Evanger's pet food recall (pentobarbital)

I wonder if the only affected household of dogs has been targeted by a sick individual.

darsben1 wrote:


Except the government recall website states all beef the company uses is FDA approved. SO if true it was in the human supply chain and went unnoticed or it is something else.
Also notice it was a VOLUNTARY recall not an ordered recall

The FDA didn't have any authority to issue mandatory recalls of pet foods until the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011. Since then the FDA has issued only one mandatory pet food recall (for salmonella tainted treats), and that was several months after the manufacturer had issued a voluntary recall for some, but not all, of the treats.

I wouldn't put any faith at all in mandatory recalls of pet foods or treats.

A couple of websites are claiming that an FDA spokesperson confirmed to eFoodAlert that FDA testing performed at Vet-LIRN labs detected pentobarbital in the deceased dog's stomach contents, the open can of food from the owner, unopened cans of food collected from the owner, and cans from the retailer where the owner purchased the food. I would prefer to see this information directly from the FDA not as hearsay.

If correct, the manufacturer more likely has an issue within their processing plant not at the USDA inspected processor. In order for there to be a lethal dose of pentobarbital for a dog in the beef chunks the cow would have had to be dead when it was brought past the USDA inspector at the processing plant who is onsite checking the status of the animals prior to slaughter.

BCSnob wrote:
A couple of websites are claiming that an FDA spokesperson confirmed to eFoodAlert that FDA testing performed at Vet-LIRN labs detected pentobarbital in the deceased dog's stomach contents, the open can of food from the owner, unopened cans of food collected from the owner, and cans from the retailer where the owner purchased the food. I would prefer to see this information directly from the FDA not as hearsay.

If correct, the manufacturer more likely has an issue within their processing plant not at the USDA inspected processor. In order for there to be a lethal dose of pentobarbital for a dog in the beef chunks the cow would have had to be dead when it was brought past the USDA inspector at the processing plant who is onsite checking the status of the animals prior to slaughter.

By "issue within their processing plant" . . . you mean someone deliberately tainted the food?

It would be nice to know how it happened so they can prevent future contamination.

what are the likely ways pentobarbital could get into a pet food processing plant?
Contaminated ingredients
The drug brought into the plant

Everyone is focused on the beef, but canned food has other ingredients than beef chunks.
Pentobarbital is a prescribed drug to treat a few conditions in addition to a euthanasia drug.

Another question is how did just a few cans from a large batch of many cans apparently become contaminated (based upon only one reported household of sick dogs)? I believe the process is to make a very large batch of the food and then fill cans; for just a few cans to be contaminated suggests it occurred after the large batch was mixed or during canning. Unless an ingredient is added after mixing or at canning one would suspect the drug came from another source than ingredients.

Think about it this way. You made 2 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies from the same batch of batter. 5 cookies ended up tasting bitter. How could only 5 cookies taste bitter?

on the TV news this am, the commentator mentioned microbial contamination. could have just been the unwise talking to the unknowing however.
I mean pseudomonas does sound a lot like pentobarbital. :)
bumpy

See www.foodsafetynews.com

A description of how canned pet food is made
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/news/How-Canned-Dog-Food-Is-Manufactured-20393-1.html

How could just a few cans be contaminated when the entire batch is mixed?

I did a little investigating on pentobarbital

The ld50 for dogs is 80mg/kg
The recommended euthanasia dose for cows is 85mg/kg

If a cow was euthanasia with pentobarbital and the drug was evenly distributed throughout the cows body (which is what my reading suggests occurs) the beef would be contaminated at 85mg/kg.

In order for a dog to get a leathal dose of pentobarbital from contaminated beef it would need to eat consume its body weight in the contaminated beef.

It just does not add up that the contamination in the canned food came from a euthanasized cow being used for the beef chunks.