Yorkie Winston Almost Dies From Eating PetSmart’s Smokehouse Jerky Treats, PetSmart and Manufacturer Refuse to Recall Jerky
So many dogs have suffered from items like this jerky that should be immediately recalled! Unfortunately the manufacturers and the stores think we’ll all get busy and forget about the way they have abused our trust and endangered or killed our furry family members.
Dogster Rosie was poisoned by the Bestro Jerky Treat but it seems the brands don’t matter a lot. I’m avoiding ALL chicken jerky until the manufacturers can prove their products are safe.
Winston’s furmom, Kelly has been barking to get attention to the products that seriously damaged her beloved Winston.
Let us not forget! We must keep these poisonings in the public awareness!
My Yorkie almost died last week from Smokehouse Jerky treats from PetSmart.
They caused him to go into acute renal failure! He spent 6 days in the hospital!!! By some miracle he pulled through BUT with permanent kidney damage.
I am trying to gather people who have been affected by this. I am in communication with several people with hopes of approaching the media and get this stuff out of stores. I have spoken to others and dogs are still dying!!!!!!! The FDA has had over 100 complaints and both UC Davis and Cornell Universities are conducting studies right now. Why would that be happening if there wasn’t something really wrong with these things.
By some other miracle I got Doug Kriegal from KNBC News to call me today about doing a story but I need more people to contact him because he thinks only a few dogs got sick and only one dog died!!! WRONG!So if you would like to be help save other dogs and pet owners from going through this PLEASE call or write me. Or e-mail Doug your story doug.kriegel@nbcuni.com tonight if you can. CALLING ALL DOG LOVERS LET THEM KNOW HOW MUCH WE LOVE OUR DOGS!!! SHOW THEM THE POWER OF PUPPY LOVE!!
Here is followup information from Winston’s mom, Kelly.
Dogs are becoming sick or dying after eating chicken jerky treats produced in China . The toxin in the treat causes a rapid onset of Fanconi disease/syndrome. This is normally a hereditary illness seen in older dogs (primarily Basenjis). This is such very rare condition that most vets that may have seen a few cases a year are now seeing as many as 10-20 cases per month. This situation was brought to the public’s attention by an outcry of alarmed vets!
The AVMA published a warning Sept 13th
One manufacturer threatened to sue the AVMA and only backed down because FDA releases a warning (per AVMA Media Contact: Michael San Filippo)
AVMA has over had 2 dozen concerned vets with multiple cases contact them in the last 4 months.
FDA issued a warning Sept 26th’
FDA has over 100 complaints filed. FDA said it did testing and found nothing (this has not been published or confirmed anywhere that I can find)
Both UC Davis and Cornell are conducting studies
UC Davis is currently tracking over 40 cases.
PetSmart did a 5 voluntary recall for Smokehouse products and put them back on the shelves because they said they found no conclusive evidence.
Wal-Mart found Melamine in their treats.
The brands with the most complaints are Bestos, Smokehouse, Wagon Train and other store brands like Target etc.
Dr. Steven Gonto (the creator of the Fanconi treatment protocol) has spoken to over 60 dog owners affected by this in the last 4 months.
I personally have found, contacted or spoken to nearly 30 people just in the last 10 days with similar stories all having chicken jerky treats as the common denominator.
My veterinary hospital had as many as 7 cases (two dogs died).
The owners of the two dogs that died did independent testing and found arsenic, lead, mercury, acetometaphine (sp?) and other metals.
I have red countless stories of dogs becoming sick or dying on www.Itchmo.com blogs. Just type in chicken jerky…read the articles but most importantly scroll down past the article and read the personal posting ~ they tell the real story!
I have contacted PetSmart corporate headquarters ~ they don’t care because “they” are not responsible due to a “master vendor” contracts.
I have contacted Smokehouse ~ they say, “not enough dogs have died and they have no intention of pulling them from the shelves!”
I could go on and on….I have many pet owners who have been hurt by this who would LOVE to speak to the media and tell their story.
The damage that was done to my dog is permanent and irreversible. There is no cure for this syndrome. We have no idea if he will live or if he does for how long. He will need special treatment, medications and blood work on a regular basis for the rest of his life. I sat on the hospital floor for 6 days (10-12 hours a day) holding him and praying to god he would not die. NOBODY should have to go through this just because some big companies want to make a buck…at the expense of our dogs lives! I don’t care about the thousands of dollars I have already spent and all the medical bills going forward ~ I am holding hope that I am one of the lucky ones and that my baby lives…so many did not. Please tell others so they don’t have to go through what I did! Feel free to PASS THIS ON TO ANYONE ELSE WHO MIGHT HELP. AND PLEASE ADD MY CONTACT INFO TO THE STORY SO OTHERS CAN GET THE PROPER TREAMENT. Some dogs are dying because this is so rare the vets don’t diagnose it properly and don’t know how to treat it. Anyone can call me 310-259-9163 or 310-545-0862 day or night.
We stopped buying jerky for our dogs as soon as the warnings started and haven’t bought any since. Our local PetsMart does not have any of that brand on the shelves, I called. Everyone needs to be responsible and pay attention. Never take for granted that items that have been on a recall list have in fact been pulled from the shelves.
Why does it not surprise me that they pull and put back products that may be hazardous. So I recently read that they PETSMART also destroys their unwanted dog food by the tons. They slash the bags and toss them rather than donate them to the needy. Shame on PETSMART. Your contributions mean nothing without your ethics, morals and support of our animals not the almighty dollar. When is the last time a buck came up to you and wagged its tail and gave you a lick? BOYCOTT PETSMART for many reasons!
I have found that shopping at the smaller dog and cat boutiques are better, healthier, more personalized and have a higher grade of products.
I can understand why Petsmart wouldn’t donate their unwanted food to charity. It’s a liability. Just imagine if they donated their food supply that was about to or has already expired and thousands of needy pets got ill. A company like Petsmart wouldn’t risk it for the sake of being charitable. It’s business.
Does it suck? Yes. There’s thousands of needy pets out there and sure, shelters could definitely use the food, but again, Petsmart only gets rid of what it can’t sell when it’s near the manufacturer’s pull date. There’s no guarantee that the food will be consumed before it expires. And what if the food it donates has already spoiled, is given to a dog and that dog becomes ill??
That’s a huge lawsuit waiting to happen.
We’re so glad to hear Winston made it.
Do a quick search on “smokehouse jerky recall”. What pops up? Itchmo and Dogaware sites showing where this brand had been pulled in September.
We quit getting any chicken jerky made in China during all the recalls. I love me some chicken jerky. We have switched to homemade beef and turkey jerky fur now. But it’s just not the same! *pout*
We had been in Petsmart about 2 months ago and saw a huge portion of their treat display had every variety of Smokehouse jerky in it. By far a bigger portion of the aisle, even over those Nylabones! Top to bottom at least 4 feet wide…..every shelf….Smokehouse!
When Mom said something to one of the cashiers we know personally (Reese’s Mom), she got very defensive and said that WAS NOT the brand recalled. “It’s pawrfectly safe and I give all my Dachsies that kind.” Of course Mom wasn’t going to stand there causing a scene any more than she did, shouting out chicken jerky in the store. Again I loooove me some chicken jerky so you can’t even spell it in my presence.. *works himself into an Eenie Weenie chicken jerky frenzy*
The packages say now irradiated or something like that on them. We’re still not taking any chances, not even with our Waggin’ Tail version that was not involved in the recall but is made in China.
Smoke, jonesing fur chicken jerky
PetsMart is a wonderful company and their stores are a godsend to me and alot of other animal lovers. Why on earth would they donate recalled dogfood?! Is there something wrong with you? That makes no sense. Our local store does EVERYTHING in their power to pull ALL recalled items, their grooming area is top notch and their employees are wonderful. Maybe you are just throwing topics out to see what people write back. Get a life.
To the gentleman who shops at “smaller boutiques” — Well, how nice that you can do that. A lot of families can’t, especially now. I’m sorry, I buy my dog sweaters at Walmart. I sure hope they aren’t embarrassed to wear them! And our dog food is actually cheaper at Petsmart. The local “boutiques” are way over priced for most people and end up going out of business within a year.
I apologize for reading the post from Bob and Pita incorrectly. You stated that Petsmart doesn’t donate their postdated petfood not the recalled. Still, old dates could mean bad food. I won’t eat past dated items and neither will my animals.
Even with standards established by the Association Of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), you can not rely on them or other goverenment bodies to assure your pet food is safe.
Competition for shelf space in grocery and super stores and the consumer’s wallet may cause pet food manufacturers to cut corners in order to beat out their competitors.
The only real solution for consumers is to become educated about how pet foods are manufactured and then decide what risks their willing to take with their beloved pets.
I just lost my best friend. She was a Blue Healer named Cheyenne. Last year at this time she had a problem with her liver. It was right around the time of the dog food recalls. My vet said that she ate something toxic. she was an indoor dog and my shadow. I don’t see how she could have gotten into something. She pulled through it that time or so we thought. The Saturday after Thanksgiving she started vomiting and the vet said it was her liver acting up again. She died the following Saturday. I can’t say for certain what the toxin was but except for her cheese and few pieces of meat that she got as an after dinner treat she only got 1 type of dog food (the onlykind that she would eat) and we changed her dog treats after her first bout with the disease. I can’t help but feel that it was something in the dog food. I feel so lost without her and so guilty that I may have contributed to her death by what I fed her even though it was a name brand dog food and not generic.
Debbie,
My condolences on your loss. It is a very hard thing to lose a furbaby.
Please do not blame yourself. As long as you know you tried to do the best by her, you have no reason to feel guilty. Many, many dogs and cats were harmed by the pet food.
Let’s move forward and work to make sure no other pets are harmed by tainted food.
[...] December 11th, 2007 | Pet food & products So many dogs have suffered from items like this jerky that should be immediately recalled! Unfortunately the manufacturers and the stores think we’ll all get busy and forget about the way they have abused our trust and endangered or killed our furry family members. Dogster Rosie was poisoned by the Bestro Jerky Treat but it seems the brands don’t matter a lot. I’m avoiding ALL chicken jerky until the manufacturers can prove their products are safe. Winston’s furmom, Kelly has been barking to get attention to the products that seriously damaged her beloved Winston. Let us not forget! We must keep these poisonings in the public awareness! My Yorkie almost died last week from Smokehouse Jerky treats from PetSmart. They caused him to go into acute renal failure! He spent 6 days in the hospital!!! By some miracle he pulled through BUT with permanent kidney damage. I am trying to gather people who have been affected by this. I am in communication with several people with hopes of approaching the media and get this stuff out of stores. I have spoken to others and dogs are still dying!!!!!!! The FDA has had over 100 complaints and both UC Davis and Cornell Universities are conducting studies right now. Why would that be happening if there wasn’t something really wrong with these things. (more…) [...]
Hi,
I recently bought my dog Ozzy the smokehouse dog treats, I had no Idea there were already so many complaints..Why would petsmart have them on the shelf!?. Well within a week of giving my dog the treats, he got very very sick. The vet told me to expect the worst, that he wouldnt make it. He got out of the puppy hospital monday, it looks like he responded to treatment pretty well, however they said his blood tests are still showing high toxins in the liver.He goes in for another check up next week. I hope all is well and he doesn’t have further problems. I do have a few questions that maybe someone can help me with.. I want to file as many complaints as possible, and I have no idea who to contact. And eventually I would like to go after the manufactuer or Petsmart for the high cost of ozzy’s medical bills. Is that a possibility? This is new to me, I never in a Million years would have thought they would knowingly put poison on their shelves and sell it to us. I feel so guilty for feeding my dog the poison that almost killed him. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated!
I’m SO glad I didn’t buy that bag of chicken jerky I saw at Sam’s club! I can’t believe how much trouble it has been causing! It’s awful how they are refusing to take it off of the shelves!
Bridget and any others effected….
Please feel free to call me~ Winston’s mom~ at 310-259-9163 if you even *think* you may have been effected by toxic chicken jerkey treats. I can help put you in contact with vets that actually know the treatment protocol. These toxic treats are causing a rapid onset of Fanconi Syndrome which is very rare and often misdiagnosed! If caught early enough and treated agressively enough dogs ARE surviving so please feel free to call me…I am happy to help give you support.
I also want to join affected dog owners together so we will have strength in numbers…so we can PULL THESE OFF THE SHELVES!!! If PetSmart, Cost Co, Wal-Mart and Target dont care….and the manufacturers SmokeHouse, Bestos, Wagon Train and other private labels (like Target Brand) don’t care…We the consumers must care enough to do something!!!!!!!!!!! At the very least we can help each other.
Kelly 310-259-9163
P.S. I have no idea how this Blog got ***OFF TOPIC*** but we are NOT discussing whether or not stores should dump old food or not. We ARE discussing CHICKEN JERKEY TREATS THAT ARE KILLING AND HURTING DOGS!
Hi Kelly,
Thank you so much for your reply. I will be getting in touch with you. I recently just relocated to Florida. If you know of any vets here, I would love to get ozzy to one immediately.Here is my email…with the time difference, college and my crazy work I may not be able to get you on the phone as soon as I would like…Please email me… bridgitklock@hotmail.com
Dogsters,
I strongly encourage you to get in contact through your Dogster pages. That way, your emails are not on the blog.
Its almost a year later and they still have not changed ingredients that cause cancer and diabetes in pets. The ingredients are still derived from diseased cattle remains, and it still can harm your dog. The only products to use are organic, or natural, no preservative and no chemical dog foods.
Hi all..
I can tell you that I shop both small dog retail stores as well as PetSmart.
With that said, I want to share my experience with you when buying at PetSmart.
I now only purchase non-food items.
The reason?
I thought I would save a few dollars and buy my dog food at PetSmart now that they were carrying High Quality food that I normally purchased from the smaller retail stores. Well, the first bag I purchased smelled a little different when I opened it. I didn’t think much about it since I checked the expiration date and it was fine. And it never had been on any recall list throughout the recall ordeal.
My dog started to have loose bowels and was nosing his food around and started to eat grass. I took him to the vet with a stool sample to make sure it was not an bacteria infection. Nope!
The vet asked “have you changed food” Nope..
All I could think of was that the food had smelled bad. So, I threw it out..went to the Small retail store and bought the same food. All was fine again! But wait, several months went by and I decided once again to save a few dollars and purchased another bag at PetSmart thinking what could be the chances of the second bag being bad? The pull date was fine. It had a pull date into the middle of 2008. Well, it smelled worst then the first bag I had bought. This time I didn’t even think of feeding it to my dog. Went to the small retail store, bought a bag there. It had a pull date into 2009! When I opened it, it did not have any odor. So took back the bag from PetSmart and told them what had happened twice. The cashier said nothing except that they would refund my money. I took my money and left. I didn’t stop there this time. I was mad. I called the Maker of The Dog Food. I told them everything I have explained above. They said, yes there is a difference because with smaller stores, they get their deliveries from the Pet Food Company. BUT..PetSmart picks up their own loads with a semi and delivers back to the PetSmart Warehouse. IF the trucks are not heat controlled and if the Warehouse doesn’t use the climate controls, the oils start to break down and that is when you start to smell the racid odor.
So, my lesson learned! I do not buy my pet food at any Big Box Store.
The most important thing to me is to make sure I am doing everything in the best interest of my pet. If I can’t, then I should wait to have a pet. I can’t let my dog get sick because I would like to save a few dollars!
By the way, I have one dog that weighs 123lbs and four cats, so to save money would be great on my salary, but I would rather give up all my dinners out to make sure my pets are healthy with the food I buy them.
I may be off topic to some degree although I do not trust PetSmart when it comes to the food we buy for our pets.
Pam,
Thank you for barking in these sad experiences. It always helps other pet parents who are checking for information when they can read others’ experiences.
The Best Bet if your Pup likes Jerky treats is to buy a food dehydrator and make it yourself….. we finally took the odds out of the unresponsible manufacturers hands and bought one from QVC and now make the Chicken treats ourselves from Grade A Chicken Breasts we eat ourselves from the Supermarket….. Only the Best for our little one…..
I too as Kelly suffered from these poisonous chicken treats. Please read our story below.
Our two adorable Cavalier King Charles puppies, Lacie, 11 months, and Misty 7 months old, had been eating Smoke House Chicken Jerky treats from Petsmart on a daily basis (not as a supplement for their food, but as a treat after their evening meal). They both became very ill in July with the same symptoms, such as; lethargy, vomiting, diarrea, and anorexia (total lack of appetite except for the treats, which they loved and looked forward to). The test started showing signs of kidney failure which made no sense to the vets because Misty and Lacie are not related, and Kidney failure is rare with puppies. Both puppies received extensive care in the hospital along with test after test trying to figure out what was wrong with them. Vet bills started mounting up to over $9,000. Every meal had to be force fed except their nightly jerky treat which they got very excited about.
Mid September we found out about the AVMA warning, and immediatelty stopped giving them these treats, Our little seven month old Misty rallied and got better, but our sweet little Lacie never got better and this weekend our precious little 11 month old Lacie got much worse, and had to be put down at 5:30 last night. We were able to pray with her and love on her as she peacefully went to be with the Lord. She surely took a piece of my heart with her. I have been through a lot in my life, but I have never been through the extreme roller coaster pain that we have been going through in the last four months.
I wish someone had warned us about this product. I thought this product was American made. Only after I saw the warning, did I see in small print on the bottom of the package, made in China. I didn’t know it, but this jerky treat has been making dogs sick well before April 2007. If someone had warned us, Lacie could have been spared this past painful four months of treatment, let alone having her princess life robbed from her at such a young age. Lacie was the most adorable sweet little feminine angel. She loved people so much that I was planning on having her be a therapy dog so that her and I could help people that are ill.
Please spread the word. After I send this to all the Cavalier breeders. I am going to send this warning to the other small breeds. It is so sad that I have to do this, but as long as Pets Mart and Costco and other stores only care about their profit margin we will have to protect our sweet little puppies on our own.
I know Lacie would never have wanted any other dog and owner to go through the pain and agony that she and her mommy and daddy have gone through. Lacie was our little angel and I don’t want her to have died in vain, So I will not give up on spreading the word about these poisonous treats.
Sincerely,
Barbara Fafard
Email: fafardre@sbcglobal.net
(949) 766-0140
(949) 766-0140
Barbara,
I am so sorry for your loss.
Hi.
Just thought you may be interested in a new recall website.
http://www.totalrecallinfo.com
Take care.