Poisonious Dog Food: Menu Foods

Recently, a danger has been spreading through the pet owner community: poisonous pet food. At least ten cats and dogs have been killed by this tragedy before a recall was issued. Since then, the manufacturer of the food conducted a taste test of their product, during which time seven more died, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The manufacturer of the poisonous food, Menu Foods of Streetsville, Ontario, tested the food on roughly fifty animals after they heard that their products were making pets sick. They immediately alerted the FDA and began a full investigation of the products.

This contamination put many pets at risk, considering that Menu Foods produces food for multiple companies including Eukanuba, Iams, and Science Diet, as well as off-brands for companies such as Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie, and Price Chopper. The full list is posted on the Menu foods website at www.menufoods.com/recall. The possible culprit of the contamination comes from wheat gluten, a protein used to help "fill out" the particular food, or give it more substance. The reason the FDA believes this is because the first cases of illness coincided with the company's switching of one wheat gluten to another. If this is the case, the FDA has discovered the supplier of the contaminated wheat gluten; however, they would not identify the company to the public. Fortunately, it appears that no other pet food manufacturers were supplied by this particular company, although that possiblity has not been ruled out.

The main cause of death in the stricken animals was kidney failure. Lethargy, loss of appetite, and vomiting are all symptoms of such failure. As such, multitudes of pet owners flooded their local veterinarian offices fearing that their precious pets had been infected by the poison. In just one day, one clinic even received over 100 calls from concerned pet owners. This shows the trend that pet owners are considering their pets to be family members, and if the animal becomes sick, the owner feels responsible.