On this Thursday we are Thankful for ...

P.S.  Don't forget to participate in Finn's Back in Black 2  Comment-A-Thon, in conjunction with Best Friends' annual adoption event spotlighting black dogs and cats! Leave your comment HERE and if you are the randomly chosen winner on May 31st, your rescue group or shelter will win a donation of $100.  Is there more than one group or shelter close to your heart?  That's ok!  You can enter more than once!  And don't forget to tell you friends!  Last year, we only got to 55 comments, and Finn was really bummed.  We pooled our toy and treat money and donated the $100 anyway, but this year he really wants to get to his 100 comments.  

P.P.S.  Mom just got a really cool email from the owner of K9Cuisine.com that she will be sharing later today or tomorrow for the opportunity to save some serious cash on brands of dog and cat food NOT affected by recent recalls! 

Why does dog food have to be so complicated?

I don't know about anyone else,but the recent rash of recalls on some very well-known brands of dog food is really stressing me out!

That might seem a bit silly, considering that the dogs and cats at Chez Tucker are all on a prey model raw diet (although they do get small, occasional meals or snacks of commercial food, such as canned tripe, or things like Honest Kitchen for the dogs if we are traveling and feeding raw for that brief time is not convenient or possible).  

But even though I don't personally have anything to worry about as it relates to the Diamond realls, which are now confirmed to have affected not just the foods in the Diamond family of pet foods (including Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Country Value, Diamond, Diamond Naturals, Premium Edge, Professional, 4Health, and Taste of the Wild) but also foods that are CO-PACKED by Diamond, specifically Natural Balance, Wellness, and Solid Gold, I'm still stressed out, and worried, and, to tell the truth, pretty darn mad! Because even though I wasn't using any of the affected products for my animals, other people were! 

Now about those co-packers.  Just what are they, anyway?  Well, in short, a co-packer is a company that manufactures and packages foods for other companies. This means that the company whose name is on the bag or can of food you're buying for your dog or cat may not be who is responsible for actually producing the food.  The reason for this is simple economics.  Manufacturing plants are expensive to purchase, set up, staff, and maintain, so many companies contract with a co-packer to actually produce their foods in accordance with the recipes and guidelines they set forth. 

The problem is that while this practice is sound from an economic standpoint, it does not succeed so well from the standpoint of quality control.  Companies who contract with co-packers have varying degrees of control or supervision over their company's food runs (some companies send a representative to oversee their company's production runs, for example, while others do not), but when multiple brands of varying qualities of foods are being produced in a single facility, the potential for many or all of the foods produced there to be affected by the same issue (if one should arise) is high.  This is what happened in the mass recalls of 2007 with the melamine issue.  Some lower priced, lower quality brands of foods were purchasing vegetable proteins from China that later proved to be contaminated with melamine, and due the equipment not having been properly cleaned during production runs, even foods whose recipes did not include the contaminated ingredients wound up being affected.  As a result, many dogs and cats became ill, and many died.

As it pertains to the current recall situation, to my knowledge, no pets have yet fallen ill as a result of the salmonella contamination that prompted the recall, but CBS News  reports that fourteen people in nine states have become ill and five have been hospitalized as a result of handling the food. Disturbing to be sure, and yet, perhaps perversely, I have to laugh a little bit, even if that laughter is of the sardonic variety, rather than a true expression of mirth.  After all, it's certainly NO laughing matter that people are becoming ill and having to be hospitalized as a result of handling this salmonella contaminated pet food.  Yet, as a raw feeder, well-accustomed to being on the receiving end of the side eye when the subject of what I feed my pets comes up in conversation, I will reluctantly admit to feeling just the teeniest bit smug.  Because, after all, commercial pet food is supposed to be the SAFE choice, while we raw feeders are, according to many, risking the health and safety of not just our pets but ourselves by making this, allegedly, unorthodox choice.  (For the record, Tucker and gang are thriving, and neither they nor any of the humans in the house have ever been ill as a result of the diet I choose to feed.)

But wait ... I digress.  This post isn't about raw feeding.  It's about the fact that going out and buying commercially prepared food for our dogs and cats (hopefully after making a considered decision regarding the food in question) should not feel like some bizarre game of Russian roulette.  It shouldn't be life and death, for our pets, or for us.  But it is.  Because here's the sad, ugly, but very real truth:  the entire pet food industry came into being when some savvy individuals figured out that marketing the grain hulls, sweepings, rendered meat, and other "leftovers" of the human food industry for consumption by pet dogs and cats was a great way to turn a tidy profit from things that had previously been discarded as waste. 

Thankfully, a lot has changed since those days, and there are now a handful of companies making very carefully considered dog and cat foods using quality, human-grade ingredients, who actually seem to truly care about the health and welfare of the animals consuming their foods.  Unfortunately, a lot has stayed the same, and the truth is that the lion's share of pet food companies out there are driven not by a love of animals but by a desire to improve their bottom line.  I wish this wasn't so, but it is, no matter how many adorable dogs and cats they have romping through their high priced television advertisements.  Here's a suggestion ... spend less on slick ad campaigns and more on quality ingredients and in creating species-appropriate foods that are actually GOOD for dogs and cats.  In fact, I'll go so far as to say that any company spending what it takes to advertise on the national stage is probably not a company whose products I'd ever in a million years want to feed to my pets.  And I'm in advertising!  I'm also a believer in free enterprise, but NOT at the expense of the health or safety of one's customer's, or that of their pets. 

Co-packers, as mentioned above, complicate the whole issue exponentially.  When a consumer goes into a store, be it a small, boutique type store, a grocery store, or a large supermarket type pet supply store, to purchase pet foods, they are, hopefully, making the decision to purchase a particular brand of food based on a considered assessment of the ingredients, guaranteed analysis, and the history/reputation of said food/company rather than on the basis of the cute dog or cat in a given company's advertisements or on the packaging itself.  But even then, how do you know if the food you're buying is actually made by the company whose name is on the bag?  The truth is - often, you don't.  Most people don't give much thought, if any, to the whole co-packing issue, and it's certainly not something the pet food industry as a whole wants to encourage people to delve too deeply into.  In addition, assuming that someone actually WANTS to find out if a company uses a co-packer, or who that co-packer is, it's often very difficult to do.  Inquiries into the matter are often met with slick double talk by company customer service representatives, and, even worse, the more dubious a company's reputation is, the slicker that double talk is likely to be.  Not to mention that many pet food companies whose reputations have been tarnished by frequent recalls and safety issues pay their representatives to participate in discussion groups pertaining to pet issues, which inevitably includes talk about what foods the participants use and recommend.  After all, pet food is big business, so spin doctoring as damage control is only to be expected.

The dilemma of finding a food to feed one's dog or cat that contains quality ingredients, is species-appropriate, and SAFE, is difficult enough if you have a healthy animal that doesn't suffer from allergies, food sensitivities, or other ailments.  If you have an allergic or food sensitive animal, for example, then things become even more complicated.  Here's a case in point.  Imagine my friend E.'s horror at discovering that a brand of food she had recently tried for her two dogs in an effort to find a food that her itchy/allergic/food intolerant boy would do well on was one of the brands affected in this recent recall.  The good news is that her dogs are fine, and by the time the news of the recall hit, she had stopped using the food anyway.  But I've been in a similar situation (back in 2007), and regardless, it's still scary! 

Here's the bottom line.  As our pets' guardians and caregivers, it is up to us to be as discerning as we can possibly be when deciding what to feed our pets.  For some people, it is simply not feasible, for any number of valid reasons, to prepare food for one's pets at home, either by cooking for them, or by feeding a raw diet.  I, myself, even though for the most part my animals are raw fed, still have to rely on commercial food from time to time. But if we are going to spend our hard-earned money on commercial pet food, we need to do our best to be sure that the food we're spending that money on is as nutritious, as species-appropriate, and as SAFE as it possibly can be.
 

It's a decision our pets can't make for themselves.  In this, as in so many things, they must rely on us, and their health, their longevity, even their very lives, are at stake.  We must hold pet food companies accountable, and never forget that pet food manufacturers, even the best of them, are motivated at least in part by the potential for financial gain.  That's their job.  Our job is to protect our pets.  They're counting on us. 

Wednesday Recall Woes

Merrick Pet Care Recalls
Doggie Wishbone (Item # 29050, Lot 11031 Best By 30 Jan 2013)
Because of Possible Salmonella Health Risk

Contact:

Consumer:

(800) 664-7387

Media:

James Witcher, COO (806) 322-2806

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 8, 2011 - Merrick Pet Care, Inc. of Amarillo, Texas is recalling a single lot of its Doggie Wishbone pet treat (ITEM # 29050, UPC # 2280829050, Lot 11031 Best By 30 Jan 2013) because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.  Merrick Pet Care has made the decision to recall the Doggie Wishbone pet treats in the abundance of caution.  248 cases of this lot were manufactured and shipped to distributors in 10 states.  Those distributors have been notified.  Only one lot of Doggie Wishbone is affected by this recall.  No additional Merrick Pet Care products are involved in this recall. No other Merrick brand products are involved.

Salmonella can affect animals and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products. People handling the treats can become infected with Salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the chews or any surfaces exposed to these products.  Consumers should dispose of these products in a safe manner by securing them in a covered trash receptacle.

Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers immediately.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian immediately.

The Doggie Wishbone was shipped to distributors and retailers throughout the US.  These individuals have been notified and have activated their recall procedures.

No illnesses have been reported to date and there have been no consumer complaints for this product. This issue was identified through routine sampling by the Food and Drug Administration.

At Merrick Pet Care, the safety and efficacy of our products are our top priority. We apologize for any inconvenience due to this recall.   Consumers who have purchased the Doggie Wishbone with the lot code 11031 are urged to return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-800-664-7387 M-F 8:00am – 5:00pm CST.

###

more information here

Important notice

Good morning, everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  This will be a brief, and unfortunately disturbing, post.  We learned over the weekend that Purina has issued a recall on select bags of Purina ONE Vibrant Maturity dry cat food.

Full details, including bag sizes, best by dates, and UPC codes can be found here

So please pass the word along in case you have friends or family feeding these foods to their cats.

Post-Holiday Weekend Hodgepodge

Hi, everyone ... it's me, Tucker!  This is going to be a quick hodgepodge-y post because Mom says I can only have the computer for a few minutes.  Pfft!

First of all - some more recall news.  Primal Pet Foods has announced the recall of their Feline Chicken & Salmon Formula (with best buy date code of 043112-17) due to suspected salmonella contamination. So please pass the word along in case you might know someone whose kitty is eating this food.  Primal is a great brand, and it is one of the few commercial food brands Mom lets us (occasionally) eat, but this makes her unhappy and scared, and glad once again that she switched us to a home prepared prey model raw diet!  (Which we all love, by the way!  It's yummy!)

On that note, Mom was very happy to learn today that the raw feeding information she and a fellow raw feeding cat mom had provided to IBDKitties.net is proving helpful to people who are interested in a raw diet for their cats, as evidenced by this post in the Bengal cat discussion forum.  As an aside - how beautiful are those Bengal kitties?  Mom just loves them!  But says she wouldn't trade our cat kids for all the Bengals in the world.  And I'm glad about that, and I bet they are, too!

Now - let's see.  Oh, yes - Louise, the person who commented in the Bengal forum about the raw feeding information also has a website which is happyhousecats.co.uk and she makes these wonderful walking jackets that are like harnesses for those kitties that like to walk around outside.  Not only will these walking jackets keep you safe - they are very fashionable and also quite reasonably priced.  So check them out!

What else ... oh, yeah, Mom said she will be back hopefully tomorrow with the next 50-50 post featuring a dog and cat from the state of Idaho that are looking for loving homes.

And finally ... I don't know what's going on with Blogger, but my Crestie hairs are all in a twist.  There are certain blogs I like to visit every day (or almost every day), but recently even though I've been visiting, I've been unable to comment, and I can't figure out why.  We can post comments just fine to our friends Miss M. and Mr. B. at Two Pitties In The City.  We were able to congratulate Sam at Marge Blog , who scored a 94.7 on her recent Anatomy & Physiology final.  We stopped by to say hi to Sophie from Sophie's View and the comment feature worked just fine. 

BUT ... we also visited our friends Spitty, Admiral, Sagira, Winnie, Two Grad Students (and a Pittie), Fuzzy and Zoe , Remington and others, and of course we wanted to let them know we'd been there, but we couldn't.  This has been happening on and off for the past four or five days (that we've noticed) and it's getting really frustrating. What happens is that when we try to comment it asks us to log in to our Google account even when we're already logged in, and then it says our comment is from "Anonymous" but even then it won't post it because it keeps saying we've entered the verification word/code incorrectly.  After three or four tries, we usually give up, but we're very sad, because we don't want our friends to think we haven't been visiting them.  So if anyone knows what might be going on or has any ideas on how to remedy the problem, we'd appreciate suggestions.

That's all for today.

Another recall & a little editorializing ...

Good morning.  Hate to start out the day with news of yet another recall, but wanted to put this out there for anyone who might have these chews lying about.

The FDA reports that Jones Natural Chews Co is recalling over 2,000 boxes of pig ears due to possible salmonella contamination.  Direct from the FDA website:

They were shipped to distributors and retailers between September 15, 2010 and November 2, 2010 where they were available for purchase.

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears 2pk bag with header card–item upc 741956001047 lot 2420

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears bulk 100ct box-box upc 741956001139 lot 2490, 2560, 2630, 2700, 2840, 2910, 2980

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears bulk 50 ct box-box upc 741956001504 lot 2490, 2840

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears bulk 25ct box-box upc 741956001467 lot 2700

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears 1pk shrinkwrapped-item upc 741956001146 lot 2700, 2840, 2420

Jones Natural Chews Co Pig Ears 10pk printed bag-item upc 741956001405 lot 2420, 2560, 2630, 2840

Blain’s Farm & Fleet Pig Ears 10 pieces bag-item upc 741956001405 lot 2560

Country Butcher Dog Chews Pig Ears 1pk shrinkwrapped-item upc 741956001511 lot 2630

Country Butcher Dog Chews Pig Ears 1pk shrinkwrapped-item upc 741956001146 lot 2420

Country Butcher Dog Chews Pig Ears 12pk bag-item upc 741956001245 lot 2910

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recall was the result of a routine sampling program by Washington State Department of Agriculture which revealed that the finished products contained the bacteria. The company has no product left in inventory from this batch of pig ears.

Consumers who have purchased any of these pig ears are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-877-481-2663.

Now for a little editorializing.  First of all - I always hate to hear about recalls of any food, treat, or chew items pertaining to our pets.  The mass recalls of 2007 were eye-opening to many of us, and out there in the pet community, be it on message boards, mailing lists, or out here in the Blogosphere, just about everyone knows someone, (or knows someone who knows someone) who lost a pet in those tragic, mass recalls. For me, though I wasn't personally affected, it started the wheels turning, and I started not only reading labels carefully, something I'd always done, but researching behind the brand name on the bag.  As most of us know, a lesson learned all too well from the Menu Food recalls a few years back, just because Brand A's logo is printed on the bag does not mean that Brand A is the company responsible for actually manufacturing the food.  The word co-packer, a dirty word to many these days, is a term used to describe a company that takes the recipe and ingredients from Company A and actually manufactures the food in a large plant.  Co-packers often manufacture foods that are very questionable in quality in the same plants where quality foods are also manufactured.  Menu Foods, for example, was a co-packer.  What this means, then, is that in order to be really sure (or as sure as you can possibly be) about the safety of the food you're feeding, you need to know not only what brand of food you're buying, what ingredients are or are not in it, but also the entity behind the brand name you've decided to spend your money on.  It can get tedious and bewildering, not to mention extremely time consuming, which is why I eventually converted all of the kids here to a prey model raw diet.  (A decision, by the way, that in no way means I am passing any sort of judgement on people who are feeding commercial foods.) 

And this last, actually, circles me back around to the point I started to make in the first place.  The pig ear chews referenced above were pulled from the market due to possible salmonella contamination.  We all know that salmonella can make us sick, and truth be told, it's often due to the possible risk to the human population that prompts recalls due to salmonella, NOT the risk to the animals.  Why?  Because with their short, acidic, highly efficient digestive tracts, healthy dogs and cats are at a vanishingly small risk of getting seriously ill from exposure to salmonella.  Raw meat/organ/bone is so bioavailable and easily digested that it simply does not stick around in the digestive tract long enough to cause illness.  NOT that I'm suggesting to anyone that if they have these chews laying around that they should feed them.  Of course not.  And yet ...

I've tried really hard over the last several months not to turn this blog into anything remotely resembling a raw feeding agenda.  I've mentioned it a few times, but quite frankly one of the reasons I started this blog was so that I could still be connected to and enjoy the camraderie of the pet-loving community, but in a more freespirited, fun-loving way.  There is a delightful absence of politics in the Blogosphere, or at least it seems so to me, and I greatly enjoy that.  A long, seasoned, and sometimes battle-scarred veteran of mailing lists, message boards, and the like, it is refreshing to me that there is really none of the ugly stuff here.  Which is lovely.  At the same time, though, all the things I have always cared passionately about (such as making sure that I provide the safest, healthiest, most species-appropriate diet for my crew that I possibly can), I still care about, and recalls are serious business that could potentially negatively impact the health of a great number of animals, so I think it's important to spread the word. 

Also, in this instance, given that the issue for this particular recall was salmonella, I thought it was a good opportunity to bring up the point that for so many people, the sticking point to a raw diet is that they fear the risk of food-borne illness due to salmonella contamination, not just to their pets, but to themselves or their families.  I think this particular recall is a lesson that just because an item is packaged for sale, as opposed to being fed raw from a grocery case, does not guarantee that it is safe, or free of food-borne toxins.  Dry dog and cat food has tested positive for salmonella in the past.  The point being that unless a person is vegetarian or vegan, they handle raw meat all the time, prior to cooking it.  Provided the source they are obtaining the meat from is not suspect, and provided it is handled properly, they and their family are at no additional risk, and their  dog or cat is not either, even as he or she is chowing down on a raw chicken.  

Again, the point I'm trying, and I think mostly failing, to make here is not to tell anyone that they should feed their dog or cat a raw diet.  Based on my own personal experience, which pre-dates the five raw-fed animals I'm currently living with, it's the thing that makes the most sense to me personally, (and I firmly believe that Finn, for one, would not be here today, or at least would not be as vigorous and healthy as he is, without the benefit of a prey model raw diet) but for all sorts of reasons it is not necessarily the best fit for every cat-or-dog-loving person's individual circumstances.  What I am trying to encourage everyone to do, or rather not to do, is to blithely assume that just because a food, treat, etc. is commercially manufactured and has a list of ingredients and a guaranteed analysis, that it is healthy, safe, species-appropriate, or, as we've seen here in the case of these particular pig ear chews, salmonella-free.

May all of our furred family members be healthy and well!

Signed,

The MP

Serious business ...

Hi, everybody.  It's a rainy Tuesday morning here in the lesser-known Bay Area, and I've got some serious news to report. 

We've just been made aware that Wellness has issued a recall on some of their canned cat foods.  Though the cat kids here eat a prey model raw diet, we know lots of our blogosphere kitty friends eat canned food, so we wanted to get this information out there right away. 
So anyone feeding Wellness, please check your cans.  The affected cans can be any flavor and size and will have best by dates from 14APR13 through 30SEP13.  An additional lot of Wellness Canned Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with best by dates of 10NOV13 through 17NOV13 are also affected.  The possible problem with these cans is inadequate levels of thiamine.

For more information, check out http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/letter.aspx

Worried Wednesday

Hey, everybody!  It's me, Tucker!  And this is my worried face:

And the reason why I'm wearing my worried face today is because I'm concerned about the pet food industry.  People love their furblings a lot, and the pet food people know this, so they're always trying to come up with new products to sell to people in exchange for those green papers like the ones Mom keeps in her wallet or sometimes you can get them if you zip that little square plastic thing through the machine.  I'm not really sure how that works.  But anyway, new products enter the pet food market all the time.  The problem with that, Mom says, is that only a very few of them are good for us furblings.  The rest of them the companies that make them get people to buy them by putting cute animals in commercials and having their Moms or Dads say how much they like the products and how good they are for them.  And Mom also said that the Moms and Dads in those advertisements aren't even real?!!!!!!!!  I mean, they're real people, but they're not the real Moms or Dads of the animals in the commercials!  Can you believe that?  I couldn't ... I was shocked!

But anyway - there are some really good pet food companies out there that really care about the furblings.  Unfortunately, most of them only care about getting as much of your Mom or Dad's green papers as they can.  I don't know what they do with them once they have 'em, but anyway, that's what they want.  So Mom says that if people have furblings, they need to be really careful about  the products that they buy, and learn how to read labels, and also research the companies that make the products, because sometimes even if the label looks good, you have to check and see who is actually making the food, cause most of the time it's not the same company whose name is on the package.  Mom says that's what happened back in 2007 when all the furblings got sick and died from the Menu Foods recalls - one company (Menu Foods) was responsible for putting together all sorts of different brands of foods.  So all the foods that were made in that plant (which was a whole bunch) were contaminated and a whole lot of furblings got really sick and even died!   

So all you furbling Moms and Dads ... be really careful about the foods and stuff you buy for them.  And try to keep up to date on the recalls that happen.  Here's one website that you can check:

Pet Food Recalls

I can tell you that one recent recall really made me put my worried face on ... because my Uncle Riley AND Cousin Cosmo used to eat that food, and that's the Blue Buffalo recall.  Blue Buffalo recall  So no more Blue Buffalo for my Uncle Riley or Cousin Cosmo! 

But the other day my worried face really kicked into high gear when I heard about this: 

Red Plastic In California Naturals Biscuits

Fellow furblings, this is SUPER scary!  California Naturals is part of the Natura Foods family - which was a wonderful, family-owned company.  Note I said "was."  Because they recently sold out to Proctor & Gamble, and Mom and her other "foodie" friends were pretty sure it wouldn't be long before weird things started happening that could be dangerous to the furblings.  And sure enough, it's already starting to happen.

Now, don't get me wrong ... there are still some good companies out there who make nutritious, safe food for us.  But I'm still glad, and Mom is, too, that all of us here (canines and felines) are now Raw Fed

Well, friends, that's it for me ... it's my day off from work, so I think I'll catch a nap now and rest up for tomorrow.