I know most everyone is aware of this pet recall. Catymology shares some shocking statistics and brings up an interesting questions. The food producers could offer to refund the cost of the food. It’s unlikely they will offer to pay for more if there continue to be more cases of pet illness. Owners who have pets who are effected may have hundreds of dollars in medical bills, irrespective of whether the pet lived or died.
The website that Aloysious links to has a more general analysis of the legal implications. It’s a short article. It mostly covers the various legal action that could be taken if owners are unsatisfied with Menu Foods offers of recompense.
Things to do get into the food supply. It happens with humans. I think pet food issues should be taken just as seriously. I’m fortunately that although I only eat canned food, we eat only organic brands carried by our local coop. The People’s Co-op looks for foods that are mostly local (although I doubt the pet food is) and organic. They’ve stopped carrying brands that have additives that may not be good for people, such as high fructose corn syrup. We’ve been eating a new brand they started carrying a few months ago. Georgia loves it. Before that we would get it when we were closer to the Whole Foods. The coop checkers always ask if our cat likes it.
Having had several cats and read about pet food, it’s harder to judge what is okay in a pet food versus what isn’t. We expect these foods to be nutritious. We expect them to be safe. We expect that they will give us energy and offer us what we need to get from food.
In our household, we look for human quality ingredients, which means no “by products”. While as cats we might eat the beaks and chew the bones for marrow, we doubt there is much nutrition in them after this processing. We look for minimal amounts of additives and as few preservatives as possible. No BHA or BHT, both of which are known allergens. We try to get organic foods whenever possible. We also try and stick with foods that make our naturopathic vet happy to know we are eating. Vets typically know about quality control at the food companies.
We feel badly for those pet owners who were trying to feed premium brand foods, as most of these are, and who are paying the price because of a what sounds like a “supplier” change. Shouldn’t something have been checked before changing suppliers?
We heard that someone has already brought suit against a pet food manufacturer for loss of thier pet(s), and would expect to hear about more legal action to come. What a tragic situation for owners who thought the food they were giving was safe.
Yes this whole thing has been a huge eye opener to everyone. We were reading so many sad stories yesterday and it is so horrible. I seriously hope some good can come of this horrible experience.
My mom is upset that the original cats who died were part of Menu’s testing program. And that they took so long to get the word out.
She read today that some woman bought $1,000 worth of the tainted cat food from some store just so she could throw it out before a cat could eat it.
Chey, this will be an excellent point for your presidential campaign. Safe kittie food.
It is so sad that pets have died or become very sick from eating the tainted food.
My humans feed me only organic cat food, produced with the same ingredients and processing as human-quality foods. It has no preservatives and contains 100% free-range meat or sea fish and organic rice. Sadly, it won’t be available in Canada when we move back there, so I don’t know what they’ll feed me then.
We heard that a lawsuit was filed in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a class action. This could put Menu Foods out of business–but too late for the cats and dogs who died or got sick.
We also heard that many humans are rushing to buy the natural pet foods that are not tested on animals. Get your humans to buy food from the good companies.
The companies we purchase from are always recommended by our naturopath and have been on the market for quite a while. PCC is very reputable with what they screen and my human keeps as much abreast of what a cat needs in food online. We don’t buy just any food. However, a few years ago before we found the naturopathic vet, we had a hard time deciding what food to purchase because our regular vet was no help if we weren’t going to eat Science Diet (which my human hates!)
Chey, by PCC do you mean Purina? Our mom avoided Purina because she didn’t think it was organic and it contains poultry by-products! Is there a Purina we’re not aware of?
Rocky
Yoo have a fire in yer howse!?!?! That sownds dajurous…yoo and yer peeple must be VARY brave!
PCC is the Peoples Community Coop, which I mentioned earlier in the article. I must not have put in the initials before hand. We NEVER buy purina!