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CANIDAE Denies Reports of Painkiller in its Pet Food

Independent Texas lab found acetaminophen; FDA "checking into" it

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 9, 2007

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Responding to a ConsumerAffairs.com report, CANIDAE Pet Food denies that its products contain the painkiller acetaminophen, saying the claim came from “one report by one unconfirmed laboratory.”

The company, however, said it takes such allegations seriously and is now testing samples of its products.

As we reported on Thursday, toxicologists at ExperTox Inc. Analytical Laboratory of Texas detected acetaminophen in a sample of pet food identified as CANIDAE dog food. The lab issued that report on September 4, 2007.

We also confirmed the findings with the manager of the Deer Park, Texas, laboratory. “That is one of our reports,” Lab Manager, Donna Coneley, told us.

Coneley, however, said the sample arrived in a Ziploc bag and ExperTox cannot confirm the pet food is a CANIDAE brand. The lab’s customer, who was not identified because of a confidentiality agreement, identified the sample as CANIDAE pet food on ExperTox’s forms.

Coneley also confirmed the lab detected acetaminophen in the dog food, but pointed out that the report didn’t show the amount of painkiller found in the sample.

ExperTox’s report also revealed its toxicologists did not detect cyanuric acid or melamine in the dog food tested.

Melamine is the chemical that triggered this year’s massive pet food recall. In March, Menu Foods recalled more than 60 million containers of dog and cat food the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said were tainted with melamine. That’s a chemical used to make plastic and fertilizers. It is not allow in pet or human food.

Thousands of dogs and cats nationwide suffered kidney problems or died after eating the tainted food.

The FDA said it found melamine in the imported wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate used to make the pet food. FDA officials traced the source of that contamination to two now-defunct companies in China.

No CANIDAE pet foods were involved in that recall.

Acetaminophen Found In Other Brands

This latest finding of acetaminophen in dog food comes less than four months after ExperTox discovered the painkiller in about a half a dozen samples of pet food it tested.

The lab did not disclose the brands of pet food that tested positive for acetaminophen in May because of a confidentiality agreement.

But ConsumerAffairs.com learned two of those samples were Menu Foods’ Pet Pride "Turkey and Giblets Dinner" and Pet Pride "Mixed Grill.”

Grieving cat owner Don Earl of Port Townsend, Washington, told us he paid ExperTox to analyze those brands of pet food. He said the samples tested were the same lots and styles of food that he fed his cat, Chuckles, before she died in January, 2007, after eating the Pet Pride food.

ConsumerAffairs.com confirmed those samples of cat food tested positive for acetaminophen. They also tested positive for the chemical cyanuric acid -- commonly used in pool chlorination.

But the samples of Pet Pride did not reveal any melamine contamination.

That finding didn’t surprise Earl, who has asked a federal court to force the FDA to investigate other toxins -- besides melamine -- as the culprit behind the pet food recall.

“Melamine has impressed me as being a red herring since day one,” he said. “The substance has been the subject of credible scientific tests and studies for decades. Nothing supports the theory it could be lethal even in amounts 10 times the highest reported to be present in the food. As to why no one is finding other toxins in the food, the simple explanation is no one is looking for other toxins in the food.”

FDA Disputed Earlier Reports

The FDA refuted ExperTox’s earlier findings of acetaminophen in the pet food, saying it didn’t detect the painkiller in a handful of samples it tested.

But ConsumerAffairs.com learned the FDA couldn’t confirm it tested the same lots and brands of pet food in which ExperTox found the pain medication.

ExperTox told us it tested 100 to 150 samples of pet food -- and detected acetaminophen in five of those samples. The FDA tested just a few samples of pet food for the painkiller.

“It’s easier to say that we can’t confirm something by looking at a few samples than to really investigate and continue investigating until you know something for sure,” Coneley told us.

CANIDAE also cast doubt on ExperTox’s earlier findings of acetaminophen in pet food.

And the San Luis Obispo, California, company questioned the accuracy of the lab’s current report about detecting acetaminophen in a sample of CANIDAE dog food.

“There is one report by one unconfirmed laboratory that has given rise these claims,” the company’s Jim Mantych said in a written statement faxed on Friday to ConsumerAffairs.com. “That same laboratory also claimed acetaminophen contamination in other products that the FDA and the laboratory at the University of California examined as well and as to which those laboratories found that the claims could not be validated.”

Mantych added: “We do not put acetaminophen in our products in any way, shape or form, nor is it used in any of our ingredients.”

Nevertheless, Mantych said his company is testing samples of its pet food for possible contamination.

“CANIDAE takes any such allegations extremely seriously and is working hard to acquire as much factual information regarding these allegations as possible. We have already sent a battery of samples to be tested by the most current and reliable test methods available.”

ExperTox told us on Thursday that it is not required to report its latest findings of acetaminophen in the dog food to the FDA. In previous cases, the lab said, its clients reported the test results to that federal agency.

We contacted the FDA on Thursday about ExperTox’s latest findings. A spokesman told us he was checking into the matter.

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