Dog food recall

 From www.caninecare.org. Permission to cross post.

 
Please stop using the following till Jan 2011 - read in their newsletter:

o Solid Gold [all except the Holistique Blendz formula]
o Taste of the Wild [kibble and canned food]
o Artemis [kibble and canned food]
o Canidae [all except the Chicken and Lamb formulas]

Story below:

As many of you know, we lost our beloved Bodhi to liver cancer in late October 2009. Once Christmas passed it gave us an opportunity to do some additional research into some possible links to liver cancer[hemangiosarcoma].

We became aware that the FDA requires ALL imported fish-meal to be treated with the preservative ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is also used in jet fuel, cosmetics and in some human foods. The levels allowed in pet food is substantially higher than that allowed for human consumption. It is a knowncarcinogen that targets the liver and spleen.

While many commercial pet foods use imported fish-meal, many of the holistic manufacturers have applied for a special exception, allowing them to use other preservatives like Naturox, which is a natural alternative to ethoxyquin.

Earlier this month we contacted all of the manufacturing companies that had fish listed on the ingredient panel to find out:

1) Was it imported fish
2) If imported what preservative was being used

We found that the following brands of food contained fish meal treated with ethoxyquin:

o Solid Gold [all except the Holistique Blendz formula]
o Taste of the Wild [kibble and canned food]
o Artemis [kibble and canned food]
o Canidae [all except the Chicken and Lamb formulas]

We contacted the manufacturer's representative, and were informed that approximately 6 months ago they began shelf-testing Naturox, and will finish with the shelf trial towards the end of this year. Hopefully at that time all ethoxyquin treated fish meal will be eliminated from the foods listed above.

While the products only contain trace amounts of this preservative, our feeling is that a healthy animal might be fine on the food, whereas genetics, immune compromised states, and other factors could influence whether an animal develops cancer over time.

If you would like to continue using any of the foods during this internal recall, we can special order the foods, but we WILL NOT be offering them for general sale in our store.

As we stated previously, once this ingredient is replaced we will offer these foods again, but as always, we continue to monitor the products we sell at The Big Bad Woof®. If you ever have questions about any products in our store please ask.

We thank you all for being our customers, and we will work with you to find good alternatives if you were using one of these foods.

Thank you,

Julie Paez & Pennye Jones-Napier
Co-Owners
The Big Bad Woof®
Office: (202) 291-5575

---

Many members have come forward to try and put together a news letter once again for the club. If you have any stories or suggestions for this newsletter please forward them to Karen Koehler (treasurer). We are trying to open the lines of communication in the club and would like feed back. There is also a members only section that we can post important stuff that pertains to club members only. If interested in the username and password and are a current member contact Janice Erker. paws-e-trax@hotmail.com

---