RAT POISON to blame for food recall?!
 

:eek: OMG - I just saw this on CNN.com -

ALBANY, New York (AP) -- Rodent poison has been found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets said Friday.
Spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden would not identify the chemical or its source beyond saying it was a rodent poison.
State agriculture officials scheduled a news conference Friday afternoon to release laboratory findings from tests on the pet food conducted this week.
The deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of pet food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names.
There have been reports of kidney failure, some fatal, in pets that ate the recalled brands. The company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.
Menu Foods last week recalled "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food. The recall sparked concern among pet owners across North America. It includes food sold under store brands carried by Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers, as well as private labels such as Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

Holy Cow! They must have a seriously disgruntled employee there! Who would do that?!?! :confused:

Either a disgruntled employee, or an overzealous desire to kill a small rodent problem led to an overuse of the poison, or a number of other things could have led to the poison contaminating food.

There's a vet keeping a running tally of the death count and 2 days ago he had it at 250 deaths.

This is crazy.

HOLY COW!!!!! You think the employee's put this in the food????

My guess is that it is not an employee, or a purposeful poisoning. Gluten is a wheat product, and places that store and process grain typically have rodents hanging about. My guess is that somehow poison meant for the rodents somehow got into the supply. I wonder, though, if the company that supplied the wheat gluten knew that it had been tainted with the poison.

There will probably be a deep investigation at many levels. There are going to be lots of lawsuits for lost pets and vet bills...

Hopefully, something good will come of all this horrific tragedy...I mean, perhaps there will be better inspection procedures and more accountability for what goes into dog food...

It is just so sad for all the people who have suffered for the loss and sickness of their beloved pets :(

Omg !!

See Cnn.com Now
 

You can watch the briefing from Menu Foods going on LIVE right now!

Does anyone know if the recall is for Canada as well? or is it just the US? I have heard so many different versions of the facts surrounding this recall that I have no idea what is the truth! My two eat Nutro small bites... as far as I know, the recall was just for the pouch/canned foods?

Just breaks my heart. MSN home pages has the story and it features a yorkies, Pebbles, from CA who just passed this morning because of the tainted food. Makes me cry.

RIP Pebbles, my Maxie will take care of you over the Rainbow Bridge. :littleang

Yes! I saw Pebbles too (RIP Precious little Pebbles!) and wondered if she belonged to anyone here on YT? Does anyone know of her?

I don't know. I did a search and found one, but hers was a young pup, I didn't research too much.

rat poison
 

I just heard that the rat poison was from the wheat from China! It is a chemical they use but isn't allowed in the US so many vets will not know about it. They suggested a urine test and a renal test if suspected that your baby is acting sickly after eating any food that was on that list. This is just another reason not to buy from CHINA! THey do not have the controls that we have here. It was not a disgruntled employee.
My babies all acted sickly after eating a few bites of some canned food and they are now on antibiotics and doing better but it was at the same time all this other stuff was becoming known. We had the fecal test run and they all had an ecoli strand identified. It really scared the #### out of me!! They are all find now, TG!! i threw that can out immediately and they are on their regular food now.
.......Linda

My two yorkies both had their blood tested Monday and so far show no damage from eating the Iams foil pouch food, however our vet said it is possible for them to have ramifications in the future from it. I am angry because my little one is only 4 lbs just a little bigger than a large rat. The sad thing is that the gluten supposedly came from china but there is no way for us to know that when we are shopping for food because it does not give the origin of all the products that are in the food even if it says it is manufactured in the US or Canada. My husband visited China this year and their standards are suspect in many areas. It is too bad that many times these decisions to obtain products from there are purely to save money and the consumer has no imput or clue about it.

I just got my puppy 6 wks ago and before I brought her home, I did a lot of research on what foods were good, etc. I was THIS close to putting her on wet Nutro foods and I'm now SO glad I didnt. But now I'm left wondering if I should trust that brand at all. I do think I will be switching her food again - this will be the 3rd food for her. (Breeder had her on Beneful - yuck!)
I can't imagine the poor owners whose pets have been affected by this. I hope they gain some closure and I hope it happens soon. :(

I'm totally blown away by this. Now that I'm hearing that the bad product came from china does not suprise me though. The standards there compared to the standards here are totally different. This is really making me second guess what I'm giving my guys.

I know this is totally off subject but remember they sell dogs on the street for peoples lunches so I seriously doubt any company that is producing products in China for a dog food company in the US is going to worry about any sort of standards. I know that's their culture but I can't stand it. We have a lhasa apso named PingPong at work that was bought in China from the meat market but rescued. Grrr.

I can't imagine what it must be like for all these people who have lost their pets because of this.. This is horrific. Like a nightmare.

Quick (and probably ignorant) question.. Are all the recalled foods only wet foods? Bc I was mixing the nutro natural choice pouches with Harleys kibble Nutro natural choice starting a couple months ago but had no problems. I haven't fed any in probably a month bc I started mixing the natural balance meat rolls instead.. Totally freaked out here..

Recall info. Please read the brands affected, the specific product affected, as well as the production date.
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/

I fed my babies Iams dry food and they got VERY sick
 

I don't want to cause alarm, but I don't think the people feeding their pets dry versions of the contaminated wet brands are 100% in the clear either:

My Rylie is a 2 yr old male & Layla is an 8 month old female, both Yorkies. Both are perfectly normal in everyway. Last week out of the blue, both got sick with vomitting and diarrhea that started getting bloody. Desperate at 4am, I took them to AMC in the Upper East Side Manhattan and they were both given IV and antibiotics but I never got a reason why they were sick.

Later I read that Iams food was part of the huge pet food recall. Although Menu Foods website states it's only recalling wet food (the food I was giving my Yorkies was Iams dry food) I threw the food away. I figure it's better to be safe than sorry-- who knows if the recall will widen to include dry food eventually?

Does anyone know any more details or have you been dealing with symptoms/effects from using Nutro, Iams, Eukanuba or any of the other brands that are part of the recall? Currently I am feeding both my babies Hills Science (wet) mixed with Cesars (wet) but from everything I've read, the recall could grow to include more brands and types...it's amazing that a lot of pet foods share ingredients from the same manufacturing source, virtually affecting nearly every brand out there-- I though Iams & Eukanuba were supposed to be higher end pet products?!?

Can anyone shed some light on their experiences?

Yes. All wet.

OMG, that is just horrible! So very sad!! :( :( :(

Okay, so there's rat poison in our dogs food, people getting sick from peanut butter, onions, spinach...what's next?! Am I the only one wondering if this is some sort of attack on American consumers? Is it possible that all these incidences are mistakes and just negligence? I don't expect you guys to have all the answers, but I think some one should be looking into it.

Attack on American consumers? I fail to see any connection.

There is no conspiracy theory.

I just heard it myself.

Awhile back we found an empty rat poison bag in our yard. We didn't know if our dogs ate any of it so we took them to the vet to be checked. Their tests came back ok but he put them on vitamin K for the treatment of rat poison anyway. He told us to watch for their eyes to turn bloody red and some other symptoms to look for but I can't remember all of them. I think he said their bellies would turn very dark like a bruise. He said the rat poison causes blood to ooze out of their bodies, the idea is that the rat bleeds to death. Our babies were ok and never got symptoms, thank God.

It feels like a form of terrorism. It not only hurts people, it hurts our economy.

Okay. I'll play this game...

So who stands to gain from this form of terrorism?

Look at exactly who is affected.
And who stands to gain.

And I'll post a reply.

RECIPE until this is over
 

Here is a recipe that I got from a person who heads up the Yorkie Play Group in Sarasota. She also used to own Max's Dog Bakery in Sarasota.

Maybe some of you might want to try this.

Here is a recipe for home made food:
Slightly overcook rice or couscous the old fashion way in water in a pan on the stove. (No micro-waving)
While cooking, add shredded carrots and minced fish or meat. (chicken, beef, turkey)
When done, ad 1/2 teaspoon of Olive oil, let cool and ad a food supplement with minerals and vitamins (from either your vet or the pet store)
You can precook and freeze portions. Take them out of the freezer the night before and let thaw in the refrigerator.
For dogs and cats who only eat dry food if added wet food to it, ad Gerber's baby food to it.
For those of you who are too lazy to cook for your pets, give them fat free table scratches AFTER washing it off from salt and sauces.
Hope this nightmare will be over soon.
Good luck to all,

Are you denying that terrorism exists and that there are not certain groups of people whose focus is to hurt American people and our economy and have us living in fear? I was merely wondering out loud if it was possible that this was such an instance. You clearly don't think it is. I get that.

I cannot tell you what these people gain from hurting others because I'm not one of them.

I got an email from Petsmart showing that these are the symptoms from the tainted dog food. They are not the same as the symptoms I listed above when my dogs got into rat poison. Someone may have posted this already but I didn't see it.

"If you have purchased any of the recalled items, you should discontinue use immediately. We recommend you contact your vet if you have any concerns that your pet may have been affected. Symptoms may include:

Vomiting (this is usually the first sign)
Refusal to eat
Fatigue
Abnormal increase in water consumption
Abnormal increase in urination"

I'm not denying terrorism exists.
I'm asking how do you think terrorism is directly involved, as you said it affects our people & economy.