FDA RECALL OF PURINA POULTRY FEEDS DUE TO POTENTIAL HEALTH RISK April 16th 2014

[Bethel3330]

I heard the bags in question were only distributed in Washington and Oregon and that the discrepancy was found when doing an inventory of the minerals or something that they add. So, that's somewhat encouraging but...
So, what does that say, when they have to fortify what they produce? *sigh*
At least it wasn't a contamination, this time. I live in an area with very few choices but am lucky enough to have the only dealer for Hiland Naturals non-gmo feeds in my state only a couple of miles from my house. I'm hoping to buy feed from them and avoid the recall madness. It seems to go around every year or two with Purina and similar :-/
No offense to anyone using their products (I use Dog Chow, actually) ...it's just that I've developed a distrust of big agriculture, hence our keeping chickens in the first place. I'd love to never give Monsanto and their crazy schemes another dime though.

 

[SavageDestiny]

I heard the bags in question were only distributed in Washington and Oregon and that the discrepancy was found when doing an inventory of the minerals or something that they add. So, that's somewhat encouraging but...
So, what does that say, when they have to fortify what they produce? *sigh*
At least it wasn't a contamination, this time. I live in an area with very few choices but am lucky enough to have the only dealer for Hiland Naturals non-gmo feeds in my state only a couple of miles from my house. I'm hoping to buy feed from them and avoid the recall madness. It seems to go around every year or two with Purina and similar :-/
No offense to anyone using their products (I use Dog Chow, actually) ...it's just that I've developed a distrust of big agriculture, hence our keeping chickens in the first place. I'd love to never give Monsanto and their crazy schemes another dime though.

The problem is that WHY are they not testing to make sure the feed meets nutritional standards BEFORE the batch is shipped out? They should be testing each batch to make sure nothing is wrong with it. Sloppy, lazy, and uncaring is what this is.

Purina is a crap company. They don't care about animal health one bit. You should really get your dog off Dog Chow- aside from the company's poor quality control standards, Dog Chow's ingredient list is downright horrifying.

 

[enola]

The problem is that WHY are they not testing to make sure the feed meets nutritional standards BEFORE the batch is shipped out? They should be testing each batch to make sure nothing is wrong with it. Sloppy, lazy, and uncaring is what this is.

Purina is a crap company. They don't care about animal health one bit. You should really get your dog off Dog Chow- aside from the company's poor quality control standards, Dog Chow's ingredient list is downright horrifying.

What is really scarey about dog food ingredients is the fact that companies can label their dog foods as 'nutritionally complete' when in fact most dog foods are nearly completely based on grains. If you think Purina dog food is bad, don't check out Ol' Roy dog food.

I am the Pet Department manager at wal~mart. I am amazed at the amount of products people will waste their money on for 'itching' and 'hair falling out' . If they ask for advice I suggest they check their dog's diet. When I explain that corn should never be fed to dogs they look at me like my head is cut off......

 

[SavageDestiny]

What is really scarey about dog food ingredients is the fact that companies can label their dog foods as 'nutritionally complete' when in fact most dog foods are nearly completely based on grains. If you think Purina dog food is bad, don't check out Ol' Roy dog food.

I am the Pet Department manager at wal~mart. I am amazed at the amount of products people will waste their money on for 'itching' and 'hair falling out' . If they ask for advice I suggest they check their dog's diet. When I explain that corn should never be fed to dogs they look at me like my head is cut off......

Dog Chow is nearly as bad as Ol' Roy.

I worked in the pet food industry for a very long time. There's a reason I make all my own dog and chicken food now, I don't trust any of these companies. Even most of the "good" companies either eventually have issues or sell out.

 

[Bethel3330]

My dogs are rescues that were already on dog chow when I got them. I mention that because I wasted a lot of money on Taste of the Wild once. lol They don't have any health issues, thankfully. I had a pomeranian who did, and she was on special food and supplements to address that. I am aware of the issues some dogs are having from grain-based foods. Some are pretty severe and it's sad. Mine are fed raw beef as well, so they don't eat near as much of the dry. I know there's much better out there, but I'm putting more of a focus on what my chickens eat, since they are producing eggs and meat that my family will then consume, and I have nearly 200 pounds of dog to feed. I think I'm doing pretty okay with them, though. The raw beef is really good for them and comes from a local farm.
It's the same concept as all the boxed "human" foods out there now. They tout kids cereal as being a healthy breakfast. Ha! ;-)

 

[Shroppy]

PURINA DOG CHOW INGREDIENTS

GROUND WHOLE GRAIN CORN, 1 Star – Inexpensive, poorly digested feed-grade can include moldy grain or fungus which has caused death. Will be GMO

POULTRY BY-PRODUCT MEAL, 1 Star - Ground up carcasses, can include dead, diseased fowl, all internal parts void of healthy meat, includes feet and beaks and intestinal contents which includes GMO corn and other unwelcome junk food in the stool.. and a high probability of Arsenic contamination from the compunds used to control intestinal parasites. Concentrated

ANIMAL FAT preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid, 1 Star Non-descriptive fat from rendering can be anything rancid or 4-D (dead, dying, disabled, diseased). Can include Roadkill, Euthanised pets, Zoo animals, regardless of natural preservatives. Also, old restaurant grease is a common ingredient here.

CORN GLUTEN MEAL, 1 Star - Waste product, cheap, non-nutritive filler but used as protein source -- can cause allergies and sugar imbalance. Corn, especially with the germ and/or bran/hulls intact, has high levels of Oxalates and should be avoided in pets with renal/bladder issues. Can also be contaminated with potentially lethal Aflatoxins GMO

MEAT AND BONE MEAL, 1 Star - Meat and Bonemeal is (species) non-descriptive. This can indicate 4-D Animals.. Dead, Dying, Disease, Dying and Disabled. It can legally include tumorous or diseased tissues plus bone meal can not be digested and assimilated for calcium! It is banned for use in animal feedstuffs in most European countries due to its link with Spongiform Encephalopathies (think BSE or "MadCow Disease"). It IS banned in the US as a ruminant feeed (your cows etc) Meat and bone meal is now utilized in Europe as a fossil-fuel replacement, and is commonly used as a fuel in cement kilns, landfilling and in incinerators. It was previously used as a fertiliser until the BSE outbreak when it was banned. In the US it is principally used as a low-cost protein source in dog food and cat food. There is NO testing on Meat and Bonemeal.. it is not required. The euthanising drug Pentobarbitol has been found in Meat and Bonemeal. It will also contain insecticides used as parasite control on animals as well as the drugs used to treat sickness that are present in a dead animal. From the EPA themselves: "Meat rendering plants process animal by-product materials for the production of tallow, grease, and high-protein meat and bone meal. Plants that operate in conjunction with animal slaughterhouses or poultry processing plants are called integrated rendering plants. Plants that collect their raw materials from a variety of offsite sources are called independent rendering plants. Independent plants obtain animal by-product materials, including rancid cooking grease, blood, feathers, offal, and entire animal carcasses, from the following sources: butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, zoos, fast-food chains, poultry processors, slaughterhouses, farms, ranches, feedlots, and animal shelters."

BREWER’S RICE, 1 Star – The small milled fragments of rice kernels that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice. Brewers rice is a processed rice product that is missing many of the nutrients contained in whole ground rice and brown rice, thus reducing the quality. Rice, especially with the germ and/or bran/hulls intact, has high levels of Oxalates and should be avoided in pets with renal/bladder issues. Can also be contaminated with potentially lethal Aflatoxins. Chinese rice products have found to be contaminated with dangerous Melamine and Cyanuric Acid.

SOYBEAN MEAL (1 star for dogs; 3 Star for cats) Dogs can not digest soybeans, can bloat/die. Average source of protein and fiber for cats but Soy is also a KNOWN disruptor of thyroid gland function. Soy beans have high levels of Oxalates and should be avoided in pets with renal/bladder issues, as they promote oxalate stone formation. Some Chinese manufactured Soy products have been found to be contaminated with dangerous Melamine and Cyanuric Acid which have caused kidney failure and death in dogs and cats. Will be GMO

WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT, 2 Star - Contains all nutrients of wheat but indicates the use of feed-grade (old, moldy), not human-grade (healthier, fresher), can cause allergies. May be contaminated with poisonous Aflatoxins from mold. Has moderately high levels of Oxalates so unsuitable for dogs with kidney/bladder problems, or dogs with Oxalate stones

EGG AND CHICKEN FLAVOR 2 Star – Could be synthetic, natural, or from hydrolysed animal waste.

ANIMAL DIGEST, 1 Star – Used as flavor enhancer. Animal digest is a cooked-down broth used for flavour, rendered by chemical and/or enzymatic processes. It is only found in the very lowest quality pet food. Its presence indicates a very poor quality product. Run away from ALL pet foods containing this ingredient! Animal Digest is made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The origin of the animals is definitely suspect, as it never named. If the manufacturers wanted you to know what the source was, they’d name it. So what DOES it consist of? I hope you've got a stromg stomach for thiss.. here we go! Ingredients that end up in the rendering vats include ground up carcasses often come from “4-D animals” (Dead, Diseased, Disabled, or Dying prior to slaughter), all internal parts void of healthy meat. ANY kind of animal can be used including zoo animals, cats, dogs, goats, pigs, skunks, horses, rats, snakes, raccoons, possums, deer, foxes, miscellaneous road kill, animals euthanized at shelters and veterinarian clinics, restaurant and supermarket refuse.. including the plastic trays and packaging.. and so on.

CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, 2 Star - Used to improve/stabilize dry foods, inexpensive mineral supplement,

SALT, 1 Star - Used to cover up rancid meat and fat, can cause kidney and heart disease, hypertension

YELLOW 6, 1 star - Sunset Yellow, Artificial color, potentially carcinogenic. In studies Yellow 6 has been linked to kidney and adrenal gland tumors

YELLOW 5, 1 Star - yellow 5 "Tartrazine" is derived from coal tar and is the number one allergy-causing dye. Allergies to yellow 5 can range from mild indigestion to asthma to severe depression. It is estimated that 360,000 Americans have bad reactions to ingesting yellow 5. yellow 5 is a common dye and is in candy, cereal, and many other processed foods. It has been banned in several European countries. A variety of immunologic responses have been attributed to tartrazine ingestion by humans, including anxiety, migraine, clinical depression, blurred vision, itching, general weakness, heatwaves, feeling of suffocation, purple skin patches, and sleep disturbance

RED 40, 1 Star - Artificial color, carcinogenic.

BLUE 2 , 1 Star - Carcinogenic, artificial color.

Together with a handful of standard vitamins, and mineral additions.

 

[SavageDestiny]

My dogs are rescues that were already on dog chow when I got them. I mention that because I wasted a lot of money on Taste of the Wild once. lol They don't have any health issues, thankfully. I had a pomeranian who did, and she was on special food and supplements to address that. I am aware of the issues some dogs are having from grain-based foods. Some are pretty severe and it's sad. Mine are fed raw beef as well, so they don't eat near as much of the dry. I know there's much better out there, but I'm putting more of a focus on what my chickens eat, since they are producing eggs and meat that my family will then consume, and I have nearly 200 pounds of dog to feed. I think I'm doing pretty okay with them, though. The raw beef is really good for them and comes from a local farm.
It's the same concept as all the boxed "human" foods out there now. They tout kids cereal as being a healthy breakfast. Ha! ;-)

Why would spending more money on a better food be a waste, exactly?

The grain is not really what I have issues with in foods like dog chow. It's the poor quality "meat", carcinogenic preservatives, and indigestible crap they chuck in there because it's as cheap as possible for them to buy.

 

[Bethel3330]

Why would spending more money on a better food be a waste, exactly?

Because they wouldn't eat it and I wound up giving it to my mother-in-law.