They're killing our best friends

[Richard]

by: Oread Daily 

April 3, 2007: Damning News From Menu Foods; FDA May Be Wrong About Cause of Pet Deaths
Yesterday, the dean of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that Menu Foods had contacted the college in early March, when cats in Menu labs stopped eating their food. Almost a full week later, the company sent tissue and urine samples from sick animals to Cornell, acknowledging that the food was toxic. Nearly two more weeks passed before Menu issued a recall.

Although the FDA continues to blame tainted wheat gluten for recent cat and dog illnesses and deaths, a mounting number of complaints about sick and dying animals who ate only dry food that did not contain wheat gluten strongly suggests that there is another source of contamination. Evidence from reputable laboratories indicates that an excessive amount of vitamin D in pet food may be to blame. Vitamin D overdoses produce symptoms similar to those seen in animals who recently got sick or died after consuming only dry foods. PETA is demanding that the FDA refocus its investigation to include other likely causes instead of pandering to the pet food industry and focusing on an ingredient that is found in only a moderate number of foods.

–April 2, 2007; 10 a.m.: PETA Calls on FDA Head to Resign
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has called for the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step down from his post after revelations that the FDA refused to name the maker of a dry pet food believed to have received the suspected contaminated ingredient. Now, two independent laboratories are claiming that the FDA was wrong when it determined that the agent causing kidney failure in cats and dogs was wheat gluten contaminated with a chemical called melamine found in plastic. The FDA has yet to recall brands of dry food that are reportedly killing dogs and cats. The FDA has deceived the public and media, both about the nature of the recall and about the FDA’s oversight of the pet-food industry. Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, has claimed to the media, “There are really no differences in the regulation of animal food and the regulation of human food. The same people that inspect human food plants also inspect pet food plants.” However, the FDA’s own Web site verifies that the agency has left “regulation” of the pet-food industry to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a nongovernmental body with no power.

PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed
In the wake of a massive recall of contaminated and deadly dog and cat food, Menu Foods and Iams are under fire for their cruel and unnecessary laboratory tests on animals. PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against the companies for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and—just as disturbingly—apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

Menu Foods reportedly knew of this potentially deadly food as early as February 20, 2007. When reports surfaced that its dog and cat food might have caused severe illness in customers’ animal companions, the company quietly conducted lethal toxicity tests to confirm the contamination. Dogs and cats were forced to ingest toxic and lethal food in Menu’s laboratory before the company announced the recall of pet food from stores nationwide nearly one month after the initial illnesses were reported. During this critical time, countless animal companions may have been at risk of getting sick, and many may have died.

In addition to the appalling failure to disclose information about the contaminated food to its consumers, Menu Foods chose to test the food by forcing healthy dogs and cats to ingest it—instead of using one of the reliable, humane alternatives that are readily available, including chemical analyses of the food, necropsies and tissue analyses of the already deceased animal victims, and non-animal test methods, such as the functional gastro-intestinal dog model (FIDO) or TIM-1 and TIM-2 (small and large gastro-intestinal models).

No one knows how many animals are dying in homes or how many are dying in laboratories for pet-food profits. PETA is calling on Menu Foods to provide full disclosure regarding the location of its laboratories, for law enforcement agencies to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against Menu Foods in the U.S. and Canada for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as the company had the information, and for Iams to stop unnecessary suffering and death by immediately ending its laboratory tests on animals.

PETA’s Investigation Revealed Cruel and Deadly Tests Conducted for Iams
For nearly 10 months in 2002 and early 2003, a PETA investigator went undercover at an Iams contract testing laboratory and discovered a dark and sordid secret beneath the wholesome image of the dog- and cat-food manufacturer. Undercover footage captured images of dogs who had gone insane from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs who were left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs, and horribly sick dogs and cats who were languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer without veterinary care. In addition to suffering through painful experiments, animals in Iams labs were denied companionship and enrichment and were confined to their barren cages for at least 23 1/2 hours every day. The recent massive recall by Menu Foods, contract manufacturer for Procter & Gamble’s Iams and Eukanuba brands—of more than 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food is further proof that laboratory tests on animals do not guarantee that a product will be safe to use. 

http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2007/04/t...iends.html

[Wildflower]

Did anyone else see the hearings today on CSPAN? Byrd get on and on about basically nothing and then finally they got to the hearing.

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This is a shocking timeline if true:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/20...eline.html

Pet Food Recall Timeline
"Failures At Every Level," PETA Charges
April 3, 2007
Here is the pet food recall timeline put together by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), documenting what it calls "failures at every level."

• February 20, 2007: According to the FDA, the date on which Menu Foods knew that its products were likely to be making animals sick and/or killing them.

• February 27, 2007: Menu Foods initiates laboratory feeding experiment on 40-50 cats and dogs allegedly knowing that food may be contaminated. 1 in 6 of these animals died during this experiment.

• March 12, 2007: Approximate date that Menu Foods acknowledged the food was toxic and sent tissue and urine samples from affected animals to Cornell.

• March 16, 2007 (Friday): Menu Foods finally announces a recall of 60 million dog and cat food products. The release is on a Friday, the day companies traditionally release news they hope will get as little notice as possible. The FDA did not request this recall.

• March 22, 2007: Menu Foods CEO tells a reporter that "all the tests that we have done to date have indicated that there is nothing wrong with the product" (this is more than three weeks after a test that killed one in six of the animals fed contaminated food).

• March 23, 2007: In response to complaints about Iams dry food, PETA calls on Iams to recall dry foods.

• PETA calls for criminal investigations into Menu Foods and Iams, suggesting that the companies should be prosecuted if they intentionally allowed animals to die, delaying the recall for almost a month.

• Menu Foods declares that aminopterin, a rat poison, is the agent that has caused animals to get sick and die.

• Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) demands answers from Menu Foods.

• March 27, 2007: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) write to the FDA saying that it is "very disconcerting" that pet food manufacturing facilities are not being inspected.

• March 28-29, 2007: In response to a growing number of dry food complaints, PETA contacts FDA Ombudsman Dr. Marcia Larkins, who confirms that the FDA has been receiving complaints about dry food. The FDA refuses to confirm dry food complaints to the media, at which point PETA sends a press release, "FDA Confirms Dry Food Complaints," to force the FDA to let consumers know about fears from dry food.

• March 30, 2007 (Friday): The FDA alone says it has received more than 8,000 complaints; Menu Foods, more than 300,000. Confronted with more evidence of dry food making animals sick, PETA holds an emergency press conference to demand that the FDA and pet food companies issue a dry food recall, and to call for a criminal investigation into pet food companies.

• The FDA again refuses to call for a pet food recall, as it announces that 1) it has not found aminopterin in tested food and does not believe that Menu Foods' previously stated cause is accurate; 2) it has found a toxic chemical called melamine in the food and animal tissue samples, but that it is not sure this is the cause of animal deaths; and 3) some of the chemical has been shipped to a dry food manufacturer. The FDA refuses to name the manufacturer and refuses to suggest a recall of possibly contaminated food.



http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/20...all24.html
Pet Owners Have Some Advice for Congress
Wholesale Pet Deaths Not Acceptable, Consumers Warn
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/20...all23.html
FDA Warns That Recalled Pet Food May Still Be On Shelves
Menu Foods Recalls More Cat Food Made With ChemNutra Wheat Gluten

[Wildflower]

Another one for the coincidence theorists:

 

http://www.diatribune.com/menu-foods-cfo...-announced

Pet food insider sold shares before recall (Globe and Mail, Canada)

The chief financial officer of Menu Foods Income Fund says it's a "horrible coincidence" that he sold nearly half his units in the troubled pet food maker less than three weeks before a massive recall of tainted pet food.

Insider trading reports show that Mark Wiens sold 14,000 units for $102,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Those shares would be worth $62,440 today, based on yesterday's close of $4.46 a unit.

That represented 45 per cent of Mr. Wiens's units.