Menu Foods expands pet food recall

[PhilipShore]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - Menu Foods (MEW_u.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) has expanded its recall of dog and cat foods to include products with an earlier production date and 20 more varieties, the company said on Thursday.

The Canada-based company said the recall now included all products manufactured with wheat gluten bought from ChemNutra Inc. going back to Nov. 8, 2006.

In March, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of "cuts-and-gravy" style wet pet food sold under various brands after the deaths of 14 cats and dogs. The earliest production date announced at the time was Dec. 3, 2006. The wheat gluten was last used March 6, Menu Foods said.

The FDA has identified melamine, a chemical used in plastics, as a contaminant in wheat gluten supplied to Menu Foods. Officials said Thursday they remained unsure if melamine was the cause of any cases of pet sickness or death.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN0521500020070405

[partylessinOhio]

1. Most of that food back to November 2006 has likely been consumed.

...
CHRISTIE KEITH, PETCONNECTION.COM: Well, I think that the real issue is that we truly don't know, which underscores what I see as the biggest problem here, which is that there is no system to track animal deaths, even when there might be a link to human health issues, that there's no system to report them. It's a matter of investigating and trying to put pieces together.

It would be extremely unlikely, based on the data that we do have coming out of places like Veterinarian Information Network, public health veterinarians, that it is -- that the numbers are anywhere near 15. Those are mostly just the animals who died in Menu's test.

ROBERTS: How high do you think it could go? What's been reported on your web site?

KEITH: We've had a total number of reported affected animals just over 9,000.

ROBERTS: Wow.

KEITH: Now, these are self-reported cases. These are not by any stretch of the imagination confirmed. They are pet owners reporting on their own volition. However, we do ask them to provide veterinary contact information and confirm that they were feeding their pets food on the recall list.

Our exact numbers on the dogs as of today at 7 p.m. was 1,434 dogs dead, 1,751 cats.

ROBERTS: Wow.

KEITH: And a total reporting of 9,092.

...

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES

Bush Takes on Congress Over Iraq War Funding; Nancy Pelosi Visits Syria; Poisoned Pet Food Investigation Leads to China

Aired April 3, 2007 - 22:00 ET

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/03/acd.01.html

[kestrel91316]

2. The PetConnection numbers are undoubtedly overinflated due to

owners self-diagnosing and self-reporting.

[partylessinOhio]

3. Those numbers don't seem inflated to me.

Who would know better than the pet owners?

I have lost two cats recently. They are buried. I don't have the means to dig them up and have them tested. I would think that most others wouldn't either. But I suspect it was the food that killed them. I put food out for stray animals. Just days ago we found a dead possum that had been coming nightly to eat. I believe I may have caused it's death too.

[kestrel91316]

4. Unless a veterinarian was involved and confirmed ARF through

lab tests, I don't believe an owner's independent claim.

People claim lots of s--t all the time - doesn't make it true. And it's obvious to me, based simply on what I see posted on DU, that most typical pet owners don't have much grasp of the medical fundamentals of this issue.

I'm much more inclined to believe vets reporting cases, along with detailed lab results and name of food involved and VET'S CLINICAL/PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS.

[Celebration]

5. sure those deaths would be CONFIRMED

However, you are only going to get a tiny percentage of the actual deaths that way. A lot of these animals were already dead and buried before the recall. Who's gonna dig them up and test them?

[uppityperson]

6. Here is a previously uncounted one. picture@link

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS/704050303

Sequim cat put down after failing to recover from ailment possibly linked to tainted pet food

Janice and Mike Littlefield said goodbye to Blue, their sapphire-eyed tabby, on Saturday.

Blue, after eating Nutro Natural Choice and Special Kitty - two recalled Menu Foods products - became lethargic, stopped eating and developed what seemed an unquenchable thirst.

On March 22, Janice brought her to Greywolf Veterinary Hospital in Sequim, where the 12-year-old cat was diagnosed with acute renal failure....(more@link)

[magellan]

10. You know what, Kestrel?

I thanked you last week for all the helpful information you were providing. But since then I've noticed you becoming increasingly dismissive of pet owners and -- well, downright nasty to those you disagree with. I don't think you realize how unprofessional you sound sometimes.

A lot of DUers are pet owners and despite what you seem to believe, many of us respect your profession. But I've got to tell you, you vets are not necessarily superior in your knowledge of a particular pet over its owner as you imply. I lost my dog several years ago because her vet didn't listen to my concerns about her health, basically pooh-poohing the changes and symptoms I saw in her. And that vet had my dog right in front of her on two occasions as I described my concerns. I trusted her.

MY BABY DIED TWO MONTHS LATER OF RENAL FAILURE.

You haven't seen the dead or sickened pets, have you, or met their owners? They, like many of us, may not have a grasp of the medical fundamentals, but they often know their pets far better than any vet will -- what's normal, what's not. That may not prove any link to the poisoned food, but for pity's sake show some compassion!

What you have is insight from your profession. I hope you'll keep sharing that. But please stop dissing owners and lashing out with snarky comments just because some here don't trust you. Correct people by all means, but there's no need to come down like an all-knowing ton of bricks. You aren't changing minds with that approach; you're turning people off from hearing you. People who could possibly benefit from your knowledge.

You're a real asset in this tragedy. Please focus on that, respect us a little, and ignore anyone you can't get through to using a little polite discourse.

I hope you'll accept this in the spirit it's intended.

[woo me with science]

11. I didn't read Kestrel's post that way.

I actually didn't see it as snarky toward pet owners.

I read it as two separate points. #1, that certain jerks will CLAIM that their pets were sickened by contaminated pet food when they actually weren't, maybe hoping for financial benefit or just attention. That is true and one of the first things I thought of when posts about lawsuits started appearing here.

and an entirely separate point, #2, that well-meaning pet owners, in the heat of this scare, will misinterpret their pets' illnesses as being related to the contaminated food, in the absence of lab tests to verify such a connection. That is also true, given that contamination is the potential cause that is likely to be uppermost in people's minds right now.

I think that both of these points are very well taken as reasons why the numbers are likely overinflated. The only snark I saw in the post was aimed at the first group ("claim all sorts of shit"), NOT at pet owners. I don't think it is snarky or dismissive of pet owners to say that many of them are likely to make a diagnostic error. It is an understandable error.


I am very, very sorry for what happened to your dear dog. I just wanted to chime in here with a different perspective on what Kestrel wrote.

[magellan]

15. Thanks, antfarm. Please understand

...I wasn't only responding to Kestrel's post on this thread, but to an accumulation of what I've read from her over the last week or so. It's gotten to the point that rather than looking forward to reading what she has to say, I wince in anticipation of another dismissive eye roll or snark. I think I understand where it's coming from, that some are rebuffing her advice. But turning it into a running battle isn't helpful to those who may be looking for guidance.

I don't disagree that there are jerks out there who'll take advantage of this situation, or that frightened, grieving owners are making diagnostic errors. But Kestrel is writing in her professional capacity on this subject. People are bound to be very emotional. It needs calm understanding, not condescension and defensiveness. That only sows more distrust. If our vet treated me that way, right or wrong as he might be, he'd no longer be our vet. You catch more flies with honey.

In that vein, our current vet was happy to work out a homemade recipe alternative with me when I told him I wanted to take our dog off Hill's Prescription I/D. In fact he said he doesn't trust any canned food at the moment.

I highly recommend this approach to other owners. If your head is reeling with uncertainty then have a one-on-one talk with your vet. It's far easier and safer than trying to formulate a course of action on your own, based solely on the conflicting information and reports found here and elsewhere on the internet.

[catgirl]

16. Thank you for saying this

I called her out on this too and I was lambasted. First of all, I
have my doubts of her claims of being a vet. She cuts and pastes
items from the internet, then gives people "advice". To me, that's
dangerous. Plus in the past she flamed many other topics.

There will be hearings in the senate on the situation. Hopefully they'll
get to the bottom of it. The FDA has failed miserably here and it's
looking like a coverup (or gross incompetence).

Vitamin D3 may be a culprit as well. Of course Kestrel gave a weak
explanation for it. Not enough time to look it up on the internet I guess
(notice how she's always having "computer trouble", or "internet trouble"
at work and at home?). Too much D3 leads to toxicity and death. If the
animal lives long enough, loss of bone mass may occur. Do I have to be
a vet to know this? No. This happened in dry food a few years ago. My
Prescription Science Diet dry has it. I'm scared right now and I don't need
a snooty freep to attack me. Sorry about your dog. It's already so painful,
but for it to occur because of an inept person or the greed of a corporation
makes it all the worse.

[magellan]

17. I know

And honestly it's not my intent to take sides. From my reading, the waters have been muddied by rancor and it's resulted in a feud of sorts. I hope you two can work it out or at least agree to a truce! :)

From my layman's viewpoint, the vitamin D thing does seem to be a concern worth looking into. As far as I know, despite the extended recall of menu foods and other products using this batch of wheat gluten, no one knows yet WHAT is causing the problem. It worries me that Cornell University and the FDA found two different possible toxins, that a dog was treated for aminopterin poisoning here in Orlando and recovered, and that the melamine the FDA found was in much lower concentrations than a 50 year old study showing no toxicity in dogs. It also worries me that other dry foods containing no wheat gluten -- Nutro in particular -- have caused similar symptoms in pets over the same period.

It's hard to know what to think but I'd be lying to say I trust the FDA or commerical brands at this point. Bush** has really imperiled us with deregulation. As my vet suggested, there's reason to be overly cautious about any canned pet food. My personal preference is to extend that to commercial dry foods as well, but that's just me. I simply couldn't bear watching another of my dogs suffer through renal failure because I didn't listen to my heart.

[djg21]

8. I agree to some extent . . . .

There are always people who look to cash in on the litigation lottery by bringing baseless and contrived claims. This is common!

Then again, I suspect that before the issue of Menu's contaminated food was (belatedly) made public, the symptoms of some affected animals likely were attributed by veterinarians to more common conditions such as renal failure due to age, etc.

[Doremus]

9. Your corporate spew is getting tiresome.

Do they pay you per post?
Or are you on retainer?

If PetConnection has reports of 3000 deaths, that's maybe a third of actual cases.


Overinflated indeed. :puke:

[woo me with science]

12. Why is it "corporate spew" to say that the numbers are likely inflated?

I don't get this. They ARE likely inflated, for the reasons Kestrel described. That does not reduce the tragedy of this situation. Reminding people of the possible sources of error in the numbers seems to me a useful part of this discussion. We all want accuracy, don't we?

[piesRsquare]

13. People's pets die everyday

from medical conditions related to age, genetic susceptibility, etc.

Chronic renal failure is not uncommon among older cats (I'm a vet tech--I've seen it a lot).

Cats--even moreso than dogs--have a rather impressive ability to "hide" serious medical conditions until the very end.

When I was 18, my 11 year old cat behaved perfectly normal, ate normally, slept normally...until one day she started vomiting excessively, sleeping all the time, was very warm, and stopped eating. We had to put her down two days later. It seemed as though she pretty much "dropped dead". The necropsy, however, showed lymphoma; she had numerous tumors throughout her intestines. Those tumors didn't grow overnight; she had been sick for a long time.

Many people do not choose to have a necropsy performed when their pet dies. And if not detected early, conditions such as lymphoma, other internal tumors, liver disease, kidney disease, etc, can go undetected until suddenly the animal crashes, making it seem like the animal quickly got sick and died (when, in fact, the animal had been ill for quite some time). I personally have little doubt that many such cases have been misinterpreted as food poisoning and reported to petconnection.com's database.

I believe that my cat's current urinary tract problems are related to exposure to tainted food. However, I have not and will not report his illness to the petconnection.com database for the simple reason that I have no concrete evidence of a direct link between the two.

The best data in this situation will be that coming from VIN and the AVMA, with appropriate statistical adjustment. They're doing the best they can; they do excellent work. We all want answers, but it's imperative that we hold out for medically and scientifically SOUND answers. Especially since those answers are the only ones that will hold up in court.

[anotherdrew]

7. why did menufoods stock plumet in 2005 ?

then it starts a rebound just around the time that the contamination is now backdated to.

what was the investor's news out of the company around that time I wonder?

===
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 2, 2005 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) -- Regulatory halts have been imposed for the following issues today:
Company Menu Foods Income Fund
TSX Symbol MEW.UN
Reason ...
===
Going from bad dog to top dog
$2.75 - Going from bad dog to top dog - PressDisplay.com - Mar 29, 2006
in early December Menu Foods, which breached its covenants with creditors, ... it was, to say the least, a bad time to have Menu Foods in your portfolio. ...
===
Price hike leads to speculation Menu Foods Income Fund may reinstate distributions: Investing in pet food.
(From Financial Post) Publication Date: 18-JAN-06 Byline: GANBAT NAMJIL
Menu Foods Income Fund, which makes canned wet pet food, announced a price increase for its products yesterday. United States private-label customers will pay 7% to 9% more, the first increase for these customers since early 2004. "The increase per can announced by...
===
Goodale and the income trust fuss
Andrew Wiese, CTV.ca News Updated: Thu. Dec. 29 2005 1:53 PM ET
On September 19, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale dropped a bombshell that rocked Bay Street and many on Main Street.

On its surface, the minister's announcement seemed sort of mundane and would have been inscrutable to most people: Ottawa would no longer give advance tax rulings to companies that were planning to turn into income trusts while the government studied the current rules on how trusts should be taxed.

But the results of that announcement was anything but mundane. First, it led to a roller coaster ride for the stock markets. Then, there was a surprise change in government tax policy on the eve of the election call. Now, the circumstances surrounding those tax changes are under investigation by the RCMP.

After that September announcement a whole sector of the market began to tank.
...
Feds worried about losing taxes

Once a sleepy investment sector, largely confined to oil and gas companies and some real estate companies, the trust sector took off in the last decade as more and more companies decided to switch from corporate to trust status.

All of the sudden, pizza chains (Pizza Pizza) and steakhouses (The Keg), mattress makers (Sleep Country) and furniture stores (The Brick), sardine canners (Connors Bros.) and pet food makers (Menu Foods) switched to trust status.

[FormerOstrich]

14. Personally,

I believe the numbers are probably underreported.

On February 24th, well before I heard of the recall, my fourteen year old cat up until about 2 or 3 days before had been behaving normally, pulling the dogs chain, and demanding my attention. When he wasn't waiting for me after work on the 24th I became very very concerned. A few hours later he resurfaced in obvious distress. I rushed him to the vet and they informed me that he had apparently not been hit by a car or in any sort of fight. However, his kidneys were failing and they told me he would not survive. I requested they euthanize him and I had him cremated. He was a very special kitty and the dogs and I miss him terribly.

I was out of town when I first heard of the recall. I had really been struggling to make sense of his death. The minute I heard of the recall I knew. When I returned home I pulled a can out of the nearly new case of Iams and checked the number on the can. Indeed, it was on the list provided by Iams.

It took me hours, spanning several nights and in the middle of the night to reach a person at the Menu Foods hotline. Then, all they did was take my name, some basic information about myself and Sebastian. I was informed someone from Menu Foods would be contacting me. They would not give me any sort of estimate on when that would be. That has been well over a week ago and no one has contacted me.

I almost didn't even bother to contact them. I doubt that Sebastian is included in any official number at this point in time. I suspect my story is more common than we would like to believe. Nothing will ever convince me that the food I fed my poor baby wasn't what killed him. He was a wonderful cat.

[magellan]

18. What a sad story, I'm so sorry

It's heartbreaking to lose a pet suddenly, but that heartbreak is only compounded by knowing we may have had an inadvertent hand in it. I wish to god I'd listened to that nagging voice inside me and gotten a second opinion when our last vet put our dog's bad breath down to old age and sent us home with a toothbrush for her. It wasn't old age -- she was in renal failure. Her terrible breath was the first outward symptom. Only later did I learn that the drug mix she was on for a year, enalopril and frusemide, could cause kidney failure, and that the vet should have been doing regular lab tests to check her kidney function. She never did one.

The other unknown and very real danger in this crisis is that the kidneys can be failing for some time before any symptoms appear. I suppose in this particular situation, how fast the kidneys fail depends on the toxin, and how much is being fed and how often. So it'll vary between pets. There could be a lot of dogs and cats out there who seem fine but have damage that will only make itself known at some later stage. That's why it's so important for anyone who's fed their pet any recalled food to get to a vet. Renal damage needs to be controlled through a restricted diet, otherwise it could be exacerbated.

You have my sympathies, FormerOstrich. Please don't blame yourself for Sebastian's death. I know from experience how easy it is to get caught up in that guilt and be held back in the grieving process by it. It's hard enough having to contend with a loss due to external incompetence; we shouldn't also blame ourselves because we trusted that others knew what they were doing. We can't all be vets and veterinary nutritionists. This wasn't your fault.

:hug: