Dog Food Russian Roulette !

​The FDA is coming out with facts very slowly on the overdose of vitamin D in our pet’s dog food so it leads us to speculate.

In a newsletter (petfood.com) Dr. Michael W. Fox stated after the first two dog foods were recalled, seven more dry food recalls took us to December 5, 2018 and for 8-weeks no new overdoses of vitamin D were reported.  Now comes January 31, 2019, we find out about HillsPet Nutrition and its 25 varieties of canned dog food that were recalled.  After the HillsPet recall two separate manufacturing facilities are “experiencing formulation error” with vitamin D at one kibble (dry dog food) manufacturing facility and one canned pet food manufacturing facility.

The government shut down started on December 22, 2018.  Did the FDA stop their trace forward investigation while the shutdown was going on, and they didn’t investigate pet food manufacturers, then the manufacturers may have found a miss formulated vitamin pre-mix supplier.  That’s the question.

Was the 8-week delay between the vitamin D recalls due to the government shutdown?

We have to think back to 2007 when Melamine got into our pets dog and cat food and killed several dogs and cats.  So I went on the FDA site to find out more facts about Melamine because I never could understand how it would get in the dog food back then. A pet food manufacturer, Menu Foods, alerted the FDA to 14 animal deaths in the United States for cats and one dog.  Reported by consumers 9 cats died during taste trials conducted by the company.  The animals have developed kidney failure after eating certain (cuts and gravy) style dog and cat food produced at Menu Foods facilities in Emporia Kansas between December 3rd, 2006 and March 6th, 2007.  The FDA traced the Melamine to products labeled as “wheat gluten” and “rice protein concentrate” imported from China and used as ingredients in pet foods.  Cornell University scientists also found Melamine in the urine and kidneys of diseased cats that were part of a taste testing study conducted for pet food manufacturer Menu Foods.

Here it is in a nutshell, in Dana Scott’s newsletter the heating and processing that these foods go through make a real change in the food.  They could have dangerous consequences as it renders the food dead!  What goes into the food isn’t what comes out when heated, sterilized, irradiated, and extruded, almost all dog food won’t meet AAFCO standards when heated.  So the vitamin and minerals have to be added back to pass AAFCO requirements. Hence, here it comes, it’s not put in the pet food, it’s put on the pet food.  They found it in the pre-mix.  The Chinese manufacturers added Melamine to their pre-mix of vitamin and minerals to boost the protein content on the cheap. Then when dogs and cats started dying the FDA was forced to begin testing.  What made such a large recall was nearly all the manufacturers must buy the same pre-mix from China,  and it’s not stated on any dog food label, because it’s not required to say pre-mix. 

I also found on the FDA site there were two manufacturers of the pre-mix in China that were shut down and they had sold it to two other plants in the United States that would sell it to dog food manufacturers that manufactured several brands in one place.  So they thought they were buying it from the United States, but it was really coming from China.

That was then, and this is now, it’s just my opinion but I think we have a huge problem with the vitamin D overdose.  I think it’s a problem with the pre-mix.  If the FDA had traced the problem to HillsPet sooner, would this dog that lost her life still be out there playing and barking and having a good time!

Representatives from www.Truthaboutpetfood.com spoke to the owner of Zola, the dog, who consumed high levels of Vitamin D in the dogfood.  Zola became sick on January 15, 2019 and died on January 20, 2019. RIP Zola 

Information compiled from these sources:
Dr. Michael W. Fox, Petfood.com
Dana Scott, Newsletter
Federal Drug Administration
Cornell University Scientists

For more information check out:
www.FDA.gov (Consumer Complaint Coordinators)-Toll free relay service from  TTY
devices 800-877-8339
www.AVMA.org (List of recalls.)
Take care
T.J. Palm

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