** NEW RECALL ** Science Diet: Hill’s Pet Nutrition recalls Feline m/d Dry Diet

[nicknameless]

From their website:
http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu_Foods_03302007_en_US.htm

In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill’s is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, wheat gluten for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of melamine. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent of all Hill’s products.

This is the only product Hill’s currently sells in the United States and Canada that contains wheat gluten from any supplier. No other Hill’s Prescription Diet® or Science Diet® products are affected by this voluntary recall. Hill’s Science Diet Savory Cuts Feline canned cat foods, manufactured by Menu Foods, were previously withdrawn from the market as a precaution. Together with this earlier withdrawal, less than 1% of all Hill’s products have been affected.

The voluntary recall of Hill’s Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food involves discontinuation of all retail sales and product retrieval from sellers. This recall does not include Prescription Diet m/d Feline canned food which contains no wheat gluten.

Consumers should stop using this product and return it for a refund. All Hill’s products carry a 100 percent guarantee, and consumers can receive a refund for recalled product.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. We're seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as recalls. Shrubs Ideology..

Rich people don't need Public Safety.

[nicknameless]

3. You've hit the nail on the head, orpupilofnature57

They're saving a buck, and our fur kids are paying the price.
And the human food supply isn't any better.

[lyonn]

31. Has anyone seen Barney lately, or bush's female scottie?

[kestrel91316]

2. Thank you for catching this! I had two bags on the shelf, pulled it.

BTW, link to my Pets Forum update thread for 3-30:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=243&topic_id=25039&mesg_id=25039

I think I only have a couple patients on M/D dry. No reports of illness.

[havocmom]

8. And thank YOU, kestrel91316, for your tireless efforts to keep us updated

Passing along info via emails and posting on my page

Updates and expanded recall info much appreciated.

Corporations survived Bhopal and what they did to brown people far away. Now they are seeing how far they can push their luck with pets in the US. Time to reel the bastards in and make them start facing consequences.

America, one of the first things the GOP Congress did after bush took office was change the requirements for labeling HUMAN food with country of origin. Food safety is not something we should be cutting corporations ANY slack on. Much more danger than the 'terrasts' bush made a joke about looking for. :grr:

[orpupilofnature57]

19. For sure ,thank you kestel91316, and Lula thanks you too.

[Shallah Kali]

32. corporations have proven history of poisoning people - accidently but dead is dead.

bush admin. might like to push the terrorist button but we are all more apt to be sickened by american businesses than terrorists.

[yy4me]

4. Can any DU'ers who hear of any dry food recalls post the name

of the product here, please. I just heard there were two. Hills Science is one, anyone know the other?

[nicknameless]

7. There have been complaints about several dry varieties.

Primarily because the ingredients are pretty much the same.
Some names: Iams, Nutro, Science Diet, and more will undoubtedly be named.

This thread is pretty big, but you'll find additional info there:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x512700

[juno jones]

10. Read a lengthy thread

a couple of nites ago relating people's (and their vets) suspicions about Nutro Max. I have been feeding friskies and one of the costco dry brands, so far, no problems except for a case of generic wet food I bought on sale right before this broke. Probably a good thing the cats turned their picky little noses up at it....

[kestrel91316]

5. Delete. i am insane, lol.

[havocmom]

11. Possibly a bit stressed, but surely not insane

:hug: For all you do to keep us informed :toast:

[kestrel91316]

13. Can't the mods combine ALL these pet food threads this afternoon?

I can't keep up. And i am breaking in a new employee today, to boot.

:crazy:

[havocmom]

15. Was wondering if Elad and crew could make a special link with the treads indexed

or something. It might save some lives.

[nicknameless]

17. That would make things worse. The threads are too long.

Check the Pet forum, since these topics are being cross-posted.

[havocmom]

6. Thanks for staying on top of it, nicknameless

Just sent out emails and updated my organization page with your most recent link.

Time to clean some corporate clocks. :grr:

[kestrel91316]

12. I wouldn't jump all over ANYBODY who bought tainted gluten just yet.

Even Menu Foods. It is entirely possible they are victims of criminal fraud or some such themselves.

Somebody needs to be held responsible for this. It remains to be seen who that somebody really is. Hill's cannot (and neither can ANY other pet food manufacturer) be expected to test every single batch of ingredients for every conceivable adulterant. There are tens of thousand of chemicals in our world. They would literally run out of ingredients and money for testing before they would run out of things to test for.

I don't have any idea what the solution to this problem is. Once FDA gets to the bottom of it, then and only then can we contact our legislators to ask for new laws to prevent this from happening.

[havocmom]

14. Companies need to keep an eye on what is being made under their labels

Yeah, I know, they were duped, but ... how long before ANYBODY started mentioning any problems?

If there is no come-uppance for corporations to face, what incentive do they have to do the right thing and INSIST on some monitoring of what gets made for sale with their names on the bags?

[Critters2]

20. Call me crazy, but I can't see any good reason to be importing wheat from China

to KANSAS!!! except to produce a cheap product of poor quality...and then pass it off as not only "premium" but a prescription.

The solution is buying good quality ingredients. And not importing crap.

Why do you keep defending Hill's and Menu Foods....because you sell it?

[havocmom]

22. Agree. I live in a community of people who are wheat producers

There is NO shortage in the US and prices are not high.

If I were a farmer, I would be aiming my John Deere at D.C. and talking to everyone along the way in hopes of getting a following. The policies need some lookin at!

[kestrel91316]

35. Hill's does not import wheat, lol.

Sounds to me like you have already decided that I am not to be trusted because of my career path. Ask your questions of Hill's. Here's their phone number: 800-354-4557

I have some questions for them myself.

[Critters2]

45. Hill's uses imported wheat in their products

and there's no reason for it. This is about more than pet food, this is about globalization. Maybe in Los Angeles, you can ignore the implications of importing wheat to a wheat-producing state. But for those of us in agricultural areas, this raises more concerns than just Fluffy getting sick, though that's plenty to be concerned about.

And yes, if Hill's manufacturer is using imported wheat, Hill's bears responsibility. In effect, Hill's imports wheat. And they'll do it without my pets eating the end product ever again.

[Pachamama]

50. Globalization - that is exactly what the problem is...and if we think that this is just effecting

our animals pet food, we are all going to be in for a tragic and rude awakening in the future. Does anyone really feal "safer" because of the FDA? They can't inspect everything and with everything being focused on profits and the bottom line, I think its inevitable that the situation is going to be worse in the future not just with pet foods, but our food supply. The FDA can barely keep up with all the prescription medicines they approved that are now being recalled or causing problems since they fall subject to pressures of the pharmaceutical and big business industry, so I personally am freaked out by this whole situation as it relates to my pets health and even my own family.

I have been feeding my cats Hill's science diet thinking they are "safe"...now this...I am so upset...I'm making them food now until I figure out what to do...

[catgirl]

52. I agree.

Check out the other ingredients as well. And why is a bag
$28.00? Because they slapped the word Prescription on it.
One of my cats is on the K/D. After I heard about the recall,
tried the turkey wet food by PetGuard (no wheat, corn or soy),
and so far she's okay. No diarrea.

[Jamastiene]

42. Well, maybe my cats are moral cats and don't

want any adulterants in their food. Okay, lame attempt at humor. I gotta laugh to keep from crying or exploding right now.

What are adulterants and what's the difference between corn gluten and wheat gluten (other than the corn and the wheat) and for that matter what is gluten? I want to get as much of an education as possible about what exactly my babies are eating. I'm tempted to switch to table scraps until they get their act together and quit putting toxic chemicals and rat poison in the cat food. I can't take this anxiety over this. I trusted Science Diet so much. I feel betrayed.

[w4rma]

51. Menu foods found out about this months before they started the recalls, from what I understand.

I still they waited so long, to give executives and insiders the chance to dump their stock.

[nicknameless]

27. And look at these others -- just from TODAY!

FDA identifies “melamine” in pet food samples:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=538952&mesg_id=538952

*Royal Canin* pet food - DEADLY doses of Vitamin D – lawsuit
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x539933

I'm glad to post whatever information comes out. Too many furkids have been sickened or killed.

:(

[kestrel91316]

9. Hill's official recall info re Prescription Diet M/D dry:

http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/Menu_Foods_03302007_en_US.htm

[nicknameless]

16. That's the same link that's in the OP.

[kestrel91316]

34. Oops, sorry. I've been scrambling to keep up with this development

while breaking in a new employee today, lol.

[PhilipShore]

18. How many dry foods contain the same wheat gluten? n/t

[rumpel]

21. Pedigree Dry has wheat gluten

so far no problem in our 3 monster dogs

however, the main ingredient here is corn - I wish I could afford to go back to Innova. I do not want to feed my dogs roadkill and such (just read what's in the brands)

on the Innova website you can do a compare, it lists the ingredients of the common brands

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab

[rumpel]

23. oh oh - Natura CEO - video message

Canned food are made by Menu Foods plants, too.

Since they don't use wheat gluten in their products they believe it is safe.


Interesting insight into these chain of companies of food manufacturing isn't it.

http://www.naturapetcare.com/

[Shallah Kali]

29. Down with Monopolies! This shows how dangerous they are, imagine if HUMAN food was involved

Thanks for the link. My cats eat Evo wet which while it is grainless I still worry about contamination. I hope they find a canning plant soon!!!

[Critters2]

46. Looks like some of Menu's clients are starting to sweat

That seems about right. No matter, if a company deals with Menu, I won't deal with that company.

[Cobalt Violet]

53. Not Costco's Brand, Kirkland's

It contains no wheat at all.

The catfood:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, ground white rice, chicken fat, natural chicken flavor, flaxseed, and assorted vitamins ,taurine, and dried chicory root for fiber.


And so cheap.

[nicknameless]

24. Some recs. could save some lives. ... Please?

More and more info is coming out about contaminated foods, pet owners need to at least know what NOT to feed.

[Shallah Kali]

26. k & r. the aspca said the rat poison didn't cause kidney failure

i wonder if this new find is not the only other contaimination in pet food......

[nicknameless]

28. My suspicion is that there are several contaminants.

[Shallah Kali]

30. just wiki-ed melamine - causes kidney stones & cancer. don't mention renal failure

is there any group out there that tests pet products like Consumer Reports which tests appliances and the like and ConsumerLab which tests vitamins & supplements? I am not high income but I would take a membership in a group that tested pet food regularly since the FDA and the pet food companies themselves can't be bothered.

[rumpel]

36. I think you are right...

:(

[LostinVA]

33. Bought Wellness cat food at Whole Foods today

Expensive, but NO wheat or corn. ALL the dog food and most of the cat food was gone.

[Critters2]

47. Wellness canned is made by Menu Foods

So, I won't buy any Wellness.

[Cobalt Violet]

54. Kirklands is very, very cheap.

And has no wheat or corn either. Check it out if you have a Costco near you. My cats love it. I think I paid $11.00-12.00 for a 25 lb. bag.

[DawgHouse]

25. Thanks for the update! This is important!

K&R

[rumpel]

37. get this:

the regulatory agency that is NOT

I went there from pet connection which noted he/she will not copy and paste because: "because I honestly don’t think it’s good for my blood pressure."

What is your reaction to the FDA’s Announcement earlier today?



We believe the announcement today by the FDA supports the products and the procedures used by Menu Foods in the recall. We are pleased that they have acknowledged that the nature of the adulteration could not have been identified by detection methods used by the industry and by their acknowledgement that no violations occurred.



One area that has made this recall particularly confusing is that Menu Foods executed the recall before there was a known scientific cause for the illness experienced by pets and with very few reported incidents from the field. We believe today’s press announcement by the FDA again supports our actions. The actions we took out of an abundance of caution undoubtedly saved many lives.



The FDA has reported that the adulterant found in the wheat gluten has only been found in wheat gluten from one specific supplier of that ingredient. This is the ingredient referenced in our recall announcement of March 16.

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/070330E%20Opening%20Statement%20-%20March%2030%202007.htm

on edit: the "few" animals reported at pet connection is now 2400. Considering 60 million tons - I guess that is "few". But why 60 million? Because ALL canned foods are manufactured by these people.

grrrrr.

[nicknameless]

38. Menu has been despicable about this.

They had reports of illness in December -- and did NOTHING about it... for 3 months.

And I don't trust the FDA much more than I do Menu.
They have been receiving MANY calls about dry foods as well -- but acknowledge nothing about it?
This is typical "regulatory" agency behavior under bushco.

How many thousands more are going to die before these SOBs take meaningful action?!

[nicknameless]

39. And the PetConnection death count is now over 2,600.

"Update 3/30 (5:30 p.m. PT): More than 2,600 pets have been reported as deceased to our PetConnection database."

:cry:

[rumpel]

40. Wow - did you see this post there from a former plant employee?

they also ask that all posts be cross-posted everywhere because posts - are being deleted!

#

This is probably more the Truth. What Menu doesn’t want us to know.

Comment on Yahoo group, MenuFoodsClassAction:
Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:19 am
I was a temporary employee for Menu Foods in Emporia Kansas for about 8 months. One of the, well the only “benefit” provided us temps, was that we were allowed to take home one slat of pet food per week. This was never pouches, it was damaged or mislabeled can food. After several months of feeding this food to my cat, who had always been extremely healthy, she got terribly sick in a short period of time and died. I don’t have any proof of what she died of
because I didn’t take her to the vet because there was no reason for her to become ill and I thought perhaps she was just under the weather. — She had always been an indoor cat. I don’t know her age but she was well into her adult years when I got her and I had had her about six years and I might add, through some terribly difficult years. We were very close.

I joked with my car pool at the time that it was probably the food that killed her, but truthfully, I had concerns about the plant conditions. Also, for those that don’t understand “manufacturing,”
all the brands that you are talking about are made by Menu. Menu, I recall, had 5 or 6 plants, mostly in the Mid-North and the main one, or head office, in Canada. As far as I am aware, none of which made dry pet food. At the plant I worked in the main difference between
products was in additives to the gravy. But Menu had spent a great deal of money putting in equipment to manufacture pouches in the last 3 years. They believed that can food would eventually phase out and they wanted to be on top of the game. The pouches had more
variance in product because dried vegatables were added into the mixture. The meat products in all these foods was the same. But even though the can food was ground meat in many cases, all food had additives that were added according to recipes that were not even
allowed to be discussed by employees or shared with anyone outside the plant. Even temps signed contracts to such at the beginning of their employee. My concerns at the time were not so much about the additives. I had heard about gluten not being good for cats, but I didn’t think about the gluten in the gravy, although I had worked in vegatables which was close to the gravy area and knew that there were sacks of gluten added in the gravy. It wasn’t that, if you
might be conjuring up pictures of Steven King’s Night Shift, the plant was filthy that bothered me or that I saw anything wrong with the production, although some of the meat products looked pretty green around the edges. It had more to do with some shifts in the lead over qc in the pouch department. Our lead took another job in the plant and when they finally gave us a new lead we were qc’ing about 100 pallets of food per shift, not nearly enough time to do a thorough job. There were 108 to 136 boxes of 24 pouches on one pallet. The plant ran 24 7’s. But if I had been thinking a bit more clearly at the time, recalling a large batch of food that was pulled that had dark flecks in it and later distributed, I don’t know why I would think that the plant would be profoundly concerned with qc. Except for the fact that Menu owned the Walmart account and it was highly coveted. Iams, Eukanuba, Mighty Dog, Special Kitty, were all regularly ran. (We did very little Science Diet, no Alpo.) The fleck situation happened, I might add, because a gravy
employee put the wrong additive into the food and it reacted with another additive, or so I was told.

I left their employee in June of last year. I might add that they failed their last inspection. I heard rumours about a theplon (?) coated container being too close to the production line was the
problem, but you know, it’s all so hush, hush. I assumed that the corrected the situation.

Comment by Steve — March 30, 2007 @ 3:46 pm

#

http://groups.myspace.com/petfoodrecall

Leave information here too, because I’ve seen some posts on sites deleted, and they were of the more incriminating nature. These companies do not want information all over the place, and when the court cases hit, some sites could be shut down? I don’t know…we need to cross post everywhere!

Comment by J — March 30, 2007 @ 4:25 pm


on edit: forgot to add link
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2007/03/30/pet-food-recall-menu-foods-drops-another-friday-news-release/

on second edit: the now all too common Non Circumvent Non Disclosure Agreement. There should be a law, when the public's health is at stake, especially resulting in deaths, that this information can be compelled.

[nicknameless]

41. I saw that.

I wonder how long ago the employee's cat died.

I hope those with the "incriminating nature" information will post again ... on multiple websites.

[rumpel]

44. I hope so, too

:(

[Holly_Hobby]

43. K & R n/t

[roguevalley]

48. I am going with Hundenflaken, an imported specially made dog food.

My Gretchen used Science until it made her fat.

[roguevalley]

49. anyone know anything about Canine Cavier? thanks.

[Critters2]

58. Not a thing. Never heard of it. Where do you get it? nt

[roguevalley]

62. our feed store, where I get Hundenflaken Solid Gold for my boys.

my sister uses Canine Caviar.

[Kurovski]

55. K&R.(nt)

[Rhiannon12866]

56. K&R! Christ! My little dog eats a Hill's prescription diet (A/D) that I get from my vet.

I thought for sure that this had to be safe, especially since I ran all this by my vet when I took my two dogs in earlier this week. I've given this to him since I first adopted him several years ago. *sigh* I checked all the cans, to make sure that none of them contain wheat gluten, and they don't, but this is still very frightening, since the news about this just seems to be getting worse...:scared:

[Critters2]

57. After much consideration and research, this is my plan for feeding the critters:

My Sophie, the one who has been struggling with a variety of symptoms over the past three weeks (but is now home and seems okay *knock on wood*) is getting Pet Promise cat food.

The Vegan Beagle, who is allergic to eggs, gets Natural Balance Vegetarian. She was getting Natural Life Veg, but NL uses Menu Foods for some products, so not an option.

Shamu, my kitty with a tendency to weight problems, is getting Pet Promise Healthy Weight.

Leon, who has been on Hill's c/d is switching to Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health Formula (I'm heading to Farm and Fleet to get some momentarily). My vet is considering ordering some of the Purina Prescription Diets, and if he does that, Leon will get their flutd formula.

This way, none of my pets is getting anything related to Menu Foods in any way. And thus, Menu Foods is not getting any of my money. I don't feel altogether great about supporting the Danforth family with my dollars, but they seem to be more responsible businesspeople than the good folks at Menu Foods Income Fund :eyes:.

And so, my permanent boycott of Menu Foods and its clients begins.

[Critters2]

60. So much for that. It turns out Purina uses Menu as a manufacturer, too.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

[opihimoimoi]

59. My cat seems to be safe...but this case calls for a review of the obssession of buying cheap crap

from wherever....

then including this crap in the food chain...pets or Human....remember how Mad Cow DSisease got started....feeding them cows/steers with processed waste products from sheep/cattle/etc...

We never did find out who thought of and implemented this gruesome idea...did we? Corp Cover up made sure of that...Bastids.

[Kurovski]

61. Kick.(nt)