pet food recall info update

Pet food recall info update: Subject: [K9Nutrition] BREAKING: FDA says thousands of pets dead, Chinese import alert expands In an import alert buried deep on its website and just uncovered tonight, the FDA last Friday expanded its hold on imported foods from China - ingredients including Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Mung Bean Protein, Soy Bean Meal/Powder/Gluten/Protein Isolate, Soy Protein Powder, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Flour Gluten, Wheat Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Corn Gluten, Milled Rice Products, Amino acids and protein hydrosylates. They also, for the first time, published estimates of pet deaths closer to what other authoritative sources have been speculating for weeks now: As of April 26, 2007, FDA had received over 17,000 consumer complaints relating to this outbreak, and those complaints included reports of approximately 1950 deaths of cats and 2200 deaths of dogs. These numbers are very much in line with what we've seen in our own database of self-reported cases at PetConnection: * Total reports of illness or death: 14,228 * Total cats reported dead: 2,334 cats * Total dogs reported dead: 2,249 >From the FDA report: * Total reports of illness or death: 17,000 * Total cats reported dead: 1950 * Total dogs reported dead: 2,200 To quote my editor and fellow PetConnection blogger, Gina Spadafori: .... The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars. The new restriction is likely to cause delays in the delivery of raw ingredients for the production of many commonly used products. The move reflects the FDA's growing unease with what the alert announcement called China's "manufacturing control issues" issues and that country's inability to ascertain what controls are in place to prevent food contamination. For example, the agency says that, after weeks of investigation, it still does not know what regions of China are affected or what firms there are major manufacturers of vegetable proteins. Inspectors are now allowed to detain vegetable-protein imports from China because they may contain the chemical melamine. Melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics, was found in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that has led to the recall of 5,300 pet food products. At last Thursday's press conference, the FDA said it had no idea how many pets had died and wasn't likely to ever know, and made no mention of the information in this notice. The press conference began at 4:30 PM Eastern time; this notice was posted the next day. Christie Keith Caber Feidh Scottish Deerhounds Raising Our Dogs Holistically Since 1986 http://www.caberfei dh.com/ http://doggedblog. com/ The Food and Drug Administration is enforcing a new import alert that greatly expands its curtailment of some food ingredients imported from China, authorizing border inspectors to detain ingredients used in everything from noodles to breakfast bars. The new restriction is likely to cause delays in the delivery of raw ingredients for the production of many commonly used products. The move reflects the FDA's growing unease with what the alert announcement called China's "manufacturing control issues" issues and that country's inability to ascertain what controls are in place to prevent food contamination. For example, the agency says that, after weeks of investigation, it still does not know what regions of China are affected or what firms there are major manufacturers of vegetable proteins. Inspectors are now allowed to detain vegetable-protein imports from China because they may contain the chemical melamine. Melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics, was found in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate that has led to the recall of 5,300 pet food products. At last Thursday's press conference, the FDA said it had no idea how many pets had died and wasn't likely to ever know, and made no mention of the information in this notice. The press conference began at 4:30 PM Eastern time; this notice was posted the next day. Christie Keith Caber Feidh Scottish Deerhounds Raising Our Dogs Holistically Since 1986 http://www.caberfei dh.com/ http://doggedblog. com/ ******* ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 10:00 AM Subject: [SF] NY Times Article about China Conditions Some Suspect Chemical Mix in Pet Food By DAVID BARBOZA XUZHOU, China, April 10 — Behind an unmarked gate in this booming city well north of Shanghai lies a large building at the heart of an investigation over tainted pet food that has killed at least 16 cats and dogs in the United States, sickened 12,000 and prompted a nationwide recall.This is the property of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, a small agricultural products business that investigators have identified as the source of contaminated wheat gluten that was shipped to a major pet food supplier in the United States.Some American regulators suspect there was deliberate mixing of substances. They are looking into the possibility that melamine, the chemical linked to the pets’ deaths, was mixed into the wheat gluten in China as a way to bolster the protein content, according to a person who was briefed on the investigation. Though American and Chinese regulators are searching for answers, local residents and workers are unwittingly providing clues about how the pet food supply may have become contaminated.The case is also exposing some of the enormous challenges confronting the global marketplace as China becomes a worldwide supplier of agricultural products. There are strong indications that Xuzhou Anying, a company with a main office that seems to consist of just two rooms and an adjoining warehouse here, possessed substantial supplies of melamine and even sought to buy quantities of it over the Internet.If melamine was intentionally blended into the wheat gluten, the findings could become a vast setback for agricultural trade between the United States and China, a country known for lax food-safety regulations.Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference last week that the agency had found unusually high concentrations of melamine in some batches of wheat gluten, as much as 6.6 percent.Xuzhou Anying, though, has tried to distance itself from the pet food recall in the United States, saying it does not manufacture or export wheat gluten and acts only as a middleman trading in agricultural goods and chemicals. In a telephone interview last week, the company’s manager, Mao Lijun, said he had no idea how wheat gluten with his company’s label ended up in the United States or how melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastics, fertilizer and fire retardant, was mixed into a product that was eventually shipped there. Mixing melamine and wheat gluten is an unlikely practice here, according to local industry participants. Nonetheless, the company’s wheat gluten, tainted with melamine, ended up in millions of packages sent to the United States and Canada, leading to one of the biggest pet food recalls ever.ChemNutra, the Las Vegas-based company that acknowledges it imported the wheat gluten from Xuzhou for sale to pet food producers in North America, says Xuzhou Anying provided chemical analyses that showed no impurities or contamination in the packages of wheat gluten. Though some American scientists still question whether melamine is toxic enough to kill pets, the chemical is not approved for use in human or pet food in the United States. The F.D.A. says it may have led to kidney failure in some animals. The question that regulators, agriculture experts, and food producers and distributors may now be asking is whether other substances added to food imports can broadly contaminate the American food supply. The F.D.A. has said none of the contaminated wheat gluten leaked into human food.Here in Xuzhou, a metropolitan region of about 1.6 million, Mr. Mao turned away visitors to his office, declaring that he had nothing more to say on the matter.But there are indications that Xu- zhou Anying has manufacturing facilities in this area and also had access to melamine, which is sometimes used as a fertilizer in Asia. For instance, in recent months Xuzhou Anying has posted several requests on Web trading sites seeking to purchase large quantities of melamine. In a March 29 posting on a site operated by Sohu.net, a big Chinese company, officials of Xuzhou Anying wrote, “Our company buys large quantities of melamine scrap all year around.” There were also postings on several other trading sites like ChemAbc.net.A truck driver parked across the street from the company’s main office here said that Xuzhou Anying did operate manufacturing facilities and that he carried goods for the company.“Yes, they have a factory that makes wheat gluten,” said the man, who did not give his name and then telephoned the manager of Xuzhou Anying to check whether he could take visitors to the factory.On Tuesday, a reporter visited one of the facilities the truck driver identified in the village of Wangdian, about 10 miles south of company headquarters, but the gate to the building was padlocked.Storage sacks that appeared to hold grain or agricultural supplies were stacked outside the site in a vast wheat- and garlic-growing region here in Jiangsu Province.“They used to have their headquarters right over there,” said Chen Wei, a technology director at Nanjing Shibide Biologic Technology, an animal-feed company next door. “They’re pretty well known for their products.”Chinese regulators say they are now carrying out a nationwide inspection of wheat gluten supplies. American regulators have banned all wheat gluten from China, but there has been no domestic recall so far of gluten produced by Xuzhou Anying; the company’s wheat gluten can be used to make bread, baked goods and other food.Li Jundang, manager of Shandong Binzhou Tianjian Biotechnology, a wheat gluten producer in the city of Binzhou, about 200 miles north of here, said, “We never heard the news of tainted pet food.” Another gluten exporter, Shandong Rongchang, also said it was unaware of any problems with Chinese wheat gluten.Nor, it seems, have journalists in Xuzhou, who work under state censorship. “I didn’t know this news about Xuzhou Anying,” said Li Ning, news director at The City Morning Post, a daily newspaper here. “And even if we had heard about the news, we wouldn’t be able to report on it because it’s negative news.”Most experts on wheat gluten in the region said they had never heard of mixing it and melamine. “If you add chemicals into the wheat gluten, it is no longer called wheat gluten protein,” says Jiang Shaotong, a professor of food engineering at Hefei University of Technology in nearby Anhui Province. “I can’t think of any reason why melamine is needed in the production process.”Chinese customs officials do inspect or sample products planned for export, but those inspections are not thought to be stringent enough to detect the presence of every chemical or impurity.Asked about the investigation, a Chinese official working for the inspection and quarantine bureau declined to comment. But lax food-safety regulation and standards are a problem; food producers sometimes dye meats to make them look fresher and even sell fake milk powder for babies. This week, the Chinese government reported that an elderly woman died and 202 people were sickened at a hospital north of here after they consumed a breakfast cereal that turned out to be laced with rat poison. Cheryl McDavitt Just another aging hippie working for the establishment to buy stuff for Maggie & Selkie, the imperial Scottish Folds ******* http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/business/worldbusiness/30food.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin  Ellie Waldron President, APLB ******* The AVMA has sent out an updated list of pet food recalls.  This is the URL to learn the latest.  www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/default.asp   Click on View the list on the opening page for the latest in recalls. And check out Related Announcements a little farther down on that page.   If you are contemplating changing the food you are presently using, you will want to look to be certain it is not on the list, as well.    FROM THE FDA: The Hill’s cat food now being recalled is labeled Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food. The products are: list of 2 items • 4 lb. bag, U.S. & Canada UPC code 52742 42770 • 10 lb. bag, U.S. & Canada UPC code 52742 42790 list end  For more information, consumers may contact Hills Pet Nutrition at 1-800-445-5777 or visit www.HillsPet.com For further daily iformaiton, please contact www.hsus.org    At the very top of the page click on Pet Food Recall. I strongly urge you to daily search Pet Food Recalls because more and more foods are being added.  This is a very serious matter that we all must pay attention to if we have pets in our homes. Ellie Waldron President, APLB ******* In light of more and more pet foods being recalled, I feel it my duty to let you know about them.  These two URLs bring us yet more unpleasant news.    http://petnblog.preciouspets.org/?p=510  http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall/  It is my hope that you have not lost a pet as a result of these foods.  Remember the chats for however you may have experienced the death of a companion - a furry family member.  Warm regards,  Ellie Waldron President, APLB ******* He is sooooo busted!!!    Is this guy stoooopid or what?   Kit Menu Foods CFO sold stock before pet food recall 10/04/2007 11:30:30 AM     _____    The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund says it was a "horrible coincidence" that he sold nearly half his units in the pet food company less than three weeks before a massive product recall. Pebbles, a Yorkshire terrier who is battling kidney failure after eating dog food that was later recalled, is cared for at Collett Veterinary Clinic in Los Angeles. (AP / Reed Saxon) Pebbles, a Yorkshire terrier who is battling kidney failure after eating dog food that was later recalled, is cared for at Collett Veterinary Clinic in Los Angeles. (AP / Reed Saxon) Insider trading reports confirm that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units, or 45 per cent of his stock, for $102,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, reports The Globe and Mail. The shares would be worth $62,440 at current prices. Wiens still owned 17,193 units and options to purchase 101,812 units after the sale. "It's a horrible coincidence, yes . . ." Wiens told The Globe. "I hold myself to the highest ethical and moral standards possible. I wouldn't do anything to imperil the high governance standards that I demand of myself or anybody in the company." Wiens said the first reports about pet-related illnesses connected to Menu Foods products were made in late February. However, he said that he did not hear about the issue until early March. The Streetsville, Ont. company eventually issued a recall for 60 million containers of dog and cat food on March 16. "In terms of process, during any given year, we get consumer complaints all the time and it becomes matter of course for our technical people, so it's not something that necessarily gets flagged right to the top on an ongoing basis," said Wiens. Paul Henderson, the president and chief executive of Menu Foods, said his company severed its relationship with its Chinese supplier of wheat gluten on March 6. Melamine in the supplied wheat gluten has been identified as the root of the problem. Henderson said in a recent press conference that by March 6, it was evident that "something was wrong" with some of the company's products. Wiens said he has not been contacted by the Ontario Securities Commission or any other regulators since the problems erupted at Menu Foods. OSC spokesperson Wendy Dey told the Globe that the commission reviews insider trading reports routinely but she said they do not comment on individual cases. Wiens explained that he sold his shares for financial planning purposes and that he was prohibited from selling until Feb. 16 because of an implemented blackout period. He said he recognized why questions would arise about his trade. "Certainly there would be questions when you piece all the timing together. I understand that," he said. Multiple manufacturers have since recalled their pet foods after using the same supplier. http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070410%2fmenu_foods_070410   ******* MORE!  In a message dated 4/30/07 3:33:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: block quote American Nutrition, Inc. Issues Voluntary Recall Contact: Bill Behnken, 801.394.3477, [email protected] Naomi Keller, 801.554.0023, [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- April 26, 2007 -- The Denver office of the FDA informed American Nutrition, Inc. today that certain samples of rice protein shipped to its production facility have been contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers that may be harmful to animals if consumed. The rice protein in question was obtained from San Francisco-based Wilbur-Ellis Company. The FDA is investigating the use of rice protein, an ingredient found in a number of canned pet food products and baked pet food treats to fortify protein levels, after a portion of Wilbur-Ellis' rice protein supply was found to be contaminated with melamine. American Nutrition immediately discontinued the use of rice protein after learning of the melamine contamination. The FDA has urged American Nutrition to issue a voluntary recall of pet foods manufactured using Wilbur-Ellis rice protein. None of these products is sold under an American Nutrition brand, but are sold through other independent companies. No American Nutrition brands or other products they manufacture for other businesses are affected by this recall. The products subject to this recall are as follows: CANNED CAT FOOD Blue Buffalo Spa Select Hairball Control Oven Roasted Chicken 3oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Spa Select Kitten Recipe Oven Roasted Chicken 3oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Kitten Formula 5.5oz 15 AUG 08 15 APR 09 Harmony Farms Country Chicken Entrée 3oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Natural Balance Ocean Fish Formula 3oz and 6 oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 CANNED DOG FOOD Blue Buffalo Beef Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Chicken Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Hearty Venison Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Lamb Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Salmon Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Blue Buffalo Turkey Meatloaf Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Canine Caviar Gourmet Beaver 13.2oz AUG 21 08 APR 15 09 Canine Caviar Gourmet Turkey 13.2oz AUG 21 08 APR 15 09 Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Puppy Formula 13oz 21 AUG 08 15 APR 09 Diamond Lamb & Rice 13oz 21 AUG 09 15 APR 10 Harmony Farms Beef 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Harmony Farms Chicken 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Harmony Farms Lamb 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Harmony Farms Salmon 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Kirkland Signature Premium Dog 2-Flavor Variety Pack 14oz (24-pack) AUG 21 08 APR 15 09 Mulligan Stew Chicken 13.2oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Mulligan Stew Turkey 13.2oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Natural Balance Beef Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Natural Balance Chicken Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Natural Balance Lamb Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10 BAKED DOG TREATS Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice Formula Baked Dog Treats 14oz AUG 21 07 APR 15 08 Blue Buffalo Health Bars Baked With Apples & Yogurt Dog Treats 20oz AUG 21 07 APR 15 08 Pet owners who purchased these pet foods should immediately discontinue using the products and return unused portions to the place of purchase for a full refund. These products represent a small percentage of those manufactured by American Nutrition. To reiterate, no American Nutrition brands or other products manufactured for other businesses are affected by this recall. We at American Nutrition care immensely about the quality of the products we manufacture and the health of the pets that consume them. We want to express our deep concern over this situation. Feeding pets has been our business and passion for more than 35 years. We take that responsibility seriously and are very proud of what we do and how we do it. We will continue to work closely with the FDA in their ongoing investigation. block quote end   ******* Sending this from feral cat group as information to everyone. Hope no one has to use it. Kathy  In a message dated 4/19/07 3:42:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: block quote CROSS-POSTING: Jay Edelson, the attorney who is suing Menu Foods and the pet companies, wants to hear from anyone and everyone whose pet was sick or died as a result of the recall food. He needs to hear from shelters and independent rescue groups who lost pets. Bear in mind we are getting complaints of deaths that go back to November, with speculation that food was tainted as early as last September. So please post an announcement to all of your many groups to contact Attorney Jay Edelson, jay@blimlaw. com. His firm has filed suit, has been before Congress, and will be going back to Congress and will be filing more suits. We need ALL THE AMMUNITION we can get. We need to also round up as much tainted food as possible. The companies are destroying evidence. So post everywhere you know to post to have anyone contact Jay. I know there are other law firms involved, but since Jay's firm has already filed suit and has direct contact with Congress, that is our single best resource to get action. Even if they only have tainted unopened food, they need to contact Jay. If they suspect illness or death, have them contact Jay block quote end ******* Mix of chemicals may be key to pet-food deathsStory Highlights • Researchers have found melamine and cyanuric acid in pet food • Scientists: Together, the two chemicals can form fatal crystals in kidneys • FDA: 17,000 consumer complaints, more than 4,000 pet deaths • FDA will begin to stop importation of some products for human food use (CNN) -- Scientists from Canada and the United States say they have new evidence for why dogs and cats died after eating contaminated pet food. Owners of more than 4,000 pets have complained to the federal Food and Drug Administration that their animals died after eating food that was later recalled. Inspectors found melamine in the tainted products, but not at levels that would normally kill. But researchers now say that it may have mixed with another compound -- cyanuric acid -- to produce crystals that may have been deadly. "What we've done is experiments that show if you take cat urine and you add melamine to it and cyanuric acid, the crystals will form in the cat urine in a test tube as we're watching them, so it happens within a matter of hours," said Alan Wildeman, vice president of Canada's University of Guelph, which is renowned for its veterinary research center. The crystals are suspected of contributing to kidney failure in pets. "I think we've identified what we feel is an important and likely underlying positive agent of why the animals are getting sick," Wildeman said. Crystals blocked the tubes leading from the kidneys to the bladder in one cat operated on recently at the Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital inside the ASPCA's New York headquarters, according to Dr. Louise Murray, the group's director of medicine. "The cat's kidneys were completely obstructed, and when we went to surgery to relieve the obstruction, there was no normal stone. Instead, the ureters were completely full of these melamine-type crystals," she said. The FDA has confirmed that rice protein and wheat gluten imported from China were contaminated with both melamine and cyanuric acid -- a combination of which is "a potential source of concern in relation to human and animal health," according to David Elder of the agency's Office of Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Dan McChesney, a veterinary expert with the FDA, said melamine was "surely associated" with the pet deaths and further research was being carried out to see what other factors may have been involved. The FDA said Friday it had received more than 17,000 consumer complaints about the tainted pet food, including the deaths of 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs. The FDA has officially tallied 16 animal deaths related to the pet food recall, which spread to include more than 60 million packages of nearly 100 brands of pet food. Human food supply may be at risk The FDA will begin to prevent the importation of vegetable protein products from China for human food use that may contain melamine. "We see the pet food recall as a warning sign for the government that they need to do more to protect the food supply," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It could easily happen to an ingredient used in human food as well." The FDA says it has collected 750 samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten and found that 330 -- about 44 percent -- tested positive for melamine or melamine-related compounds. It also found that out of 85 samples of rice protein products, 27 were positive for melamine. All of the positive samples were imported from China. The agency has already announced that 6,000 hogs in several states that may have eaten tainted feed should be destroyed, and not put into the human food chain. CNN's Joe Johns and Daniel Ruetenik contributed to this report.   ******* http://www.waggintails.com/ Dear Waggin Tails Customers Two Days ago, we reported a voluntary recall from Natural Balance of their Venison dry dog and cat food.  Yesterday, they expanded the recall to dry and canned venison products for dogs and cats, as well as their venison treats for dogs.  Although the recall is limited to these products only, we have decided to suspend sales of all Natural Balance products.  Below, please find the Natural Balance Press release, a current list of foods we are carrying, as well as an article from USA today, which we found very helpful in identifying the facts around this most recent recall.  What is safe to feed? After reviewing all information around both the Menu Foods recall, as well as this weeks Natural Balance recall, we are left to try and answer the question of “What IS safe to feed our pets?”  This is not an easy thing to answer with complete certainty.  Our opinion of this situation is that the pet food industry has been without scrutiny far too long.  As these events continue to unfold, we do believe that the manufacturers with a total commitment to quality and safety will come out on top.  Those whose commitment is less than that, will not.  We go back to what we said in our first email, which is that this is a result of economy minded manufacturers sourcing economy ingredients.   We have been forced to make a lot of decisions around what products we feel comfortable carrying and which we do not.  Again, not easy, but based on information to date, we feel confident in our next steps.  At this point, here is our position on what we refuse to sell. list of 5 items list of 5 items nesting level 1 • We will not sell foods using any ingredients from outside the US, with the exception of meat from New Zealand.  Nothing in any of the recalls has been related to meat source, so we feel confident in this part of our decision.    • We will not sell foods made outside the US • We will not sell foods made at Menu Foods • We will not sell foods made by a company that will not disclose this information. • We will not sell foods with any ingredients known to be suspect. list end nesting level 1 list end  We feel that this is the appropriate next step to take with all our pet’s health and safety in mind.  It will most likely not be the last step we take. Based on this decision, we have provided a list of foods that we are currently carrying below.  We do invite any specific questions and ask for your patience in response.  The level of communication is at a volume that is far beyond our current capabilities.  We will continue to update you with any new information about the recall or regarding decisions we make about the products we carry.Sincerely,   John GigliottiPresident and FounderWaggintails.com ******* Hi folks: Am forwarding along this offer to receive the latest news on pet food brand recalls. Anyone can sign up for the alert bulletins below. Fran > ----- Forwarded Message ----- > From: < [email protected]> To: < [email protected]> Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 14:14:34 -0500 Subject: More Pet Food Recalls Message-ID: <00d101c78c25$0c70dbf0$1402a8c0@mtvnetworks> Pet Food Recalls - New brands added Some new dog and cat foods have been added to the FDA's recall list. The National Pet Foundation is now offering free "Pet Alerts" which will be sent to your email within the hour of a new pet product being recalled. You can sign up for a free email alert from the National Pet Foundation by visiting: http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/petfoodemail.html Every minute may count as many dogs and cats have recently died due to the tainted pet food. If you do not want to be updated on recalled pet food, no further action is needed and you wont be contacted again. However, if you want to stay up to date on the recall list you can sign up for the free alerts from the National Pet Foundation. We are seeing a new food recalled every few days so these "pet food alerts" really come in handy. If you are a vet or in an animal related field, feel free to share this service with your customers. Fox News reported on April 2nd, 2007 that "some of the lucky pets are the ones that die fast" referring to the possible long-lasting sicknesses of pets from the recalled food. If you are a pet owner feel free to pass this on to friends or family. Please keep you pets safe. Thank you ******* Hi everyone,  FYI  Niki  Niki Behrikis Shanahan Author of the following books: The Rainbow Bridge: Pet Loss Is Heaven's Gain There Is Eternal Life For Animals Animal Prayer Guide For more information, please visit www.eternalanimals.com   April 30, 2007 Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China By DAVID BARBOZA and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO New York Times ZHANGQIU, China, April 28 — As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein. For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here. “Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.” Melamine is at the center of a recall of 60 million packages of pet food, after the chemical was found in wheat gluten linked this month to the deaths of at least 16 pets in the United States. No one knows exactly how melamine (which is not believed to be particularly toxic) became so fatal in pet food, but its presence in any form of American food is illegal. The link to China has set off concerns among critics of the Food and Drug Administration that ingredients in pet food as well as human food, which are increasingly coming from abroad, are not being adequately screened. “They have fewer people inspecting product at the ports than ever before,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. “Until China gets programs in place to verify the safety of their products, they need to be inspected by U.S. inspectors. This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional.” Now, with evidence mounting that the tainted wheat gluten came from China, American regulators have been granted permission to visit the region to conduct inspections of food treatment facilities. The Food and Drug Administration has already banned imports of wheat gluten from China after it received more than 14,000 reports of pets believed to have been sickened by packaged food. And last week, the agency opened a criminal investigation in the case and searched the offices of at least one pet food supplier. The Department of Agriculture has also stepped in. On Thursday, the agency ordered more than 6,000 hogs to be quarantined or slaughtered after some of the pet food ingredients laced with melamine were accidentally sent to hog farms in eight states, including California. Scientists are now trying to determine whether melamine could be harmful to humans. The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country has had a terrible food safety record. In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim. For its part, Chinese officials dispute any suggestion that melamine from the country could have killed pets. But regulators here on Friday banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies. Yet what is clear from visiting this region of northeast China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed. Many animal feed operators here advertise on the Internet, seeking to purchase melamine scrap. The Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, one of the companies that American regulators named as having shipped melamine-tainted wheat gluten to the United States, had posted such a notice on the Internet last March. Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is then used to create plastics and fertilizer. But the leftover melamine scrap, golf ball-size chunks of white rock, is sometimes being sold to local agricultural entrepreneurs, who say they mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that is high in protein. “It just saves money if you add melamine scrap,” said the manager of an animal feed factory here. Last Friday here in Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, two animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine scrap, whose chemical properties help the feed register an inflated protein level. Melamine is the new scam of choice, they say, because urea — another nitrogen-rich chemical — is illegal for use in pig and poultry feed and can be easily detected in China as well as in the United States. “People use melamine scrap to boost nitrogen levels for the tests,” said the manager of the animal feed factory. “If you add it in small quantities, it won’t hurt the animals.” The manager, who works at a small animal feed operation here that consists of a handful of storage and mixing areas, said he has mixed melamine scrap into animal feed for years. He said he was not currently using melamine. But he then pulled out a plastic bag containing what he said was melamine powder and said he could dye it any color to match the right feed stock. He said that melamine used in pet food would probably not be harmful. “Pets are not like pigs or chickens,” he said casually, explaining that they can afford to eat less protein. “They don’t need to grow fast.” The resulting melamine-tainted feed would be weak in protein, he acknowledged, which means the feed is less nutritious. But, by using the melamine additive, the feed seller makes a heftier profit because melamine scrap is much cheaper than soy, wheat or corn protein. “It’s true you can make a lot more profit by putting melamine in,” said another animal feed seller here in Zhangqiu. “Melamine will cost you about $1.20 for each protein count per ton whereas real protein costs you about $6, so you can see the difference.” Feed producers who use melamine here say the tainted feed is often shipped to feed mills in the Yangtze River Delta, near Shanghai, or down to Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong. They also said they knew that some melamine-laced feed had been exported to other parts of Asia, including South Korea, North Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. Evidence is mounting that Chinese protein exports have been tainted with melamine and that its use in agricultural regions like this one is widespread. But the government has issued no recall of any food or feed product here in China. Indeed, few people outside the agriculture business know about the use of melamine scrap. The Chinese news media — which is strictly censored — has not reported much about the country’s ties to the pet food recall in the United States. And few in agriculture here do not see any harm in using melamine in small doses; they simply see it as cheating a little on protein, not harming animals or pets. As for the sale of melamine scrap, it is increasingly popular as a fake ingredient in feed, traders and workers here say. At the Hebei Haixing Insect Net Factory in nearby Hebei Province, which makes animal feed, a manager named Guo Qingyin said: “In the past melamine scrap was free, but the price has been going up in the past few years. Consumption of melamine scrap is probably bigger than that of urea in the animal feed industry now.” And so melamine producers like the ones here in Zhangqiu are busy. A man named Jing, who works in the sales department at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory here, said on Friday that prices have been rising, but he said that he had no idea how the company’s melamine scrap is used. “We have an auction for melamine scrap every three months,” he said. “I haven’t heard of it being added to animal feed. It’s not for animal feed.” David Barboza reported from Zhangqiu and Alexei Barrionuevo reported from Chicago. Rujun Shen also contributed reporting from Zhangqiu. ******* Here are some pet food petitions to sign, and an additonal article below.  Thank you!  Niki Behrikis Shanahan Author of the following books: The Rainbow Bridge: Pet Loss Is Heaven's Gain There Is Eternal Life For Animals Animal Prayer Guide For more information, please visit www.eternalanimals.com  Poison Pet Food   http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/195184864?ltl=1177085577  Let's Make A Change in the Pet Food Industry   http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/937015756?ltl=1177085394  Do You Really Know What's in Your Dog/Cat Food? Petition for Clearer Information on Pet Food Labels. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/982404068?ltl=1177085194 Petition to Require Pet Food Companies to be Held Accountable for Damages http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/231907158?ltl=1177085062 Also, an additional article here:  Local Pig Farm Linked to Pet Food Recall? Written for the web by Trevor Tamsen , News Producer   CERES, Calif. (AP) -- State agriculture officials have placed a Stanislaus County hog farm under quarantine after an industrial chemical that's tainted more than 100 brands of dog and cat food was found in pig urine there. Additional testing is under way to determine if the chemical, melamine, was present in the meat produced by American Hog Farm since April third. Officials say so far evidence suggests that there is minimal health risk to people who have eaten pork produced at the farm. State officials believe the melamine came from rice protein concentrate imported from China by Diamond Pet Food. The company's Lathrop facility produces products under the Natural Balance brand and sold salvage pet food to the farm for pig feed. Officials say American Hog Farm generally does ot supply meat to commercial outlets. They say the 15-hundred-animal farm sells to customers looking to purchase whole pigs.  ******* One of my PWAC friends who has cats (and is a superb researcher) mentioned that the Pet Connection website (www.petconnection.com) has a more up-to-date and comprehensive list of safe vs recalled foods than the FDA site. Go to the blog, and you'll see links there to click on. Bobbi Simon Teakettle Ink Please see our newly-revised website: www.SimonTeakettle.com ******* The CBC reports: An industrial chemical imported from China has now been detected in a third ingredient used to make pet foods, leading officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speculate that the contamination may be intentional. Melamine, which is used in plastics, was found in wheat gluten and in rice protein concentrate that was imported from China to make pet foods in the United States in recent weeks and days. That and the deaths of 16 pets in March led to a recall of more than 100 dog and cat foods in the U.S. Now, melamine has been detected in imported corn gluten in South Africa that has killed 30 dogs, officials from the South African Veterinary Association said Friday. . . . melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is . . . . That raises the possibility the contamination was deliberate. More at http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/04/20/southafrica-petfood.html Simon Teakettle Ink Please see our newly-revised website: www.SimonTeakettle.com ******* This just came in from a PWAC writer who has cats. The U.S. FDA has posted a consolidated list of recalled pet foods related to the Menu Foods et al recall as a Microsoft Excel file at: > http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html This list is useful in vetting "safe" or at least "not recalled" pet food as it lists everything at a glance, unlike the Menu Foods listings that segregate each brand or product list to a separate web page. The FDA also warned a few days ago that recalled products have remained on store shelves in some cases. So knowing what is safe is important in avoiding dangerous products. The FDA had listed another recalled pet food as of 16 April 2007 but states that there is as yet no indication whether the latest product recall is related to the Menu Foods issue. ******* FYI -- three stories related to new findings. amy ************************************ Guelph University finds a clue to petfood problems Scientists at the University of Guelph say they have discovered a chemical process that may explain how pets were sickened and killed by tainted petfood. The Guelph scientists found that melamine and cyanuric acid, a metabolic by-product of melamine, react with one another to form crystals that may block kidney function. Tests at the university's laboratory identified these crystal-like substances in the kidneys and urine of affected animals. Last week, a chemist at the Agriculture and Food Laboratory in Guelph decided to test the reaction between the two compounds in a setting similar to that of an animal's kidney. “Our research had taken a number of turns, and so we decided to take a look at the two substances implicated by the FDA,” said John Melichercik, director of analytical services for laboratory services at Guelph. The experiment resulted in the formation of a precipitate in a crystal-like form. Analysis of the crystal determined that it had a chemical fingerprint matching that of crystals found in the urine and tissues of animals that died of renal failure. “We overlayed the two scans, and they were a very good match,” he said. Melichercik said that while research had been done on the chemical reaction between the two compounds in an industrial setting, this was the first time it was applied within the context of the petfood recall. "I wouldn't call it a novel finding in terms of the scientific community, but in terms of this particular situation, nobody has really talked about the possible mechanisms of how this could be occurring,” he said. He said the findings also explain how two compounds that weren't dangerous on their own could become toxic when they react together. About the ongoing petfood contamination crisis, traceability expert Julie Lenzer Kirk said, “No one is immune, we're all in this together and the repercussions remain to be seen.” She was speaking at Petfood Forum on April 18, 2007, as part of a panel discussion on “Traceability: what do you do when something goes wrong?” For the full story click here. *************************************** Melamine from petfood enters human food chain China has given American regulators permission to enter the country to investigate whether Chinese suppliers exported contaminated ingredients to the United States earlier this year. Representatives of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been previously blocked from entering China, where tainted wheat gluten and other animal feed ingredients were sourced. The agency is also investigating imports of rice protein from China. The FDA also identified a second Chinese company, Binzhou Futian Biological Technology, which exported animal feed tainted with melamine to American petfood and animal feed suppliers. Apparently, the practice of falsely increasing protein levels in animal feed with melamine is widely performed in China and no regulations exist to prevent or restrict its use, as reported recently by CBS News. Regulators in California have since found melamine in rice protein animal feed that was fed to livestock, and the fear is that the chemical could have entered the human food supply chain through hogs and chickens. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the FDA learned that by-products from petfood manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten imported from China have been used in chicken feed on some farms in the state of Indiana. At this time, the investigation indicates that approximately 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to poultry within days of receiving it. All of the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated product have since been processed. The breeders that were fed the contaminated product are under voluntary hold by the flock owners. FDA and USDA anticipate that as the investigation continues additional farms will likely be identified that received contaminated feed. For additional information visit http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.htm. ************************************************ Method detects melamine in petfood A professor and a graduate student in University of the Pacific's (Stockton, California, USA) chemistry department have developed a new method of determining if petfood has been contaminated with melamine. Professor O. David Sparkman and student Teresa Vail used a mass spectrometer connected to a DART, or direct analysis in real time, device to determine that a recalled can of dog food contained melamine, a chemical used in plastic furniture, cookware and fertilizers. While traditional processes of determining whether food has been tainted can take an hour or more, the new technique takes just minutes. Mass spectrometry is used to determine the mass and identity of molecules in substances. The DART interface device allows food substances to be analyzed without sample preparation. Vail and Sparkman will present their breakthrough method in June at an American Society of Mass Spectrometry conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. But Sparkman hopes the method will be applied widely in the real world. “We hope other people would embrace the work on this, and it will become a standardized tool,” he said. Living Better, Loving Longer...With Complete Care! AMY D. SHOJAI, CABC www.shojai.com IAABC Certified Animal Behavior Consultant Columnist: CatChow.com, Sergeants.com, P'ETiquette Author 22 cat and dog care books *************************************** Chicken Soup for the Dog (Cat) Lover's Soul PETiQuette: Solving Multipet Behavior Problems The First-Aid Companion for Dogs & Cats Complete Care: For Your Aging Cat, Dog, Kitten ******* There are some familiar names on the expert list: http://www.petfoodreport.com/commission.htm amy Living Better, Loving Longer...With Complete Care! AMY D. SHOJAI, CABC www.shojai.com IAABC Certified Animal Behavior Consultant Columnist: CatChow.com, Sergeants.com, P'ETiquette Author 22 cat and dog care books *************************************** Chicken Soup for the Dog (Cat) Lover's Soul PETiQuette: Solving Multipet Behavior Problems The First-Aid Companion for Dogs & Cats Complete Care: For Your Aging Cat, Dog, Kitten *******