California Animal Health Laboratory Finds Melamine in Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classic — Not on Recall List!
We’ve been hearing rumors and reports from pet parents all across the country that their furbabies have been experiencing symptoms of tainted food even though they were eating non-recalled products. Now the fears are confirmed. There is more tainted pet food out there!
Now we have to ask more questions:
Which brands really are tainted that have NOT been added to the recall list?
How many contaminants are there? First we had a cancer drug and now we have melamine! Do the authorities really know how contaminants are in the food supply and what they really are?
How long has the taint been occurring?
How do we get it out of the pet food supplies?
How safe are the human food supplies?
What do we have to do to keep this situation from happening again?
Isn’t it time to block the importation of ALL food supplies from countries with less stringent quality and safety controls on their foods?
Is the FDA lying, too incompetant or just too understaffed to know the full reality of the situation? (My money’s on too understaffed!)
Thanks to the Marin Independant for this article.
New tainted pet food confirmed from Marin case
By Jim StaatsScientists at a state animal health laboratory confirmed Monday that a popular brand of pet food submitted for testing by Marin veterinarians was indeed contaminated, even though it is not on a growing list of recalled pet foods.
The pet food apparently sickened a cat owned by a Greenbrae woman. The cat has slowly recovered and was returned to its home on Monday.
At the request of the Mill Valley Pet Clinic, three varieties of Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classic, in three-ounce cans, were tested by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
The food tested positive for melamine, which has been found in wheat gluten imported from China. Melamine is used to make plastics and other industrial products.Tests were ordered by the Mill Valley Pet Clinic after the cat was diagnosed with acute renal failure on March 26. UC Davis officials supplied the test results to the Mill Valley Pet Clinic, but declined comment.
“We do not discuss results from specific testing with third parties,” said Birgit Puschner, of the lab’s toxicology department.
Dr. Marianne Willis, veterinarian at Mill Valley Pet Clinic, said the UC lab “doesn’t want to be in the middle of all this. They said since we ordered the test and paid for it, we were free to do what we want with it.”
She said clinic veterinarians were notifying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the food manufacturer of the tainted food.
Last week, the FDA added dog biscuit manufacturer Sunshine Mills Inc. to a growing list of companies that have recalled more than 100 brands of pet foods and treats made with imported Chinese wheat gluten.
Several varieties of Nutro Max Gourmet Classics brand - all three-ounce food packages - are on the FDA’s list. But the list has not included the three-ounce cans. The canned cat food that tested positive for melamine at UC Davis were the lamb cutlet platter, California chicken supreme dinner and chicken cacciatore.
A Nutro spokesman could not be reached for comment Monday.
The recall covers “cuts and gravy”-style products made between Nov. 8 and March 6 from a select variety of popular brands including Iams, Hy-Vee, Nutro, Paws and private label brands sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kmart and Longs Drug Stores.
Last week, the FDA said 21 pet food samples obtained from consumers tested positive for melamine. The recall is one of the largest pet food recalls in history, according to Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. The FDA has received more than 12,000 complaints but has confirmed only about 15 pet deaths.
Mill Valley Pet Clinic officials ordered the food sample test for Cleo, an 11-year-old domestic short-hair cat brought to their office last month after she stopped eating. She was rushed to the Pet Emergency and Specialty Center of Marin, in San Rafael.
Kellie Little, her owner, said she purchased the food from Pet Club in Corte Madera on March 19. She said she has been in contact with officials of the food’s manufacturer, Nutro Products, about six times over the past two weeks, but was told that only the food in pouches had been recalled, not the canned food. She provided two samples to the company’s office in addition to the samples sent to UC Davis.
Her cat has slowly recovered under constant veterinary care, and Little, brought Cleo home Monday.
“I feel it’s kind of a victory that we may be able to save some other cats’ lives,” she said, of Monday’s test results.
When it comes to specific pet foods on the recall list, “we’re getting updates every day,” said Dr. Chris Rodi, Pet Emergency and Specialty Center of Marin.
Information about the recalled pet food can be found at the FDA site.
The three varieties of contaminated food tested were Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classic, 3 oz. cans, lamb cutlet platter, California chicken supreme dinner and chicken cacciatore. UPC codes found on products are 79105 352055, 79105 300117, 79105 300148
I can’t say for certain that my Cini’s food was tainted, but she became increasingly ill over the last few weeks. Lots of barfing and pooping. She was eating Nutro dry dog food for Sensitive stomachs. I removed Nutro from her diet almost 3 weeks ago and her health improved a great deal. Just as a test, I put 3 or 4 pieces of the Nutro kibble in her bowl Saturday. She ate them and we were up all night with Cini that night. No more Nutro for us! Put a fork in Nutro, we’re DONE with them.
I agree completely. My sister’s dog was eating Kirkland Brand canned food and she suffered a urinary tract infection as well. I think there are a lot of foods out there that are affected and everyone should speak up so that they can start recalling all of the tainted dog food.
I am seeing much less media coverage of the contaminated pet food supply. I don’t know why this is, but if I had not logged on to this blog today, I would not have known about the problem with Max brands. Many pet owners don’t have internet access; the media needs to stay on top of this problem.
Further, the so-called “voluntary” nature of the recall makes me squirm. Are there pet food companies out there who know they have contaminated foods in the market but are not recalling their products?
I lost three cats and two dogs in 2006. One of these deaths was expected because of a diagnosis of diabetes with multiple complications. Cancer, congestive heart failure and renal failure were the diagnoses for the other pets. The loss was terrible for us. I kept thinking that my pets had been poisoned somehow though our vet’s findings did not support my concerns. Now I am back to wondering if my pets were poisoned by the foods I gave them. And now, I no longer think I am paranoid.
On August 18, 2006 I took my 16 year old kitty, Little Kittie
in and the vet told me she had kidney problems and had to be on dialysis. On August 20, 2006 I spent my entire day
watching my dog, Minister, vomiting and passing blood out of both ends. On Monday, August 21st, I took the dog into the vet and they said they thought it was a bacterial infection, but they werent’ sure. He is doing better now, but has lost weight and is not as peppy as he was.
Little Kittie died September 28, 2006 due to renal failure. When she died she weighed all of 5.5 lbs. Then in November I had to take my gray cat, Smoke, into the vet.
Again, I was told my 10 year old kitty needs to be on dialysis due to kidney problems. I told the Vet then, that there had to be something wrong. What are the odds of all three of my animals having problems like this all at once. I too, thought that somebody or something had poisoned my animals. I was right, I just never dreamed it would be the food I was feeding them!
And now for the rest of the story. I purchased Max Cat and Authority Cat food (neither are on the recall list) sometime between May and June and again in September from Petsmart. In November I purchased Iam’s from Walmart. And they want me to believe that it is strictly a coincidence that my otherwise healthy animals just happened to get sick at around the same time that “all” of the other animals in this country are getting sick or dying!
They are lying and trying to cover their butts, their pay checks along with all of their stocks in the company and their jobs! Do not believe them when they say that it is “only” the pouch or the chunky style with gravy! I have one dead cat, one on dialysis, and a sick dog that says they are lying! My sick animals are not lying, they are! I resent them lying and trying to shirk their responsibility for tainted products! I would like to see them prosecuted under criminal law for trying to cover this up and letting thousands of animals dye, unnecessarily! This is criminal and they deserve to be prosecuted for animal cruelty! Instead of Class Action Law Suits, maybe we should start pressuring Senate and Congress to make the FDA prosecute these liars, cowards, and criminals! I know that this probably will not happen, but we should try just the same. My animals deserve that much. How about yours?
Karen,
My heart goes out to you and your pack.
And I agree with you totally! These corporate killers are criminals and should be prosecuted as such. Maybe they didn’t put the melamine (or whatever the toxins are) in the cans, but their shoddy practice of buying the cheapest ingredients certainly warrants more than a slap on the wrist and a golden parachute!
Let’s not forget class action suits. Those of us who were around during the days of the great Ford Pinto lawsuit remember that Ford knew it was making a dangerous car and cravenly factored in the money it would spend to buy off the families of those killed by their faulty design. So what happened after the lawsuit made Ford pay through the grill? The designs changed and so did the car makers’ attitudes towards safety. WHy? Because the only way to hurt a corporation is through its pockets.
Proctor and Gamble (the company that owns Menu Pet) has VERY LARGE pockets and should be made to reach VERY DEEPLY into this pockets.
As for the Senate, they are having their first committee meeting on this matter today.
All good thoughts for your sick furbabies!
I had a young cat that had to be taken away from me he was a 6 year old male. He got sick and had to go to the vet, he had kindey problems and could not recover. THing is i feed him Iam’s dry cat food which still has to be tested but the vet has stated that it was the cat food that made him sick.
One of my cats has now tested high in his kidney values thanks to eating max cat gourmet classic in the 3 oz can. I fed it to him b/c the menufoods page said it was ok, I should have known better. For an extra month after the recall I kept feeding my cats this poison b/c they didn’t pull this product as well. I will have to have all of my animals tested now. They should have recalled all the products made by menu w/ gluten in them immediately. They have caused untold suffering. This is just starting.
Thank you to you & the Mill Valley Pet Hospital or my cats would still be eating poison. My dogs were not affected.
-EH Murray
I know that most of these investigations concern pet food. I am very sorry for all those animals that have passed. I think this problem is much larger and this product melamine is and has been in our human food supply for many years. The FDA has covered up this investigation and this information. We can not find out why we are importing these gluten’s. We can not find out where they are going or too whom they are going. the diabetes rates have skyrocketed throughout the country along with many other diseases like cancer. It is my belief that melamine is the cause and the effects mirror these diseases which are all auto immune diseases. Since the distribution in the human chain is sporadic it has been hard to identify the culprit. The young have been effected the most and the disease rates reflect this. Cereals are the biggest users of these gluten’s in production. We have a major problem here and all imported foods that are imported in non whole food states need to be suspended immediately by the FDA. We are all being systematically poisoned.
Obewan
First off, my heart goes out to those of you with sick pets (or that have lost a furbaby).
I agree that something ought to be done, and it will not suprise me to see a number of lawsuits popping up.
I have been a fan of the Nutro NCCC dry food for a couple of years, as it really has done wonders for my cats. Before not knowing any better I fed Iams (which led to a number of UTI for my male and oh the hairballs), then fed Science Diet, but he still got the UTIs, but better.
I have contacted Nutro regarding their rice gluetin in the foods, and they have told me it is produced in the USA, as well as the wheat gluentin that is in some of the treats. The corn gluentin is also produced in the US.
Like the rest of you, I was shocked and scared when the wet food recal list came out. I had no idea that Nutro didn’t make their own wet food, and I trusted their products, so yes I was very upset. I was also upset that the 3oz cans weren’t on the list initally. It’s scary - but thankfully as I feed the wet food so infrequently, and I’ve had my cats checked - we’re all okay.
I can’t say I blame Nutro though, since that Menu foods supplied the contaminated products to many other companies. It’s truly a shame that money speaks louder than the welfare of our pets. It’s also a shame that the US would even consider buying food products from China given their history of bad/contaminated food handling.