Don't Talk About The Rabbits

Hmm, it's been a while since I did one of these. I hate these. My local pet store actually had notices up when I walked in this weekend, regarding some of this, but not all of it.

It's not for cats this time (yet). It's for dogs... and apparently, humans. There appears to be salmonella contamination of various dog foods (all dry so far) manufactured at the plant in Gaston, South Carolina. However, right now the information is that fourteen humans have become ill as a result of the contamination. There are no reports on dog illnesses.

I'm assuming the humans are sick from handling the food for their dogs. I'm find it impossible that there have not been dog illnesses (and probably deaths) if they are reporting 14 sick humans in 9 different states. The forums I have been reading through indicate that there are.

Diamond Brands were the first identified, I believe, and their statement can be found here.

Diamond contains a lot of brands:
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Country Value
Diamond
Diamond Naturals
Premium Edge
Professional
4 Health
Taste of the Wild
Apex
Kirkland Signature/Kirkland Signature Nature's Domain and
Canidae

Kirkland = Costco brand, for you Costco buyers.

As recalls do, this one is growing. Wellness is recalling one of their brands of dry dog food: Wellness Complete Health Super5Mix Large Breed Puppy

Natural Balance sent out an email to customers about its products being recalled because of this, and the list can be found at the Truthaboutpetfood.com

Canidae's Statement about their brands and about how to identify lot numbers can be found at this link.

It's also been pointed out that while the recall notices are listing states that the food was distributed to, in these days where people order pet food off Amazon, etc, lots of food crosses state lines in odd ways. Be careful for your pets, and yourself!

The first two are an expansion of the Menu Foods Recall, both under the brand name Western Family:

1. Western Family Canada Chicken Cuts/Gravy canned dog food dated December 11, 2009 to March 7, 2010 (624g)

2. Western Family Canada Chunks of Chicken/Gravy canned cat food dated December 11, 2009 to March 7, 2010 (374g)

ETA: The two Western Family foods are, as the name would suggest, specific to Canada.

The third is from Diamond Foods:

3) Nutra Nuggets Lamb Meal and Rice Dry Formula for Dogs.

Of note with regard to Nutra Nuggets -- it was not on any recall list, and was purchased by a family in California recently at Costco. When all four of their dogs fell ill at the same time, their vet sent the food (Nutra) off for tests, and UC Davis confirmed the presence of melamine in the food. KSEE24 News. The recall followed this discovery, privately funded by individuals, not the company itself.

Please don't think all the dangerous stuff is off the shelves. This is basically the recall that never ends, and unfortunately is still a danger.

Two recalls so far today, and probably more to come. Friday is the day that companies like to announce bad news, in the hopes it'll get lost in the mix, and an article in the New York Times indicates there may be another slew of cross-contamination recalls coming down the wires today. So far, we have these two:

Lick Your Chops Dry Kitten and Cat Food - lb. and 18 lb. bags with a Best By date of 4/29/08

Evolve Dry Kitten Food - Best Used By date of September 13, 2008.

Both of these are cross-contamination recalls. The ingredients do not list wheat or rice gluten because they should not contain any, but that does not mean it may not be present.

Menu Foods has made some changes, and the brave folks over at The Pet Food Tracker have been sorting through it and ferreted out some additional information.

The Two European Brands Recalled appear to be:

Despar
Stuzzy Gold

Both were listed in the main list of new additions last night.

Go Natural Dog Food was not recalled and appears to have been a mistake.

Cat's Choice is newly recalled, and was not on last night's list

Menu Foods is citing cross contamination as the reason for the very large expansion of the recall that was announced today.

Pet Connection and Itchmo appear to be cross-checking the original list against the new one, so this information may be added to, but right now, the list below represents the new recalls. Some of the brands are in the recall already, but now they're being listed for new items. (New) next to a brand means it's an entirely new brand name to the list. In addition to what's below, Itchmo's recall list is up-to-date with all recalled brand names, and Menu Foods has specific product and date range information listed from new links on their recall page.

Cat Food (In The US):

Americas Choice, Preferred Pet, Best Choice, Cat’s Choice (New), Companion, Compliments, Co-Op Gold (New), Demoulas/Market Basket, Despar (New), Drs. Fosters and Smith, Fame (New), Feline Classic (New), Feline Cuisine (New), Food Lion, Giant Companion, Giant Eagle (New), Hannaford, Hill Country Fare Hy Vee, J. E. Mondou (New), La Griffe (New), Laura Lynn, Loving Meals, Master Choice (New), Medi-Cal, Meijer’s Main Choice, Natural Ultramix (New), Nu Pet (New), Nutriplan, Nutro, Paws, Performatrin Ultra (New), Pet Pride, Presidents Choice, Price Chopper, Priority Canada, Priority US, Roche Brothers (New), Roundy’s (New), Schnucks, Sophistacat, Special Kitty Canada, Springfield Prize, Stuzzy Gold (New), Triumph (New), Wegmans, Western Family Canada (New), White Rose, Winn Dixie, Your Pet (New)

Dog Food (In the US)

Authority, Award, Best Choice, Compliments (New), Co-Op Gold (New), Go Natural (New), Hannaford, Health Diet Gourmet Cusine (New), Hill Country Fare (New), Hy Vee, La Griffe (New), Master Choice (New), Natural Life, Nu Pet (New), Ol’ Roy Canada, Performatrin Ultra (New), Pet Pride/Good n Meaty, Presidents Choice, Priority US, Schnucks, Springfield Prize, Stater Brothers, Triumph (New), Truly (New), Western Family Canada (New), Western Family US

Canadian Recall Expansion

Cat Food:

Americas Choice- Preferred Pet, Best Choice, Companion, Compliments, Co-Op Gold (NEW), Demoulas/Market Basket, Drs Foster & Smith, Fame (NEW), Feline Classic (NEW), Feline Cuisine (NEW), Food Lion, Giant Companion, Giant Eagle (NEW), Hannaford, Hill Country Fare, Hy Vee, La Griffe (NEW), Laura Lynn, Master Choice (NEW), Meijer’s Main Choice, Natural Ultramix (NEW), Nu Pet (NEW), Nutriplan, Nutro, Paws, Performatrin Ultra (NEW), Pet Pride, Presidents Choice, Price Chopper, Priority Canada (NEW), Priority US, Roche Brothers, Roundy’s (NEW), Schnucks, Sophistacat, Special Kitty Canada, Springfield Prize, Triumph (NEW), Wegmans, Western Family Canada (NEW), White Rose, Winn Dixie, Your Pet (NEW)

Dog Food:

Authority, Award, Best Choice, Compliments, Co-Op Gold (NEW), Hannaford, Health Diet Gourmet Cuisine (NEW), Hill Country Fare (NEW), Hy Vee, La Griffe (NEW), Master Choice (NEW), Natural Life, Nu Pet (NEW), Ol’ Roy Canada, Performatrin Ultra (NEW), Pet Pride / Good n Meaty, Presidents Choice, Priority US, Schnucks, Springfield Prize, Stater Brothers, Triumph (NEW), Truly (NEW), Western Family Canada (NEW), Western Family US

In addition, it's been indicated that two brands in Europe have been recalled, but no names yet.

The Pet Food Tracker, which figured out which brands were new to the recall, has broken this list out on a page here as well.

It's a total of 10 new dog foods, and 20 new cat foods.

ETA: Schnuck's is also issuing a recall: due to melamine, and their complete list can be found here.

Apparently 2007 will become known as the year our pet food companies asked us all to just ask our pets to stop eating for a bit. Like a year or two. Also the year I did nothing but post recall info....

But a couple more things of interest popped up this morning, including the first signs that the contamination is not going to be limited to what our pets are eating, and will find its way, to some degree, into what humans are consuming.

The Pittsburgh Tribune is reporting that scientists who were puzzled by how much harm the melamine was causing, think they have a handle on three other chemicals that are present in the contaminated substances:

cyanuric acid (used in pool chlorination/decontamination)
amilorine
amiloride

apparently all 3 are by-products of melamine, but it sounds like it's the cyanuric acid that's really freaking them out. Pittsburgh Tribune via Pet Connection.

The Pittsburgh Tribune is also reporting that the contaminated pet food from the Diamond Plant was sold and used as feed for pigs which were subsequently sold and slaughtered for human consumption.

Not great.

Blue Buffalo has been identified as one of the four other companies that Wilbur-Ellis shipped contaminated rice protein to, and this afternoon they issued a recall for a single brand of food:

The Blue Buffalo Company has undertaken a voluntary recall of one production run of our Spa Select Kitten dry food. The production code on the recalled product is:

“Best Used By Mar. 07 08 B.”

Full Recall Notice can be found at their website.

At the same time all of this has been going on, South Africa has been having it's own batch of problems that I haven't really given any airtime in this LJ, but it's connected, and might become moreso shortly. Today they announced that they have tracked the recent deaths of 30 pets in that country to melamine contamination in corn gluten. The contaminated corn gluten was found in the brands Vets Choice and Royal Canin.

I have to say, it's hard for me to believe that these three different substances, to all these different companies, distributors, and countries, were contaminated accidentally with the same bizarre ingredient

I keep thinking that I might get to stop making these posts, but then there's another day like this:

Natural Balance is recalling all of its venison products, both wet and dry food, for both cats and dogs, all dates, According to Itchmo:

* Venison and Brown Rice Treats for Dogs (New today)
* Venison and Brown Rice Canned Formula for Dogs (New today)
* Venison and Brown Rice Dry Food for Dogs (Reported Sunday)
* Venison and Green Pea Dry Food for Cats (Reported Sunday)

The culprit appears once again to be melamine, but this time, the manufacturer in question does not use wheat gluten, they use rice protein concentrate, and their supplier was in the U.S., not China. USA Today. Natural Balance also is not produced at the Menu Foods plants, but instead, by Diamond.

Natural Balance's press release can be found here.

What the hell is up with putting plastic in our pet food, people? Seriously, what *is* that?

The Recall has now been officially expanded to cover all the items on the current recall list to dates as early as NOVEMBER 8th. PRNewswire

This means I was correct when I ditched my cat's wet food, despite the fact that it had an earlier date on it. It also means I fed my cat tainted food. I'm taking comfort from the fact that he seems okay and happy, but I'm still sort of shaking and insanely furious inside.

Dog Biscuits have been added to the list via a company called Sunshine Mills.

Howl 911 reports that the number of complaints for pet owners who only fed their pets dry food is growing. They also give a heads up on the fact that not everyone is convinced that melamine in the wheat gluten was the problem (or at least not the only problem). PETA is pushing hard for the FDA to re-analyze it's findings, as the symptoms in this tragedy more closely match past instances of overdoses of vitamin-d in pet food. Toronto Daily News.

Pet Connection has pointed the way to two fabulous and opposite sets of REALLY FRAKKIN USEFUL LISTS (Particularly for those of you who, like me, may have reached the 'maybe I should just go find and kill a cow, or something,' stage of this).

The Pet Food List - Is keeping track of SAFE foods. Keep in mind, they're having to take the manufacturer's word on it, but these are the companies reporting themselves as unaffected by the recall, and the reasons they give to justify that claim.

The Pet Food Tracker -- Is keeping track of all UNSAFE foods, and watching every report as the recall expands. They promise an updated pdf file sometime this evening, if you need something to print off to take to the pet store with you.

Aaaand... a roundup of my own past posts on this subject, and a few other people's with good links and intensely useful info:

The Pet Recall Update 4/2/2007 - Various frightening things, including the expansion of the recall to treats.
Pet Food Recall Expanded to Dry Food - Just Hill's M/D, for now.
Pet Food Recall - The Followup Post - some really rockin sites that are following this mess closely, and keeping databases with the true numbers of affected animals. (Count is now over 2,600 at Pet Connection).
Pet Food Recall - The original "Oh Frak" post.

From paraviondeux, Good links on which treats to be worried about, as well as a link to Howl911's super useful master recall list, which has a few notes about foods that haven't been recalled, but have highly suspicious reports coming in.
From amireal, More Useful Links!

(Am I obsessed? A little bit. When will I stop with these posts? When they get all the @#$@# contaminated food off the shelves, probably...)