Deadly Painkiller in Dog Food!

[toomanypaws]

I received this email and wanted to pass this on. My goodness, I feed my 6 dogs Canidae mixed w/ Embark. I guess they're getting straight Embark today until I can do more research.

DEADLY PAINKILLER IN DOG FOOD

by Robert Jay Russell, Ph.D., Coton de Tulear Club of America President

CotonNews@aol. com

www.CotonClub. com

September 9th, 2007. In a breaking story, both Itchmo.com and

ConsumerAffairs. com have reported that a private individual sent samples of dog food to a

private laboratory for analysis and the sample containing Canidae (dry food)

tested positive for Acetaminophen, an analgesic which can prove fatal to pets.

This is not the first time this year that pet food has been found

contaminated with Acetaminophen; pets have died as a result. The pain killer is extremely

toxic to cats who lack any enzyme to break down the compound. It is

hepatotoxic in cats, dogs and people.

Expertox, the private, Texas-based laboratory that found Acetaminophen in Pet

Pride cat food earlier and now Canidae dog food has tested between 100-150

samples for toxins and found Acetaminophen in five of those samples. Expertox

has not released the names of all the companies whose food tested positive,

however.

Canidae, located in California, vigorously disputes the findings and claims

that it imports no ingredients from China. Whether that is true remains to be

seen, since I have not found any commercial pet food that could be prepared

without at least some Chinese ingredients. For example, neither taurine,

essential for the prevention of cardiomyopathy in cats and probably dogs as well is

100% sourced from China (no place else makes it anymore!). Similarly, most human

and pet vitamins are exclusively Chinese produced.

Here is the results of a simple Google search I performed that located dozens

of Chinese companies that make human and pet/animal feeds as well as

acetaminophen. I have copied the web information for just one of these companies

below:

Be-long Int'l Group

www.be-longgroup. com

P.O.Box139,Gulou Post Office, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210008, China

Products and Services for Be-long Int'l Group

(2-Phenanthryl) Acetamide (4120-77-8)

Folic Acid, 10%

2-(Acetylamino) Phenol (614-80-2)

Choline Chloride, 50%

Vitamin E, 50%

Vitamin E Acetate, 50%

Choline Chloride, 60%

Choline Chloride, 70%

Riboflavin, Granulation, 95%

Acetaminophen (103-90-2)

Agricultural Fodder Mixers

Alinamin (59-58-5)

Analgin (68-89-3)

Animal Feed

Animal Feed Additives

Animal Feed Additives, Meat Producing Pigs

Animal Feed Additives, Piglets

Animal Feed Additives, Sows

Mineral Supplements, Animal Feed, Liquid

Animal Feed Nutrients

Animal Feed Supplements

Vitamins, Animal Feed

Agrochemicals, Animal Feed, Zinc

Animal Liquid Feed

Animal Mixed Feed

Animal Organic Feed

Bacitracin Zinc (1405-89-6)

Animal Feed Ingredients, By Products

Calcium Pantothenate (137-08-6)

Choline Chloride (67-48-1)

D Pantothenate (79-83-4)

D-Calcium Pantothenate (137-08-6)

Vitamin A Feed Grade

Antifoams, Food Additive Manufacture

Food Additives

Food Colourings

Glucono-Delta- Lactone Encapsulates

D-Calcium Pantothenate, Granular

Granular Food Additives

D-Calcium Pantothenate, USP, Kosher

Animal Feed Additives, Natural

Pantothenate (20938-62-9)

Piglet Feed

Sodium -D-Pantothenate (867-81-2)

D-Calcium Pantothenate, USP

Juice&Food additives

Animal Health Products

Composes medicament

Composes medicament for Aquaculture

Premix for Antibiotics

Premix for Anticoccidiosis

Premix for Multi Vitamins + Minerals

Raw Material

Dr. Russell continues:

For all these many new companies -- producing food additives, parmaceuticals

and cosemetics -- cross contamination is certainly possible (it has been shown

to occur in Chinese and US manufacturing with alarming frequency this year!).

The vast scope of this problem is mind boggling. Just this company alone

announces on their web site that:

....after pilot test, we finally put our new production line into operation,

with an annual output of 20,000 metric tons. High quality product with

excellent price, Be-Long is always ready at your service!

It is clear to me that the people and pets of China and the world are at

great, mortal risk. Only effective government -- with its ability to test,

regulate and control the flow of products -- can keep a nation safe from egregiously

contaminated imports and corporate-compromis ed U.S. and Canadian production

facilities. Yet in America, we've outsourced and neglected public health and

infra structure maintenance and poured our last borrowed dollar into an illicit,

illegal war in Iraq (and conspicuously, according to the U.S. General

Accounting Office, into the unregulated bank accounts of war profiteers Halliburton

et. al.). Ironically, it has been money borrowed from our massive trade deficit

with China that has funded Bush's war. It is this addiction to borrowed money

that cripples our present response to toxic Chinese imports. Do not expect

government help when determining a "safe" pet food for Fido and FiFi.

It is our children and grandchildren who, suffering degenerating health,

reduced prospects for future growth and employment and reduced longevity, will be

saddled with incompetent government and incredible debt for the follies of

these past half dozen years of unregulated globalization. We have left our

progeny a cess pool of global proportions. Do not expect their gratitude.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ----

©2007 Dr. R. J. Russell & the CTCA

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[pkcrossley]

it is very scary, especially for the line near the climax --"It is this addiction to borrowed money that cripples our present response to toxic Chinese imports. Do not expect government help when determining a "safe" pet food for Fido and FiFi." this is 100-percent true. our government is quite unable to do anything to protect its people from unsafe products from china. just look at what the US government is blowing its money on and the reasons why your pet and you can't eat safe food are pretty obvious.

nasty products in pet food do not come exclusively from china. horses slaughtered in canada (and a much smaller number slaughtered in the US) are most of the source of pentobarbital in pet food; the rest of it comes from euthanized pets and strays who are also ground up and put into the supply. the list of food companies testing positive for pentobarbital (and thereby betraying the source of their "meat") is also very long and can be found at various sites on the internet.

the exact source of acetaminophen contamination in food from china is puzzling to me, and possibly more important than the presence of the acetaminophen itself. in large doses acetaminophen is toxic to the liver, but in small doses it is just an analgesic or not even that (though dogs and cats, obviously, cannot tolerate even a tiny fraction of what humans can). the amount in the food is part of the question, and the amount in canidae is likely to be much too small to be of long-term concern.

more worrisome is how this is getting into the food. its one thing to have it present (as pentobarbital is present), another thing to figure out how it got there. it isn't likely that the chinese are adding it deliberately. something they are using as a source of protein is bringing it in. what the heck is that?

remember canidae is disputing the findings, and at this point we might assume that it is possible that some other ingredient is capable of producing a false positive for acetaminophen. i look forward to reading a more thorough analysis of the results. but we should be prepared to see the names of plenty of other "trusted" dog food brands implicated.

this is one of many reasons i look hard for organic sources for my pet food. the others are just basic issues of nutrition and avoiding low-level toxins that affect my pets' overall health (and i apply the same principles to myself!). it isn't easy, particularly since labelling is not always honest at the company level, and government regulation these days is halfhearted or just neglected altogether.

even home-cooking for dogs cannot eliminate all dangers (since the problem here is sources and ingredients, not the process by which they are prepared), but it does permit an additional level of control. it is a bad situation when you cannot count on the government to perform the regulatory and inspection duties it has performed for sixty years.

[toomanypaws]

Well, I just forwarded the entire article to Canidae. I'm anxious to hear what they will have to say.

[bradl]

Please don't post email forwards. Summarize and/or link to existing web resources when possible. Thanks.

[toomanypaws]

Please don't post email forwards. Summarize and/or link to existing web resources when possible. Thanks.

Sorry I wasn't clear, I did use a link to forward the article.

[kayharley]

I'm scared....was just about to buy another bag of Canidae for Remy but I'm having 2nd thoughts. Oh my....this is awful!

[toomanypaws]

Canidae denies pet food contains acetaminophen.

http://www.itchmo.com/canidae-denies-pet-f...taminophen-2732

[Cairnmania]

I take anything on the web of this nature with a very large grain of salt.

That said, I now will not buy any dog product which is labeled "made in China." What's hidden from me in terms of the source of ingredients I have to put my trust in the manufacturer, there is no other choice really.

[jimnconnie]

I really hope that this turns out to be just a scare and not a real problem. We just were considering switching our dogs over to Canidae, and now this thing turns up. I really like the fact that all the ingredients are natural, and of U.S origin. I do see Taurine listed as a natural ingredient, but it says that it is of U.S. origin also. Very confusing, so I think we will wait this thing out before switching foods.

[toomanypaws]

Thought I'd share w/ you Canidae's response to my email yesterday.

Dear Beth,

Unfortunately, with the advent of the internet, forums and blogs, institutions and individuals can make anonymous claims which can be both true and false. CANIDAE is now being subjected to claims that our products may contain acetaminophen. We do not put acetaminophen in our products in any way, shape or form, nor is it used in any of our ingredients. Our products are made with ingredients from US suppliers; we do not use Chinese or other foreign suppliers.

There is one report by one unconfirmed laboratory that has given rise to these claims. That same laboratory also claimed acetaminophen contamination in other products that the FDA and the laboratory at the University of California examined as well and as to which those laboratories found that the claims could not be validated. We are not aware of any other private or government laboratory claiming to have found acetaminophen in pet food samples.

Nonetheless, CANIDAE takes any such allegation extremely seriously and is working hard to acquire as much factual information regarding these allegations as possible. We have already sent a battery of samples to be tested by the most current and reliable test methods available.

CANIDAE is committed to producing quality Dog and Cat Food. It is our commitment to provide your pets with safe, nutritious foods, free of wheat, corn and soy! It's the CANIDAE way!

Sincerely,

Canidae Pet Foods

[kayharley]

I received the same reply to my email...at least they are responding to us.

It's not like we don't already have enough to worry about regarding the health and safety of our Cairns......now this!

I remember 35 years ago I fed my first dog Gravy Train! There were no human grade, high quality dog foods available like there are now and look what's happening. It's so sad......

[oregoncoast71]

It all seems a little hokey to me. I saw the lab "report" on consumeraffairs.com and it didn't seem right to me. The bag of said dog food was delivered to them in a zip lock bag? Not the originally packaging? And it stated that the lab cannot verify if it is really Canidae or not. Just doesn't seem right, IMHO.

[Shazza]

Certaintly disturbing

I was just thinking of switching our 2 over as well, I guess I'll hold off for awhile to see how this pans out.

[Jessica H]

Has anyone seen anything else about this? Do we know if Canidae has gotten results back?

[AngusMacDoggal]

I like to check snopes.com or hoaxbusters.com whenever I get an email that is making the rounds whether it's about dog food, politics, or some big give away. These are pretty good independent sites that clean up misinformation.

[Eliz222]

Oh no! I'm almost scared to give my dogs anything! I'm going to continue giving my two Canidae until I hear further. They have both been on it for over 3 years and are in great shape.

[Jessica H]

My dogs have been on it for 4 years and my breeder has been feeding it for 7 years so I am going to continue also until I hear further.

[kayharley]

I'm with you guys....

[Jessica H]

Here is the email I got in response this morning...

Dear Jessica,

We received unconfirmed information about a week ago that a particular laboratory that tested a sample of dog food submitted by a consumer reported that the sample was positive for acetaminophen at the limit of detection of 1 part per million. The consumer identified the dog food as a Canidae product and provided to us the lot number of that product. We submitted samples from the same lot to an independent laboratory for testing. The independent laboratory could not detect any acetaminophen in the product down to the same level of 1 part per million. We also submitted to the independent laboratory a sample from a second lot and it was negative as well. We do not believe that Canidae pet products contain any acetaminophen and are confident that that there is no safer or more nutritious pet food available today.

Sincerely,

Canidae Pet Foods