An embattled Canadian pet food company wants retailers in North America to remove all 'cuts and gravy'-style food from its shelves.
Menu Foods said Saturday that even brands not on the official recall list should be removed.
The company shut down a manufacturing plant in Kansas, where aminopterin, an ingredient used in rat poison, was detected.
The tainted food has killed at least 16 dogs and cats so far across North America. The toll is expected to climb.
In West Vancouver, one pet owner is considering joining a class-action lawsuit against Menu Foods.
Shelly Grogan lost one of her two family cats this week.
"She was part of our life, and every time we walk into the house and she's not here, it's not the same," Grogan told CTV Vancouver.
Her two cats had been eating Special Kitty-brand foil-wrapped pet food for about a year. When the recall notice went out on March 16, Grogan wasn't immediately concerned.
| Recall information | |
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Menu Foods recall information 1-866-895-2708 or 1-866-463-6738 Here are the lists of:
Menu Foods is experiencing a high volume of calls. They ask people to keep trying if the line is busy. The affected foods are canned or foil-pouch foods. Veterinarians recommend that concerned pet owners stop feeding their pets any of the foods on the product lists and switch to either a dry pet food or another brand. |
"There's so many pet foods out there. What's the chances that what we bought was going to be recalled?"
However, she checked the foods against the recall list, "and they were all there," she said.
As she discovered the cats had been eating tainted food, Mulee started acting listlessly. She took both cats to the vet. The older animal's kidney's were failing.
"There was nothing we could really to do to save her," she said. Tangerine, the second cat, was diagnosed as being in the first stages of kidney failure.
The vet suspects the food is the cause, she said.
Grogan has been in touch with Menu Foods. She said she was told that Menu will pay for veterinary bills if pet owners can prove their pets ate the tainted food.
However, the devil is in the details.
Grogan said it's not clear to her what proof is needed, and she needs to know before Mulee is cremated.
"I'm angry. I'm very, very angry about it," she said.
The company
At a Friday news conference, Paul K. Henderson, CEO of Menu Foods, was asked whether the firm would provide compensation for medical bills for sick pets. He said, "To the extent that we identify that the cause of any expenses incurred are related to the food, Menu will take responsibility for that."
However, the company was not yet certain how a toxic substance had made its way into the pet food.
"How did this substance get in to our products? At this stage, we don't know," Henderson said.
He told reporters that the company will begin testing all suspect raw materials through a process of elimination but denied that Menu Foods had been negligent.
"Some raw material has entered our supply chain that did not meet the quality that had been represented," he told reporters.
Henderson also sought to reassure the public that there was no reason to suspect the contamination affected any products beyond the ones identified in the recall.
The company had spoken to nearly 200,000 consumers, Henderson said.
"They are scared. Some of them, like myself, are angry," Henderson said. "We are grateful for their patience."
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson
