Thanks to the Patriot News for this opnion piece.

Safety recall points to requisite for centralized reporting system

What started out as an apparent isolated case of pet food contamination involving one manufacturer and a relatively small number of dogs and cats has mushroomed to include six other companies and perhaps thousands of animals.

The fact that no one is sure of the scope at this point — and that most notably includes the Food and Drug Administration — has unmasked broader issues that also could involve public health.

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Thanks to Sarah, furmom to Schnauzer Rudy, for barking in this recall notice from Royal Canin.

ROYAL CANIN CANADA PROACTIVELY RECALLS FELINE DISSOLUTION FORMULA (canned)

Guelph, Ontario - As a result of new information received from Menu Foods late yesterday, Royal Canin Canada is recalling Medi-Cal Feline Dissolution Formula canned diet because one production lot (January 08 2009) contains contaminated wheat gluten. This product is produced for Royal Canin Canada by the Menu Foods Ontario plant. Medi-Cal Feline Dissolution Formula canned diet is Royal Canin’s only wheat gluten-containing canned product. This is the only Royal Canin or Medi-Cal product being recalled.

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Can this Menu pet mess smell worse? I don’t think so!

Now we see that the CFO dumped half his stock while Menu Pet was holding back the fact that they knew they had tainted products on the market. Hmmm. This sure looks like he knew the defacatory material would be hitting a rotating blade! In other words, this looks like clear evidence that the Menu Pet management KNEW they were sitting on a time bomb, one that was already injuring and killing thousands of pets!

Coincidence? I don’t think so!

Should anyone believe ANYTHING Weins or any of the Menu Pet managers say? Of course not! They prove time and time again they are untrustworthy, greedy and seem to have less concern for living creatures than the Chinese officials who authorized the dog purges!

No Mr. Weins, this insider trade smells worse than a lion house in mid summer!

Maybe its time to take a very hard look at ALL of the Menu Pet managers’ portfolios. I wonder if any of them have stock or are otherwise making money off importing wheat gluten from China? I’d sure like to know!

How about this? If Wiens wants to prove it was just a coincidence, how about he donate the whole value of the stocks sold AND NOT take a tax write-off for it? He could donate it to one of the rescue groups who have been hit by this recall or some other set of groups helping affected pets.

Thanks to Margaret Young for meowing in this article from The Globeandmall.com.

Pet food insider sold shares before recall
CFO calls sale a ‘coincidence’
KEITH MCARTHUR

The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund says it’s a “horrible coincidence” that he sold nearly half his units in the troubled pet food maker less than three weeks before a massive recall of tainted pet food.

Insider trading reports show that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units for $102,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Those shares would be worth $62,440 today, based on yesterday’s close of $4.46 a unit.

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Del Monte is expanding the numbers of products recalled but there are currently no new additional brands on teh list.

This press release comes from the FDA site.

Del Monte Pet Products Modifies Voluntary Recall List
No Additional Brands Included

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 6, 2007 — SAN FRANCISCO, April 6, 2007— As a precautionary measure and in continued cooperation with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Del Monte Pet Products modified its voluntary recall list today to include additional select code dates in the U.S. market only. No new brands are included in this update.

The following product codes and dates are in addition to the codes and dates previously identified in the Del Monte Pet Products voluntary recall:

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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 Staats

Scientists 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.

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Thanks to Rhon for barking in this horrendous news from Florida Today.com.

Tainted food hurt or killed 39,000 pets

Pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical may have sickened or killed 39,000 cats and dogs nationwide, based on an extrapolation from data released Monday by one of the nation’s largest chains of veterinary hospitals.

At least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical. The recall involved about 1 percent of the overall U.S. pet food supply.

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Thank you to Summersnow for barking in this information on who to contact to be involved in the Menu Pet Food Recall class action law suit.

If you know of any other firms presently pulling together class action suits against Menu or any of the other actors in this despicable situation, please bark in!

***CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS

The law offices of Bonnet, Fairborn, Friedman, and Balint in Phoenix, AZ 85012, are contacting people in different states who have pets that have been affected by the contaminated pet food recall. This law office is gathering information in each in order to file Class Action law suits, and in doing so they have to have residents within a state in order to file. I reside in California and have agreed to be the State Representative in order for filing to be made.

If you and/or any one you know who has had dogs/cats either ill with kidney disorder, or ill with kidney disorder and died, please be aware of the following contact information which is applicable to anyone in any state.

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Would you like to sign an online petition calling for better regulation of pet food? Then visit the newly established Petitionz site! Here’s the proposition of their newest petition:

“I support effective regulation of the manufacturing, testing, labeling and marketing of all pet food. I call upon all governments to act on all aspects of this issue IMMEDIATELY and to keep the public informed.”

There’s more than just petitions on the site. They also run short pet polls (completely unscientific before anyone jumps in and points that out).

Here’s a recent press release for Petitionz.org.

PETITIONZ.ORG FINDS BIGGER QUESTIONS & SMALLER ANSWERS
THE TOP 6 QUESTIONS SO FAR ABOUT THE PET FOOD RECALL

April 4, 2007 – (NA) – With only 4 full days of activity, PETitionz.org has begun to see some thoughtful and far reaching reactions from the thousands of visitors that have already visited the web site.

The Top 6 thoughtful questions from our visitors are:

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Let’s see if the Chinese government reports anything important. I guess it depends on which Chinese officials are doing the investigating — the ones who ordered the violent purges of thousands of dogs or those who would like to see dog ownership further legitmized.

Thanks to CNN.com for this article.

China looks into pet-food links

BEIJING, China (AP) — China is investigating U.S. claims that a Chinese company exported contaminated wheat gluten implicated in a slew of pet deaths in the United States, a government official said Friday.

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According to this article from CNN.com, that’s one FDA theory.

One possibility: Pet food adulterated on purpose

(CNN) — Contaminants that led to a massive recall of pet food could have been added intentionally, according to one theory being considered by the Food and Drug Administration.

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