Menu Foods Struggling to Handle Recall of 89 Brands of Pet Foods

My cat Felix is dead because of this and probably was the first to die from this horrible situation. My God how could this happen.

I have her buried in my yard and cry over her death daily. She didn't deserve this all I did was feed her food that she loved made by this company. She died in late December and now I saw all the problems she was having that are listed and I couldn't afford a vet bill so she died tragically in the middle of the night on December 16, 2006. She was only 5 years old.

They are killing our animals and all they talk about is the money???

I'll never buy another scrap of their products. Put that in the bank if you can!

http://www.thestar.com/article/193607
However, analysts said damage to Menu Foods from the recall may be limited, as other pet-food suppliers appear to lack spare capacity to scoop up its customers, which have long-term supply contracts including almost all of the Canadian market for private-label wet pet food.

Meanwhile, Aleem Israel of Sprott Securities issued a "buy" recommendation on Menu Foods with a target price of $7.75, down from a previous target of $9.00, saying the sell-off creates opportunity.

"While the product recall does set Menu back, we believe that its customers will remain alongside the company and cash distributions will
resume in the second quarter of 2008," Israel wrote in a commentary, postponing his previous hope for renewed distributions before the middle of this year.

Coverage in the business press is concentrated on the money as if animals are of no fucking concern at all.

The problem is, just as we didn't know that Menu actually made Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet, etc, we have no real way to know who's make our pet's food unless we do some serious research.

I do know that wheat gluten is a lousy source of protein and I do not feed my dog or cat any foods that contain it.

I am now feeding my puppy raw food, supplementing it with some dry food and will eventually get him off dry altogether.

there are serious quality control problems with pet foods at all levels.

menu should have been testing every ingredient. If mold in the wheat gluten is the problem, they'd have know that if they bothered to test all incoming ingredients and then test each lot before it was sent to unsuspecting pet owners to sicken their pets.

Thank you for covering this distressing story from a slightly different angle and also as a pet owner.

The situation is looking like Menu Foods was clearly lax in dealing with growing suspicions and we need to keep their feet to the fire -- theirs and the distributors who obviously trusted too much -- to prevent such an occurence in the future.

Thank you for bringing your perspective to this. I am shocked that none of our local grocery store chains (I'm in Nova Scotia) have any mention of this on their websites, nothing on WalMart Canada at least, and nothing posted in the stores, either. Somebody's not thinking ahead. Thanks again, B.L.

Apparently, the cause was poisoned Chinese wheat.

That blows my mind. A Canadian company contracts two American plants to make pet food for them, who in turn buy surplus Chinese wheat that contains a poison that was used as an abortion drug in the 50s.

Kinda makes you wonder what's in your OWN food, huh?

We didn't loose our cat in this mess but I feel terrible for those who have lost a little friend.

There is a place in hell for the folks at Menu Foods.

Now that we know the different private labels that menu foods makes, I think that everyone should boycott their food. If no one is buying, then they won't need to supply. And hopefully, they will be no more.

The problem is so much deeper than Menu, which ought to be sued into oblivion.

What we need to boycott is food from China, where there are obviously no standards and no scruples.

Consider that there is no word in the Chinese language for "quality."

And we need laws that make companies follow standards because they obviously aren't going to test ingredients unless there is a consequence for not testing.

We need laws that say they can't test food on live animals until they have proven all ingredients to be safe. That would have avoided this issue, but it wasn't and still isn't done.

Me, I'm feeding Benny raw. Why take the chance? He is thriving since he's off commercial food and the poor puppy was suffering from bloody diarhea for months; on Flagyll almost constantly. And since I feed him raw, he's fine.

I didn't just start throwing hunks of meat in his dish. I worked with a holistic vet who explained his nutritional needs. And I have read a few books and all the articles I could get my hands on to be sure that I will give him what he needs.

Yes, it's more work. And it's a little more money, but not much more. I'll save it on vet bills and medication.