http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/23/pet.food.recall.ap/index.html
Rat poison was found in the pet food that was recalled recently. I would put it in the pit I guess but what with all the anger over recreational ourage threads and the fact that I personally am not upset because it didn’t happen to me I decided to put it here. Hmmm its like the Tylenol poisoning except with pets! :eek:
I thought the same thing. I find a hard time believing that it was an accident. Pretty fucking scary.
(I’m so glad we’re a dry food family!)
I’m having a hard time believing it was intentional. Too many cans, too many brands. Unless an organized group of nutjobs found a way to poison the manufacturing process, I have to write this off to really bad luck. IIRC, the story I read said “chemical used in rat poison,” not “rat poison.” So it still could be an accident.
The New York State Attorney’s Office is going to have a press conference about this soon. If it was deliberate, I hope they make the bastard pay dearly for it. A terrible thing to do to animals.
The company doesn’t think the pet food was tampered with, but how else does a poison get into your pet food? Somebody grabbed the box of rat poison off the shelf instead of the box of vitamins? In two different plants? This is all very strange.
I was going to mention that my husband’s good friend in Ohio almost lost her kitten to this tainted food. She mentioned to my husband on IM that her kitten had eaten food from the recalled list, and was listless and not looking good. At my husband’s prompting, she took the kitten to the vet right away and it looks like that saved its life.
Maybe rat poison was present on the wheat that was used as a gluten source? Just guessing.
Edit: Looks as if I may have guessed right, according to this.
My first guess was rat poison. My second guess was leak on equipment that put chemicals into a batch before it was repaired and they didn’t go back far enough dumping the food.
Aminopterin st Wikipedia.
My cat ate a package of that stuff. I called the vet when he lost his appetite and started just picking at his food. He didn’t act very sick, just clingier and less active. His kidney function tests were poor, though. He spent 3 days in the hospital on IV fluids to flush the kidneys out, and now he’s home and eating again. No way to know what the long-term effects will be. We’re just going to test the kidney function again and see whether he gets worse, stays the same, or gets better. 
We were lucky. He’s home and alive.
I’ve been sick with rage and fear ever since he was hospitalized. According to the FDA, those bastard manufacturers were performing a regular taste test to see if the animals liked the flavor over 3 weeks ago. Seven of the test animals died within a day or so of trying the stuff. Out of a population of about 50. That’s one goddamn animal out of seven dying after eating the food, and they supposedly said, “Gee, that’s weird. Oh well, lots of cats get kidney disease, must be a coincidence.” They never actually started a series of tests after getting complaints, as they first reported. As far as I can tell, they kept their damn mouths shut so their clients wouldn’t stop buying the food. Whether it was deliberate tampering or just a horrible accident, they tried to say nothing and hope the problem went away. It was their little secret.
Which they kept faithfully until 5 days after I bought the poisoned food pouches and 6 hours after I took my cat to the vet. If I wanted to express my outrage to the full, I would have to belch out fire like a dragon with reflux.
I’m so glad you’re cat is home, Ragiel. Please let us know how he does.
Anyone know how long the bad stuff has been out there? I’ve had two cats die of kidney failure since last June. Surely a coincidence, but I can’t help but wonder.
I just heard about this today. My first thought? Yet another reason to feed raw.
I’m sorry if that’s insensitive, but I do like knowing exactly what my critters are eating.
I have heard the stuff was from a supplier they had recently (like last Dec.) switched to, so June 2006 and until Dec. foods should be OK.
Ragiel, I would be livid if I were you, too. It is a truly awful situation. I’m glad your cat is OK and hope he has no long term effects. I have a CRF cat (unrelated to this food thing - he’s 17 and this has been coming on for some time now) and it is stressful (but worth it) to give sub-qs and such.
Feeding raw is good if you know what you are doing. There are things (like taurine and other nutrients) that cats absolutely have to have. Unless it is researched fully raw probably isn’t a good idea for most folks.
WTF? They were importing the wheat from China? They’re based in Canada. Canada is accoutable for about 20% of the global wheat trade. China has traditionally been one of the world’s biggestest importers of wheat. How on earth does it make economical sense for a Canadian-based manufacturer to import wheat from the other side of the world?
Looks like Menu Foods may be willing to cover vet bills incurred as a result of anyone’s pets eating the tainted food.
From here.
As to why they’d import from China – my guess: they were given a sweet deal that couldn’t be matched by buying domestic. I guess now we know why it was so sweet. I hope they sue the supplier out of existence.
I’m guessing that lower-grade wheat can be used for pet food and perhaps there’s a plentiful supply of lower-grade wheat to be had from China fairly cheaply.
That’s exactly why I feel it was intentional. The fact that so many amimals are affected makes me think that someone purposely put in enough to harm as many as possible.
This is what bothered me the most. Intentional or not, they knew it was happening.
Clearly, the Canucks are developing Weapons of Mass Pet Destruction. I say we invade and take their oil sands and wimmins! Who’s with me?
Three cheers for Globalization.
I wonder how much Contaminated Chinese Wheat (band name!) I’ve eaten?
Hey, I keep telling you to move here, and you keep saying it’s too cold. What, do you think if you have a bunch of Canadian wimmins to keep you warm it’ll be better? Wait, actually, that might work…