February 11, 2009 5:11 PM

Pet Food Recalled After Deaths

(AP)  A major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

The recall covers the company's "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Company, Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Click here for a list of recalled brands.
The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods' three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

"To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product," Henderson said.

The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.


A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was available from the Menu Foods Web site. Information can also be obtained by calling 1-866-895-2708.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 28 Comments
by sweetcider74 March 19, 2007 12:27 AM EDT
On Monday 12 I gave my roth a can of dog food that she only gets once a year. It seem as soon as she ate the food she started to foam at the mouth and then vomiting but that wasn't easy for her.Then I was up with her at midnight cleaning up mess of vomit and holding her hand. She seem to be ok. but wouldn't go out side in the morning to go pee. daughter put her out before school thinking every thing was ok. Get home from work and sabrina is hot so we put her outside and all she did was walk around in circle and foaming at the mouth. she wouldn't drink or eat and if she did she would start to vomit. we took her in to the hospital and within 2 hour she was put down due to kidney failure. I can;t make it thou the day without say if i had given her the food she would be here with me today, Sabrina's friends hayle and balou the two kittens that grew up with her can understand why she not here they look for her all the time.
my heart is borke and i don't want to come home cause she not here. Miss you Sabrina
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by amz1982 March 18, 2007 10:00 PM EDT
My cat became sick last week, and was diagnosed with renal failure on Monday. There was no way to save her since almost 100% of her kidney function was gone, so on Tuesday she was put to sleep. I didn't find out about the recall until this past weekend, but by then it was too late - my cat was already gone. But, she did eat Special Kitty every day, and I checked the one package we had left in the pantry and it was on the recall list. I don't doubt that the ones she ate were on there as well.
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by grace35829 March 18, 2007 4:10 PM EDT
Punishment from God to Iams? Iams is been torturing their own test animals for their own good. Please see petition that I signed as well as other people against Iams cruelty. You can do the same by going to: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/995529744
This is what I wrote:
How can people be so cruel with helpless innocent animals that don't have a voice to defend themselves; and you,(Iams) claim that you love dogs & cats enough to make them healthy nutritious foods when you have your own defenseless animals suffering and you don't care about their wellbeing, "bunch of hypocrites", all you care about is the money you can put in your pockets by taking advantage of the poor and the helpless, SHAME ON YOU IAMS!!! But what can we expect from Iams, who's owner is Procter & Gamble; don't you all know that P&G is a satan's corp., & that the founder of P&G himself appeared on national TV around 10 or more years ago, and declared in front of millions of viewers that he had surrender his own soul to satan in exchange for satan to make him extremely wealthy?, what can we expect from someone like that with no conscience, no scruples, no principles; their beliefs are only based on the money they can make. I will let friends and family know about this horrendous things that Iams is allowing in their facilities. Let us all boycott Iams and all P&G products until they come to their senses and stop that horrific abuse to the ones that don't have a voice to defend themselves.
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by cramos7 March 18, 2007 7:19 AM EDT
I heard about the recall after I took my dog to the vet because he was vomiting alot for three days. He didn't check for anything but parvo. My dog came out negative for parvo, so I am thinking that he must have gotten sick from the iams dog food, because I noticed he wasn't feeling well after he ate the food. I am thinking of taking him to the vet again.
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by farmgal2007-2009 March 18, 2007 1:11 AM EDT
I have a 9 mo old Schipperke who I fed the foil pouch Ol Roy which she got 1/2 pouch twice a day. This morning I read about the pet food recall on my homepage and checked the codes with what I had on stock (purchased from Walmart) and they were definately included in the recall.
I then took my dog to the vet to have kidney blood test done and she is at the borderline of medium to bad. Definately not a good report for a puppy. Now I have to worry about each day whether she will get better or worse. I fully intend on making the petfood manufacturer pay my vet bill and any future bills for this problem. And they better pray I dont loose my pet. She means everything to me! I just lost a pet last year and couldnt handle loosing another.
Debi - Princeton, IL.
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by silver9991 March 17, 2007 7:09 PM EDT
zebras5544, the store did not know about the pet food being bad until yesterday or today. Also, you do have to look at the lot numbers being recalled.
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by sullykimmo March 17, 2007 6:27 PM EDT
I am numb... Yesterday my two year old chihuahua dropped dead in my front yard. She was just on my lap as happy as could be.
I feed/fed her Authority brand from Petsmart.
So... what now? Quite frankly, a million dollars wouldn't mend my broken heart.
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by mdc76082 March 17, 2007 5:37 PM EDT
The way I see it is this. Nothing is 100% sure and it never will be. Animals and people will die because of systems that are not 100%. Remember, I said nothing is 100%. Like FractalDonut said in the post, "The residual of this petfood recall, is that the system works." This is true and this is why we have checks & balances in place for both animals and humans. Unfortunately, some may have to pay the ultimate price...but nothing is a 100% guarantee. I can live with that. Also, for humans at least, that's why there's civil court for wrongful death lawsuits. It's not a perfect world.
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by candojj1 March 17, 2007 4:48 PM EDT
Microsoft also provides a free excel (.xcl) viewer. Just Google excel viewer download and download the program and install it so you can read the brands of food.
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by candojj1 March 17, 2007 4:35 PM EDT
If you want to open .xls files download openoffice.org
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