Attached Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070317/ap_on_bi_ge/pet_food_recall;_ylt=Aua4OyZyt6eJd35sereX.xbMWM0F

Wow thanks Khai, I didn't hear or see anything about this in the news. I'd have been beyond pissed off  had my dog or cat got kidney failure and died thanks to eating some of that food.

The best thing to give to pets whenever possible is normal food and not artificial.
Dogs eat anything and cats are limited to meat and some fish time to time (not all cat eat fish).
And cats don't eat vegetals!!!!!

Check your pet food labels. We tossed ours out. Take no chances.

Ever since I heard that Americans eat hamburger meat made form mixing the meat from hundreds of different cows, fed steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones, and raised on genetically modified feed, I''m kind of glad I don't live over there. God only knows what they put in their pet food.

Ashley, chances are you already eat our genetically modified corn and didn't know it. 

Cheers

Quote - Ashley, chances are you already eat our genetically modified corn and didn't know it. 

Cheers

Very true seeing that many products of this nature are exported from the U.S. to other nations in the world.

Quote - The best thing to give to pets whenever possible is normal food and not artificial.
Dogs eat anything and cats are limited to meat and some fish time to time (not all cat eat fish).
And cats don't eat vegetals!!!!!

Not true.  I've had many (many) cats, and have known of many more, who love vegetables.  Cats and dogs both love to eat grass and other plant food.

Also, a meat only diet can cause pancreatitis and fatty liver in cats.  Both are very serious problems.  In addition, certain fish products (such as regular tuna for human consumption) can cause fatty liver.

The food recall is certainly for real.  I am glad to report that none of the brands that I feed my cats or dogs are on the list.

My cat loves his Whiskas but he also eats:  green olives (especially stuffed with almonds), green peppers, peas, bread (lots),  cheese, greek spinach/cheese pie,  chicken soup, and much more.    Strangely enough, he doesn't eat souvlaki!  Makes me wonder what they're making it from these days ;)  Oh and he has a horrible aversion to chocolate, the smell and/or sight of it sends him running - if only that would also apply to his mistress :)

no chocolate for Canines or felines!!!
it's considered a poison to them and can kill.

Quote from Wikipedia (and confirmed by 2 vet's I've been to)

*Theobromine poisoning or chocolate poisoning is an adverse reaction to the alkaloid theobromine, found in chocolate, tea, cola beverages, and some other foods. Cacao beans contain about 1.2% theobromine by weight, while processed chocolate generally has smaller amounts. The amount found in highly refined chocolate candies (typically 40-60 milligrams per ounce or 1.4 to 2.1 grams per kilogram) is much lower than that of dark chocolate or unsweetened baker's chocolate (over 400 mg/oz or 14 g/kg).

The amount of theobromine found in chocolate is small enough that chocolate can be safely consumed by humans in large quantities, but animals that metabolize theobromine more slowly can easily consume enough chocolate to cause chocolate poisoning. The most common victims of theobromine poisoning are dogs (for which it can be fatal). Cats and especially kittens are yet more sensitive, and many other animals are also susceptible.

The first signs of theobromine poisoning are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination. These can progress to cardiac arrhythmias, epileptic seizures, internal bleeding, heart attacks, and eventually death.

Theobromine is especially toxic to horses, dogs, parrots, voles, and cats because they are unable to metabolize the chemical effectively. If they are fed chocolate, the theobromine will remain in their bloodstream for up to 20 hours. Medical treatment involves inducing vomiting within two hours of ingestion, or contacting a veterinarian.

A typical 20 kg dog will normally experience intestinal distress after eating less than 240 g of dark chocolate, but won't necessarily experience bradycardia or tachyarrhythmia unless it eats at least a half a kilogram of milk chocolate. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, approximately 1.3 g of baker's chocolate per kilogram of a dog's body weight (0.02 oz/lb) is sufficient to cause symptoms of toxicity. For example, a typical 25 gram baker's chocolate bar would be enough to bring out symptoms in a 20 kg dog.*

also confirmed here - http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/211104.htm

Thanks for the link and the information Khai.  I've never given my pets sweets or chocolate of any kind as I was told as a child I wasn't supposed to but I never thought it could cause so many complications.   It's nice to see my cat's survival instincts are so strong that he won't even go near  chocolate, even if he smells it on my breath he flees.

Cats/dogs can die from eating chocolate.

I can't believe anyone wouldn't know that.

I dont need an online website entry to tell me that.

Guess people dont use common scene anymore unless they get it from Wikipedia.
Ah yes, the same Wiki that claimed Sinbad the comic actor was dead. When in fact,
he wasn't.

Cats don't eat chocolate!!, dogs can do it.
Well some strange cats can eat letuce, onions, beans, bread, cake, plastic, paper, only grilled fish, tomatoes, potatoes, but I never found one that ate chocolate.

My cats like beer, chocolate, and carrots.

Cats don't eat chocolate!!, dogs can do it.
Well some strange cats can eat letuce, onions, beans, bread, cake, plastic, paper, only grilled fish, tomatoes, potatoes, but I never found one that ate chocolate.

oh, and my cats like a little bit of vodka on their lips.

My three cats like people food, inlcuding sphaghetti, pizza, cheese (in small amounts), dinner rolls - whatever they can grab when we are not looking. They eat very little commercial cat food, but love water-packed tuna fish (people kind). I do leave out bowls of dry cat food with special ph balance as a snack. They will eat chocolate if you leave it in a dish. they are pig cats, LOL! The poson in the cat food was from Walmart and it has been in all the newspapers here. Scared me to death, but we never bought that brand.

My cat likes chocolate too, not that she gets very much. She goes ape over caramel though, almost taking it right off your lips if you let her that close while you're eating it. I used to get those green apple/caramel suckers from Walmart all the time and both my cats would steal them! They'd sit and lick them forever if I'd hold one up for them. LOL My one cat used to steal lettuce from the garbage all the time, he died a few years back. His sister hates veggies though, she'd rather steal your hamburger.

Cats don't smoke so hemp is useless, but you can use chlorine (hypochorite) instead.

Theobromine is fatal to both dogs and cats.  If you simply have to feed them "chocolate" then get them carob, which has no theobromine.

It doesn't matter whether or not they "like" it, if they get enough theobromine in their system, there is no going back, you will have a dead animal.  Not all alkaloids are poisonous to cats and/or dogs, but that one is very well known.

My sister's cat used to love cabbage.  That cat would run to the fridge if anyone even said the word "cabbage."  She would then sit patiently by the fridge until someone gave her a big piece of cabbage, which she would then nibble on for an hour or so until it was allllllll gone.

Cats do smoke.  Not like humans, but...

My girlfriend was a smoker and she had a cat named Figment.  She quit soon after she moved in with me.  However, whenever I take Figment out for a walk, he finds cigaratte butts (filters) and chews them up.  I imagine he does it for the nicotine.

My girlfriend may have quit cigarettes but Figment has not.

I don't feed them chocolate. We discovered they liked it when I gave my husband a big candy bar and he left it under the Christmas tree wrapped, mind you. The next morning the paper was torn, half of it was eaten with kitty bite marks in it. We have to keep it out of their reach now. My cats do love dark meat turkey and roast beef. We save them all the scraps.

What the other cat eats is always better.
It can be extendend to humans.
Humans always eat better things

Way familiar with this. It's the 'gravy-based' ones that are the problem. Missus works for Wally World, and we had to get dog food for the pups (a litter of 12, each one as big as a beagle now, and eat 10lbs (2+ kilos) a day) at Petsmart. The dog food company had a rep in the store explaining (I'll bet) about the situation, and what foods were ok to eat.

Sadly, we met someone who actually lost their dog to this stuff. Fortunately, we had a whole litter of pups, and they just left here with one of them, so in other words 'that's turning a frown upside down'

Had a near miss with this crap on Friday night. Bought some "Special Kitty" and gave it to my cat just hours before hearing about the recall, luckily the furball does not like the sliced w/gravy stuff. So the tin I'd opened was a "safe" one, nonetheless I got rid of it all. He's okay, thank heavens, but I've since heard some people in this area lost their dogs and one woman had to have her cat put down due to kidney failure.

And kawecki, you have obviously never met my cat, else you wouldn't say they don't eat vegetables. Monty loves 'em, in fact he'd rather eat beans, peas & carrots than the fanciest pet food. :-)

Onions are bad for dogs, although I'm not sure about cats.

And you really don't want to know what they put in those grocery store brand pet foods.  I've read some information about that, and it's not good.

Some cats eat strange things. I had one that was crazy for grilled fish, but the fish must be only of one kind (a round flat fish) and grilled, any other fish or in other form she refused to eat.
Another one ate salad, but the salad must be prepared (salt, oil, vinager).

Both of our dogs are on a natural/raw diet, thankfully, so none of this has had an effect on them.  I truly feel for those who've lost their companions (or had close calls) due to this issue.

I highly recommend natural/raw diets for both dogs and cats...  It's worth looking into, for those who haven't considered the approach.  While it takes a little more effort (primarily to educate one's self on the topic), I have found it has made a world of difference in their overall health, vitality and well-being.  (And we know what they're eating -- there are no worries about mystery ingredients or tainted content!)

Mysterious indeed are the ways of cats. ;-)

Attached Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17650075/

reported (so far) 10 deaths (9 cats 1 dog) (not including test animals ... you've gotta be kidding ...)

Onions are bad for dogs
Chocolate is very bad for dogs
Garlic is bad for dogs
Raisins are bad for dogs
...

I have a small dog (25pounds) and she's 4 1/2 years old. I've had her since she was 7months old. Since her first birthday she's been eating my food. When I prepare a meal, she gets her portion. I buy dry food for her but she considers it a snack when she gets hungry before going to bed at night.

At first I was afraid to let her eat what I eat because of all these warnings about the kind of food that can kill dogs. So I went to see the vet and he told me that as everything else, small amounts of anything will NOT hurt her. Since then I don't take out onions from her portions and I always give her little bits of my chocolate bar when I eat one. 

I think they are right about raisins though: Mimi will never touch it and if there are some in a muffin or something she'll leave the raisins there and eat the rest.

She is a very healthy little dog for all that. And I remember when I was young we always had dogs (big, small, medium) and cats. What did they eat? Our leftovers. All the time. No dog or cat food in those days. They all lived long and healthy.

Conclusion: I take these warning about what is good or bad for our pets with a grain of salt. Not the recalls though! These I believe!

ok. news in today...

they've found rat poison in the food. aminopterin to be exact.

Yeah I for one would like to know how exactly that got in there by  "accident".

And now it turns out, they knew about this sometime ago, but didn't say anything to anyone.

From what I've seen so far, I don't think it was an accident.  It seems in some Asian countries this stuff is used to keep rats &  mice out of the grain.  Stupidity beyond belief, as it may even end up in the human food chain since nobody probably knows where all that wheat was sold or what else it was used in.

Blah, blah, blah. Artificial food has always created kidney, liver and a lot of problems that natural food has never produced. Pets feeded with artificial food lives in average less than feeded with their natural alimentation.
Probably they have exagerated the amount of chemicals used (to maximize profit) and the thing exploded.

They identified what was in the food.  Aminopterin which is a rat poison!!!

Unbelievable!

and a chemical used in Chemotherapy.... and a pesticide...

and still not sure where exactly it came from. they are now testing everything..

and Menufoods is taking full financial repsonsibility.
I was watching the news conference live as their president last it out and made it clear it's their fault and they are not going to try and dodge responsibilty.

a refreshing change for a company.

Yes, but how many people who lost pets will actually be able to prove the tainted food was the cause of death? My sister's classmate had a dog that got sick with these exact symptoms and died. But this was before anybody even suspected bad pet food. The poor pooch had previously been healthy and the vet was puzzled as to what had happened. Only an autopsy could provide any answers, however this is a very costly procedure, about $2000 Canadian. No way could she afford that, so even though now she's pretty certain her dog was poisoned this way, there's no evidence. Odds are she's long since thrown away the dog food packs and receipts, so no labels to check and no proof of purchase. Hence, no compensation for her ... not that money could ever replace a much loved furry baby. :-(

There is huge debate on store bought food and people food for dogs and cats.  And I can see a lot of misinformation.   Feeding your pet either will not kill it..... it will just shorten its life unless you know what you are doing.  

Just because a cat likes eating bread, doesn't mean its good for it.  Like a human that craves chips and cheetos......... it has no nutritional value to the animal, and does DAMAGE.  Cats do NOT require carbohydrates, they cause severe diabetes, kidney failure and death, heart failure from obesity and dental problems galore.  Do you think tigers lions and panthers eat wonderbread or dinner rolls?  Not likely.  Cats are purely carnivours and require no vegetable matter, and as a matter of fact, it passes usually right through.  Cat owners who are vegans and think their pet should be one too, are in for a lot of veterinary bills.

Dogs are omnivours, like us, however, food thats good for us is not nessesarily good for them.  Dogs have specific dietary needs that are simply NOT met with human cooked meals.  Also, the consistency of people food appropriate for dogs is not HARD enough to clean off tartar from their teeth.  Like cats, they will most likely end up with dental disease of the type that can eventually kill them, or render them unable to eat.

There have been many in this whole issue (i am very upset, can you tell?) who tout that "if you love your pet, you should buy only this extra special all organic plucked ingredient from the hands of vestal virgins in the exhaulted paradice of Utopia dog food!".  Are they for real?

My dog, my baby, Daisy, I am very careful what i feed her.  I'm dirt poor, but i scrape and made sure she had one of the best rated and organic dog foods on the market..........

The food was Nutro Natural choice.......... its on the list.  We had it, my dog has eaten it before the recall came out.   So far she is doing fine......... but now every time i open the bag of dry and its time to feed her i nearly break down crying.  I'm terrified to feed my own dog what I know is the best for her!  I know its just the canned food....................... but is it?  My cat was on nutro too......... the cans were gone it was time to get new food, I have no idea if he ate any that was tainted......... I know my dog has eaten tainted food!

I know this company did not do this on purpose, most likely it was tainted by an individual or group of individuals.  Still...... I'm angry as hell.

Attached Link: Home Cooking for dogs

I started feeding him home cooked food and he is doing wonderfully now.

Please see the link and try it for yourself.

http://www.foundersvet.com/home_cooking.htm

Cool! Is there a similar site for cat food recipes?

Quote - Cool! Is there a similar site for cat food recipes?

I haven't found any as yet, Byrdie...sorry.

My cat doesn't like home cooked foods, only her dry food.

Well, I've switched to a different brand of dry food for Monty, one that I know is not on the list. But I've been giving him Special Kitty kibble all this time and he hasn't been sick since July. That, as i remember, was when I did buy a package of the sliced meat & gravy for him as a treat. We didn't think the food was the problem, the vet suspected he was a bit dehydrated as it was very hot and he'd also gotten into a fight with another cat awhile earlier so I was thinking of an infection.  They gave him his shots and told me to make sure he had plenty of extra liquids, milk if he wouldn't take water. Which he wouldn't, and that was strange as he liked water but didn't care much for milk. Anyway I started giving him that several times a day with bottled water and after a week or two he was all right. No infection so it must've been not enough liquids the vet said and neither of us thought any more than that about it. But he had all the symptoms of this poison. I think  now the only thing that saved him was that it was a very small amount of bad food -- just one pouch and not all at once as it was not his regular diet -- plus all that milk and water flushed the chemical out of his system. That, and he eats more "people" food than cat food, though I'm careful not to give him "junk" like Cheetos and what-have-you. Mostly he gets meat with the occasional bit of veggie -- he likes green peas and the vet said it was okay if it was limited so he doesn't get too many carbohydrates. Last thing I need is an overweight, diabetic cat.

I hear it sometimes takes a few weeks for symptoms to show if  a cat or dog's gotten any of the bad food. And although the dry food is supposedly safe, and my fuzzy brat didn't get any of the others on the list except that one time from which he recovered, I'm still worried about this. He's due for his shots again soon, think I'll ask the vet to check out his kidneys too, just in case.

Rat poison was found in the food imported from China no less. Not the US.

17 cats/dogs died from this in my state how wonderful eh?

God knows how many more have died.

**Pedigree is what you should feed them.

**Cats/dogs need their own food you cant just have them live on people food they dont get their own Nutrients that way.

Byrdie, I'm glad that your cat is all better now. Sure makes us feel better too, doesn't it?

As for me and mine...my cat simply will not eat any kind of people food whatsoever. I sometimes wish she did! lol I suspect that's because she was only fed dry food from the very beginning, so we're figuring that's what she prefers.

If I have some people food in my hand, she will come over to sniff it out of curiosity and then just walks away.

She is going on 5 years old now and so far is healthy as a horse.

Quote - Just because a cat likes eating bread, doesn't mean its good for it.

Even some cats eats some strange things (a strange thing is something that is not meat), the amount that he/she eats is very little.
Dogs love sugar, but their food are not candies, you give some them candy/cake/chocolate only time to time and not every meal.
The extra strange things cause no harm and many times are necessary for some mineral or component that he/she has need in a specific period.
Cats use to eat some plants and grass and then vomit it, they do this for some reason (diuretic, cleaning, medicine ????)

Quote - Dogs are omnivours, like us, however, food thats good for us is not nessesarily good for them.  Dogs have specific dietary needs that are simply NOT met with human cooked meals.

They eat trash and rotten things!!!!, they are the cleaners of Nature!
If you try to eat what dogs love you are dead!

I have a lot of cats, I had some cases where a cat was dying of hunger because he refused to eat artificial food. I saved them giving meat.
In this moment I have three cats with problem, one adult cat that was sick and turned into a skeleton without any force and almost dying and two kitties that beside the milk of their mothers (rotating mother)  there's no way to make them eat. I saved them giving meat, the adult cat now is a nice and healthy cat and so are the kitties, but is a great problem for me they don't eat artificial food!, I have to feed them sepparated from the other cats.

Two of my cats ate from an "infected" can of Iams food that is on the list.  They don't have any of the symptoms and I'm not sure they actually ate it.  The fact that they don't seem to have any symptoms is puzzling.  One is losing weight though but he's over 13 years old.  I've heard that taking them to the vet is probably not going to help much because there's nothing they can do for the "rat poison" that was put in the food.

I sent a nasty email to Iams that I'll never buy their food again.  I guess the real culprit is menufoods.com.  Typical greed trying to save a buck by switching to a different supplier.  I may go back to feeding my cats (all six of them) real tuna even though they say it's unhealthy for them.  I think it's more unhealthy to feed them the crap they're putting on the market.

I went to PetsMart last weekend and they had signs up and cleared out the contaminated food.  That same day and before going to PetsMart, I went to Petco to see if they had my favorite cat food in stock because PetsMart is always out of it.  I couldn't believe the increase in prices compared to PetsMart.  While there, Petco had no signs up and still had the infected food on the shelves (I printed out the list).  I walked out of there empty handed.  People will do anything for money.  I hope menufoods gets sued and goes belly up.  They deserve it.

By the way, I had a cat that ate chocolate by mistake.  The only thing that happened was he got diarrhea.  This cat also ate onions and it didn't do anything to him.  I have one cat that likes to lick the inside of a glass of rum and coke.  I don't drink rum and coke anymore so he doesn't get to do it anymore.

My cats eat veterinary bought food by Waltham.  Feline w/d.  Abby doesn't like any other kind of food. She's very shape oriented when it comes to eating.  Her food has to be the right size and round. If I change it she will literally starve herself. I tried changing to a low calorie dry from the vet because both of my cats are on the plump side, but Abby just won't eat it. She has 2 or 3 pieces and buries the rest.  A bowl of the low cal food will last her days.

Chynna on the other hand will eat anything. She's 15 and really loves wet cat food so I have been giving her Friskies (pate type), and trying to get Abby to switch too because the canned is less calories than the dry. But Abby won't have any part of it. She absolutely hates canned food.

*I hope menufoods gets sued and goes belly up.  They deserve it.

why?
the chemical in question is not normally looked for, there is no 'standard' test for it. it took 5 labs 2 weeks to detect it in the food, and they are now showing menu foods own labs how to detect it.  how is that the fault of menu foods?

It's just like in medicine. You only test for what you know to test for. Hence the number of people with Hepatitis C and HIV from having received blood products.

What I would like to know is how such a chemical managed to make it into the food to begin with. It's not the type of thing you use to kill rats in North America, at least from everything that I've read.I know it's not in Canada. 

My reasoning says that someone disgruntled employee put it into the product.

Menu Foods seem to be doing all the right things in this situation. They aren't hiding behind their lawyers. They are taking full ownership of the situation and are paying all medical costs for those animals affected.  The company is taking a huge financial loss, because even safe products have been pulled off of the shelf.

If it was product tampering, and I think it is, I hope they catch the person and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

Quote - *I hope menufoods gets sued and goes belly up.  They deserve it.

why?
the chemical in question is not normally looked for, there is no 'standard' test for it. it took 5 labs 2 weeks to detect it in the food, and they are now showing menu foods own labs how to detect it.  how is that the fault of menu foods?

It came from out of the country and the "drug" used in the food is banned in the U.S.  I don't know about Canada and Mexico (which are also involved in this recall).  Sounds to me like they are trying to use cheap means to save a buck.  Menu Foods makes the pet foods for all these companies.  Makes you wonder about those high-end brands that charge more and give you the same garbage.

By the way, MenuFoods has known about this for several months.  I wonder about the poor animals in the shelters.  How many of them have died?  Also, this drug (used as a poison in other countries) has been around since the 1950's for cancer patients.

As was said, if you don't know what you're looking for you won't find it.  And testing all those different brands would take months.  I think Menu Foods knew they were in trouble which is why they did this "voluntary recall."  Speculation perhaps, but maybe an insider was going to blow the whistle.

I have no sympathy for them.  Now we all know where the pet food comes from.  Iams (and others) equals cheap pet foods from a third world country.  It might not even be the pet food.  It might be contaimination on the cans (recycled?).

Even a rat doesn't deserve this.