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March 20, 2007
Menu Foods - Sue Their Asses
It turns out that Menu Foods - makers of the poisonous pet food since recalled - has known for at least a month that there were problems with its pet food. But instead of doing an immediate recall and then sorting out the difficulty, they waited until late last week to come clean to the public and issue their recall. In the meantime, pets continued to fall ill of kidney failure and to die. The true number of pets to die from this is not, at present, known. It seems to be widespread, across the country.
The tainted ingredient was the wheat gluten in the food which may have contained molds or heavy metals - the cause is not yet known. If you think about it, though, feeding wheat gluten to cats is just bizarre. It's not as though their systems have evolved for wheat in the diet. In fact, after 1000s of years of eating wheat, it is becoming recognized lately, that not all humans are able to tolerate wheat either - thus the rising number of people recognized to have wheat sensitivities and celiac disease.
Menu Foods claim that reports of problems first reached them in February and they still waited a month to go public. But, that looks like the legal ground that they are staking out for themselves.
According to more informal sources, the kind found on the internet in the comments sections, so take it for what it is worth, warnings first arose months before that.
Kidney disease is the number one killer of cats in the US. Coincidence? I don't think so. I think this is related to the pet food industry. The difference is on this occasion enough food was tainted so that the effects were absolutely widespread and fatal and it couldn't be passed over. I suspect that food has been tainted before.
My cat had a similar but not fatal incident last year. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, he got quite ill - vomiting, no energy, drinking tons of water. I brought him to the vet, it turned out he had early kidney disease, and I changed his diet completely and started using some natural remedies as well, such as making parsley tea for him and giving it to him in a dropper.
I now feed my cat only human grade cat food and table scraps. And he has mostly returned to health although I believe he still has some kidney problems that were brought on with his serious illness. He still drinks a great deal of water, for instance, a symptom of kidney disease. A healthy cat kidney permits a cat to go a long time without water, an adaptation necessary since they were once desert animals.
Alcibiades | 03/20/07 at 05:01 PM | Categories:
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Comments
I am in shock. This is the first I have read about Menu Foods sitting on this information for at least a month. None of the Canadian news I have read in the past week has revealed such information. My beautiful Texas tabby who is now Canadian is meowing pitifully for her duck and salmon pate made by Menu for President's Choice but I am afraid to open them. Tonight she got kosher chicken but turned up her finicky little nose. She likes treyfe. What can I do?
WAFFLE | March 20, 2007 10:05 PM
I need info on how to sue menu foods, as our beautiful cat died within hours of eating tainted cat food,. Thanks so much.
Jane Vanderbush | March 22, 2007 06:21 PM
Shalom and thank you for your exceptional site, I've never seen any come even close. Along with the many, I too would like information on how to sue Menu Foods for the anguish visited upon my baby and myself.
Miriam
dahliyah@videotron.ca
miriam | March 23, 2007 07:59 AM
i need to make this comment also according to my petsmart email the poison is rat poison found in the wheat gluten but the cans of nutro chunks with gravy [which were recalled] according to the lable contain no wheat gluten, i spend a lot of time reading labels because really, thats what makes me decide what to buy, also does this mean that the more expensive brands like nutro iams ect.. are the same garbage as the 10 for a$1.oo brand ? no matter what the lable says?
starpu | March 23, 2007 06:49 PM
Some pet brands were removed from an excess of caution, once they found out about the pet food recall. That may be the case with the nutro cans.
This is what the nutro website says:
Nutro customers may check Nutro's website (www.nutroproducts.com) or contact Nutro's Consumer Hotline (800) 833-5330 for further information about its products. Nutro's website will be updated as more information becomes available. Additionally, general information about Menu Foods' recall is available at www.menufoods.com/recall/
Also there is this at their FAQ
Does that mean that all pet foods contract manufactured by Menu Foods are essentially the same, just branded under different labels?No. As a contract manufacturer for Nutro, Menu Foods creates Nutro brand products according to our own proprietary recipes using our specified ingredients. These formulas are made exclusively for Nutro. Our recipes and ingredient profiles are the result of years of research and development, and meet the highest quality standards for nutrition and taste.
Our foods are different!
In the best case scenario, it could just be that the these pouched foods and cans from nutro were made using the same machinery as the one's containing the wheat gluten, so it was thought wise to recall them.
In the worse case scenario, they are much more like the other brands than nutro would like you to know.
As for Iams, as far as I know, that is not really considered such a great food - too many ingredients like corn in it.
Alcibiades | March 24, 2007 05:55 PM
So sorry to hear about your cats, Jane and Miriam.
As for suing Menu Foods, I assume there is going to be a huge class action lawsuit against them. I suspects that vets might be kept informed of ongoing lawsuits that their clients can join. Make sure to keep your records.
Also, information will be available on the web. Here's a preliminary article about a class action lawsuit with more than 95 people, filed by Progressive Law Group.
I am sure there will be more lawsuits and that this one will grow.
I wonder if Menu foods will survive it.
And maybe people will reconsider buying pet food ingredients from China.
I always check the labels for pet food made in China - I won't buy them anymore because I don't trust their quality control and also because they treat animals terribly.
But when it is just an ingredient grown in China and shipped here, that, of course, would not show up on the label.
Alcibiades | March 24, 2007 06:09 PM
Please sign our petition against Menu Foods and Please post and pass it along!!
Susanne Scott | March 27, 2007 03:27 PM
I’m sorry to hear that so many people have lost a pet.
In Canada, two actions have started against Menu Foods. You can check out http://www.menufoodsclaim.com for more information on how to join the class action lawsuit.
Jennifer | March 28, 2007 05:39 PM
Please everyone read ''Food Your Pets Die For" BY Ann Martin and find out what is really in pet food.DOGS AND CATS, ROADKLL, GREASE FROM RESTAURANTS, EXPIRED MEAT FROM GROCERY STORES, PURE GARBAGE. I have been cooking for my dogs for 4 years. It is an unregulate business. Study up on rendering plants called the Silent Industry, they are owned by the pet food companies. Go to your butcher instead, our animals are worth our investment.
Janet Thome
Janet Thome | April 14, 2007 12:01 PM
