Lucky Dog Blog

One correction to the last post

Apparently Wal-Mart did pull the products off the shelf in July when they received complaints, they just neglected to announce this to the thousands of people who already purchased the tainted product until this week.  My bad.  I don't want to misrepresent Wal-Mart's actions.  Wal-Mart is now saying you should return your treats.  'Cause I'm sure you still have those in your cupboard after a month.  One report on MSNBC has quote from Consumer Report's senior director of product safety planning stating...

"...it might not have hurt to give people an informal notice so they could choose whether to keep using the treats."

Really?  Letting people make informed decisions?  Hmph.  Not a bad concept.

Enjoy your day.  I'll keep you posted on anything else I find.

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers

We'll be having a sale on Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in aisle five.  No wait!  Scratch that - we can't... BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN MELAMINE!! Instead we will be secretly taking them off the shelf and hope that nobody has already purchased these products, fed them to their dog, and now their dog has DIED.

So here's the story.  In July, consumers at Wal-Mart complained that their pets were getting sick from the above mentioned products. JULY!  Wal-Mart had to conduct TESTS to see what was causing the problem.  Does Wal-Mart management not watch the news?  Are they not aware that melamine has killed a bunch of pets?  Wouldn't it be prudent to remove the product on the assumption that these Chinese made products just might be tainted with melamine?  Is that such a stretch?  Instead, they make an announcement YESTERDAY, AUGUST 21st that the treats are tainted with low levels of melamine.  SHOCKER!  Come on.  And they still aren't issuing a formal recall because the melamine content was very low and they need to do more testing.  I'm sorry - I didn't realize there was an acceptable melamine content level for pet food.  Especially given the various sizes of dogs.  I'm sure a Chihuahua can handle that low level just as well as a Great Dane.  In fact, one woman claimed that her two year old Chihuahua died from eating these products.  I guess the levels weren't low enough were they Wal-Mart?

Those products again were:

Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co

Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading

Wal-Mart's "official" statement can be found here.  In my opinion, it's pretty weak.  And I tried to get onto the website for the Bestro treats.  It's been deactivated.  They have, for your convenience, translated the deactivation message into seven different languages though.  How's that for standing behind your product?  It also appear that both products are made by the same company.  And one last question - if these are 100% Chicken meat, where is the melamine coming from?  HMMM... Perhaps there's a little tainted wheat gluten in there to increase the protein content. Or maybe it is helping bind together all of the scraps of left over meat.  Who knows? 

Please throw them out if you have any of these products in your house.  Or better yet, take them back to Wal-Mart and demand that they be taken off the shelf.  I don't know if these products exist in Canada.  They probably do. 

So what is a consumer to do?

Please read your labels and make sure you know where your food and treats are coming from.  Keep your eye out for wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate.  Until regulators figure out how to prevent tainted products from hitting the shelves, you won't know the quality of ingredients being used in your pet foods and toys.  Unless the ingredients are human grade.  Then at least the ingredients have gone through some standards and testing.  This melamine thing is far from over.  As more tainted products are coming out (toothpaste, children's toys) we are finding just how lax the regulations are for Chinese made products. 

I'm sure I will have more to say about the subject tomorrow.

Yikes

I just read this in one of the weekly pet newsletters I subscribe to.  This is a direct quote only because there is really no other way to describe something this appalling.

"Regulators in China have recently closed 180 food plants where inspectors uncovered more than 23,000 food safety violations." 

For the love of DOGS people!  180!!  Now to be fair, I'm sure it is a very small percentage of food plants considering the size of China but STILL.  1-8-0.  And that includes people food.  Some of the violations included using industrial chemicals (melamine I believe falls into that category), banned dyes and other illegal ingredients.  SHEESH.  I am glad we source all of our ingredients from North America.  Every last one of them.

Just to beat this topic a little longer, another report states that one-fifth of China's consumer products do not meet government safety and quality standards.  And just to be clear, those are the Chinese safety and quality standards.  Many of these companies are small production facilities.

To get a broad view of the extent of the food contamination, check out this Washington Post article on-line.  It's pretty scary.

I realize there are economic issues in China that are driving many of these infractions.  I get that when people are hungry and trying to survive that they may do what they can to make money.  I also understand that some people just might not know any better.  If you weren't trained in chemistry, how would you know that certain dyes cause cancer?  There is a bigger problem that goes beyond contaminated pet food ingredients.

On the flip side, the people purchasing these products are creating a demand for inexpensive (at any cost) products.  If they aren't asking the questions of their suppliers because ignorance is bliss, then these companies are just as irresponsible.  Again if you check out the Washington Post article, there is a suggestion that perhaps the wheat gluten was created for industrial use and that it was the companies who purchased the gluten who misused it.  HMMM!  There's a new twist.

Anyway, it is something to ponder this holiday week.  Happy 4th of July to our neighbours (and yes that is neighbours with a U).  Back to a full work week next week so enjoy your day.

mavis

Petfood contamination update

If you remember our earlier post, a Texas laboratory reported that they found acetaminophen (the drug found in Tylenol) contamination in multiple brands of wet and dry, dog and cat food.  The laboratory, ExperTox, declined to name the petfoods involved.

On June 12, the U.S.  Food and Drug Administration tested two types of dog food and one type of cat food and ruled out acetaminophen as a petfood contaminant after they found no trace of the drug.  It is not clear whether the FDA tested the same production run of petfood or even the same brands that were tested by ExperTox.  More testing is being done.

My personal opinion:

COME ON PEOPLE!  Three types out of the hundreds of brands of petfoods out there?  I might not be a statistics whiz but that seems to be a bit of a long shot to rule out contamination from three brands.  Why the big secret?  Why can't ExperTox reveal, at least to the FDA, what brands?  Or is ExperTox just trying to drum up business?  Why are pet owners being kept in the dark?  HMPH!

We'll let you know if we hear anything else about the topic.

Mavis

New contaminant found in Pet Food

There is information starting to circulate about a new contaminate in pet food. ExperTox, a Texas lab, reported finding acetaminophen (Tylenol) along with cyanuric acid in several brands of pet foods which were not identified. Acetaminophen was found in at least five samples of pet food that were submitted by pet owners and pet manufacturers. The medication was mostly found with cyanuric acid, and hundreds of other samples that were sent in tested positive for melamine. The contaminants were found in pet foods that have not been recalled.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating a Texas laboratory's finding of acetaminophen in dog and cat food, an agency spokesman said Monday.

"We're very interested in being able to test these samples ourselves to determine the levels of those contaminants," said FDA spokesman Doug Arbesfeld. "What's significant is these things are there. They don't belong there."

The pain medication is the fifth contaminant found in pet foods during the past 2 1/2 months and can be toxic or lethal to pets, especially cats. It is not known if any animals became sick with acetaminophen poisoning, or died from it.

"We were looking for cyanuric acid and melamine, and the acetaminophen just popped up," Donna Coneley, lab operations manager for ExperTox Inc. in Deer Park, Texas, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday. "It definitely was a surprise to find that in several samples." Story from Pittsburgh Tribune

We'll keep you updated as we find out more information.

Bonnie