Dog Food Recall

Dog Food Recall - Latest Info

Maker of tainted pet food to pay $3.1 million

1/4/2008
By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A company that made contaminated pet food that killed dozens of dogs nationwide will pay $3.1 million in a settlement with pet owners, an attorney said Friday.

The pet food, which contained a mold called aflatoxin, was produced at Diamond Pet Foods’ plant in South Carolina. The company will set up a fund to reimburse pet owners for the loss of their dog, veterinarian bills and the cost of any unreturned contaminated food, said attorney Jim Andrews, who represented a Knoxville, Tenn., family that sued the company.

Diamond Pet Foods, based in Meta, Mo., acknowledged that workers at its Gaston, S.C., plant failed to follow internal testing procedures to ensure its products were safe. The company made the acknowledgment after the Food and Drug Administration released a report showing the company has no record of test results for 12 shipments of corn in 2005, when grain tainted with the deadly fungus slipped into the plant.

The company contends it did nothing illegal, according to the settlement.

An attorney for the company said Diamond would cooperate with claimants.

”Diamond’s taken care of its customers since the very first day that they found out about this, and I think the settlement that we’ve entered into continues to do that,” lawyer Jeffrey Thompson said from his office in Knoxville, Tenn.

Aflatoxin, a naturally occurring chemical that comes from a fungus sometimes found on corn and in other crops, can cause severe liver damage.

The contaminated pet food was sold in 23 states. Diamond recalled about 20 varieties of dog and cat food when a New York veterinarian said in December 2005 that she had linked a dog’s death to the company’s food. An estimated 350,000 bags of dog food were recalled, according to the settlement.

Both attorneys said Friday they did not know how many people were expected to file claims against the company. According to the settlement agreement, Diamond and its insurance company have already settled about 1,200 related claims for compensation ranging from the price of recalled food to veterinary bills and pet deaths.

The settlement states that owners of a dog that died as a result of eating the contaminated food could receive up to $1,000. Owners could also be compensated up to $1,000 for testing and treatment for aflatoxin poisoning, as well as payment for up to two bags of pet food.

Andrews and other attorneys representing the claimants will receive a fee of $465,000, which will be paid out from the $3.1 million, according to the settlement.

The 2005 recall is unrelated to the contamination problem that prompted recalls of more than 100 pet-food brands in early 2006. In that case, investigators traced pet deaths to a toxic chemical, melamine, that had been added during manufacturing in China.

© 2007 Associated Press

Pet Food Recall: Wal-Mart Dog Food Recall for Salmonella

By Nancy Streets | Jun 7, 2007

A new pet food recall that is unrelated to the earlier tainted pet food that has caused at least 16 pet deaths and thousands of dog and cat illnesses has hit Wal-Mart stores. A weary and beleaguered group of animal lovers were advised that a pet food maker Wednesday recalled some of its dog food sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores because of concerns about possible salmonella contamination.

• Pet Food Recall: Wal-Mart Dog Food Recalled for Salmonella
• Pet Food Recall: Wal-Mart Dog Food Recalled for Salmonella

According to a release only a single batch of 55-pound bags of Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition dog food is being recalled. The dog food was produced at a plant in Manassas and distributed to 69 Wal-Mart stores in several states including Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio. Forty of the stores are in Virginia.

Pet owners are advised to check their bags and discontinue feeding their dogs the food immediately. According to an Associated press report, the company recalled the dog food after the Food and Drug Administration detected the presence of salmonella. People handling the food could potentially be exposed to the bacteria, along with pets that eat the food. The company said no illnesses have been reported.

Affected bags have the code 04 0735 1 and a “best by” date of April 13, 2008. Doane Pet Care is a division of the privately held, McLean-based Mars Inc. manufacturer of candy and pet foods. Have questions? Call 800-624-7387

Dog Food Recall Toxin May Have Been Intentional

The suspect ingredient in the dog food recall may have been used to increase protein content, FDA says. Melamine found in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China may have been used to “artificially increase protein content,” said Stephen Sundlof, DVM, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.

The FDA says it’s just a theory at this point, but is investigating all options. At this point, however, China has not allowed FDA inspectors into the plants suspected of supplying the contaminated products.

When the dog food recall was initiated in March, the FDA’s investigation focused on wheat gluten imported from China that was tainted with melamine, but earlier this week the government agency found melamine in a rice protein concentrate imported from China by San Francisco-based Wilbur-Ellis.

With the additional pet food protein source contaminated, the FDA is now sampling additional raw ingredients at the U.S. border that are coming from China, but it declined to say which ones. It is, however, sampling all wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate from China, it said.

Contaminated corn gluten was used to manufacture a pet food made in South Africa, the FDA said, but it has no reason to believe that the product entered the United States. The contaminated products have produced a repetitive stream of pet food recalls during the last month that have embroiled brands as varied as grocery store labels to Petco and Wal-Mart to Iams and smaller companies with a holistic bent, such as Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo.

More recalls are expected in the coming week as the FDA traces the remaining 155 metric tons of potentially contaminated rice protein gluten that was shipped by Wilbur-Ellis to five pet food companies.

Diamond Pet Foods and Blue Buffalo have already been identified as part of those five, but the FDA said it could not identify the remaining companies due to its ongoing investigation. Seventeen of the 2,600 pet foods listed in the Davis Veterinary Consulting’s database contain rice protein concentrate, according to Sean Delaney, DVM, a founder of the company and an associate veterinary/assistant clinical professor at the University of California at Davis.

Companies use the concrete to add a pure source of protein to a cat or dog’s diet without adding other elements such as carbohydrates, he said. There’s nothing inherently wrong with using wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate as ingredient, he said. Delaney, whose company offers consumers and pet food companies advice on creating pet diets, cautioned pet owners against cooking homemade food for their pets in the coming months.

“It’s really important that people realize that most pet foods are safe for animals,” he said. Trying to create a homemade formula could only make things worse, he said.

What you feed your dog is as important as what you feed your kids!

Of course we all love our dogs. Of course, we want the best for them, right? Well, let me tell you that just as the Cigarette Industry continues to sell a product that is well known, and not disputed, to cause cancers and other major health problems - including death - the Pet Food Industry is doing the same thing! In any bag of your name brand kibble, the packages list it’s nutritional values, etc. If you surf to the list of ingredients, you’ll find that in most - if not all name brand kibbles - contain Wheat and Corn fillers. In those two ingredients contain the proteins that shoot up their nutrition values. Now, that would be great if our canine companions where created with the same “systems” that we humans have. But that’s simply not the case.

You see, we humans are omnivores. We eat meat as well as greens and grains (such as wheats). Rabbits and cows are herbivores, as they eat strictly greens and grains. There is no meat within their diets. Carnivores, however, get their nutrition from killing and eating other omnivores and herbivores. Of course, the animals cornivores eat are typically smaller than they are!

Here is a brief discription of the cornivore/omnivore/herbivore relationship:

A carnivore is an animal that gets food from killing and eating other animals. Carnivores generally eat herbivores, but can eat omnivores, and occasionally other carnivores. Animals that eat other animals, like carnivores and omnivores are important to any ecosystem, because they keep other species from getting overpopulated. Since carnivores have to hunt down and kill other animals they require a large amount of calories. This means that they have to eat many other animals over the course of the year. The bigger the carnivore, the more it has to eat. You should make sure that you have many more herbivores and omnivores than carnivores.

Taken from URL: http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272613898.shtml