyone was current on shots and healthy before. Both my neighbors have dogs so I do believe that they would have poisoned them.
April 22, 2007 at 10:54 am
SoCalMuchacha
James, sorry I missed your comment before…very thorough! There seem to be MANY different groups opposed to the 2008 Olympics in China for a variety of reasons. There just seems to be a lot of negativity around it,much of which I totally understand, and if I had the $$ to go I wouldn’t. That being said, I do feel for all the athletes that devote their lives to their sport, then have it affected by politics. Again, I DO understand the concerns of many about the Olympics in China, and it goes without saying I’ve been disgusted by the horrific actions that government has taken in dealing with their rabies dilemma.
And Tanya, oh my gosh, I can’t EVEN imagine losing one dog from this, but three?! I’m sorry for your heartbreak and loss. And I am so glad you still had the food so it can be tested, and that your veterinarian is working with you on this. I’d be quite interested in hearing how this all turns out. Again, I am so sorry to read about your terrible ordeal. I know your heart is aching.
May 18, 2007 at 12:57 pm
NANI
THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES ANY SENSE AT ALL IS TO FEED OUR LOVED ANIMALS AS WE FEED OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN. WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN TAINTED – NOT JUST FOODS. SOMETHING’S ROTTEN IN NOT JUST DENMARK.
SO TOTALLY FED UP WITH TRUSTING OTHERS WITH ANYTHING THAT MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME AND MY FAMILY.
NANI FROM STURBRIDGE, MA