Tainted love
Pets’ favorite food turned deadly

Annie Gleba | contributing writer
agleba@smcvt.edu

In a press release issued March 17, the Food and Drug Administration recalled 95 different pet foods, sending pet owners into a worried frenzy. The food, manufactured by Menu Foods Inc., caused kidney failure in cats and dogs around the country and 14 confirmed deaths by March 20, when the FDA held a conference call for the press.

The basics

On March 23, scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified aminopterin (a kind of rodent poison) as a toxin present in cat food samples from Menu Foods, wrote Cary Giguere, the Agrichemical Management Chief of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, in an e-mail interview.

Menu Foods posted a list of the recalled pet foods on its Web site. The list includes 42 cat foods and 53 dog foods. All of these are moist pet foods; no dry foods have been affected, as the production plants in question only produce moist foods, according to the FDA.

The list includes 42 cat foods and 53 dog foods. All of these are moist foods; no dry foods have been affected. (Colin Vallance, photo)

During the conference call, Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center of Veterinary Medicine, says that Menu Foods Inc., a privately labeled pet food manufacturer based out of Ontario, Canada, recalled its custom gravy style dog and cat food produced in their Kansas City and New Jersey based plants.

The FDA was notified of the recall on March 15. It is said to have occurred due to customer complaints to the company, and routine tasting trials conducted by the company where some cats and dogs developed kidney failure after eating the affected food.

Sundlof reports that 13 cats and one dog were reported dead after eating the food. Nine of these cats died during the tasting trials, while the other four were consumer owned pets, along with the one dog.

The FDA is currently investigating samples of the affected foods and the process by which the company produced the pet foods. According to Sundlof, the company initially suspected that the problem may be linked to a shipment of wheat gluten that the Kansas City and New Jersey plants received. This is due to the fact that the only changes made in production that coincide with the reported deaths are the supplier of this wheat gluten.

Mary Ann Sterling, a veterinarian at the Hope Center for Advanced Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, VA, says that while she is not sure of the exact number of animals they have seen that have been affected by the contaminated food, there have been a number of animals treated for similar symptoms to those shown in affected animals. She continued to say that the symptoms are vague, but she has heard that they can be fatal to pets. The symptoms include a recurrance of vomiting and diarrhea, as well as a decrease in appetite and an increase in “renal values,” she says.

The problem hits home

Ron Finegold, of Boynton Beach in Florida, fed his cat Tallula some of the affected pet food, and she was subsequently hospitalized and treated for renal failure. According to Finegold, the cat stopped eating and was drinking a massive amount of water.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I caught her drinking out of the toilet twice — usually cats don’t do that,” he says.

"The manufacturers are in a defensive posture. They're running for cover," Finegold says." (Colin Vallance, photo)

Finegold brought Tallula to the vet before the recall occurred, and happened to hear the story reported on the news a few days after. Finegold says he immediately got on the Internet to try to find information on the recall but was unsuccessful until the next morning, when he discovered the list of affected pet foods, along with production dates. When he checked the dates on an old pouch of food, they matched. He called the vet immediately afterwards.

“The manufacturers are in a defensive posture. They’re running for cover,” Finegold says.

When he checked the Web site the day he hospitalized his cat, the pet food he had fed her was not even reported on the list of tainted foods. The Associated Press release that he had read earlier, however, did.

Finegold says he called the reporter who wrote the story to ask where he got his information, only to find out that the information had been given to him by the FDA. Two hours later, Finegold says, his brand of cat food, and others, were added to the manufacturer’s list.

Finegold has been trying to contact Menu Foods since the controversy hit home for him, only to reach a busy signal every time he has made a phone call.

Menu Foods Inc has announced that they will refund consumers who purchased the contaminated food.

“The vet bills haven’t stopped yet,” Finegold says.

He says he has been getting phone calls from people around the country that have had their pets affected by the contaminated pet foods.

“It has not been a pleasant week or so,” Finegold says.

The aftermath - what do we do?

During the conference call, Sundlof suggests that pet owners look for clinical signs of kidney failure in their animals, such as loss of appetite, lethargy, and vomiting. He recommends that anyone witnessing these symptoms in their pet should call a veterinarian immediately. A possible increase in urination and thirst might also occur in ill animals, and symptoms usually start becoming apparent a few days after the consumption of affected products.

"A lot of people are calling and they're scared about dry food, which is not even part of the recall, or foods that aren't even on the list." -Susan McMillan

Susan McMillan, a vet at the Old North End Veterinary Clinic in Burlington, says that at her small clinic they have been lucky enough to have received no clients affected by the recall. However, she says that at the clinic, they’re still trying to direct people toward what to look for. She believes some of the larger clinics in the area have dealt with ill animals, but she has not seen any come through her doors.

“We’re getting phone calls from concerned clients. A lot of people are calling and they’re scared about dry food, which is not even part of the recall, or foods that aren’t even on the list,” McMillan says.

Any concerned pet owners should check the Menu Foods Web site. Sundlof recommends that owners who find their pet food on the list immediately stop feeding it to their animals and return any unopened product back to the place of purchase. Giguere’s e-mail also says that the FDA has also released a list of criteria that must be found in order to determine whether a pet death has occurred due to the affected food. He says the effect this contamination has had is thought to be greater than initially reported by the FDA.