The Menu Foods Pet Food Recall that began back in March of this year is still an issue. Except, now some of the recalled food is not related to Menu Foods. Other manufacturers have fallen victim to tainted product supplies as well.
What started with a recall of “wet, gravy and cuts” style foods has now been expanded to include some dry foods too. As recently as May 7, 2007, the ASPCA’s Pet Food Recall Resource Center added a new product: Doctors Foster and Smith Dry Dog Food. (Made by Chenango Valley.)
Some of the more recent recalled foods don’t contain the questionable wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate that tested positive for melamine. Instead, concerns about cross-contamination are driving the newer recalls. These are precautionary measures because the same equipment was used to process both the tainted and non-tainted foods. (In Chenango Valley’s case, they state that even though equipment is cleaned between each production run, they don’t want to take any chances.)
When I took Tabby to the vet last week, Dr. Singleton said she had treated a few cases due to the bad food. Luckily none were too severe and all the pets would pull through.
Around the country many of the affected pets have been helped if their symptoms were caught in time. Still, to so many of us, our pets are our family. Just as we don’t want to get sick off of anything we buy for ourselves to eat and want regulations in place to enforce our safety, so, too, do we want that for our pets. That’s the bigger issue this whole recall has raised: what exactly is in our pets’ food and where is it coming from?
What You Can Do
• Check the ASPCA’s Pet Food Recall List to make sure your pets’ food isn’t listed. (I wasn’t aware until just the other day how much the list had grown in the last month. Lots of new products were added in April, including many dry foods. Also, like I mentioned above, more have already been added this month, including just five days ago.)
• The ASPCA recommends only feeding your pets food made from “U. S.-sourced” protein supplements. (To find this out, visit the pet food maker’s website or call them.)
• Speak up! Sites like Petitionz.org are working with pet owners to voice concerns and get legislation passed to protect our pets’ food.
• Be aware. Say you check the list, the food you feed your dog or cat isn’t there, but your pet suddenly gets sick. Contact your vet immediately. It may not be food-related, but the ASPCA warns the “crisis is not over” and they fully expect to hear of more cases.