Rat poisoning blamed in major food recall
Following up on Mike’s article on March 19th about the major pet food recall a report from ABC News has declared the chemical aminopterin may have been imported on wheat used in the pet food. Aminopterin is used to kill rats in some countries but not listed for use in North Americal. It is also used in high quantities for cancer treatment.
The claim from ABC News have not been confirmed. Yet, a news conference is schedule for today, Friday March 23. The news conference is said to release the lab results from tests on the pet food. The investigation is focusing on wheat gluten.
Since this past week, 60 million cans and pouches have been recalled from Menu Foods. They are sold throughout the United States under 95 brand names. Some of the stores are Safeway, Wal-mart, Kroger and other large retail stores. Other private names are Nutro, Iams and Eukanuba.
The canned food has claimed 15 lives of cats and one life of a dog.
A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was posted online by Menu Foods and is available at http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm (Menu Food recall info). The company also designated two phone numbers that pet owners could call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.
Source: Yahoo! News
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Comments
JEFF MCCLELLAND
This pretains to the recent pet food cotamination problem.
I have used Iams (dry) cat food for several years but over the past 4 months my Manx cat began to through up his food, mostly undigested, about once every two weeks or more sometimes. He also craved excess amounts of fresh water. This is also a trait of this type cat but his craving for water was way out of his normal behavior.
However, after changing from Iams to Priority he quit throwing up. Hmmm?? Now I find Priority pet foods are on the list and he just did throw up last night ,same as before, so now I must change foods again and take him in to be examined.
**** I KNOW these recalls are for canned and foil packeged foods but who is to say the same ingredients are not being used in their dry formulas as well!! From an economic stand point it would only make sence to use the same grains (tainted) used in the can as well as in the dry food?
So, from my own emperical obsevations with my cat and using to different types of cat food on the recall list all be it dry food instead of the nationally listed canned foods. I believe this is bigger problem than what we are led to believe it is much more worse! Case in point, 16 pets is the number of deaths often reported being used on many major news sites ,however, I have read up to a 1000 pets have died since this problem has been reconized. Do a thorough seach and find out for your self.
My point? The dry food especially Iams “dry” food may also be tainted with rat poison along with Prority dry “Hair Ball Formula” cat food. So be careful and watch your pets behavior especially concerning its eating habbits when it comes to any of the dry foods made by the companys on the recall list.
Good Luck,
Jacob
Sofia Sabotage
Jacob:
I’m sorry to hear about your dilemna with your cat. It’s awful to see a pet (or any other helpless creature) go through something they or their own cannot control.
I have heard talk about dry food being questioned as to whether or not it carries the same poison.
Check it out:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/16994560.htm
Also, PETA has petitioned IAMS for a long time now to get them to stop animal testing their food. They do not treat the animals they’re testing in a fair manner. Maybe this whole rat poisioning deal WILL get thousands of people to stop buying their products.