Melamine Found In Wal-Mart Bestros Chicken Jerky Strips For Dogs
The Associated Press is reporting that tests of two Chinese brands of dog food treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine.
Wal-Mart pulled two China-made dog treats from their shelves: Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Bestros Trading on July 26 due to customer’s complaints about pets becoming ill from eating the treats.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said 17 sets of tests done on the products found melamine.
“There were very small amounts of melamine found,” Galberth said. “The amounts were so small the laboratory recommended more testing.”
Galberth added that she couldn’t say at this point if the amount of melamine found would be enough to sicken or kill a pet that ate the tainted products.
She further added that Wal-Mart would expand its testing of the chicken jerky strips to see if tests find melamine in the product.
As of now, no formal recall has been issued.
(Pictured: Bag of Bestros Chicken Jerky Strips purchased from K-Mart)
A statement Tuesday by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said customers should be especially wary of jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading with the UPC number 0087784900006 and item number 839751. Customers who have bought the products are urged to return it to the store for a full refund.
As of today, the FDA has not listed the products on their recall website. In 2005, the FDA put an import alert on some of the pet food products from Pingyang Pet Product Co. because of salmonella contamination.
Galberth said she did not know about Pingyang Pet Product Co. being on FDA’s import alert list previously. She said they are working with the FDA and manufacturers.
“Generally, we won’t do a pull-and-hold unless most stores are impacted,” she said. “There’s a high likelihood many of our stores would have been impacted by this one.”
Source: Forbes
(Thanks menusux)
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Janet,
http://www.mflegal.com/petfoodlawsuit
http://hubpages.com/hub/Class_....._Companies
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Somebody posted that her dog died from duck strips…..made in China….& they were not purchased at K-Mart or Wal-Mart. Beware of any treats, purchased anywhere, that say made in China.
I think you’d be hard pressed to get any kind of suit going against Wally World. They’ve probably got thousands of highly paid (crooked) lawyers working for the corporate office to protect them against any suits from the Chinese crap they sell to the public. These big corporations are pretty much insulated because they have the money & we don’t.
Between the plastic sandals that I read about a week or two ago & now formaldehyde soaked clothing for children…..what next? Oh yeah, forgot the lead baby bibs.
My heart goes out to all those athletes going over there for the Olympics. I hope they have a very large suitcase to carry their own food over there……they’d be foolish to be eating all their meals there. I wonder what they plan to do…….I don’t think they want to see all our athletes dropping from food poisoning.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....8/21/3313/
Efforts to Crack Down on Lead Paint Thwarted by China, Bsh Administration
…last December, the Sierra Club sued the Bush administration after the Environmental Protection Agency rebuffed a petition to require health and safety studies for companies that use lead in children’s products. The EPA and Sierra Club settled out of court in April, with the administration agreeing to write a letter to the CPSC that expressed concern about insufficient quality control on products containing lead.
The Sierra Club’s interest in lead paint in children’s products grew out of the largest-ever CPSC-conducted recall. That action on July 8, 2004, targeted 150 million pieces of Chinese-made children’s jewelry sold in vending machines across the United States. Since 2003, the commission has conducted about 40 recalls of children’s jewelry because of high levels of lead.
In March 2006, a 4-year-old Minnesota boy died of lead poisoning after swallowing a metal charm that came with Reebok shoes. The charm was found to contain more than 90 percent lead.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
HighNote asks:
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I would gladly buy just US made products if I could find any!!!!!!!!!!!
Highnote,
While not an end all answer, perhaps this site can help as a start:
http://www.madeinusa.com/cgi-b.....&ea=41
Janet asks:
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
…Any suggestions on what to do? Have any legal cases started??????
Janet, the result of a legal battle I bet won’t likely yield a monetary compensation that equates to your cost nor even covers your legal expenses. If you sue, do so knowing it is for your own peace of mind and to teach a lesson and be sure you can afford the cost. You might however join some of the other existing pet food class action lawsuits for perhaps a lessor to no cost alternative. Those will be for more general reasons instead of specifically about your dog. Remember these corporations have tons of money, entire teams of attorneys, organizations like PFI, and lots of fellow defendants to consult.
As to which suits. There are many. Some are the original Menu foods related melamine class action suits. Those probably will be consolidated in a few years and are unlikely to meet the need for this new item problem. There are some suits in local area specific to their own pets. And there are some that are about consumer product fraud alleging the industry members deceived the consumers with their premium pet food claims.
If you want to pursue this, you could contact a local attorney on a consultation basis and deciding what to do from there whether it is to do nothing, or file a reimbursement claim, or file a local lawsuit, or form a new class action lawsuit over the chicken strips, or joining an existing class action lawsuit. In most of those cases, you need to preserve your evidence, possibly including the body, your treats and its package, your purchase receipt, and any witnesses names, etc.
This won’t just be wally world I bet because I’ve seen those strips in the big pet product stores too.
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Here are just a few on the list from the Made in the USA website::
Dog and Cat Food Manufacturing
Menu Foods, Inc.
9130 Griffith Morgan Ln. · Pennsauken · NJ · 08109 · 856-662-7412
Products: Dog & cat food
Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc.
320 S.E. Crane St. · Topeka · KS · 66603 · 785-354-8523
Products: Pet food
Nutro Of Tennessee, Inc.
920 Arctic Dr. · Lebanon · TN · 37090 · 615-449-4996
Products: Pet food
Ohio Pet Foods, Inc.
38251 Industrial Pk. Rd. · Lisbon · OH · 44432 · 330-424-1431
Products: Dog, cat, ferret & horse food
Doane Pet Care
218 E. Lincoln St. · Portland · IN · 47371 · 260-726-7163
Products: Pet food
Diamond Pet Foods
Hwy. B · Meta · MO · 65058 · 573-229-4203
Products: Dry pet food
http://www.madeinusa.com/cgi-b.....&sort=
and the list goes on and on and on….
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm
I have thirteen hundred dollars in vet bills because my dog loved Bestros Chicken Jerky Strips. Talked to the manager of my local walmart today and his words were “O well, sorry”. I told him anything that can go into the mouth of man or beast will be purchased elsewhere. I am now in the process of throwing all vitamins and personal hygiene products and dog food purchased at walmart in the trash. The health of my family and dog are not worth the few dollars saved
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Looking for treat alternatives? My dogs love raw carrots ,brocoli and green beans.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:37 am
So, maybe this is why Wal-Mart says they are continuing to do more testing.
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
They sell chicken jerky for dogs at Costco that is manufactured in China and looks the same as the photo of the bag that is in recall. I am going to take it back and insist they alert customers that they are selling pet food from China that has been linked to poisonous substances. Saving money on chinese imports is literally biting us in the behinds…
August 25th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Here is another story of a dog that died from eating the chicken jerky strips. This couple is also looking for help from other pet owners who have gone through the same situation. They also said Wal-Mart is giving them the runaround.
Our pet Rosie, a 3 year old Chihuahua was poisoned from Chinese made Bestro’s Jerky Chicken Strips #77849 00006 1 We have this contaminated bag. We have three Chihuahuas and one of them died one month ago. She started with vomiting and dehydration and then we were told she may either have an obstruction or have been poisioned. Since our dogs are inside dogs and we are with them at all times outside we thought it was an obstruction. Finally the doctor said he was almost positive it was some kind of poisoning at Elwood Animal Clinic in Glendora, California…
Here is the rest of the comment:
www.itchmo.com/more-recalled-m.....ment-50406
August 25th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I have 4 dogs that at the beginning of the year were all on the verge of Kidney failuar due to the high sodium content in Chicken Strips or so we thought. I just left the vet today and he shared the info about the Walmart chicken strips with me. His words to me were we really skirted a major issue by taking blood work yearly on your dogs and taking them off the chicken strips. The strips we used were the ones from Sams called Wagon tails. I wish someone would test them next, I bet that these will test bad also. Dogs were not ment to have extra sodium, so all of those folks that want to feed chicken strips, consider using the ones out by Dogswell. They are advertised to be cage free chickens, no Hormones, No Antibiotics, No Fillers, No Byproducts and no added salt. Please remember that treats are ment to be fed in moderation.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I recently had a not even 7 yr old healthy yellow lab die. I strongly believe it is because of the chicken strips. He exhibited all of the symptoms of renal failure which we contributed to the 100 degree weather. He was drinking a lot more, having to go out more, lethargic and just not himself. He died while we were on vacation (we had people checking on him 2 and 3 times daily) He is buried in my backyard and I visit him at least 2x a day and cry all day because he was like a child to me. I am angry and mad that something I bought as consumable probably killed him and I gave it to him. How many dogs have to become ill or die before an offficial recall will be executed? Many of you are lucky to have vet bills…You still have your babies and I don’t…
September 14th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
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September 14th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
American Veterinary Medical Association
RELEASE ON JERKY TREATS AUGUST 13TH/2007
AVMA WARNS OF POTENTIAL NEW THREAT TO PETS
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE
http://www.avma.org/press/medi.....treats.asp
October 13th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Bestros Chicken Jerky , I truly believe this caused my dog to have chronic kidney disease. She ate it and became deathly ill, she takes approximately
$500 a month in treatments and medicine and is holding her own.
Please beware of this….
November 14th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I have 3 dogs that have kidney disease from eating Bestros Chicken Jerky. I have not found anyone else that is battling this problem. All that I’ve met had dogs that ate it and died. If you have a dog that ate Bestros Chicken Jerky and is still alive, I would love to hear from you. Carmella (I hope your dog is doing well) and anyone else out there… please send me an email at westhamfan@aol.com
My veterinary bills are astronomical, as are my dog’s BUN levels. If you think your dog recovered from this poison, I would be willing to bet that you are mistaken. Two of mine seem ok, but their BUN levels are abnormally high, thus indicating kidney disease most likely in the renal tubes. Please email me to compare notes! Hugs & prayers. Diana