POISONED PET FOOD:

NEW RECALLS AND OTHER NEWS:

First the good news. As a poster representing the American Veterinary Medical Association commented earlier today on this blog the AVMA has expanded and updated their recall list as of 11:25 this morning. Quite frankly Molly has found that the AVMA list is more likely to be up to date than the "official" list from the American FDA. The FDA, however, has also updated their list today. This update can be found at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall. The expansion of the list today due to Menu Foods recalling products that may have been contaminated by a lack of proper cleanliness in their plants (so-called "cross contamination"- how exactly are the machines cleaned between different batches ? Are they cleaned at all ?) illustrates the problem with keeping up with the information as it develops. At the beginning of this recall expansions seemed to come at the rate of once a week. Now they seem to come almost daily. Molly continues to print out the AVMA list in preference to the FDA one to carry with her for her use when visiting clients, but she is becoming frustrated by how often she has to do this now. I also carry other lists with me. To see the expanded list from Menu Foods that became public today look to their press release itemizing the new products on recall. As the AVMA cautions, "the list appears to be changing throughout the day". Some of this may be due to the efforts of the bloggers who have been following this matter who bother to check what the companies say. People at the Itchmo Blog earlier today reported the results of their analysis of the Menu Foods release, and noticed that items that had been added to the general recall list posted by Menu Foods had been omitted in their press release. Itchmo also noted a sudden spike in visits to their site from the corporate office of Menu Foods (30 visits in one day if Molly's memory serves her well), and they commented on this with more than a little humour.

A few asides here. The first is that Itchmo has discovered a number of "fake recall sites" who are engaging in the business or reselling recalled foods while pretending to be about the recall. Go to Itchmo for further details and to download a "button" for your site leading to accurate information. Speaking of which, the good people over at the Pet Connection site have recently written about the abuse they have received concerning their "motives" in working on this recall. They point out that it has been the blogosphere that has been most timely and most accurate at all points during this event. Other organizations, and particularly government agencies, have held to inaccurate estimates and predictions long after they have ceased to be tenable. When Molly is advising clients she refers people to the AVMA for a comprehensive list, but she also refers people to Itchmo and Pet Connection for daily updates. Molly is aware that there are other blogs working on this matter such as the Pet Food Tracker, Howl 911, etc. that are also doing heroic work, and she will try and mention them as much as possible(she's done this before in the last few weeks), but people can easily be flooded by information. Molly almost is. A final aside, I hear nothing more from the correspondent from presumably Royal Canin who was so insistent about the recall of their products being only in Canada some weeks ago. Every once in a while I get a hit from Missouri that sweeps through the posts on this blog looking for further info. Never do I get what Itchmo does, 30 hits from a company in one day. Menu Foods has obviously hired a very disorganized flac runner to scan the internet. Better if they hired more chemists and even better if they hired maintenance to clean their goddamn machinery.

Anyways, here's a brief list of the labels involved in the latest Menu Foods recall. Please go to the press release above for further details about batch numbers, flavours, sizes,etc..

*America's Choice Preferred Pet

*Best Choice

*Cats Choice

*Companion

*Compliments

*Co-Op Gold

*Demoulas/Market Basket

*Drs Foster and Smith

*Fame

*Feline Classic

*Feline Cuisine

*Food Lion

*Giant Companion

*Giant Eagle

*Hannaford

*Hill Country Fare

*Hy Vee

*La Griffe

*Laura Lynn

*Master Choice

*Meijer's Main Choice

*Natural Ultramix

*Nu Pet

*Nutriplan

*Nutro

*Paws

*Performatrin Ultra (Oh shit, says Molly. So far the Performatrin line has been free of problems. This item is the "Chicken Stew Flaked", 156 gm canned. this item is especially distressing as Molly has been on the lookout for lines that have been free of problems )

*Pet Pride

*Presidents Choice

*Price Chopper

*Priority Canada

*Priority US

*Roche Brothers

*Roundry's

*Schnucks

*Soshisticat

*Special Kitty Canada

*Springfield Prize

*Triumph

*Wegmans

*Western Family Canada

*White Rose

*Winn Dixie

*Your Pet

All of the above are cat foods. The following are the dog foods listed...

*Authority

*Award

*Best Choice

*Compliments

*Co-Op Gold

*Hannaford

*Health Diet Gourmet Cuisine

*Hill Country Fare

*Hy Vee

*La Griffe

*Master Choice

*Natural Life

*Nu Pet

*Ol' Roy

*Performatrin Ultra

*Pet pride Good n Meaty

*Presidents Choice

*Priority US

*Schnucks

*Springfield Prise

*Stater Brothers

*Triumph

*Truly

*Western Family Canada

*Western family US

So much more to report. So little time.

Molly