Menu Foods admits that it was first informed of cat and dog deaths due to renal failure on February 20th. The company claims it started testing its products on February 27th, and two weeks later it had confirmed seven cases of kidney failure in the 40 to 50 animals on which the products were tested. The cause of the deaths was determined to be rat poison in the wheat gluten used in the company's "cuts and gravy" style products. Though Menu Foods dropped its supplier of the contaminated wheat gluten on March 6th, it did not provide retailers with a list of 90 recalled products until March 17th. The company was reported to be still adding brands to the list yesterday.
A number of law suits are taking shape against the manufacturer, but due to potential problems faced by pet owners in proving their case, there's some skepticism about the suits' merit. Menu Foods has declared that it is "happy and relieved" to have discovered the source of the problem, and that it will take responsibility for animal deaths the company's products can be shown to have caused. Panic is running high among pet owners who wonder what, if any, brands are safe to feed their animals, but foods that don't contain wheat gluten appear to be safe.
In Memorium.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Menu Foods Slow to Act
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36 comments:
Judas - the list of recalled foods includes premium brands like Science Diet and Iams/Eukanuba! I assumed my animals were perfectly safe (actually, they are - only the "cuts and gravy" varieties are affected, and we don't buy those).
So one of the peculiar aspects of this story, for me, is that the same manufacturer that people distribute under brands like "PriceChopper" and "Save-a-lot" also sells to companies like Hills.
Complete list of recalled products can be found on the company website here.
Some day, there will only be Nabisco/RJ Reynolds. They'll make everything (which will be sold at Walmart - the only retail outlet).
So, why am I buying premium brands for my beloved (though admittedly intellectually challenged) dogs?
Scandalous, and very sad. I'll bet Menu Foods was hoping the whole thing would blow over.
Why are you folks so averse to dictionaries? I mean, if you're going to do it, why not do it right?
In Memoriam
Dear anony-mouse, at least my error is well-founded. How do you excuse your painfully stupid reasoning?
i admit, it is kinda funny to see that mistake on the intellectual extension of the fray.
Dawn: FYI, your image in this post (too wide) is what's pushing the comment sidebar down/out of place.
Ender: It wasn't doing that on my screen, but I've just made it 300 pixels wide, instead of 400. If that doesn't fix it, let me know.
Looks liek the culprits are my YouTube clips -- I'm fixing them.
Yup -- that was it.
Word to the wise -- the default YouTube width of 425 is too wide for WikiFray -- I cut them down from 425x350 to 250x200.
John: you mean I can make my super-special photoshopped image big again?
Ender: why is everything my fault?
Well, I'm saying you reducing the image size was not sufficient to fix the location of the comments. I am unsure whether it was neccesary.
John: I aprecciate the clarfication. Thanks.
maximo,
Misspelling "In Memoriam" is especially funny to anyone who's observed that naming yourselves after ancient Romans is one of Fraysters' favorite affectations--as you know.
While y'all are minding tech stuff, wouldn't you like to remove Menu Foods from Wikifray's roster, where Dawn cleverly caused it to appear? You're welcome.
P.S.--
Y'all might as well stop misspelling words intentionally, if that's for my benefit. I'm not biting.
Anon: Do you often feel as though perfect strangers are behaving in a certain way just for your benefit (or annoyance)?
Just curious.
hum de dum
Uhm, yeah - this looks intriguing, too.
I'm sorry - what was your point again?
Dear, dear mousie: your question regarding my spelling aberrations has been sufficiently addressed, now how about that faulty conclusion you rode in on? I don’t mind people pointing out my errors, generally, but to do it from behind a cloak of anonymity seems, well, what’s the Latin phrase for "without balls”?
Dawn: that would be "vacuus balls", which strikes me as a dandy nic, actually (anon, you can thank me later).
Oh drat - that would more properly be be vacuus testis, wouldn't it?
Thank God I caught that before the editors swooped in.
If I ever change my nic, I think it'll be to Vacuous Testes.
Actually, most of the Fraysters tend to follow the old Greeks. They're really more about the models of western reasoning, yada yada yada.
I suppose Maximo sounds sort of Roman. "Keifus" definitely is. I named myself after Keifus of Brittania, also called inconcinnus which means "the great." He was the consul Rufus's deputy and secretary, but met a mysterious end in A.D. 32 when the locals took him on a tour of the seaside cliffs.
K
K: I guess "inconcinnus" is beter than "incontinentus"
Well maybe, Arch, and "intercontinentus" is also much better than "incontinentus".
I'm thinking inconcinnus testes (or testis, if we want to stick with the latin), would be a pretty good nic.
"Intercontinentus testis" seems like you're, er, compensating for something, eh? And "Compensintercontinentus testis" just seems awkward (even if perhaps more factually correct).
Though it might be an apt nic for our friendly neighborhood anon.
it's portuguese.
God I've missed you guys. ;)
And about the root post, our local PetCo is having a cow about EVERYTHING IN THE STORE. One of my rat's favorite treats contains wheat gluten, and they've pulled it. Even though it's made by a different manufacturer entirely.
And as far as abusing the Latin language, we have a small trucking company around here run by the father of one of my son's friends that calls itself [SIC] Transit, and their tagline is "Gloria Mundi". He got the idea out of a Heinlein novel. I always smile when one of their trucks roll by.
Non testes habeo.
What's in a nic? You freely lent yours out, Dawn.
Don't forget about that "Menu Foods" in the WikiFray roster.
Hey, MsZilla! Whatcha been up to? I missed you, too.
Mousie: Hereinafter, "anonymous" shall stand for "without balls," or perhaps "without balls and squeaky." Thanks for playing.
What's the Wikifray roster? Do we have a basketball team? Was I deliberately not invited just because I suck at basketball?
Arch -- "He has a wife, you know..."
Zill!
Hi, august. See what happens to the place without your beneficent influence? But, sure, you can play forward, here's the ball...
So, my guess is that mousie is a poster who fancies him or herself a dignified and respected individual, who is reluctant to sully his or her nice robes by slinging anything malodorous, and so marches around with that silly mask on. But how on earth does someone surrender their dignity in one guise so that they can maintain it in another? And how could such protection be traded for the certain knowledge one's own buttheadedness? Obviously, our opinion is more important to him or her than his or her own.
(a review of my crimes in this thread, according to squeaky: crimes of spelling, brash and presumptuous tagging, alleged past nick lending.)
Yeah. Sorry about that. I'm poking a pseudopod out from under the rock, and hopefully it'll go okay.
"What have I been up to" would be a very long post indeed. But I'm getting my feet under me again.
I'll have to watch a few turns of the rope to get the pace again and then I'll jump back in.
[ahem...] To be fair Dawn, that would be "freely admitted, and very publicly committed nic lending", which I think really amounts to an accusation of shamelessness, or something.
MsZ - ah, the welcome sight of a familiar face, er I mean little foot (or is that a hand) coming out from 'neath the weighty stone of life. Hope it's all working out for you.
But don't feel like you need to sit out any turns, or anything. Compounding the sins of abysmal spelling, poor grammer, butchered Latin and egregious misuse of tags, we also have no rhythm.
august,
The WikiFray roster (tag cloud doesn't seem right) is the buncha names in the banner at the top of the page. "Menu Foods" is now one of them.
Hi Anon,
Oh, I see what you mean. Those are the labels for posts. In most cases, we just label posts by our nics, but sometimes we have topical labels if somebody is going to do a series (like "The Echo Maker"). I'm assuming Dawn plans on posting further on Menu Foods, or she may be keeping it up to faciliatate technorati searches on the topic.
Are you saying that discussion of Menu Foods is thoughtcrime?
I'm admittedly a poor speller, and appreciate whatever edits you might suggest.
I'm curious regarding your feelings on Edwards. My sense is that he's the only Democrat with any interest in attempting to win a southern state. My progressive friends seem to want to kiss off the south, but I'd think that would make it kind of hard to win elections.
Glad to see that you're well.
august is exactly right. I'll take it down when the story fades.
I heard a rumour today that the animal deaths are up in the thousands, but no way to prove the food was the culprit.
So, anon, what did you think I was doing with the tag up in the banner?
August,
Thanks for the explanation.
I believe you are mistaking me for someone else (certainly an understandable mistake, unlike misspelling "In Memoriam" because other cultural illiterates do).
Hello anonymous pedant -- the closing clause of your sentence suggests you mean "forgivable," rather than "understandable." Some problems remain with internal coherence, of course.
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