Dog & Cat Food Recall

[dg]

Just a heads up for pet owners. There's been a major canned dog & cat food recall. 10 deaths have been linked to it so far. We just threw out about 20 cans ourselves.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/19/national/main2583072.shtml

recall list here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/17/national/main2581329.shtml

[circle of the tyrants]

Our cats get 9-Lives and the dogs get Pedigree. Luckily, neither are on the list.

Something I did notice however, is that Iams and Eukanuba both are. That tells me that the same company that makes all of these other inexpensive brands on the recall list makes these two as well. Same ingredients as el cheapo brand pet foods yet they charge alot more for those two brands.

[dg]

I noticed that too. The stuff we threw out was Iams, and it was pricey stuff. We have a 20 year old cat that won't eat dry food anymore, and we wanted to give her the best stuff we could find. Hopefully, they use better ingredients for the higher-end food, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out we were just paying for the label.

[S-man]

That's something I noticed as well. The dirty little secret is out because of this recall. At least some of the ingrediants are the same as the cheap stuff. Hmmm.

[OnlineStageGear]

The better stuff has better ingredients. My damn cats can tell the difference....

[xenophobe]

The better stuff does have better ingredients, it's just all processed and packaged at the same plants...

[dg]

An article I just read says the cause is probably contaminated wheat gluten, which is a filler used in most of the food. It also sounds like that list is incomplete, so I'd avoid any canned food that has slices or chunks in gravy until they get it all sorted out.

[hippietim]

In the meantime I suggest feeding your dogs peanut butter.

[fett]

I have a real issue with dog food in general. I have had my share of dogs in my 56 years. I came to the conclusion that what's good for me is good for the dog. So, I fed my dogs leftovers and let them lick the plate. No fat dogs and very happy campers. Some dogfood but mostly scraps. Veggies and all. Why would a dog like dry dogfood? Would you? And the canned stuff is mostly water.

[Chasbo]

Shit, now I have to go get my stomach pumped!

chuck

[dmtnt]

Same ingredients as el cheapo brand pet foods yet they charge alot more for those two brands.

The ingredient that caused the recall is wheat gluten. I work in the pet industry so I have somewhat of an inside scoop on this. From what I'm told, wheat gluten is wheat gluten, there really isn't much variation from one vendor to the next. It's the other ingredients that make a big difference, particularly the meats.

Brands like Nutro and Science Diet really are much better foods for your pets. Don't let this incident sway you, the manufacturer's have jumped on this very quickly and all the affected product is already off the shelves.

[Cleveland Metal]

The pet food indusry is pretty crappy.

Some of the most expensive foods have ranked high on the lists of foods high in sodium pentobarbital, the chemical used to euthanize animals at animals shelters..

This means a portion of the meats they use are procured from vets and animal shelters and consists of animals that have been put to sleep... Animal shelters kills hundreds of thousands of animals a week across the USA. Animals from here, and of course many other sources, are then taken by rendering companies to make, depending on the grade of rendered product, lubricants, soap, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, gelatin, fertilizers, and.... pet foods

For some shelters, it's a source of income but most are happy to not have to pay for disposal of the animals. Basically tho, it's another available source of animal protein and bone meal for the renderers.

Ya gotta realize that in general the meat they use is deemed not fit for human consumption whatsoever.

Very few dog foods use human consumption grade meats. Canidae and Wellness are of those few brands tho there are several more.

Really, what inspires dogs to eat the food is the amount of "tasty" rendered grease that is in the food. Cheaper foods often have less of that stuff, so some dogs wont eat cheap stuff.

Most dry foods are mainly tasteless beet pulp with corn meal sprayed with tasty grease. Umm, sorta like the McDonalds concept of dog food.

Sadly, lotsa dogs refuse to the good quality human grade stuff as it has none of that flavor crap they are used to.

Google it, you'll find it fairly disturbing.

[fett]

I always figured that if the food I cooked was good enough for me it was good for the dogs. What did people do before Dog Food?

[hippietim]

What did people do before Dog Food?

They ate dogs

[Cleveland Metal]

Well, actually they're better off if you are giving them raw food. They have quite a different digestive system than humans. They do excellent with raw meat and bones but need help with veggies. Since in the wild they get a lot of vegetables from the digestive tract of animals they've killed in the form of predigested foods, they need veggies to be pureed to break down the cell structure.