Rat poison found in food blamed for pets' deaths
Scientists probe how it got there
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists said yesterday that they still don't know how it got there and predicted more animal deaths would be linked to it.
After the announcement, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style food, regardless of when they were produced. The company also said it would take responsibility for pet medical expenses incurred as a result of the food.
The substance in the food was identified as aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in other countries, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.
The federal government prohibits using aminopterin for killing rodents in the United States. State officials would not speculate on how the poison got into the pet food, but said no criminal investigations had been launched.
The pet deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. Some pets that ate the recalled brands suffered kidney failure, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.
Pet owners and veterinarians said the tally could be higher, however, and other deaths were reported anecdotally around the country. A Yorkshire terrier named Pebbles, whose picture became linked with the pet food illnesses , died Thursday of kidney failure, said her owner, Jeff Kerner. The dog had eaten some of the food, and Kerner said he was contacting a lawyer because he wanted to prevent another pet loss.
"Before they put this stuff in the bags, there should be some kind of test," said Kerner, of Sherman Oaks, Calif. "I can't just let it go. Even if they just change the law."
The company expanded the recall -- which initially covered only cans and pouches of food packaged Dec. 3 through March 6 -- after the FDA alerted it that some products remained on store shelves.
There is no risk to pet owners from handling the food, officials said.
The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation into the pet deaths was focused on wheat gluten in the food. The gluten would not cause kidney failure, but it could have been contaminated, the FDA said.
Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, based in Ontario, Canada, confirmed yesterday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.
Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.
"It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.
Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by the manufacturer and found aminopterin in two of them. The laboratories are part of a network created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation's animals and food supply safe.
"Any amount of this product is too much in food," Hooker said.
Henderson said Menu Foods does not believe the food was tampered with because the recalled food came from two plants: one in Kansas, the other in New Jersey. Menu continues to produce food at the two plants.
The company, already facing lawsuits, said yesterday that it is testing all the ingredients that go into the food. "We have a lot of work to do, and we are eager to get back to it," Henderson said.
(Correction: Relying on Food and Drug Administration information, an Associated Press story on yesterday's Nation page on the expansion of a pet food recall incorrectly reported that all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food by Menu Foods were now included, regardless of when they were produced. The company said yesterday the recall still applies only to products packaged from Dec. 3 to March 6.) 