Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Pet food recall affects area

Veterinary services have not seen any ill animals

Evelyn Cronce El Defensor Chieftain Reporter, ecronce@dchieftain.com

FOR THE RECORD:
This article listed Diamond Pet Foods as one of the companies affected by the recall. Sylvia Bachmann, on behalf of Diamond Pet Foods, stated that the Diamond Pet Food recall was in December 2005 and is no longer current. The current pet food recall only affects Menu Pet Foods.

Menu Foods has issued a recall on their food for dogs and cats due to a possibly tainted product.

Menu foods' recall has not been limited by region.

Menu makes dog food marketed under the brands America's Choice, Preferred Pets, Authority, Award, Best Choice, Big Bet, Big Red, Bloom, Cadillac, Companion, Demoulas Market Basket, Eukanuba, Food Lion, Giant Companion, Great Choice, Hannaford, Hill Country Fare, Hy-Vee, Iams, Laura Lynn, Loving Meals, Meijers Main Choice, Mighty Dog Pouch, Mixables, Nutriplan, Nutro Max, Nutro Natural Choice, Nutro Ultra, Nutro, Ol' Roy Canada, Ol' Roy U.S., Paws, Pet Essentials, Pet Pride -Good 'n' Meaty, President's Choice, Price Chopper, Priority, Publix, Roche Bros, Save-A-Lot, Schnucks, Shep Dog, Springsfield Prize, Sprout, Stater Bros., Total Pet, Wegmans Bruiser, Western Family, White Rose and Winn Dixie.

Cat food brands affected by the recall are America's Choice, Preferred Pets, Authority, Best Choice, Companion, Compliments, Demoulas Market Basket, Eukanuba, Fine Feline Cat, Food Lion, Foodtown, Giant Companion, Hannaford, Hill Country Fare, Hy-Vee, Iams, Laura Lynn, Li'l Red, Loving Meals, Meijer's Main Choice, Nutriplan, Nutro Max Gourmet Classics, Nutro Natural Choice, Paws, Pet Pride, Presidents Choice, Price Chopper, Priority, Save-A-Lot, Schnucks, Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans, Sophistacat, Special Kitty Canada, Special Kitty US, Springfield Prize, Sprout, Total Pet, Wegmans, Western Family, White Rose, and Winn Dixie.

There is no dry pet food of any brand impacted by this recall.

According to the Food and Drug Administration press release: "If your pet is showing any symptoms of illness, including sluggishness or lethargy combined with a reluctance to eat, yellowish tint to the eyes and/or gums, and severe or bloody diarrhea, please consult your veterinarian immediately."

An unknown number of cats and dogs have suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food according to the March 18 press release.

Locally, Socorro pets seem to be faring better than those in some other areas.

"We haven't seen any cases here yet," said Brenda Hodges from the Ark Of Socorro veterinary services.

The local grocers are aware of the recall and have removed pet foods with specific dates and lot numbers.

"I don't think our warehouse had any of that (tainted product according to lot number)," said Ray Hurtgen, local owner of Supermart.

"I did have to remove a lot of product from our shelves," said Scott Jameson from Smith's Grocery, "but we haven't had any customer complaints. If anyone has a question about one of the recalled brands, they are welcome to bring it back here to make sure it's OK."

Wal-Mart Corporate Headquarters has sent direction to their stores to immediately remove all impacted dog and cat food products from store shelves.

As an additional precautionary measure, Wal-Mart put a sales restriction on the pet foods in question into the computers. If someone were to accidentally try to buy one of the products on the list, a restriction notice will come up at the cash register.

At Wal-Mart, only specific offerings in pouches and cans are impacted by this recall. These include Ol' Roy in 5.5-ounce cans (only Gourmet Sliced Beef and Gourmet Chicken with Gravy selections) and all Ol' Roy 5.32-ounce pouches and Special Kitty in the 3-ounce pouch. In addition, Purina Mighty Dog 5.3-ounce pouch products and assorted IAMS dog and cat food in cans are impacted.

Wal-Mart customers with products in question may return it to the nearest Wal-Mart location for a full refund.

Animal control officer Frank Marquez said the staff at the animal shelter is not particularly concerned about tainted pet foods because the recall does not apply to dry foods.

"We've got a big old list of all the products," said Marquez. "We get the 40-pound bags of dry food. We only get the wet food donated once in a while and we haven't gotten any lately."

Dorothy Brooks from the Animal Protection Association of Socorro said the volunteers downloaded the lists from the Internet and checked every can of pet food at the shelter.

They found no cans on the lists of possibly contaminated foods.

Pet owners with questions regarding Purina Mighty Dog products should call the Nestle Purina PetCare Company at 314-982-2577.

For information regarding IAMS products, contact Proctor & Gamble toll-free at 800-882-1591.

Menu Foods can be reached at 866-895-2708 and their Web site is www.menufoods.com/recall.

The toll-free FDA number is 888-INFO-FDA.

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