Dog Food Recall
15"Party Animal, Inc. of West Hollywood, CA, has announced it is voluntarily recalling specific lots of its canned dog foods because they tested positive for the euthanasia drug, pentobarbital.
To learn which products are affected, please visit the following link:
Party Animal Dog Food Recall of April 2017"
What the hell is going on? This is the second dog food recall for pentobarbitol. This drug is not used on animals for slaughter, which suggests either deliberate contamination, or euthanized pets ending up in dog food!?! It’s a sad day when you hope someone’s deliberately poisoning people’s pets, because the alternative is even worse.
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There goes dinner . . .
What the heck? And “Party Animal, Inc”… a company based in West Hollywood, CA sounded so credible and infallible. What has this world come to?
@RedOak A quick search shows that the flavour of the food reported contaminated is… Cocolicious. Where do we even begin…
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall/party-animal-dog-food-recall-april-2017/
Actually it’s the third or fourth different company with a recall involving this drug. First was Evanger’s Hunks of Beef. I have fed my dogs this food but the recalled food did not get sold in my state.
I have received at least 2 more recall emails, maybe 3. I can’t even image how this drug got into the food.
“For a shiny coat and a euthful look, try Party Animal Dog Food.”
@ACraigL … “when you really want to party like there’s no tomorrow.”
https://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/centersoffices/officeoffoods/cvm/cvmfoiaelectronicreadingroom/ucm129131.htm How and why because I was curious:
How pentobarbital can get into dog food
Because in addition to producing anesthesia, pentobarbital is routinely used to euthanize animals, the most likely way it could get into dog food would be in rendered animal products.
Rendered products come from a process that converts animal tissues to feed ingredients. Pentobarbital seems to be able to survive the rendering process. If animals are euthanized with pentobarbital and subsequently rendered, pentobarbital could be present in the rendered feed ingredients.
In order to determine if pentobarbital residues were present in animal feeds, CVM developed a sophisticated process to detect and quantify minute levels – down to 2 parts per billion of pentobarbital in dry dog food. To confirm that the methods they developed worked properly, CVM scientists used the methods to analyze dry commercial dog foods purchased from retail outlets near to their Laurel, MD, laboratories. The scientists purchased dog food as part of two surveys, one in 1998 and the second in 2000. They found some samples contained pentobarbital (see the attached tables).
Dogs, cats not found in dog food
Because pentobarbital is used to euthanize dogs and cats at animal shelters, finding pentobarbital in rendered feed ingredients could suggest that the pets were rendered and used in pet food.
CVM scientists, as part of their investigation, developed a test to detect dog and cat DNA in the protein of the dog food. All samples from the most recent dog food survey (2000) that tested positive for pentobarbital, as well as a subset of samples that tested negative, were examined for the presence of remains derived from dogs or cats. The results demonstrated a complete absence of material that would have been derived from euthanized dogs or cats. The sensitivity of this method is 0.005% on a weight/weight basis; that is, the method can detect a minimum of 5 pounds of rendered remains in 50 tons of finished feed. Presently, it is assumed that the pentobarbital residues are entering pet foods from euthanized, rendered cattle or even horses.
@jmoor783 yuck
@jmoor783 Thanks, that’s actually reassuring. All kinds of very bad things result from cannibalism.
@moondrake
I was feeding my new pupper an expensive dog food (Wellness Core) and my vet convinced me to try Purina Smartblend (at almost half the price). He loves it, and now I have more money to buy him treats! Also, no recall! So… bonus!
@DaveInSoCal
"Judging by its ingredients alone, Purina One SmartBlend Dog Food looks like a below-average dry product. … Purina One SmartBlend is a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of poultry by-product meal as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 2 stars."
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/purina-one-smartblend/
Breeders, rescuers, veteran owners and most especially your own research are all better than a vet’s advice regarding canine nutrition. Its barely covered in vet school.
I recently switched from Taste of the Wild, a top tier dog food from Diamond to Nature’s Domain from Costco a 3.5 star food also made by Diamond. I am feedeing younger, healthier dogs now and they should be fine on a mid-tier food for a few years. Approximately $25-30 per $35lbs depending on protein source.
Ps Taste of the Wild appears to be having some serious problems right now, by the way, and I wouldn’t suggest anyone using it for a while.
@moondrake Ah dang, that’s the only food my dog can eat without scratching all his hair off and crapping out his insides
@Moose If it works for your dog, stay with it, but keep an eye on him. Corn is a major allergen for dogs, along with wheat, chicken and beef. Corn has very little nutritional value for dogs, so it’s basically empty calories. So just keep an eye on your dog’s overall health. And talk to other pet owners, rescues, breeders etc rather than just listening to your vet. I was feeding a top of the line dog food and from what I’m reading it may have been contaminated and contributed to my dog’s recent death so you seriously can’t trust any of it. It really deeply sucks.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=143
@DaveInSoCal If you go to Costco try their dog food. You’re doing fine and I don’t mean to imply that you’re giving your dog a bad food or anything. You were feeding it Wellness Core, you’re obviously not being cheap! Costco’s dog food in the uglier bag (not nature’s domain) has great ingredients and it honestly might be cheaper than the Purina you’re feeding. On www.dogfoodadvisor.com they get great reviews for ingredient quality and Costco normally puts a lot of effort into making sure their products are quality.