Menu Foods, the company at the centre of a massive recall of pet food is holding a news conference at 4 pm in Toronto to respond to the news rat poison is the source of contamination in the recalled cat and dog food.
New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said earlier today they have found what is sickening and killing pets in cat and dog food across Canada, the US and Mexico. CBC:
The chemical is aminopterin, New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said in a statement. Aminopterin can cause cancer, birth defects and kidney damage in dogs and cats, the department said.
Aminopterin is used as a rat poison in some countries, but is not listed as a registered product for that purpose in Canada or the U.S.At least 40 parts per million of the chemical were found in tests of cat food samples, said Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
ABC news is reporting the chemical may have been on wheat imported from China, which in turn wound up in pet food brands across Canada, the US and Mexico.
New York Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, and representatives from Cornell Univerity’s diagnostic lab said that information was beyond the scope of their investigation, and it would be up to Menu Foods to determine the source of the poison.
They confirmed the toxic substance had been identified in the pet food, but said they were far from learning how it go there.
The scientists have not yet determined how much poison made it into the supply, but said they have come up with a minimum amount of 40 parts per million.
There have been varying reports about the number of pets that have died as the result of eating contaminated food. The scientists wouldn’t give an estimate, but when pressed by a reporter, Dr. Donald Smith said “based upon what we’ve heard in the last couple of days, 16 seems like a low number.”
Prior information on Menu Foods here. The company has a recall page online as well as phone numbers for customers: 1-866-895-2708 or 1-866-463-6738
Menu Foods also has plants in Kansas and New Jersey.
60 million cans and pouches of cat and dog food under 91 brands put out between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007 were recalled.
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets: New York Laboratories Identify Toxin in Recalled Pet Food Press Release
Update: According to The Pittsburgh Tribune Review - FDA testing (US Food and Drug Administration) did not find Aminopterin in the recalled cat and dog food. The F.D.A. says it did find Melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, in the recalled pet foods as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient.
Published 1 year, 5 months ago
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it cost my mom 80.00 to have her dog checked would like to eat food that was poisoned and why did it
take so long for you to tell the media. thank god my
mothers dog wasnt sick after eating the iams dog food
we threw it in the trash we should have sent it all
back to the co.
Globalization, as one looks back, seemed to be a Pollyannais dream of raising the standard of living in developing countries and diminishing child labor. In addition to lack of ability to control internet pornography, now we face the inability to ascertain what outsourcing of petfood ingredients has meant to ourunfortunate dogs and cats.
My loving family pet died on January 31. She loved can food and gravy meat foods in the pouches. I fed her at least 4 of the foods on the recall list. She was fed several, maybe up to 50 or more, between December and when she died. She was ill less then 3 days and passed away in y arms. Our vet diagnosed cause of death at the time as complete renal failure. She had lived a very healthy life until MENU Foods killed her..
This is what we get when big companies that we rely on for our basic needs go overseas to get cheap labor forces in “developing” countries to make our products for us to save them money when they obviously don’t have the same kind of standards of living that American people have. We get poisoned garbage instead of the wholesome products that we require under false advertising. It’s sickening. We buy food for our pets to keep them alive and healthy, not to kill them! I want to know exactly what kind of poison got into the contaminated products, where it came from, where and when it happened, and who is to blame for it. So far they are not giving us nearly enough information about the cause of this incident for anyone affected to be satisfied regardless of the outcome and I don’t think that Menu Foods can be trusted to investigate this problem on their own. I’m afraid that since they were stupid enough to let this kind of thing happen in the first place then they can’t be trusted at all and unless we have trustworthy people inspecting everything that’s imported from China and other such places then their products should not be allowed into our country.
You must not have been reading online or have seen the news… The wheat gluten was contaminated and the FDA blocked all imports of the wheat gluten from those crazy chinese plants….
But damn menu foods for being cheap bastards and outsourcing their ingredients…. Seems like it might cost them a lot more then importing it saved them…. All the upper management should be fired after they are fed the poisoned food….
hmmmm John:
Researchers really don’t have a clue where the contamination came from.
Contaminants could have been the hold of a ship, a warehouse in North America, fields in China, containers, trucks, a production line in the middle of an industrial park. No one knows.
The company picked up a new supplier because they ran short, production was up. That is no excuse for what happened, but it is an explanation how contaminated wheat gluten got into their supply chain.
There have been no reports of human or animal illness from China; after the country failed to report the bird flu to WHO, they’ve started to become more prudent.
English Chinese news has been covering the recall.
Jennifer:
While the US may have better regulations than some places in the world, recalls happen in the human food chain daily. Nor is Menu Foods is investigating this independently. The science of investigation isn’t a CSI episode or you would have the answers you need by now.
Pet owners dealing with sick and dying animals haven’t a lot of time to read, owners that are upset need basic information and an opportunity to vent.
Our family member and my 7 year old daughter’s best friend, Sarah(5 year old Basset Hound) died on New Years day 2007. What a way to start the new year awakened to our dog passing any and all remaining fluids from her body. We rushed her to the Emergency Vet clinic in Houston where after several hours and over $1,000.00 in vet bills she passed away due to kidney failure caused by an unknown poison. She was fed Purina canned Cuts and Gravy her entire life. After exhausting every thinkable cause we now know what killed our dog. I’ll being seeing these manufacturers in court!