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Nutra Nuggets Recalled as Melamine Poisonings Continue

Humane Society of Canada Wants Criminal Investigation

By Lisa Wade McCormick and Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 24, 2007

News • Mars Recalls More Pet Food; Possible Salmonella Contamination • Mars Petcare Recalls Some Pedigree Dog Food • Expert Finds Unexplained Pet Deaths 'Not Consistent' • Illness, Death Dog Nutro Pet Food • Feds Raid PETCO Warehouse in Illinois • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poison Food Settlement • CDC Links 2006 Salmonella Outbreak to Dog Food • FDA Orders Illinois Pet Food Maker to Clean Up Its Act • String of Illnesses Afflicts NUTRO-Fed Pets • Pet Owners Not Thrilled with Poisoning Settlement • Menu Foods Settles Pet Food Class Action • Many Pet Foods Still Missing From Store Shelves • Pet Owners Cheer Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Indictments in Toxic Pet Food Case • Diamond Pet Foods Agrees To $3.1 Million Settlement • Tests Find More Toxic Pet Toys • Finding Safe Toys to Give Your Pet • China Agrees to Stepped-Up Food, Drug Inspections • Menu Foods Denies Acetaminophen Found in its Cat Food • Veterinarians Solve Pet Food Death Puzzle • Menu Foods Agrees to Test for Pain Killer in its Cat Food • Lab Tests Again Find Acetaminophen in Pet Food • Toxic Pet Toys: A Doctor's Advice • Consumers Respond to Toxic Wal-Mart Pet Toy Stories • Federal Import Safety Panel Outlines Proposals • Pet Industry Agrees on Need for Toxicity Standards • Industry Responds to Reports of Lead in Wal-Mart Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Attacks Lab Tests that Found Lead, Chromium in Pet Toys • Wal-Mart Reviewing Results of Tests on China-Made Pet Toys • Lab Tests Find Lead, Other Toxins in Pet Toys Sold at Wal-Mart • CANIDAE Denies Reports of Painkiller in its Pet Food • Lab Tests Find Painkiller in Samples of Pet Food • Purina Denies Claim on Bichon Frise Deaths • FDA Blocks Nutro Pet Food Shipment from Entering U.S. • FDA Testing Dog Treats Pulled from Wal-Mart Shelves • Wal-Mart Finds Melamine in Chinese-Made Dog Treats --- • More about Pet Food Recalls ...

The recall of melamine-tainted pet food continues as Diamond Pet Foods pulls a limited number of 40-pound bags of Nutra Nuggets Lamb Meal and Rice dry dog food off the market.

Meanwhile in Canada, the Humane Society is calling for a criminal investigation of Menu Foods and other processors involved in the disastrous wave of pet food contamination.

The Nutra Nuggets follows reports by ConsumerAffairs.com earlier this week that samples of Nutra Nuggets tested positive for melamine and had caused kidney problems in at least four dogs in California.

The Missouri-based Diamond Pet Foods announced its recall of the product yesterday and cited “melamine cross contamination” as the reason.

“The recalled product was manufactured at the same facility following production of other products that contained rice protein concentrate later found to be tainted with melamine, which is not an approved food substance,” Diamond said in a press release posted on the company’s Web site.

The company said its manufacturing plant in Lathrop, California, produced the tainted food and distributed it to retailers in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada.

The 40-pound bags of recalled Nutra Nuggets have the production codes of NLR0404A2SL or NLR0404B2SL, “Best Before” Oct. 9, 2008. No other Nutra Nuggets products are involved in this action.

Diamond Pet Foods said pet owners should immediately stop feeding their dogs the recalled Nutra Nuggets.

Pet owners with questions about this food -- or any other Diamond product -- can call the company at 1-866-214-6945.

Canada Inquiry

In Canada, the Humane Society is putting pressure on the government to investigate Ontario-based Menu Foods and other pet food makers. The group says it’s still waiting for an answer from government officials.

The society said it made formal requests to Canada’s Prime Minister, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, called and the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities regulators asking them to conduct their own independent investigations to determine if criminal animal cruelty charges and securities charges should be laid.

“We need hard answers about the names of key officials at these pet food companies. We need to find out what they knew about the problems, when they knew about it and if there were any delays in alerting the public and government agencies,” said the animal charity's Western Regional Director Al Hickey.

“Unlike other countries, here in Canada, for all intents and purposes, pet food companies are allowed to regulate themselves, with disastrous results. There are over 13 million dogs and cats living with their families across Canada and we need to do everything in our power to protect them right now. We need to take care of our own,” said Hickey.

The group says any investigation should have four primary objectives:

1) to determine if criminal animal cruelty charges should be brought before the court;

2) to determine if charges should be brought with respect to insider trading by shareholders in pet food companies;

3) hold public hearings into how to best regulate the pet food industry;

4) to pass new laws to regulate the pet food industry.

Since the initial recall the number of other pet food companies, including Del Monte, Hills Pet Nutrition, Nestle Purina, Royal Canin and Sunshine Mills, product recalls continue to grow and now include more than 150 brand names and over 5,600 products.

The Canadian group notes that the pet food crisis continues to worsen and has now spread to the human food supply with contaminated "scrap pet food" fed to hogs and chickens; and contaminated feed ingredients from China fed to farmed fish.

The society cites published reports, indicating that Ontario based Menu Foods has received more than 300,000 complaints and there have been reports of deaths as high as 39,000 in the U.S. alone. Menu Foods says there have been only 16 confirmed pet deaths.

The Canadian group complains that U.S. officials and agencies have taken the lead in exposing the contamination, while Canada has done little.

“Whatever you may say or think about U.S. politicians, they care about animals,” said Humane Society of Canada's Chairman & CEO, Michael O'Sullivan. “Here in Canada, the inaction and arrogance of Canadian politicians and civil servants is truly breath-taking.”

Detective Work

California veterinarian Matt Humason of the Lone Oak Veterinary Clinic in Visalia, became suspicious of the Nutra Nuggets after four of his client’s healthy dogs suddenly went into renal failure.

“I saw the first two dogs around the beginning of May,” Dr. Humason told ConsumerAffairs.com. “These were normal, healthy dogs and they both had become lethargic, one was vomiting, they weren’t eating, and they were drinking lots of water.”

Dr. Humason ran blood tests on the dogs and discovered they were both in renal failure.

“At first I thought maybe somebody threw something over the fence and that’s what made these dogs sick,” he told us. “The pet food recall didn’t cross my mind because these dogs were both eating dry food and their food wasn’t on the recall list.”

A few days later, however, Dr. Humason saw another dog with the same symptoms.

“This was a younger Lab who was also a healthy dog, but now was sick and vomiting, and in renal failure. The owners happened to bring in their other Lab, who is older, and wanted that dog tested, too. That dog didn’t have any symptoms, but test shows its kidney values were elevated, too.”

Using his own detective skills, Dr. Humason uncovered the following clues that helped him solve the mystery of these ailing dogs:

• All four dogs -- Labs and Lab-mixes -- ate Nutra Nuggets dry food;

• The dogs’ owners had purchased the food from the same Costco store in Visalia, California;

• The dogs’ owners made those purchases within days of each other -- in Mid-April.

To confirm his suspicions, Dr. Humason decided to have the food tested.

“I sent samples to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, which is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” Dr. Humason said. “And those samples tested positive for melamine.”

Melamine

Melamine is a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers. It is not approved for use in human or pet food.

The FDA, however, discovered melamine and melamine-related compounds in the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China used to make many brands of pet food.

That finding triggered one of the largest pet food recalls in U.S. history. Since March, 18 companies have recalled more than 5,600 pet food products.

Thousands of dogs and cats that have eaten tainted foods have suffered kidney problems or died.

Dr. Humason said the four dogs he’s treated for renal failure are improving.

“The first two are going home (probably today) and their owner is going to give them fluids under their skin. This will keep them hydrated; what we’re trying to do is flush out the kidneys. They’ve been here for about a week on IV fluids. They’re still not quite back to normal, but they’re happy and eating again. ”

He added: “The second two dogs are still here and have been on IV fluids since May 10th. They’re having a little harder time, but they’re doing much better and they may go home by the end of the week.”

Dr. Humason says he’s only treated a few cats for kidney problems since Menu Foods announced its massive recall of 60 million containers of wet pet food in March.

“I was actually starting to think this was getting more overkill until this happened. But now I’m looking for this all the time.

“In fact, I saw two other dogs yesterday that were showing the same signs (of renal failure),” he told us on Tuesday. “I tested them, but their blood work came back normal as far as their kidneys were concerned. But I sent their food for testing because they were eating that same Nutra Nuggets as the other dogs — and their owners had purchased it about the same time.”

More about the Pet Food Recall ...

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