Kucinich Sends Letter to Pet Food Company Concerning Recall and Use of
Poison in 60 Million Products
Washington, Mar 26 -
2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 26) —
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) sent a letter to the President and CEO of
Menu Foods Income Fund, after learning the company had to recall 60 million cans
and pouches of pet food.
Kucinich is a
member of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus and has consistently been
a staunch supporter of animal
issues.
Menu Foods Income Fund has the
ability to produce large quantities of pet food and distribute across the U.S.
under trusted labels such as Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro and Purina. The recall has
included pet food sold under 95 different brand names, causing considerable
suffering to U.S. pet owners, with 16 pets dying from eating Menu Foods products
so far.
“As a pet owner myself, I was extremely
distressed to learn about the recall of the pet food,” Kucinich said.
“We deserve to know the truth about Menu Foods and why this
happened.”
The letter Kucinich sent
stated:
March 23,
2007
Mr. Paul
Henderson
President and Chief Executive
Officer
Menu Foods Income
Fund
8 Falconer
Drive
Streetsville,
ON
Canada L5N
1B1
Dear Mr.
Henderson:
It has come to my attention
that on Saturday, March 17, 2007, Menu Foods Income Fund issued a major recall
of pet food products sold throughout North America. As of the writing of
this letter, 16 pets have died while an indefinite number of dogs and cats have
endured kidney failure, after eating Menu Foods pet food products. New
reports released today confirm that the toxic aminopterin has been found in Menu
Food pet foods. Aminopterin is used in some countries as a rat
poison. In the United States (U.S.), animopterin is not registered as a
rat poison, yet is used as a cancer drug.
I understand that Menu Foods Income Fund
produces more than one billion containers of pet food annually with the
utilization of three manufacturing plants located in the United States;
specifically Emporia, Kansas, Pennsauken, New Jersey and North Sioux City, South
Dakota. As the company has the ability to produce large quantities
of pet food and distribute across the U.S. under trusted labels such as Iams,
Eukanuba, Nutro and Purina, this recall has caused considerable distress to U.S.
pet owners. This is understandable as the recall has included sixty
million cans and pouches of Menu Foods products sold under 95 different brand
names.
As the Chairman of the
Subcommittee on Domestic Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform, I am deeply concerned about this situation and the consequent affect it
has had on U.S. pets and their owners. As such, I request that you provide
me with answers to the following
questions:
1. When did Menu Foods
first become aware that there was a
problem?
2. When was the first
incident of a sick pet reported to Menu
Foods?
3. How soon did the company
respond with action to reported cases of
illness?
4. How many cases of kidney
failure have been reported to the
company?
5. How many animal deaths
have been reported to the company?
6.
How many cases of illness other than kidney failure have been reported to the
company? What have been the symptoms or where applicable what has been the
diagnosis?
7. What are the ingredients
used in each of the pet foods that have been
recalled?
8. What type of meat
byproducts are used in the manufacturing of your
products?
9. Who supplies both meat
and meat byproducts to Menu Foods and what farms are responsible for this supply
of meat and meat byproducts? Please include the location of these
farms.
10. Has Menu Foods experienced
previous defects in their products?
11.
What health effects and side effects have been known by or reported to Menu
Foods prior to this particular
incident?
12. Does Menu Foods have a
nutritional analysis of its pet food
products?
13. Has Menu Foods conducted
an internal investigation to deduce what caused the tainted food? If so, what
are the findings of this
investigation?
14. What explanation
can your company offer regarding how a toxin such as aminopterin would be
introduced into your factories?
15. Do
your factories make products other than pet
food?
Additionally, I request that Menu
Foods provide the Subcommittee with all internal documents, correspondence,
email, records, data and information, as defined in the attached instructions
for responding to the Oversight Committee document requests, relating to this
incident and to nutritional information or purity testing on all Menu Food pet
food products.
I look forward to your
prompt response. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to
contact me or Jaron Bourke, Staff Director of the Subcommittee, at
202.225.6427.
Sincerely,
/K/
Dennis
J.
Kucinich
Chairman
Subcommittee
on Domestic Policy
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform
Posted: Thursday - March 29, 2007 at 09:45 AM
