Stand Together -- Spreading the word about food recalls

In 2009-2010 there was a lot of blog chatter about food recalls. I blogged a food recall last year, and one of my adopters wrote to say she herself was feeding that food to her cats and was glad of the alert.

This year there was a food recall for Wellness canned cat food that I did NOT blog. Sara did finally learn about the recall on Facebook, from someone else, about a week later.

Sara is my supervisor and friend, and while I was in NJ, I watched Daffodil struggle for her life last month, unable to walk, stubborn about eating, but regarding the world with determination, choosing the sunshine to lie in.

Daffodil did not make it.

Two years ago tomorrow a little orange cat was taped into a greasy cardboard box and left on the doorstep of a local animal shelter in the cold. The shelter cleaned her up and she spent a year waiting for a home. After Gretel passed away, Daffodil was adopted on 3/18 as my birthday present to myself last year.

She was a cute, odd little kitty with a strong personality – and voice. She’d hiss at us, Mr. Pickwick and furniture. Once she settled in, Daffodil became really affectionate and funny. She would sit and stare at you with her huge green eyes and if you spoke to her, she’d roll belly-up. Daffodil slept by my head every night, sometimes with her toothless head resting on my neck.

Sadly, Daffodil passed away earlier this week after suffering neurological complications resulting from eating recalled food. She spent a week with the neurologists at Animal Specialty Center in Yonkers where we visited her daily. We were lucky enough to have Daffodil home for nearly two weeks after her hospital stay. During that time she made attempts to walk and enjoyed sitting in the sun. Just like always, she started purring as soon as you got close to her. After making some progress, she stopped trying last week and we said goodbye to her on Monday.

Sara asked for donations to go to any of these shelters that rescued the cats in her life:

Homeless Animal Adoption League (Daffodil’s shelter): http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ25.html
Friends of Homeless Animals (Gretel’s rescue): http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/FoHA
Angels of Animals (Mr. Pickwick’s rescue): http://www.angelsofanimals.org/
Montclair Township Animal Shelter (my local shelter): http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ589.html

It is important that we CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT FOOD RECALLS in every way we can, to reach pet owners.

I understand Wellness has been responsive to messages and questions about sick cats, however I'm concerned that their recall page states there has only been one incident. Perhaps they mean only one incident confirmed by Wellness. But there are cats who have been eating the recalled Wellness food that have fallen ill, and Wellness has been notified of them.

Please check the dates on your food if you are feeding your cats Wellness, and regularly monitor and pass on recalls that you become aware of.

The lots involved in this voluntary recall are:

Wellness Canned Cat (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13;

Wellness Canned Cat Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with best by date of 10NOV13 and 17NOV13.

If you have cat food from these lots, you should stop feeding it to your cats. You may call WellPet at 1-877-227-9587 to arrange for return of the product and reimbursement.

Yikes, and KITTEN FOOD, which we would not know were it not for Susan Thixton on Truthaboutpetfood.com.

Pet food recall pages:

The FDA at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/
AVMA at http://www.avma.org/petfoodsafety/recalls/default.asp

Please send me other comprehensive pet food recall pages that are still updating. There were a lot a few years ago, but many have disappeared.