Dog, cat food recalled over deadly fungus risk 12-24-2005 posting

[Kolesar]

Dog, cat food recalled over deadly fungus risk
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Associated Press
Columbia, S.C. - A pet food company has advised retailers in 23 states, including Ohio, to stop selling some of its dog and cat food that may be contaminated with toxic fungus.

Several dogs have gotten sick and some have died.

The fungus produces poisonous aflatoxin. Symptoms of aflatoxin poisoning include lethargy, loss of appetite, yellowish eyes and gums, and severe or bloody diarrhea.

The 19 varieties of dog and cat food recalled this week were made by Diamond Pet Foods and sold under the brand names Diamond, Country Value and Professional. The recalled batches have date codes of March 1, 2007, through June 21, 2007, and were made at the company's plant in Gaston, S.C.

---
Seven dogs from the Rochester, N.Y., area were being treated for liver disease and failure at Cornell University Hospital for Animals after eating contaminated food, said university spokeswoman Sabina Lee. An area veterinarian discovered the link after three dogs died, she said.

The pet food was distributed to stores in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Vermont and Virginia.

For more information, visit www.diamondpet.com.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/113542741043300.xml&coll=2
---
Kick the thread and hug your pet

[ComerPerro]

1. Kick

[napi21]

2. Yet another reason NOT to buy generic pet food!

A lot of generic pet foods are made by individual smaller companies, as opposed to most human generics are made by the major suppliers just with a different label.

For sure, it's better to feed your pet a generic than to let him/her starve, but I don't believe in it at all. There's less nutrition in the cheaper generic pet foods, and too much risk.

[rzemanfl]

4. I can't imagine our cat eating generic cat food. She won't even

eat tuna that isn't packed in spring water.

[REP]

14. "Diamond" Isn't a Generic

It's actually a fairly decent brand (or used to be; I used to feed my cats the Professional).

[Cooley Hurd]

3. K&R - the more people know about this...

...the safer our pooches and kitties will be!:thumbsup:

[AirmensMom]

5. There's too much risk in feeding commercial pet food,

especially dry food. It's full of mold and bacteria, not to mention the other nasty things, even in "premium" brands.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Posted article on this in LBN yesterday. Thread contains additional info

on the recall and ramifications. Posters also offer a lot of additional pet feeding info on this thread. K & R.:-)

Company recalls tainted pet food
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2003690&mesg_id=2003690

[Kolesar]

19. Well done! I admit I didn't search much for dupes, but maybe its better

There's an old saying that goes: "two threads are better than one"

[Rhiannon12866]

21. Absolutely! The information here needs to be spread as widely as possible.

People need to know about this and DU is perfect for this, since we have so many members, now, and are a community of animal lovers. That's the reason I posted this, as soon as I saw it, and also kicked and recommended your thread. Actually, I considered cross-posting this in the Pets group, since some DUers will automatically go there, without checking other forums. Maybe I will... Posting this in GD was a great idea, because traffic is so heavy here and lots people will see it.:-)

[Blue Diadem]

7. list of products:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/22/dog.deaths/index.html


Company recalls tainted pet food
17 deaths may be linked to pet food contaminated with fungi

Friday, December 23, 2005; Posted: 4:43 a.m. EST (09:43 GMT

(CNN) -- One of the nation's largest dog food producers has recalled some of its products in 22 states after receiving reports that they caused death and illness, a company executive said Thursday.

In a letter to thousands of its suppliers, Diamond Pet Food announced it found aflatoxin in products made at its Gaston, South Carolina, plant, said Chief Operating Officer Mark Brinkmann.

The affected products:

• Diamond Low Fat Dog Food

• Diamond Hi-Energy Dog Food

• Diamond Maintenance Dog Food

• Diamond Performance Dog Food

• Diamond Premium Adult Dog Food

• Diamond Puppy Food

• Diamond Maintenance Cat Food

• Diamond Professional Cat Food

• Country Value Puppy

• Country Value Adult Dog

• Country Value High Energy Dog

• Country Value Adult Cat Food

• Professional Chicken & Rice Senior Dog Food

• Professional Reduced Fat Chicken & Rice Dog Food

• Professional Adult Dog Food

• Professional Large-Breed Puppy Food

• Professional Puppy Food

• Professional Reduced Fat Cat Food

• Professional Adult Cat Food

[Crazy Dave]

8. Thanks. We don't need any vet bills this month.

Over the past three years we've spent over $4000 on our pets and their illness. One of my cats cost me $700 in one night and I paid my mom's vet bill for over $1600 for her pooch.

BTW - We're not talking about blue ribbon, prize winning cats and dogs either, just our babies, LOL!

[EFerrari]

9. kick

[B Calm]

10. Some inside info I got last night from a local weiner wrap company

employee. Their company over the last few years have been downsizing in the United States and building up their operation in Mexico. Right now they are getting shipments from Mexico with mold and are trying to clean it up and still sell it.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Kick, kick, kick...... this is BS. How is curious george going to

protect us from ourselves?? Oh right, outsourcing weiner wraps, or at least doing little or nothing about companies doing it "over there".

[imaginary girl]

11. Kick and thanks!

[nicknameless]

13. Kicking.

Recommending.
Hugging.

[roseBudd]

15. This sounds like a boutique brand and not an Old Dad type...

I am amazed at how pet owners embrace the boutique brands and trash the big 3, Iams, Purina, and Hills when the quality control in a boutique brand IMHO is somewhat scary.

The pet food true believers never question anything they read on the internet trashing the big 3, including there's roadkill in the pet food. Yet they trust the boutique brands to be totally altruistic.

[LisaL]

16. It is not a boutique brand. I have seen it sold in

regular pet stores.

[quiet.american]

18. FWIW, my cats scrunch up their noses at IAMs wet food :)

-- and I can't say I blame them. It's the most unappetizing looking and smelling cat food out there, and in reading the label, I was surprised to see they still put meat by-products in their products --I thought they were supposed to be a cut above, say, Friskies, or Whiskas -- but if their labels are an indication, they're exactly the same. (I feed my cats the Triumph brand, anyway).

[tuvor]

32. Maybe your dog knows something...?

For nearly 10 months in 2002 and early 2003, a PETA investigator went undercover at an Iams contract testing laboratory and discovered a dark and sordid secret beneath the wholesome image of the dog- and cat-food manufacturer: dogs gone crazy from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs; dogs surgically debarked; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no veterinary care.

http://www.iamscruelty.com/introduction.asp

[tuvor]

17. Do your pets a favour and feed them raw, not processed crap

There are plenty of sites on the internet devoted to raw feeding for your pets.

Literally all of my friends with dogs feed them raw meat and vegetables, and they're all healthier for it. Great coat, no smell, clean teeth, fewer health problems, better immune system... The cost is a little higher than buying kibble, but it's more than mitigated by the benefits, i.e. fewer vet bills.

Here's a couple of links to start you off.
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/animals.htm
http://www.rawlearning.com

[LisaL]

20. You seriously think raw meat will be safer than cooked?

LOL.

[tuvor]

26. Absolutely.

I gave you some links. Did you check them out?

Or do you have evidence that states otherwise?

[roseBudd]

22. Fatal septicemic salmonellosis in the feline

Notice I said fatal. As a proud member of the reality based community I have respect for animal scientists aka DVMs and ACVIMs.

from:
http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=81801

The November/December 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association provides a case report detailing the occurrence of septicemic salmonellosis in two cats fed a raw meat diet (Stiver et al. Septicemic Salmonellosis in Two Cats Fed A Raw-Meat Diet. J Am An Hosp Assoc 203;39:538-542. Accessible via www.jaaha.org).

The two cats were part of a cattery environment and demonstrated clinical signs of gastrointestinal upset, weight loss, and anorexia that quickly progressed to a moribund clinical state and death. Postmortem examination confirmed septicemic salmonellosis as the underlying etiology with tissue cultures identifying Salmonella typhimurium in one cat, and Salmonella newport in the other. Similar culture results were obtained from the raw food fed to the latter cat.

While this report is the first to describe the occurrence of salmonellosis in cats secondary to a homemade raw-food diet, the results, at first glance, may appear to hold little clinical significance as salmonellosis has been identified in other species under similar circumstances. Raw food diets have been associated with a variety of infectious agents common to both pets and people, including Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli O157, Yersinia enterolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium perfringes, Clostridium botulinum, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus (LeJune et al. Public Health Concerns Associated With Feeding Raw Meat Diets to Dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001;Vol 219, No. 9:1222-1225.)

snip

Walt Ingwersen, DVM, DVSc, Dipl. ACVIM

[Madrone]

25. My reality based DVM placed my cat on a strict RAW meat

diet to manage his diabetes rather than imposing insulin shots a couple of times a day upon us both for the rest of his life. It's working - and my cat is healthier than he's been in a long time.

[tuvor]

27. YMMV, but DVMs get paid to promote brands, just like MDs.

Myth #4: My veterinarian recommends feeding X brand of kibble

We need veterinarians for all the many services they perform. In fact, I just finished co-authoring a book on natural dog health with a wonderful holistic veterinarian (holistic vets are trained in traditional medicine first, then continue their education into holistic care so they are even better trained than traditional vets). However, she deferred to me in the nutritional and feeding part of the book and is referring clients to me for nutritonal counseling. Why would she do that? Because veterinarians get very little nutritional training. They are taught disease management and care. Another interesting thing is that the training they do receive is often taught to them by the PET FOOD industry! That form of incorrect training has also led them to believe the myth (see myth #5) that dogs and cats are ominvores.

Veterinarians are therefore very linked to the pet food industry since they receive kickbacks and revenue from marketing these commercial foods for the pet food manufacturers. Even more sinister is the fact that these pet food companies promote their products to upcoming veterinarian graduates at the universities and GIVE them free pet food to sell! Here's an example: Colgate-Palmolive, the company that manufactures Hill's Science Diet, spends "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year funding university research and nutrition courses at every one of the 27 US veterinary colleges. Once in practice, vets who sell Science Diet and other premium foods directly pocket profits of as much as 40%" (Parker-Pope, T. 1997. For You, My Pet. The Wall Street Journal. 3 November 1997. In Lonsdale, T. 2001. Raw Meaty Bones. p266).

http://www.thepetprofessor.com/articles/article.aspx?id=1950

P.S. My vet has a vested interest in promoting prescription kibble, but he's honest enough to encourage us to continue to feed our dogs raw food, because he sees that it works. So you can cut it out with the proud-member-of-the-reality-based-community stuff.

[LisaL]

30. Why do you think it's not recommended for people to eat

our burgers raw? Doesn't it stand to reason that the same sort of thing that could kill us if we eat raw meat could hurt our pets?

[tuvor]

31. No, it doesn't stand to reason at all.

The main reason being that dogs aren't people.

And again, my vet is 100% in support of what we're doing.

I provided a couple of links regarding the benefits of raw (as nature intended) vs man-made kibble. If you have information proving otherwise, please post it.

[LisaL]

29. Exactly.

[caligirl]

23. and my dog breeder feeds all her dogs the BARF diet as do I. She

highly recommends the BARF diet. I have kept my dogs on this and they do great with it. Fresh fruit vegs oats and raw chicken wings as well as other types of meats fresh from the fridge. The bones are easily eaten and never splinter because they are not cooked. I would never feed a dog cooked chicken bones. My dog has excellent teeth and never requires teeth cleaning at the vet(we don't like the effect of anesthesia on dogs and potential problems) Its more a risk to you if you don't handle it properly. http://www.skansen.com/nutrition/bone.htm

[rumpel]

24. kick.

on edit. I never heard of this brand. But I am in CA. Wonder if AKC is on top of this...

[ngGale]

28. Kick for pets....

my pup loves baby carrots, I cook and debone chicken.