Bently's Beasties Blog

Hello again everyone. I TOLD YOU SO!!!. The pet food recalls are still continuing. One of the Pet Industry trade magazines that I get mentioned that the pet food recalls have topped 6,000. The most recent is from Mars Pet Care's Pennsylvania plant and involve Pedigree, Member's Mark, Ol' Roy, Special Kitty and some others as well. So before you pick up that bag of food at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club or the local grocery store, check to make sure it isn't on the list. I am getting seriously tired of this. This one is a "voluntary" recall, as an ingredient used in the manufacture of these foods tested positive for salmonella, and humans can become infected by handling their pet's food. So be careful, wash your hands and check the Mars site for the batch numbers to make sure your food isn't involved. Love to you all, Ruthie

05.14.2008  NEWS FLASH     Well, it's happened yet again.

This time it isn't dog or cat food; it's horse feed. Purina is involved in a voluntary recall, because some food they processed may contain toxic amounts of aflatoxin. I got this email in my inbox Wednesday May 7th, 2008 at 2:19 PM Central Time.

Land O' Lakes Purina Feed LLC has implemented a voluntary product retrieval of certain feeds manufactured during the following periods of time.
1. Between November 3, 2007 and February 8, 2008 at their Statesville, North Carolina feed plant;
2. Between January 1, 2008 and March 10, 2008 at their Harrisburg, Pennsylvania feed plant &
3. Between January 1, 2008 and March 10, 2008 at their Guilderland, New York plant.

To date they have not received any confirmed aflatoxin-related animal health complaints involving any of the retrieved products. All dealers who purchased any of the retrieved products directly from Land O' Lakes Purina Feed LLC have been notified.

The dealers are located in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

For more information on specific products included in the retrieval, contact the Statesville, North Carolina, Feed Plant at 704.924.5100 or the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Feed Plant at 717.737.4581.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://thepetfoodlist.com/forums/index.php?topic=687.0

 Until next time: Bless you and yours, be they two or four-legged. Love to all. Ruthie Bently

8.29.2007

Hello everyone. Welcome to my Bently's Beasties Blog.

I wanted to talk about the recent pet food recall. I have over 22 years of experience in the pet industry, and though we have had recalls before, this one takes the cake. I don't think it is quite over yet. I wish I could be less negative about this, but I think I am right.

If you had come into any of the stores I managed before the recall, I would have been able to sell you what I thought at the time was the best food for your pet. I have since changed my mind. I will be adopting a dog in the near future and will NOT be feeding a commercial dog food to her.

I have no faith in the industry to regulate themselves and make this situation better. I think the industry has gotten a wake up call, but don't believe they are doing enough as of yet. I get several of the industry magazines and they are still mentioning the recall and what it has done for the natural food market.

They do not however, speak of anything to change the situation; and as the major players are now owned by very large conglomerates, I don't believe that they will make too many changes. In my opinion, they are only concerned about the bottom line, and I think that they just want this to be a bad dream and go away.

 They may talk about it, but in the long run, I don't think any major changes or upheavels will be coming any time soon. I haven't seen anything in the trades about it.

I however have been very lucky and in doing my research about cooking for my dog, found a wonderful website www.wendynanrees.com. Ms. Rees is a radio show host, writes two pet tip columns for lovetoknow.com and is an author of no less than 5 books, two of which are cookbooks for pets. The cat cookbook is called "No Catnapping at the Table" and the dog cookbook is called "No Barking At the Table." She also wrote a pet name book.

I'm very happy to say that Ms. Rees has another cookbook coming out in November. I believe it is slated to hit stores November 1st. Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders. The difference of this book is that it lists recipes for complete meals.

Not only that, it also features several kibble recipes that you can make at home. So you don't have to worry where your pet food is coming from, because you make it yourself. There are no exotic ingredients and everything you can find at your local market or health food store. 

There is good news for those of you who don't want to wait that long. Wendy also has a cooking class, that comes with a cook booklet of 15 original recipes. You can even contact her after you've taken the class if you have any further questions for her.

All in all, now we have an alternative to the regularly available commercial dog and cat foods. I have already taken her class, and only have praise for her grasp of the larger situation that so many of us pet owners find ourselves in.

I welcome any comments and would like to know what you think of the recall, and whether or not it is truly done.

Thanks for letting me vent. Bless you and yours, be they two or four-legged.

Have a great day.

Ruthie Bently, Owner/Consultant, Bently's Beasties