Recall Update: Monday
By the time you read this, we hope that the problem of tainted pet food and the supply of toxic ingredients should be front-page news. Everywhere. If it’s not, it should be.
The New York Times (and the International Herald Tribune) is reporting that melamine spiking of ingredients in China has been “going on for years”. And that it’s such a widespread problem a few reporters have been able to get the participants to talk to them in the open. It’s what we’ve feared, but suspected all along.
The practice is widespread in China. For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.
No one knows how long we have been feeding our pets such tainted foods, and how long it has been in the human food supply. We hope someone — FDA or not — will find out everything we need to know.
Despite the apparent magnitude of the problem, the FDA and the USDA continues to wish us good eating.
To follow up on the recalls from last week:
American Nutrition says there was no deliberate deception. Says they were following customer requests. Full release after the jump.
In other recall news:
- Menu Foods got 80 tons of wheat gluten a month from another source.
- Report from Pets Need a Voice Too march.
(Thanks Jo)
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American Nutrition Responds to Criticism
American Nutrition Inc.‘s announcement yesterday of its voluntary recall of certain products that contain rice protein has prompted questions concerning the labeling of those products, and about whether or not American Nutrition engaged in deliberate wrong-doing. A complete list of the products subject to the voluntary recall can be found at www.americannutritioninc.com.
To set the record straight, American Nutrition did not engage in any deliberate or intentionally wrongful conduct relative to the inclusion of rice protein in certain products it manufactures.
Rice protein is an ingredient commonly used in pet products to fortify protein content and provide proper texture and consistency of canned pet products. It is not harmful to animals. To the contrary, it is believed to be a healthy additive that assists in providing appropriately high protein levels without creating unacceptable levels of fat associated with meat products.
Concern exists about rice protein not because of its inherent qualities, but rather because rice protein shipped from Wilbur-Ellis to American Nutrition was found to contain concentrations of melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers that may be harmful to animals if consumed. To be clear, the possible existence of melamine Å“ not the inclusion of rice protein in pet products Å“ is the root source of recall concerns. The melamine in this instance unfortunately happens to have been found in the rice protein used by American Nutrition and other manufacturers.
While rice protein was used to fortify products involved in the recall, many other pet foods manufactured by American Nutrition (including their own house brands and products manufactured for several other companies) were not affected. The unaffected products rely instead on soy, corn and wheat as their primary non-meat protein sources. Conversely, the products affected by the contaminated rice protein recall had customer-driven formula specifications for non-soy, non-corn, and non-wheat ingredients. Those customers specifically required rice-based formulations, which necessitated certain fortifications to meet label guarantees. As such, American Nutrition selected a fortification source from the same family of ingredients already incorporated into the formulation (in this instance, rice).
The products subject to the American Nutrition voluntary recall are contract manufactured for other companies. American Nutrition is investigating the circumstances surrounding labeling, formulation and related inter-company communications, but it is simply false to state that American Nutrition was engaged in any deliberately deceitful and/or unlawful conduct. Labeling responsibility is a cooperative effort between American Nutrition and its customers. American Nutrition believes, for their part, that they were compliant with all applicable label regulations. Additional information will be released as American Nutrition completes its own investigation and as they continue to cooperate fully with ongoing FDA and other governmental agency inquiries.
—We want to express our deep concern over this situation. American Nutrition places a tremendous emphasis on honesty and integrity in every aspect of our business. Our utmost concern is for the health of the pets that consume our products“, said Bill Behnken, CEO of American Nutrition, Inc.
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ABOUT AMERICAN NUTRITION, INC.
Ogden, Utah based American Nutrition, Inc. manufactures pet foods under its own name and for many other companies. American Nutrition has 150 employees.
###
April 30th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Well, I read the statement from American Nutrition on the inclusion of rice protein in non labeled products - and this is exactly the “wink wink, nudge nudge” mentality that prevailed at the private label manufacturer I worked for.
I realize it is a sample size of n=2, but I think that is how all of these relationships probably work to some extent. “Can you make me a Cadilac for the price of a Honda? - but please, although in reality I know this is absolutely impossible to accomplish, don’t tell me what you have done in order to make my wonder holistic diet. Here, pass me that blindfold”
Just as it is possible to get whatever protein content you want in an ingredient, but impossible to quickly and easily measure melamine, without DNA testing, it is easy to get the guaranteed analysis you want on a pet food bag, impossible to determine if the venison is not beef, or the organic quinoa is not corn. Or if the formula actually contains 1 mg/Ton of powdered quail eggs.
If you buy a brand that is not made by the company that owns it, where is the accountability? Menu has HUGE HUGE uacceptable issues, but at least they appear to have labeled their wheat gluten correctly, which is more than we can say for holistic brands involved in recall.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:01 am
After reading the NYT article upon wakening, I’m so glad the “agriculture people” in China do not think the melamine causes problems in animals—I’ve got to get their addresses to invite them to my house when I force feed my cat Smudge—and hope she has the strength to groom herself–and let them watch her all day as she just lays in my dog Harry’s bed—something she used to be afraid of—at least her food was “low in protein”- something animals don’t need according to another one of the idiots–if it weren’t for their toxins, she wouldn’t need low protein now!.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:07 am
I have great concern about other protien products after reading the article. I know China produces alot of Fish Meal and other protien sources in powder form, so I imagine that since they think Melamine is safe, I would imagine that it is in alot of the foods we feed our pets!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Another “great ” article in today”s Toronto Star by AP reporter Christopher Bodeen–I’m so glad my pet food is “safe”–if I knew how to show the link, I would, Sorry.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Carol, the link for the story :)
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/208793
April 30th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Is the “American Nutrition Responds to Criticism” an email reply? Can’t find it on search engines.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:02 am
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/208793
April 30th, 2007 at 8:16 am
The joint FDA/USDA statement says “we are not aware of any human illness that has occurred from exposure to melamine or its by-products.”
The FDA has also repeatedly stated that they have not found any aminopterin (rat poison).
So how do they explain Elaine Larabie, the Canadian woman who became “violently ill” and was hospitalized after eating bits of Iams?
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ch5t3
Or is it that she’s not recognized because she’s Canadian?
April 30th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Attorney BS
Marc Ullman, a New York attorney for ChemNutra, described his client as a victim rather than an intentional violator of the law.
“As the facts exist today, I would be extremely hopeful that there were be no charges against any individual associated with ChemNutra,” Ullman said.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:20 am
I think the term “we are not aware” really means “we chose to ignore” by the F-Dee-lAy as I now call them. It was their emergency phone operator that told me on 3/17 that 2 sick cats on recalled food was not a FDA issue!!!
April 30th, 2007 at 8:21 am
The best thing about the NYT article is that it is THE page 1 headline story today (Monday April 30).
Headline: “In China, Additive to Animals’ Food Is an Open Secret”
Two subheads: “Link to Major U.S. Recall” and “Use of Chemical is Noted as Americans Arrive for Inspections”
The NYT’s placement of this story (most of which ran yesterday in their Int’l. Herald Tribune) is very important and should help push this story both with TV and radio and politically. There’s enough in there that should scare people that it’s getting into the human food chain, and it’s not being inspected.
Great news.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Teric,
When do you expect to have the test results back on the Canidae, Felidae, Kumpi and KumpiKat…if you don’t mind me asking?
April 30th, 2007 at 8:29 am
the 15 year timeline for adulterated pet food mentioned in the star article is of interest to me. i have had siberians for 36 years and it is in the last l5 years that health problems have become increasingly evident…thyroid, diabetes, ibd, urinary tract infections and food allergies in a breed that up to that point had been without disease.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I find it amazing that the FDA themselves are sabatoging the pork industry, here’s why. People will NOT put thier families at risk from ingesting a known ingredient that is killing pets. Had they recalled it, Amercians would have had a little more confidence to buy pork.
The mere fact that they have not isolated the properties of the contaminant is great cause for concern, as well as it has not been tested in humans. So i can they say it’s safe?!?
April 30th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Eric, are you using the KUMPIKAT yet? Mine isa rriving on May second according to the email I recieved today. With everything going on mine are off all pet food since the relapse on Friday. So nervous about it all at the moment but they need viamins. Geez
April 30th, 2007 at 9:35 am
“By the time you read this, we hope that the problem of tainted pet food and the supply of toxic ingredients should be front-page news.”
Sadly, the only thing I see, way on the bottom of MSNBC’s webpage, is a link to an article stating FDA feels no pig recall necessary. This is like a bad John Grisham novel.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Lorie,
I’ve been using KumpiKat for a few days now. The five kitties are starting to come around to it, but they’re so used to junk food that they aren’t quite sure about something that’s better for them.
I also ordered some Honest Kitchen Prowl to try as a wet supplement, but I haven’t received it yet.
I just wait very (im)patiently for Teric’s test results, hoping and praying that all his foods check out, since so many of us are using them.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:50 am
RE: KatieKat on FDA Sabataging Pork Industry?
Just the opposite actually — They are trying to put out fires to eliminate a consumer panic and protect U.S. trade with other countries (Japan) that import our pork (and other meats). Japan has already named an additional 500 agricultural chemicals, vet drugs, etc. that they will not accept in U.S. foods that are intended for Japanese consumption. As a result, U.S. pork farmers (other industries) have had to stop giving their ranch animals these chemicals/drugs well before market time so that the chemical/drug residue levels diminish in the tissues to levels low enough for Japan to accept our products. (I guess we’re still eating the meats with the high levels in…).
Other countries are refusing OUR foods unless we meet THEIR standards. I think I recall that S. Africa (or was in S. America?) even refused U.S. food aid a few years back. Now, that tells you something. The European Union also has more stringent food importation standards than we do. Where are we in the hierarchy of world powers? Because other countries refuse our food, we have no choice but to eat it ourselves.
My local news last night underplayed the risk of contaminated pork that has entered the human food supply — low risk to humans, according to the FDA. Nice local network. Roll over. Good boy! (Pat on the head and given a treat.)
I’m not buying it. Bans on our meat exports (maybe poultry, too, since we heard a Missouri Poultry farm bought some possibly contaminated feed?) by trade partners can greatly affect our economy and cause a ripple effect, which I think we are already seeing by more people avoiding grains, breads, processed foods and turning to locally produced and more unprocessed foods. Yes, there will be economic fallout from this, but those in power will do all they can to lessen the effect from those who challenge the risks.
We protect big business in the U.S., so any harm will definitely be minimized. Why are news networks not saying much, the print media, radio talk shows? Why are news articles (International Herald Tribune article taken down & revised within hours) being removed from a site and then revised to downplay the potential harm and extent of the problem? I think we know.
KatieKat Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I find it amazing that the FDA themselves are sabatoging the pork industry, here’s why. People will NOT put thier families at risk from ingesting a known ingredient that is killing pets. Had they recalled it, Amercians would have had a little more confidence to buy pork.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:04 am
FYI, below is Rosa DeLauro’s statement re: the pet food recall. Thank God someone is paying attention.
***********************************
“Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you for calling this hearing and thank you very much for the opportunity to present testimony.
“The recent pet food recall has raised very serious questions about the safety, not only of our food, but of our pets as well. It is very unfortunate that not even the family pet is immune from the food safety problems that are plaguing our country. In response to the letter that you and I sent to the FDA, Mr. Chairman, the agency claims that it is not ignoring its responsibility in the pet food area. However, to the many Americans who have lost their pets to contaminated foods, the initial evidence would suggest that the FDA is failing its responsibilities to protect pets from unsafe food as much as it is failing to protect American consumers.
“As you have stated, Mr. Chairman, the FDA’s response to this situation has been tragically slow, and pet owners deserve answers. The uncertainty about which foods have been recalled and what is safe to feed their pets has gone on far too long. Like you, I want to know how often pet food manufacturing plants are being inspected, and whether we need to force the FDA to modernize its regulations to protect our pets.
“Early in the process, I also was troubled by FDA’s underreporting the number of pets affected by the contaminated foods. At one point, the agency reported that only 16 pets had died when in fact, the number was significantly higher than that.
“And of course, I do not have to remind you Mr. Chairman that the FDA has no authority to mandate recalls and instead relies on information submitted by companies. We saw yesterday how problematic this arrangement can be when Menu Foods admitted that a “clerical error†caused the company to overlook a shipment of potentially contaminated wheat gluten from one of its plants in the U.S. to one in Canada . This gap delayed a recall of some cat food made in Canada .
“We are all aware of the disturbing statistics related to imported foods. The U.S. now imports far more foods than it exports, but there are fewer inspectors for imported foods. Currently, FDA inspects less than one percent of the food imported into this country that it is responsible for regulating. Also, the FDA does not require that exporting countries to have food safety regulatory structures that are equivalent to the U.S. standards. Given that the contaminated pet food appears to be connected to wheat gluten imported from China only heightens my concern about the agency’s ability to inspect imported products. It is this aspect of the pet food recall crisis that I am particularly troubled about and intend to examine further in a follow-up hearing before the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
“It very well may be that FDA lacks the resources to adequately inspect pet food facilities and imported products. And this is an area, Mr. Chairman, where we could work together to make a direct impact.
“However, we also should examine whether this is a management issue. In its response letter to us, Mr. Chairman, the FDA says it has not determined whether changes in current law or resources are necessary based on the pet food recall. I find it mind-boggling that this agency always refuses to even consider requesting additional authorities or resources to help it do its job. As we all know, that is unheard of in Washington .
“The FDA likes to demonstrate its commitment to food safety by pointing out that ‘food’ is the first word in its name. However, its actions suggest otherwise, highlighting the need for legislation that would create a single food safety agency – a bill that you and I have worked on for quite a long time now, Mr. Chairman.
“I look forward to FDA’s analysis of their oversight of pet food manufacturing facilities and the final report on the actions that the agency took once the crisis finally ends. I think it will play a key role as we determine the best steps to take in moving forward.
“Thank you again, Mr. Chairman for allowing me to present testimony at this hearing and I look forward to continuing to work with you on this issue.â€
www.house.gov/delauro
***********************************
I hate to admit that I’m a registered republican, truth is I’m not a real ‘political’ person to begin with…but this incident has made me want to switch parties. I’ve been observing that only the dems have been expressing any concern whatsoever. I’m disgusted and scared.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:14 am
RE: Donna’s post above:
Get the jumbo sized mail bags ready. Some of our “My Pet Counts!” postcards should start to arrive today.
…………………………………..
“Early in the process, I also was troubled by FDA’s underreporting the number of pets affected by the contaminated foods. At one point, the agency reported that only 16 pets had died when in fact, the number was significantly higher than that.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Any bets that under the radar it’s once again business as usual for the Pet Food Cabal?
April 30th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Eric,
Keep me updated on the KIMPIKAT I have been burned twice now with this poison crap, I have 2 poisoned cats and noneof the foods I have every in my life fed them appear on the so called list. This is nutz.
Geisha foods:
FF Elegant Medley Chicken Florentine
FF Savory Salmon
Hill Science Diet RX C/D wet and dry both
Eukanuba sensitive stomach
Topaz foods;
FF Elegant Medley Chicken Florentine
FF Savory Salmon
Eukanuba sensitive stomach
Topaz will not touch the HIlls RX food but Geisha gets into all Topaz food. So as you can see I have 2 poisoned cats and none of those are recalled.
Since recall they have had:
Merrick canned been staple since March 24th
Solid Gold Mixed Tuna few can here and there made me nervous from Thailand
Samples of Felidae dry, Fromm Dry, never more than a handful or 2 this past week
Friday morning would not eat any of the Merrick so I put out old Eukanuba Dry
and FF Savory Salmon which supposedly has none of the suspect ingredients. Friday night I am back at the ER so at this point I trust nothing was it the we bit of FF Friday or the build up of the Merrick not going to find out.
ONCE AGAIN NONE OF THESE FOODS ARE ON ANY LIST. YET MY CATS ARE SICK. I am so livid. Keep in touch..
April 30th, 2007 at 10:40 am
What has really changed? Nothing. Only the spin changes from the Pet Food Cabal.
LET THE BUYER BEWARE.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:43 am
So the mystery is solved — it looks like the NYT editors had the reporters rewrite the story. A1. Top of the page. Since LAST NIGHT! Woohoo!
I am in touch with Senate aides, pushing for emergency authorization for the FDA’s Food Safety plan — that plan that was described in the LA Times on Friday. It would take just a few million to help the FDA put the plan in place. Next comes the Food Safety Act.
Please everyone, write your Senators and Reps., and ask them to 1) support emergency funding, and 2) support the Food Safety Act: The Safe Food Act — Senate bill 654 and House bill 1148
(We can bitch about the FDA until the end of time, but what it needs is funding and staffing, not to mention a president who backs its regulatory functions. But the last can’t happen until January ‘09, so in the meantime, Congress can do its oversight job — and see that the FDA gets the emergency money it needs.)
April 30th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Corporations are out of control. As much as I hate to say it, my advise is Be prepared for the worst. The Pet Food industry is so screwed up, so corrupted, the only thing they can produce is mistakes at this point.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:04 am
RE: SusanUnPC idea:
I am in touch with Senate aides, pushing for emergency authorization for the FDA’s Food Safety plan — that plan that was described in the LA Times on Friday. It would take just a few million to help the FDA put the plan in place. Next comes the Food Safety Act.
Please everyone, write your Senators and Reps., and ask them to 1) support emergency funding, and 2) support the Food Safety Act: The Safe Food Act — Senate bill 654 and House bill 1148
…………………………………………….
Should this be our next concerted blogs & top recall sites’ push?
Could a special “Action” thread be started at itchmo?
April 30th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Check this out before it disapears.
Tainted-gluten-fed-pork
Poisoned pet food now on the human dinner table
By Judi McLeod
Monday, April 30, 2007
“Tainted-gluten-fed-pork has hit the dinner plates of humans, according to www.denverpost.com.
“California officials have revealed that the contamination got into the food chain. About 45 residents ate pork from hogs that consumed animal feed laced with melamine from China. Melamine is used to make plastics, but it also artificially boosts the protein levelÑand thus the priceÑof the glutens that go into food.” (denverpost.com, April 29, 2007).
Even after Captain David Elder of the FDA said, “The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid is of concern to human and animal health,” the FDA is saying that the recall of thousands of hogs was not warranted. (Italics, canadafreepress.com).
Given the way authorities have handled the contaminated pet food outbreak to date, we should be worried, very worried.
As Ann Hahn, of Atlanta wrote to Canada Free Press (CFP), “Pet owners believe we should all be very, very concerned. Why? Because cyanuric acid is a hydrolysis product of melamine. Melamine in and of itself is all right as long as you don’t eat it and your body metabolizes it. And notwithstanding the fact that the wheat gluten imported by ChemNutra in the Menu Foods pet food recalled was “human grade”.”
And the scary chain of events that got its start months ago doesn’t even end there.
We know where the tainted-gluten-fed pork is. Ergo, we know too where the wheat gluten-tainted pet food went. It went into the pigs. The pigs went into the human food supply.
“In a joint statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stressed, “We are not aware of any human illness that has occurred from the exposure to melamine or by its by-products.” They added that they have identified no illnesses in swine fed the contaminated feed.” (Forbes.com, April 29, 2007).
No statement from either party about why salvaged pet food known to be contaminated was fed to farm animals.
Somewhere out there Ãdestination unknown–are 440,000 pounds or 201 tones of the Las Vegas-based ChemNutra’s rice protein concentrate, imported from the same Chinese trading agent that handled exports of the tainted wheat gluten.
According to ChemNutra PR spokesman Steve Stern, 10 of the 11 containers of rice protein concentrated imported by ChemNutra over the last year went to undisclosed pet food companies. The 11th is under quarantine and being tested. But just one of the other 10 is known to have been tested; results from those tests, conducted last week, showed it was not contaminated, Stern said.
Now we have a deadly cycle where ChemNutra’s wheat gluten was making the rounds until pets became ill or died, its end product going to feed hogs and 201 tons of ChemNutra’s rice protein concentrate still out there.
If that’s not enough to have people throwing their dinner forks and knives away, check out the latest news from Zhangqiu, China, where operatives openly admit the practice of leftover melamine scrapÑsmall acorn-shaped chunks of white rockÑis being sold to local entrepreneursÑand has been for years. Our Chinese friends readily admit that they “secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.”
“The melamine powder has been dubbed “fake protein” and is used to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that provides higher nutrition value.” (International Herald Tribune, April 29, 2007.) “It just saves money,” says a manager at an animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level.”
FDA agents headed to the Orient should skip Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd., where all traces of wheat gluten would be long gone and head right over to Zhangqiu, the heavily polluted city in Shandong Province in the northern part of the country.
Better still they should be chasing down ChemNutra’s 201 tones of rice protein concentrate on American soil.
In their own words (ChemNutra website, Feb. 6, 2005): “ChemNutra imports high-quality nutritional and pharmaceutical chemicals from China to the U.SÉ. The types of chemicals we import are amino acids, vitamins, preservatives & antioxidants, nutritional minerals, proteins, flavors & flavor enhancers, thickeners & emulsifiers, acidifying agents and sweetners.”
“The principals of ChemNutra have exported over $100 million of feed, food and pharma ingredients from China to manufacturers in the US and elsewhere worldwide. Annually our volume exceeds 1,000 tons of Amino Acids, plus many other quality ingredients.”
A husband and wife team runs ChemNutra, and because no list of a board of directors seems to exist anywhere, no one knows its principals.
For reasons unknown, Sally Qing Miller, ChemNutra president, has maintained a low profile since the outbreak of the contaminated pet food.
As well as having earned an MBA, Sally Miller has earned an Engineering degree in Food Engineering. She has been a member of the Institute for Supply Management in the U.S. Sally Miller has also been certified as an IS0 9000 Chief Auditor.
The ISO (International organization for Standardization) 9000 family is primarily concerned with “quality management”, which includes “applicable regulatory requirements”.
The contaminated pet food which made ill and even killed off an untold number of cats and dogs and was then fed as “salvaged” food to hogs–which some 45 people have eaten–is a cautionary tale whose end could bring disaster for the human populations of North America, Puerto Rico and South Africa.
——————————————————————————–
Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Judi can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com.
Other articles by Judi McLeod
April 30th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Has anyone noticed any noteworthy changes between the original IHT article and today’s NYT one?
April 30th, 2007 at 11:28 am
WOW that acutally voices the seriouness of this!!!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:35 am
lorie,
Hills was on that recall list.. eukanuba was too.
neither are at all safe. i used to feed fancy feast, i quit as it has by-products
and wheat gluten , and grains galore? a bad food.
Tiki is ok.. it has medadione sodium bisulfate (artifical vitamin k).
and thats a questionable source of vitamin k. for a temporary food i’ve
fed it, as it is very apealing to most cats?
if your cat would eat a wet-meal type food, try natures variety , the canned is 95% meat , innova evo is another 95%meat food. the dry is very
good, has no grains, and i’ve not found a cat that refuses innova evo dry.
if you’v got junk food addicted kittys (like mine was) try Triumph wet pouches a cheapiee food , it does have a wheat gluten for the gravy
but no by-products ,the gluten is not from china i called the company
and made sure of that. mine gets an occashional pouch as im still weaning
her from kitty junk foods.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:44 am
To provide a bit of distraction, also take a look at another industry, composting - they had a thread recently about compositing the contaminated pet food & stuff.
Like, how are they getting it?
http://tinyurl.com/278bhv
Ann
April 30th, 2007 at 11:49 am
http://eng.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=50450
Melamine products ooze huge quantities of the formaldehyde tars. Their presence in the food then exceeds acceptable norms by tens or even hundreds of times. And depending on dyes the melamine excretes heavy metals - lead, cadmium, manganese.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
PS. RE: above about composting contaiminated pet food..
who is in Huron, Ohio?
see the entry for April 12th.
http://tinyurl.com/23ufn3
Ann
April 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Started home cooking for my boy (dog) but I want to add a single vitamin supplement. The only ones I could find in stores where only designed as a supplement to commercial food. The calcium was only 75mg, vitamin A was really low too etc. etc.
I was looking at Furoshnikov’s formula from cookforyourdog.com. Does anyone have any experience with this product? Or do you know of any other products like this that contain all the vitamins etc. I would like powdered form if possible.
Thanks for your help. I need to order this today!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Chad,
I use the powdered supplements from: http://knowbetterdogfood.com but I’m sure there are others.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
The original full-length IHT article is reproduced here: http://www.spockosbrain.com/ just in case you missed it.
What I can’t quite wrap my mind around is, if this melamine ‘enhancement’ of animal feed has been going on for years, why did our pets only just recently become exposed? Is it that they (whoever ‘they’ are) have just now begun to also enhance the export protein compounds?
April 30th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
PurringFur:
“Because other countries refuse our food, we have no choice but to eat it ourselves.”
LOL - I guess that’s why we have such a brisk trade relationship with China - we are made from the same cloth, so to speak!!
April 30th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Chad check out the B-Naturals site. They sell a lot of supplements and have a very good reputation from what I have heard. I use the daily blend on ocassion with a raw diet. It doesn’t have calcium though. But they sell a lot of different supplements so there may be one that has the calcium. They have home cooked recipes that are easy to follow and adjust for different size dogs. I emailed this company and received a prompt response advising me that none of their ingredients originate from China. For whatever that is worth.
http://b-naturals.com/Apr2006.php
April 30th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
The Pet Food Institute (http://www.petfoodinstitute.org/) has established a National Pet Food Commission (http://www.petfoodreport.com/commission.htm) described “as an industry-government partnership composed of government officials, veterinarians, toxicologists and food scientists.”
“1)To investigate the cause of the current pet food recall, and 2) To recommend steps the industry and government should take to further build on safety and quality standards already in place.”
I feel that the National Pet Food Commission should also include some pet owners. After all, we are impacted by their decisions. Most of the BIG companies are members of PFI.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Aqua:
“What I can’t quite wrap my mind around is, if this melamine ‘enhancement’ of animal feed has been going on for years, why did our pets only just recently become exposed? Is it that they (whoever ‘they’ are) have just now begun to also enhance the export protein compounds?”
Aqua - imagine if there were no websites or bloggers sharing this info - in fact badgering the media, the government, a,l this civil action etc… and all that you knew was the 16 reported deaths - nothing else? it would have been another benign recall and it would have been over.
It is likely that a number of pets have been dying from poisoning for years, but it has just gone un-noticed, peoples pets die locally, vets attribute it to some common dx and life goes on…
For some reason, the action of Menu Foods really riled people up - people were pissed/against them very early and it just swelled. Blogs and websites started tracking everything and as much as the industry tried to downplay events, the story continued unabated. Every lie was met with new information by people digging for information…the uncovering of this story, I think was directly attributed to pet owners and the Internet.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
can someone with a good command of arithmetic explain this to me?
published often over the last few days: US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said that meat from 345 hogs that ate tainted feed have already entered the US food supply
also published widely in the last few days: … about 45 people in California are already believed to have eaten the tainted pork.
let’s see now… 345 hogs and 45 people. that’s between 7 and 8 whole hogs per person. that’s one heck of a barbecue!
and isn’t fda-usda saying at the same time that pork consumption isn’t large enough to make eating the tainted meat a huge health concern?
April 30th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
johnypaycut,
The wet version of Eukanuba was on the list not the dry I was using, also the Hills RX diet formulas have not been recalled. Should of been more specific sorry. Trust me none of thethose things have been recalled SD wet has and Eukanuba wet thats it.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
HELLO, what about the fact that this was HUMAN GRADE
gluten!!!!
April 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Lorie,
I tried Merrick, and found it too rich for my kitties. Until your kitties are well, some of the fish based foods you are using may also be too rich.
Please don’t take this wrong, but suggest you stay away from products made by ANY COMPANY that has had ANY recalled products, i.e., Purina’s Fancy Feast, Eukanuba.
My cats are doing fine on KumpiKat and Innova (orange bag) and Innova canned. Some didn’t like the KumpiKat, but I believe it’s a good food.
They get kibble in the morning, chopped cooked chicken/meat & cooked veggies for lunch, Innova canned for supper. During the day, if I’m cooking any beef, I trim off a small piece, chop it up and offer it raw. Some will eat raw and some won’t. A few seconds in the microwave makes it more appealing for those who don’t eat raw.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Aqua Says:
What I can’t quite wrap my mind around is, if this melamine ‘enhancement’ of animal feed has been going on for years, why did our pets only just recently become exposed? Is it that they (whoever ‘they’ are) have just now begun to also enhance the export protein compounds?
—–
My guess with be that the levels have been low enough that acute renal failure did not occur. Maybe this time somebody either accidentally or deliberately added more than their normal level, causing the problem to show up on the radar screen.
What I wonder is how much of the chronic renal failure in cats is a result of years of eating the melamine-laced food. I had a cat develop kidney disease at only eight years of age. Friends have also had cats develop kidney disease at relatively young ages in recent years.
Who knows if there’s really been a food-related increase, or if kidney disease is being diagnosed earlier because many of us are diligent about vet care and testing?
April 30th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
KIKI, that is exactly the point I have been trying to make. No one at all would know about this if not for the work done by itchmo , petconnection, howl911 and the others who blogged and dug and kept doing it day after day, night after night and they did while nursing their sick, facing the deaths that “somehow “did not count and spending a literal fortune in pet food that they dare not feed.
FDA reports got made, fat lot of good that did the pet owners, but they got made and that lit the fuse.
If this crap kills and sickens, and it does, do you think ANYONE wants to eat it? One of the breakdown products of melamine is cyanide, let me repeat that, cyanide, death capsule do in your neighbor and watch them flop and die CYANIDE. The permanent , forever kidney damage is kind of an added benefit, if you don’t die you get to be really sick for the rest of your life.
This is big news and you know, if BIG media does not cover it the way we like, who needs them? The whole thing only got going because of what was done here, right here. And it can be done without big media if that is how it has to be, their choice. I am sorry that the american consumer is going to miss out on the news so long that they might suffer permanent kidney damage but hey we tried and the people who are harmed by the refusal to get the news out can take it up with the media. Good luck with that.
They probably won’t count much with the FDA either.
Right now, today, I plan to work on getting this story out to bloggers who do not focus on pets, how many bloggers are there? Plenty. Even if they do not focus on pets they might like to know about the food, the heroes, and the fact that the cover up makes watergate look like something in junior high.
And every time I run across the good work done by so many here, that might get lost or buried, I am going to go place it in the itchmo forum where it can be found and used. That info only gets lost if we LET it get lost.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Boston Globe/Reuters: Melamine in big demand in China as *food* additive
By Niu Shuping and Lucy Hornby, April 30, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/28b7wg
Excerpt:
Melamine is so popular as a protein lookalike feed additive that at least one Chinese manufacturer is believed to have torn down buildings to get to leftover scraps, industry officials said on Monday.
… Melamine scrap is believed to be commonly mixed in animal feed in China to artificially boost the protein level, especially in soymeal, tricking feedlots and farmers into paying more for feed for chickens and pigs.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I posted this thought over at the PC, but thought I’d toss it out to the erudite crowd here as well:
I keep wondering who is going to be first to jump on the bandwagon to market an in-home testing kit for melamine and/or insert-tainted-food-poisoning-of-choice here? You know, along the lines of current in-home pregnancy test kits?
The mind runs amok wondering how low people are going to stoop trying to make a buck off of this recall debacle….
April 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
E. Hamilton
Thank you! you are so right. There are people who still say 16 dead - no big deal. People look at me like I’m crazy. I’ve been posting to a dog breed list since my dog got sick 2 1/2 months ago, and I lost a dog June 2006 for unknown reasons.
I’m hoping the unbelievers wake up today.
I found it quite interesting reading the composting site. Read the last enty about dog food being a good carbon source. Maybe there’s something there about chemistry in the body with cyanuric acid.
I posted the link to the article presented to the EPA re: Challenge Studies done for Cyanuric acid in rats,mice and rabbits. There were unusual symptoms but not in every test animal and since inconclusive and all animals didn’t die -not a problem! However there was increased water consumption by every species(they drank water with cyanuric acid added)and bladder lesions and liver lesions,but again not all animals. I believe the test was done because it is in swimming pools and hot tubs and they wanted to know what effect there would be if people got water on skin or drank some. I don’t know if there is any useful info. here?maybe someone is a chemist or has done studies…
http://www.epa.gov/HPV/pubs/su.....4659rr.pdf
Katie
April 30th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Louie,
No offense taken, open to any advice or pointers ate this point. Trust me FF made them sick in the first place but it is not recalled and I thought the ones without the glutens ws safe. i am expecting my first bag of Kumpi Kat on May 2 so hopefully they will like it that is going to be my vitamin source and i am going to cook there wet myself vet told me as long as I find a good dry for nutrition cooking the othr is fine. So you feel really comfortable with KUMPI? What happen to your kitties please share. if you do not mind
April 30th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
LOUIE sorry just realized youmeant Purina has recalled dog food gotcha.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
The [Canadian] government… says that last July, the same Chinese company that supplied melamine-contaminated wheat gluten for pet food also shipped wheat gluten to a British Columbia feed mill, which turned it into food for fish farms that has since been consumed by people…
Food scientist Mansel Griffiths, with the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, said more inspections in the country won’t solve the problem.
He said Canada needs to start the process back in China “and work with the Chinese government, work with the manufacturing industry in China to try to bring them up to the standards that we expect of Canadian companies.â€
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story.....-cfia.html
April 30th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
The 16 “official’ deaths is the story the FDA is selling and they are stuck with it, we are not.
Who says that a bunch of clowns who would not even KNOW about the problems if not for use are the final word?
They are not the final word for me and I do not need mainstream media to say so, I can find a way.
I have less talking and more doing on my plans for today.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
BEIJING, Jan. 17 — China exported 31.03 billion U.S. dollars worth of farm produce last year, up 14.1 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce reported on its website on Wednesday.
As prices on world markets were much higher than domestic markets over the past two years, farm produce exports have been on the rise.
The average export prices for garlic, apples, apple juice and canned mushrooms rose more than 20 percent last year, said the ministry.
More than half of China’s farm produce exports were horticultural products, which rose 21.5 percent, and aquatic products, up 19.5 percent in the first 11 months last year, the ministry said.
China’s farm produce exports to the United States grew by 34.1 percent and exports to the European Union were up 25.4 percent year on year.
Due to Japan’s strict new standards for chemical residues, export growth to Japan slowed to 3.7 percent in the first 11 months, much lower than the 9.4 percent growth in the same period of 2005.
Japan, the largest overseas market for Chinese farm produce exports, implemented the Positive List System for Agricultural Chemicals Residues on May 29, 2006.
The new system, imposing much stricter standards on residues on agricultural products, directly affected Chinese agricultural exports worth about eight billion U.S. dollars and involved more than 6,000 Chinese enterprises.
The Ministry of Commerce wants to see farm produce exports grow by at least seven percent a year so a total of 38 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, according to its work plan.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I don’t know what I would have done without Itchmo. Probably I would have finished the job poisoning my cat. Thank you Itchmo for helping save my cat!!!!! Words are inadequate there.
I have been doing the word of mouth thing. I keep informing people that they are poisoning their pets without their knowledge and helping them figure out how to investigate for some safer food, whatever type. I have told this to many people. I hope they tell many people. Word of mouth is an extremely effective tool for getting this out. Not everyone obsesses over the internet or even reads the paper.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Lorie,
KumpiKat works fine for my two cats who will eat it. However, the other two prefer Innova (orange bag). All four will eat Innova canned.
Had no trouble switching them to KumpiKat and Innova - no upset tummies, or any problems.
When you get your KumpiKat, if they don’t take to it right away, you might mix in a bit of home cooked chopped chicken. Many cats will eat chicken when they won’t eat anything else.
Regarding Purina, yes, I was referring to their dog food, but because of the dog food recall, I avoid all Purina foods.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
re the why now renal issue with cats
I concur that the Melamine has been there on lower levels for sometime which would explain the renal failure in especially older cats. In 2001, when a friend died, I took in his 10 year old cat who was suffering from frequent bladder infections. The cat had been on sd from the vet dry and wet. I put him through a series of antibiotics and switched him to half raw and a higher grade of kibble, Wellness,since then the cat has had
no problems and his yearly bloodwork has been perfect. Since the current recalls, I’ve changed his dry to Felidae.
My guess is the current problem came from either the greed of dumping more Melamine in or not mixing it as well as the crooks had done in the past. It may be that cats are no more likely to have renal failure than the rest of us as cats are far more likely to have the tainted food as their only source. At least my dogs have always been far better beggers at the table than the cats!
April 30th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Hello Everyone, I thought I’d give an update on my cats since I have SOOOO many! lol We have 8 kitty angels ranging in age from 1 to 11. Our 4 semi-strays include 2 very old make kitties.
They’ve been eating Pinnacle and Avoderm wet and they all love, love, love it. The transition to Nature’s Variety Raw Instinct hasn’t gone quite as well but I think they’ll eventually start eating it. I’m far more concerned about them eating wet food anyway.
Our 2 dogs were crazy about the Nature’s Variety Raw Instinct from the minute I opened the bag.
Thanks to all of you for your advice. It appears from todays posts that your efforts will soon make an impact. I’m praying it’s a huge, earth-shaking impact!
April 30th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Louie,
My cats were poisoned by Fancy Feast and started showing symptoms March 23rd, 2007 I was one of the” oh its not on the list people “still using their product. They can tell me now it is safe till they are blue in the face I know it was their food that has made my pets ill. Just hoping they like the Kumpi and that I do not get the first bag that has issues. Evy that was not a slam to you that is just me being parinoid. before ITCHMO I felt like the only person besides the 16 on the news that was affected.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I should have added that I have a 10 year old male kitty (Doobie) who survived the worst form of cancer last year. He’s been lethargic for a long, long time but since we began wet food (Avoderm & Pinnacle) he’s much more active and his fur looks amazing.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Re: changes between articles
Unless I’m mistaken, the major loss from the first article posted to the current one is that they changed “deaths and injuries of thousands of cats and dogs” to the dreaded “deaths of at least 16 pets.”
Most everything else from the first article is there, just rearranged and minor rewordings, including protecting the identity of one source. Plus there are a few additional paragraphs. I think the opening paragraph as it was posted for today’s edition better grabs the reader’s attention better than the one posted yesterday morning.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Oh they are selling that 16 ‘official” deaths very hard. That seems to matter very much to the FDA and makes me wonder if it is a way for them to downplay the toll the melamine is going to take on humans. For sure they do not give a pink rats rear end for our dead or sickened pets.
Too bad the postcard blitz failed but we just did not have the numbers of people who could read the instructions and act on them.
Maybe next time.
I wanted to give Senator Durbin both a tool he could use in his efforts and a way to get the count at least partly correct but that just did not happen, I simply could not get enough pet owners who had suffered losses in this disaster to FOCUS on one thing. So the effort was scattered and that is too bad but I am moving on.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Anyone have any experience with Evanger’s? They say they make all their food in Wheeling IL at their own plant, canned and all. I emailed to ask if they source any ingredients from China. Just wondering if anyone is feeding this and if so, how do the cats like it?
April 30th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
b-naturals.com , dogaware.com, and k9nutrition@yahoogroups.com are awesome websites for info about dog nutrition, feeding, etc. Most info is dog related. I’ve been following these sites for years and have learned alot…check them out you’ll love them.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I’ll second Anne’s endorsements above.
Those are must reads and definitely worth the investment of your time.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
E. Hamilton
Do you really think the postcard blitz failed????????????Did the mail even get delivered yet? i would give it atl east till Wednesday before you think all your hard work failed. people in California cards did not get to MD by today etc… or do you know something I missed? Very upset felt like I did a great thing sending those cards those were my kitties voice. Please explain
April 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Helen,
re Evangers, For the last year or so I’ve been mixing some of the Evangers canned into the kibble for my young dobe with good results. I’ve heard good reports about it from other friends. I show my young dobe and he’s always been sort of picky on his kibble and needs to keep his weight up, so I mix say half a can in with it every morning. I also vary the flavors and he seems to like them all. Evangers also cans for Felidae/Canidae. My Mother picked up a few cans for her cat last week and she is eating it and her cat tends to be picky. I think it is one of the better meat canned products. With all that’s going on at the moment I think it’s a good idea to vary the diet some, so if something is tainted they will at least have some dilution in the diet. The Evangers smells and looks like real meat. Prior to giving the young dobe the Evangers last year, I had tried the Wellness canned and he wouldn’t eat it. He’s never refused the Evangers.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Started home cooking for my boy (dog) but I want to add a single vitamin supplement. The only ones I could find in stores where only designed as a supplement to commercial food. The calcium was only 75mg, vitamin A was really low too etc. etc.
I was looking at Furoshnikov’s formula from cookforyourdog.com. Does anyone have any experience with this product? Or do you know of any other products like this that contain all the vitamins etc. I would like powdered form if possible.
Thanks for your help. I need to order this today!
April 30th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Hey, I think everyone did a good thing on the postcards, but I fear that the efforts were wasted because the arguing and the debate went on so long that we JUST DID NOT GET THE NUMBERS!
People said, with the best intentions but just not understanding what we were doing, Oh I will send cards for the 16 menu foods killed.
Fine and dandy, those 16 have been counted about a thousand times already but hey, do as you wish.
I , and every single person working on the blitz had already tried to get Oprah to be involved, go look at her site, she gets a ton of money from Proctor and Gamble and Oprah is NOT going to help us, ok?, not happening.
So, 16 posts a day or an hour from folks who just got this good idea about Oprah and get all mad that we are not gonna do that and it ALL wasted time and effort.
I have been contacted by groups that missed the whole blitz because they DID NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
My fault. I know a lot better now.
The next blitz and oh yes there WILL be one very soon, is not going to be debated or buried by posts about who feeds what or anything else.
There will be an announcement about it when the final target, the lists of contacts and all that has been decided and I hope it works.
Learned a lot from the first one.
I consider the postcard blitz a failure today because not one media outlet or anyone picked up on it and we did not HAVE THE NUMBERS. Plain fact.
Some worked on the blitz, some did the blitz no favors at all and some did their damndest to stop the blitz. Also a plain fact.
I have work to do .
April 30th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
E.Hamilton…hey what about sending the psotcards to a paper as well, , or even several big papers?
Who are the stars that are big into pets and do alot of charities for animals?
April 30th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Chad, if you are homecooking for your dog, take your time deciding how to supplement. He will NOT die of malnutrition if it takes you a little while to find a supplement you think is appropriate.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I met Rep. Rosa DeLauro on Saturday and thanked her for kicking the FDA’s a$$ the other day. I asked her that when she met the FDA officials again could she please mention to them that their website is way too slow and way to selective in the news that they reported, and that pet people wanted the number of sick and dead pets reported accurately and completely.
Only 16 dead???
April 30th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I wanted to ask how the postcard blitz went. Does anyone have an idea of the number of cards mailed? I listen to the news on and off all day. Where are the reports from vets? Where are the pet owners who lost their beloved babes? It’s insane that there are not updates and reports out there!! Instead we get Alec, Dannielynn, and bull ****!
April 30th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
E Hamilton,
Sorry about the postcard blitz. Someone here once mentioned maybe if everyone donated a buck we could take out a full page ad in USA Today. If we had some place to send the money to I’d love to have something like that happen. I’ll do at least $10 if itchmo can do something to pull it off. Any takers on this?
April 30th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Robin, Thanks! That is helpful. Waiting to see how they respond to my email also. If no ingredients from China, I will give it a try. :)
April 30th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I think running a full page ad in a top of the line newspaper is a great idea. If the media isn’t getting it right, we have to do the work for them.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I wonder, since the FDA can’t count so good, is it STILL only 1% of the pet food that has been recalled for being tainted, contaminated or whatever the euphemism du jour is for poisoned, or is that ANOTHER outdated inaccurate factoid for the press?
Rep. Rosa DeLauro is a great asset, if we ever get our info organized we might be able to help her get things done, but even our best friends are not gonna want to read a thousand pages of unorganized and troll ridden posts.
My view is that need to get the stories , the links, the info organized and into an easier to use form. Thus the forums on itchmo, a much underused tool.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Mr. and Mrs. George Bush Former President and First Lady Millie and Sadie, English Springer Spaniels
Bill Clinton US President Zeke his late Cocker Spaniel; Buddy a Labrador Retriever
Diane Sawyer Anchor Woman…. George, a Gordan Setter and Lila, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Helen Hunt Actress Johnny, a Samoyed
Jane Seymour Actress Souki a shih tzu and Crispin a golden retriever
Ray Liota Actor 3 Shar Pei, 2 English Mastiff
Martha Stewart Marth Stewart Living Chow Chows
Janet Jackson Entertainer a Chow Chow named Buckwheat and a mixed breed named Puffy
Stephen King Writer Marlowe a Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Tracey Ullman Entertainer Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Bob Dole Former Senate Majority Leader, a Miniature Schnauzer
Will Smith Entertainer Indo and Zhaki, both Rottweilers
Jim Carey Actor George a Great Dane
Conan O’Brian talk show host - NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brian Golden Retriever
Matt Lauer host for The Today Show on NBC Walden, a golden retriever
Sarah McLachlan Singer Rex, a Black Labrador
just a few I could find for right now
April 30th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Debbie4747 ,
great idea, please go to the forum and get started if you think it will work.
Start a thread, get info, costs, people to write the ad, a way to collect the money, where to place the one ad and it better be in a BIG paper because one ad is not much compared to the ads you see every day on TV.
BY the way, anyone STILL calling pet food companies to beg for more lies,
Are you asking why the info on symptoms that pet owners need to look out for is “somehow” NOT getting much air time, since these companies are so dedicated to the pets and all?
Nah, thought not.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
E. Hamilton,
I will go to the forum soon, or when I get get home from work…just getting ready to leave. Within the next couple of days I will contact USA Today about costs, pn the forum ask for suggestions as to what we want on the ad….I liked the Pet Ownders Rights Itchmo came up with as at least a starter…but I’m not sure how we can handle the money thing…maybe Itchmo has a paypal thing and will help. We’ll see, but I surely will get the ball rolling! Thanks for supporting me on this. It wasn’t really my original idea, but I thought it was a damned good one!
April 30th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
This magical “1%” is irritating me as much as the number 16. 1% of the pet food? The first recall was 60 million cans. There are 150 million pets. Did they mean one percent of pet food used in a day? A week? A year? I believe 1% of pet food was poison…just as much as I believe the dead number 16. Yeah, right. Just sell me a bridge.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Helen,
Please let us know if anything from China. Thanks
Another source of meat that my cats like is the canned chicken breasts from Costco. In the section next to canned tuna.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
E Hamilton: You are fabulous. You have just done so much! I’m glad you were able to save some of your babies, and have helped save many others.
If you were referring to me, I am collecting info on Evangers (trying to) from people who are and have been feeding it. I wasn’t going to rely on the reply the company gives me, but I do want to know what they will say. I don’t think it’s good for my cat to eat dry food and canned tuna only, and right now that is all she will eat that I am not scared to give her at all. I think people need to confer about what foods are not making our babies sick. I appreciate any input positive or negative on Evangers from people who are or were feeding it. My cat won’t eat raw food. Just won’t. Not going to force her. Thank you for reminding people not to rely on the claims of the lying pet companies.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
KatieKat Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I am thrilled for the rich and powerful that they can afford flunkies to keep up on the recall, and I am sure that some of the people you listed have at least mentioned the issue to the servants who do the actual feeding and caring for the pets. “Keep an eye on the bad food, make sure MY pet does not suffer or you are out on your ass”. Or maybe not.
None of the celebrities or pet supporters or actors or , gee, anyone at all has come forward to help yet, have they? Getting the story out matters , just not to them.
No person ever, who claims to be an animal activist or “for the pets” will ever get a dime or a drop of sympathy from me until I see some action from them.
If anyone of them called a press conference it would help but NOOOOO.
Where were YOU when the pets were dying?
All I need to ask, only answer that matters.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Re: the Evangers question. The organic braised chicken and the holistic pheasant for cats (canned) are both a little chunker, think less processed looking, than my cats were used to. They ate it but didn’t inhale it. I kept at it because I think it is safe and good for them. I have discovered that if I mush it up really, really well and/or even put it in the blender to achieve more a consistancy they are used to they seem to think it’s fancy feast LOL. The seafood and caviar dinner is the one they really like the best, however.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
E. Hamilton Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
“My view is that need to get the stories , the links, the info organized and into an easier to use form. Thus the forums on itchmo, a much underused tool.”
And therein lies the crux of the problem. Everyone keeps sharing a wealth of pertinent info here in the comments, instead of Itchmo’s forum where it could be much easier indexed and followed. I know it happens - I’m guilty of it myself. For some reason, the blogs are drawing more posts than the forum threads. Prolly because both Itchmo, Pet Connection, etc., are keeping abreast of breaking news and readers want to respond.
But PLEASE people - consider posting your great finds, pertinent information, etc., in a topic in the forums AS WELL. Those of us who have been following this story for weeks know all too well how difficult it is finding anything once the comments get buried in the blogs. You might as well give yourself a labotomy than try spending countless hours searching through old comments and blog entries for something you thought important. Why waste that valuable time when we can keep it in a more cohesive, searchable arena (the forums) where we can compile vital info for Senator Durbin, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, media, whomever?
As E. Hamilton is suggesting, let’s get things better organized and take advantage of the forums here. Please, for the sake of your pets, consider it? Comment away if that’s your preference but also post the info on the forum. It only takes a couple more minutes of your time. Is that really asking so much?
ITCHMO ADMIN: We agree. We set up the Forums so that information like this can be kept alive, so to speak. Comments are great for reactions to stories. Forums will help more people in the future.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
poster said:
China produces alot of Fish Meal and other protien sources in powder form, so I imagine that since they think Melamine is safe, I would imagine that it is in alot of the foods we feed our pets!
You bet it is! Fish meal. Cheap protein. Wellness added fish to all their new dry formulas. (my cat may be allergic to fish to begin w)
April 30th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
RE: COMPOSTING CONTAMINATED PET FOOD: READ THIS RESPONSE
From Millner
Says more research is needed as to how the melamine compound breaks down in the soil, instead of just going ahead and assuming that composting will destroy the chemicals.
http://www.farmtoday.com/lists.....l/0043.cfm
April 30th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
TERIC said: The Ministry of Commerce wants to see farm produce exports grow by at least seven percent a year so a total of 38 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, according to its work plan.
Not on my watch. Implementing my very own personal little Boston tea party plan.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Since I am postal.!!!!!..oh yes I am…a letter carrier.
I must tell all that I would not consider the post card blitz dead yet……
I’m guessing that most were mailed later on Saturday and since almost all first class mail takes 2 to 3 days to get there due to sorting machines…this can include a note to your neighbor….lol…most will probably be delivered tomorrow..
Don’t consider it a loss yet……It is snail mail ya know.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
How does melamine work as fertilizer? If it won’t compost, then it is poisoning all the soil it is used on, and if it won’t break down then it will just stay there waiting for a vector to a kidney somewhere.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
“ITCHMO ADMIN: We agree. We set up the Forums so that information like this can be kept alive, so to speak. Comments are great for reactions to stories. Forums will help more people in the future.”
Exactly. Thanks for agreeing. The other reason I’m begging people to consider sharing their info in the forums is for all the newcomers who keep arriving. Some are like deer in the headlights, only just now seeing what a heinous debacle this recall has developed into. Using the forums as the incredible tool they can be, will not only help us gather and organize important information & links, it also will help newcomers catch up thus saving time for the rest of us constantly seeing or explaining repeated conjecture, theories, ideas and whatnot.
I’m thrilled more people are arriving - the more the merrier! But it’s fast becoming counter productive if we aren’t able to cohesively gather together our weapons of information. Weapons being the keyword if we ever want to truly blow the lid off this powder keg.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I would have *loved* to send a postcard, too. I wish they could’ve been sent by all concerned pet owners, not just from those who lost a pet, or have a sick pet.
With the IHT article out, the two groups, sick and ill pets vs. non sick and ill pets has become one group — because, if the criminal melamine additive fraud has been going on for 15 years at least, we’ve ALL been poisoning our pets. For years.
Last May I euthanized and buried my very ill CRF cat. Now with the melamine-as-food-additive news out, maybe it’s what caused her illness, also. One Chinese man in an article stated the melamine had been going into animal feed since 1991. That’s when my CRF cat was born.
Em
E Hamilton says:
I wanted to give Senator Durbin both a tool he could use in his efforts and a way to get the count at least partly correct but that just did not happen, I simply could not get enough pet owners who had suffered losses in this disaster to FOCUS on one thing. So the effort was scattered and that is too bad but I am moving on.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Katiekat,
Heather Mills from Dancing with the Star just donate all the money she made on that show to some animal foundation.
I am also up for donating a couple buck to poast and add, will also do another postcard blitz.
I am so annoyed right now one of my husbands friend from high school just called about his wedding invites and I had mentioned about our cats being poisoned, and he is like yea I think I read about that somewhere someting like 19 died, I was lie more like 39,000 plus effected and was like oh yours was one of them EEEWWWW. Did I mention he is a heart specialist in MA. Anyway Iwas like well you are going to be seeing people dying form it soon it is inour food chain too go to ITCHMO and read you might need it someday. he pulled it up immediately and was shocked. This is someone in the medical profession totallyout of the loop
April 30th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
To: ITCHMO ADMIN
Sorry - didn’t know the best place to ask this, but is there any way you could add a forum header in the forums for “My Pet Counts” or somesuch, where we could organize the topics and threads such as E. Hamilton has suggested? Things are getting buried in the “Misc/Other Discussions” forum section and other places, so thought I’d toss this idea into the mix for what we are trying to do. It might help keeping these topics together in their own forum? Just a thought.
ITCHMO ADMIN: Added. Make a difference: http://64.79.216.38/~itchmo/fo.....board=64.0
April 30th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Should we set up a Webshots account with photos/names/food eaten of all affected pets? Sort of like an electronic version of the postcards, that we could send to anyone and everyone.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
E. Hamilton,
The Barbi twins, as they are referred to, are sueing Menu Foods for either killing or sickening their pet(s). Can’t remember specifics, but they were affected. It’s the only “celebrity” incidence I’ve yet heard.
On Oprah’s dog-related show episode last week, she had about 5 minutes dedicated to the pet food recall, in the tone of, “There’s been a recall or something, right? What’s that all about?”
I lost all respect for her right there.
Either she’s painfully i.q.-challenged, covering up (most likely what it was) or hears no news at all. So, now it doesn’t surpise me that she’s “owned” by Proctor and Gamble, so to speak.
And then on the show, I saw that she homecooks for her dogs. So I guess it’s not her worry, either.
Em
April 30th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
From Teric’s post today 2:15 p.m.:
Due to Japan’s strict new standards for chemical residues, export growth to Japan slowed to 3.7 percent in the first 11 months, much lower than the 9.4 percent growth in the same period of 2005.
Japan, the largest overseas market for Chinese farm produce exports, implemented the Positive List System for Agricultural Chemicals Residues on May 29, 2006.
The new system, imposing much stricter standards on residues on agricultural products, directly affected Chinese agricultural exports worth about eight billion U.S. dollars and involved more than 6,000 Chinese enterprises.
……………………….
If Japan can tighten its food safety standards and HOLD China to them by refusing to import products unless the standards are met, SO CAN THE U.S.
Guess who probably bought the eight billion dollars worth of cheap (most likely contaminated) foods and is still dealing with those 6.000 Chinese enterprises that couldn’t meet Japan’s food safety standards?
Do the powers at the helm plan on letting the poor quality, contaminated foods stream in from China with no restrictions? If so, I’ll bet they’re heavily investing in every company that manufacturers kidney dialysis machines. Oh, BTW, that’s the latest stock tip!
Well, ramp up production on those machines. We’re going to need them!
Too bad the hogs that went to Tyson foods are not being recalled. Cold cuts anyone?
I say, euthanize the contaminated hogs still on the farms, pay the hog farmers for their losses, and keep the pork out of our food supply. I’ll even chip in to pay the hog ranchers myself. (And, don’t compost the hogs’ carcasses into our soil because it’s unclear how melamine and CYANURIC ACID break down, if they do ever break down.)
What is WRONG with our government? We must be the laughing stock of the world — playing with peoples’ lives like this.
We might as well realize that WE ARE DIGRESSING TO A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!
April 30th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
E. Hamilton, why are you appearing to self-sabotage the post card blitz? I do not understand at all. It was a great idea. Many people I know personally sent them, and “followed directions”. It is yet way too early to know how many postcards were delivered, or will be, within the next day or so that were mailed from cities and hamlets across the US. Or, to know what their impact may ultimately be. When I first read about the blitz I thought immediately of the POW bracelets from the Viet Nam era. (I know, I am dating myself.) The bracelets put a name and identity to an abstact idea. There are people today who still wear their missing POW’s bracelet. I think the postcard blitz also helped put a name and fuzzy face to abstract numbers of pet deaths and injuries. Every postcard sent was important, heartfelt by the person who mailed it, and WILL make a difference. Please chill.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
SmileOnADog Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm:
“On Oprah’s … show …. had about 5 minutes dedicated to the pet food recall, in the tone of, “There’s been a recall or something, right? What’s that all about?â€
If you review E. Hamilton’s comment made above at 4:08pm:
“every single person working on the blitz had already tried to get Oprah to be involved, go look at her site, she gets a ton of money from Proctor and Gamble and Oprah is NOT going to help us, ok?, not happening.”
This is another expample of why E. Hamilton, myself, Itchmo Admin & others are urging people to share their information in the forums. The Oprah thing has come up at least 15 times. Not yelling at you purringfur, just illustrating a point and another plea to share on the forum as well, so tid-bits of info like this don’t constantly get buried or missed.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
“Not yelling at you purringfur”
Sorry, meant SmileOnADog - my bad!
April 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Itchmo:
How about two more forum headers . One for “In memory of” and one for “Get well soon” where people only listed the pet….the diagnosis and the food fed. The number “16″ is our biggest problem. I would have listed my pet in your ..memorial header….but it seems like its more for support.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
ally Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
“Not yelling at you purringfurâ€
Sorry, meant SmileOnADog - my bad!
……………………………………….
No problem. At first I thought a troll had adopted my name!
April 30th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Gonna repost this in case a evening memember can help me out. Thanks,
Started home cooking for my boy (dog) but I want to add a single vitamin supplement. The only ones I could find in stores where only designed as a supplement to commercial food. The calcium was only 75mg, vitamin A was really low too etc. etc.
I was looking at Furoshnikov’s formula from cookforyourdog.com. Does anyone have any experience with this product? Or do you know of any other products like this that contain all the vitamins etc. I would like powdered form if possible.
Thanks for your help. I need to order this today!
April 30th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Chad,
The B-Naturals site has some good info. I use some of their products.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
E. HAMILTON: MY PET COUNTS! POSTCARDS
It’s wayyyyyy too early to judge the effectiveness of the campaign. Sometimes a letter takes 3 days just to go across state lines! Mailing on Saturday, Apr. 28, was also a half day for a lot of post offices. Mine is only open to the public till noon on Sat.. I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes after the windows close, but maybe the mail was not even yet stamped by Sat. afternoon. I have mail carrier pick up & delivery. I doubt if the carrier gets back to the PO before 4 p.m.
I agree that the Itchmo forums have to be the place to organize content and any furture concerted efforts to “target” officials or another type of campaign..
April 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
elizabeth Says:
Elizabeth, I couldn’t agree with you more. Whether 15 people sent post cards or 3000 people sent post cards, the blitz was a success. Each card represents a pet that someone loves. Each card let someone tell their thoughts to another person. Each card represents one person willing to stand up for their rights. And each card will be like a small stone dropped in a pool of water. The ripples will be far reaching.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Helen,
The Melamine is nitrogen rich, most fertilizer’s are full of nitrogen. It probably does contaminate the soil. Lucky me, I have horses so nitrogen rich soil the good way.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
To all,
I made that post about the full page ad in the forums under “Making a Difference”. I hope people will be interested and we can get this going!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Got an idea for a topic on the forum? Then either post in the forums that are covering that subject or START one.
Want some so called celebrity to help us, have at it, get them the news about this site , have a flunkie read it to them, whatever it takes.
Heather Mills donated money? I am as impressed as I think it deserves, her shiny face giving a press release about the scope of this tragedy would not cost her a dime, or get her a tax deduction but we won’t go there. Is she ALLTHAT concerned about the poisoned pets? Seems not.
Yes, there will BE a new postcard blitz but we are not going to make the same mistakes, maybe a whole new set of mistakes but not the ones we made this last time. That topic is over for me. Discuss, debate, do whatever you like but if you are not getting the info posted in the forum, in USEABLE form, then, hon, your opinion is not gonna matter much to me in planning the next one.
Clearer than that I cannot get.
I am not going to hold hands and weep for my lost pets, or yours.
I am not going to debate this commercial pet food or that one, until I SEE a shiny face up on TV saying that pets drinking too much water is a sign they have been POISONED ,then who cares what else they do? I sure as hell am not gonna beg them to “lie to me some more, so I can spend more money on your crap”. I DO NOT CARE what they say, I do care WHAT THEY DO, so far they aint doing what needs to be done. The big pet food companies simply do not matter to me now. You want to beg for info, listen to the lies, do it, but while you are asking pretty please of the very folks that KILLED your pets, made POISON that you paid good money for and left you and your pets hanging in the breeze, why not ask how come they are not on the tube telling the pet owners the signs of the poison? Since they CARE so much.
Where were they while the pets were dying?
Care, do you,? Did I miss the information, because I damned sure did not miss your commercials?
What I WILL do, with you or without you, is STOP that damned 16 ‘Official” deaths. When I am done every human being in this country is going to KNOW that MENU FOODS caged and tortured those 16 animals and then they started in on MINE and that every single person who quoted the death toll as 16, OWES me, and you , an apology. And more, but the apology is step one.
My pets, and yours, did not die from tainted food, or contaminated food, they died from POISON that perhaps every single human in this country has eaten, and if they were just “canary’s in the coal mine” that died to save others, then they WILL be canary’s who COUNT.
OUR pets died and WE alerted the world and as far as I am concerned we ALL deserve a sh1tload more respect than we are getting.
The sick count too, and all the money in vet bills and food we dare not use, and the total disrespect of “your dead don’t count”, “you are just a bunch of hysterical cat ladies” and this is “just” a pet food recall.
My view is that WE, and our dead pets, SAVED their ass. Not sure I would do it again, as matters stand. Choke on the poison, I will try not to laugh springs right to mind.
For NOW, for TODAY, what I care about is destroying that 16 “official “deaths and either you FOCUS and help or you can get out of my way.
Here is a hint, the FDA aint the only folks that can issue an “official” death toll.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
“ITCHMO ADMIN: Added. Make a difference:”
Merci buckets - you ROCK!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Hey Ally, no worries.
I don’t understand what you mean by posting on the forums? You mean 15 other people mentioned Oprah ineffectively mentioning the pet food recall? I’m lost here. : )
I was just saying, in agreement with E. Hamilton, that Oprah has her head in the sand, and then, that the show was a joke. I hadn’t seen any posts referring to that Oprah episode last week, but I didn’t find it so important because it was no help. Am I missing something?
thanks,
Em
ally Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
SmileOnADog Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm:
“On Oprah’s … show …. had about 5 minutes dedicated to the pet food recall, in the tone of, “There’s been a recall or something, right? What’s that all about?â€
If you review E. Hamilton’s comment made above at 4:08pm:
“every single person working on the blitz had already tried to get Oprah to be involved, go look at her site, she gets a ton of money from Proctor and Gamble and Oprah is NOT going to help us, ok?, not happening.â€
This is another expample of why E. Hamilton, myself, Itchmo Admin & others are urging people to share their information in the forums. The Oprah thing has come up at least 15 times. Not yelling at you purringfur, just illustrating a point and another plea to share on the forum as well, so tid-bits of info like this don’t constantly get buried or missed.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
An email from Canidae:
To all our valued customers, retailers and friends,
Unfortunately, we are being inundated by recall questions, and we may not be able to return all e-mails in a timely manner. To reiterate, CANIDAE in no way is affiliated, nor has any common characteristics with the current pet food re-calls. We do not use soy, wheat gluten, rice gluten, rice protein concentrate or corn gluten in any fashion, and we are not produced in any of the recalled facilities. All ingredients are proudly raised and grown in the USA.
To reiterate, CANIDAE Pet Foods is in no way is affected by the current can re-call, and we aren’t, or have never been, produced at any of the recalled facilities. We do not produce Cuts and Gravy, Pouches, and none of our products contain wheat, or wheat gluten.
With the current cuts and gravy recall by a large co-packer, and all the misleading information, we thought we would help explain the production of canned foods. There are only a hand full of co-packers that are located in the US and they produce most canned foods. A few companies choose to have their cans made outside the US , and may or may not disclose that information to you. The pet food industry co-packers are no different from the human products we ourselves eat or drink on a daily basis. Each formula is different and unique to the specific pet food company in which the formulas are owned. Ingredients, quality grade of meats, grade of carbohydrates, vitamin and mineral formulations, to name a few, are all at the discretion of the pet food company in which the products are produced for, and are apparent by the governmental regulated labels. Our heartfelt concerns go out to all involved and or affected by the re-call.
All Canidae products are produced in the USA. We do not purchase ingredients from any suppliers outside of the US. All Canidae ingredients are grown &/or raised in the USA. In addition, we only purchase the absolute best USDA grade “A” hormone and antibiotic free meats. Our rice is also grade “A” Pesticide free. Our fish is FDA inspected and passed residual free of ethoxiquin.
Our cannery is a small facility located in IL. and able to produce the highest quality products. This small family operated facility only produces products that are of the highest quality human grade ingredients. Our formulations were created by an outside nutritionist that has been developing canned foods for over 35 years. You can feel assured by our quality and product performance that our cannery holds the highest standards in production, and is regulated by AAFCO by (NRC), USDA, FDA, IDA, EU Approved and is Organically Certified.
Our dry foods are produced in TX. Our plant has been involved in animal nutrition for over 75 years. The original pet food extrusion mill was built in 1978. CANIDAE’s involvement with the plant sparked the introduction of our own extruder in 1999. Our dry goods facility also regulated by AAFCO by (NRC), USDA, FDA, TDA and EU Approved. We are currently under production with a brand new plant at the same facility to keep up with the growth and demand of our product line.
In order to ensure the highest quality meat based biscuit ever created, we ventured into the biscuit production business in 2003. Our 100 foot oven runs our fresh biscuits daily in a building opposite our extrusion plant in TX. Our biscuit plant is also regulated by AAFCO by (NRC), USDA, FDA, TDA and EU Approved.
We thank you for your business and placing your pets trust with us.
Sincerely,
Canidae Pet Foods
April 30th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Well, have only had time to quickly scroll through the messages this weekend and today. Thanks itchmo, pet connection, e hamilton, others for your continued great work on this. The forum is a great idea.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Senator Patty Murray - the Buck Stops Here!
Your pets were poisoned thanks to unrestricted trade with China and now our human food supply is tainted, too. Who is the biggest promoter of free trade in our government? Senator Patty Murray of Washington State. Check it out on her own website. All that seems to matter to her the the huge amount of money free trade with China brings to the elite of Washington State. (Don’t blame most of us WA state residents: the money does not trickle down!) And don’t blame the average Chinese citizen, either. They are being poisoned, too, and their honest exporters’ websites had warnings about cheap, contaminated grain proteins as far back as 2005. The ethical Chinese business people are being hurt, too, by the criminals that have taken over our foreign trade system.
Here is a link to Senator Murray’s web page about her position on free trade:
http://murray.senate.gov/trade/trade-work.cfm
And here is a link to e-mail her and let her know how trade with China is currently impacting you:
http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
Let Senator Patty Murray know that we demand safe trade!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I have put together a Webshots photo album of affected pets. My pets have not been affected, so I don’t have any photos in it yet. Please feel free to give the email address below to anyone with an affected pet…have them email me a photo, pets name, food they ate, date of passing if they died, and contact name/email address. I think this will serve a similar function as the postcard blitz, but may be able to reach more people.
My email address is AngelSimba61 at yahoo dot com.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Sorry - I haven’t read all of the posts today so I don’t know if this was already mentioned but I did see the Oprah pet food segment and the one glaring point was that she has someone feed her pets human food - rice, carrots, and beef.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
SmileOnADog - sorry I used for an example but it was handy!
I meant that by asking why Oprah wasn’t more involved, something you mentioned, that others have suggested or commented on about her in varying formats, numerous times, on this blog, Pet Connection’s, Itchmo’s forums, the Petfood List forums - you name it. If we use a central place (now the “Making A Difference” forum here) to point peops to, we might avoid having the same things brought up over and over again. Hopefully that clarifies what I meant above?
I hope that makes sense. Sorry - I’m tired. I think we’re all tired from reading the blogs and forums until our eyes our bleary beyond belief while trying to keep a handle on this recall…for the sake of our pet’s lives….and for the pets who gave their lives in order for us to uncover the lies spilling forth.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Itchmo -
Can we move the following threads (now in Misc. forum) to the new Making a Difference forum:
Medical Costs for Treating Affected Pets
Changing or vanished pages.
Are there others we should move too? E. Hamilton - this is your baby - what else do you want centralized in the new forum?
April 30th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Donna Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
“I have put together a Webshots photo album of affected pets”
Please start a topic with your link in the Making A Difference forum here:
http://64.79.216.38/~itchmo/fo.....board=64.0
Your photo album is a wonderful idea.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Helen,
I have fed one of my dogs with irritable bowel disorder Evanger’s canned Duck and Sweet potato formula for about a year now. She has done extremely well on this food and has had none of the recurring intestinal disorders she had when I was feeding her Solid Gold’s chicken formula. I also like the idea of knowing that they are the manufacturers of their canned food. I don’t think that they manufacture their dry foods in-house.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I am going to say something that I may get blasted for, do think the FDA or who ever is squashing the true story is keeping a lid on it, because they know it was intentional and do not want the group who did it to know how successful they were.
Go a head scream at me, it would make sense to downplay it though so they would think it was a failure and not proceed onto the next phase.
Maybe I have seen to many movies.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I agree with moving some of this to the forum and asking people to stick to the d*** topic! It’s much easier to use the search engine there if you’re looking for something specific. I want a thread that’s just about what food people are using and which they’ve had problems with. Think I’ll go over there and start it now.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
And actually when I am looking for discussions on specific foods, I’m finding thepetfoodlist forum very handy.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Lori,I think your right on the money about the FDA. I think there is going to be BIG Time Arrest MADE !!!!!!. To Many Pet Foods were in this Recall And To Many Pets have Died. I’ve also notice the news media isn’t saying much.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Nutro,Iams,Eukunuba,SD, Natural Balance are the food’s most people are saying their pets got sick from. I’ve read alot of people are switching to,Canidae and Natura Pet{Innova,Califorina Natural}
April 30th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
********** What I can’t quite wrap my mind around is, if this melamine ‘enhancement’ of animal feed has been going on for years, why did our pets only just recently become exposed? Is it that they (whoever ‘they’ are) have just now begun to also enhance the export protein compounds? **********
I thought it was the chemical reaction between that and the cyanuric acid that was the issue…..
April 30th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Lorie you have a point however I’m more apt to think the FDA has their heads too far up their collective a$$es to have any idea what’s really going on!
On a separate note - I hope your kitties are doing better! My girl seems so much better today. After work I stopped at Wild Oats and got some live wheat grass which she dove into when I put it by her food. It’s great for clearing toxins from their systems… actually with the threat to the human food supply I might have to start eating wheat grass, too!
April 30th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Amy,
I would like to buy some grass but afraid it is spread with pestickde out here in the DC Metro area need to grow my own. If I bought wheat grass seed do I just plant it in regular potting soil or do I need to buy a special kind that won’t grow poison grass. Probably a stupid question but I am not sure. Glad to hear your kits are doing well, mine have been off all petfood since Friday morning and they seem to be improving each day. Gave pepcid this morning going to see what happens if I do not give them any tomorrow. Chat with you via email at work. I will say prays.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Geez I need to go to bed meant to say prayers
April 30th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
There is now an OFFICIAL OPRAH thread, I never want to hear about it again.
Refer everyone and anyone who mentions the “hot” idea that Oprah might want to help us to THAT thread.
Done.
That subject is finished.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Lorie - like I said I bought the wheat grass at Wild Oats which is like Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s if you don’t have Wild Oats in DC - I know you have the others (I actually travel out there for business periodically!). Anyway, I normally have a pot of wheat grass growing and they love it. You can buy kits online or just the seeds… all you need is soil and a few days for the seeds to germinate. Of course you’re going to want to watch what kind of soil you use to make sure it doesn’t have anything weird but everything I’ve ever read about wheatgrass is that it does wonders to cleanse toxins from the body.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:03 am
Helen In response to Evangers, I feel their food is a large reason that my cat is still alive. She is elderly, is diabetic and has had chronic ear and rear leg problems. I blame yrs of Science Diet , Purina1 before the S D and fancy fst for a lot of her problems. I put her on Ev, her diabetes disappeared, she started walking again, stopped mucosey drooling etc. She also was having tremors that stopped. 2ce I gave her other foods, 1st time S D, sympyoms all returned and she developed a very scary respiratory inf. 2nd time I’d run out of Ev and gave her Friskies for a day and a night. She went into convulsions and is diabetic again. I keep her only on Ev and Felidae. Serengetis for dry as that is the only one that she will eat, she is going great again. Also have another cat that developed Diabetes. same muc drooling and rear leg problem, and he is doing well on the same foods. His diet was mainly Friskies since the recall. Realize that the diabetes can cause some of this but am amazed at how the symptoms disappear when they have Ev. Also blame the foods for the diabetes. Have a great vet for which I am very thankful. I feel these 2 foods are the only answer to the current recalls, if they are recalled there is nothing else.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:19 am
Forgot to tell you that the food can be mealy and thick. Mixing some baby food chicken or veal with it helps a lot. Beech Nut is the only brand I use as it doesn’t have the additives. Check the labels.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:29 am
Ally,
I hear you, but it doesn’t sound possible, IMHO. I don’t read all the other blogs, (with my rescues, don’t have that much time in a day), I’m sure others here don’t either , so we don’t know what is repititious. I see no reason anyone tired of hearing about Oprah (which I’m not, by the way. I find it interesting, myself) could just, as soon as you see the word “Oprah”, skip to the next post. Not a biggie.
Em
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