I for one am glad that NV is doing a good thing here. You can't please everyone and I'm sure NV isn't losing any sales from people who apparently aren't buying anyway. NV is focusing on their customers and providing a safer alternative to something we all knew was a risk with raw foods - bacteria. We handle raw meats in our homes (those that eat meat) and I hope NO ONE would be surprised if their chicken breast and legs at home tested positive for something! Always follow good practices for cleaning and you will be fine. Let's not forget we touch all kinds of stuff ALL day long and I don't even want to think about what is on doors, bathrooms, water fountains, currency, ATM machines, credit card machines, etc. And let's not forget that dogs eat poop and other things out there - so their systems should be able to handle should they get some bacteria in them.

She is such a beautiful angel.

Oh Therese....will do. Hang in there.

RIP Tequila. Our prayers are with you Therese.

That is AWESOME news!!!!

We fed it before the recalls (both dry and wet). Both dogs and cats did fine eating it but then suddenly stopped. So we switched. We haven't tried it since 2007.

[any]

Good point - dry has also been contaminated before too. And just because the area of the batch that was pulled for testing comes back negative, it would certainly be possible for other areas of that same batch that wasn't tested to be infected. Nothing is 100%

I like this article by a friend of mine:  http://doggybytes.ca/salmonella-story-series-bacteria/2755/

It is part of a series he wrote on Salmonella and feeding raw.

While Salmonella is of serious concern for those that have weakened immune systems, the elderly, etc. good hygiene practices when handling any raw meat should keep anyone from getting sick and shouldn't deter someone from feeding a raw diet. Dogs, unless they have a compromised system to begin with, can generally handle bacteria just fine. Here is a study where the scientists try to give dogs salmonella and was only successful when given through an IV!

http://doggybytes.ca/salmonella-story-series-dogs-contract-salmonellosis/2781/

I am satisfied at how NV responded to the issue. They did good at getting the news out there quickly.

Sorry folks - looks like Itchmo has banned the links I put up through the anonymous proxy server. So if you click through them you might get a banned message.

So cute - they look like they are getting ready to race! 

 

LOL - yeah - it has to be zoomed in! Do you have Adobe Reader? If so, click the + sign on the tool bar...it will zoom it for you.

Here is the store locator information for Tiki Cat

http://www.petropics.com/StoreLocator.pdf

[general industry practice]

So then you still stand by what you said about NV at Itchmo: http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/natures-variety-issues-nationwide-voluntary-recall-on-raw-frozen-chicken-diets-t10394.30.html

"I know people who used to work at NV and they told me that there was no regular protocol for testing.  They didn't want to know since they didn't want to trash the entire lot."

Then later you said when challenged at http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/natures-variety-issues-nationwide-voluntary-recall-on-raw-frozen-chicken-diets-t10394.45.html

"The re-testing practices I mentioned were related to me by former NV employees who also had prior experience in the meat processing industry.  They were reports of general industry practice (as evidenced by the peanut situation mentioned above) not specific incidents or companies."

Then you said at http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/natures-variety-issues-nationwide-voluntary-recall-on-raw-frozen-chicken-diets-t10394.60.html

"Mandycat is misreading my original post.  I never accused NV of any specific instance of retesting until they got a negative.  I said that the general statement of test and hold was meaningless because of the widespread meat industry practice."

Yet your first post clearly was an accusation against NV.

So, since Itchmo moderators banned my ability to login to the forum and orig. cleared the thread, then reposted it and edited out my questions to you, I will ask it here:

Did you stand by your comments: "I know people who used to work at NV and they told me that there was no regular protocol for testing.  They didn't want to know since they didn't want to trash the entire lot."

or did you just have a bad choice of words?

If you stand behind it, can you provide the evidence as you claim here http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/natures-variety-issues-nationwide-voluntary-recall-on-raw-frozen-chicken-diets-t10394.60.html after Mandycat stated:

"Tomp,
My issues are with the first paragraph of your post where you make some very specific statements regarding the actions of NV and testing.  Sorry if I misunderstood your second post. "

and then you replied:

"Mandycat,
I did not make those statements without regard to the truth.  They are based on information from reliable sources and I am confident they would be confirmed by an examination of the company's records."

Thank you and welcome to the board.

Robert

[tomp]

That member that was banned on Itchmo was me! 

A user named tomp registered less than two weeks ago and the only posts this person did was on the NV thread about the recall. The first post was an accusation that if true should have been reported to the FDA and USDA. So I asked this person if they could back up their claims and if this was true did they report NV? They tried to back down and say y'all misunderstood. So when I went back and quoted this person to say "this is what you said - is it true or not? or did you choose the wrong set of words" - after all it was a SERIOUS allegation.

That is when my post disappeared not long after. I thought that maybe my post just didn't post properly even though I saw it there on page 5 of the thread. So I tried to post it again. And again it disappeared. YET, the accusers SERIOUS allegations were still there.

So - I ended up posting in a general section asking what had happened to my posts when I questioned tomp about his allegations against NV. I received an email message saying my posts had been "moved" not deleted. My question was deleted. And NO private message from the moderator that moved/deleted my message was sent to me. Nor did a moderator PM me about removing my general question.

So - I reposted if anyone else was having issues with their posts disappearing - and BAM - got banned!

Here is the post on my blog about the event and yes I have captured the information from my temporary internet files (i.e. cache) from Google Chrome and have sent to NV.

http://jealousofangeles.blogspot.com/2010/02/itchmoforumscom-bans-daddy-for-asking.html

We migrated over to raw starting this last December and used Natures Variety. We actually started introducing more raw in the fall, but made an effort to just go raw during a "30-Day trial". Our dogs were exposed to a lot of NV raw during this period. No problems.

By using NV we learned we could go raw and it made me dig even deeper into the whole raw meaty bones vs. barf opinions. We do mostly raw meaty bones now with barf type diets (NV pre-made) as treats and occasional meals now. I like the "variety" that our dogs get and they are doing very well health wise.

NV did a really good job at getting the word out. Even our holistic store in Plymouth MN was aware right after word came out so the communication to retailers has dramatically improved.

Robert

PS

GreyGhost - our dogs love the rabbit the best I think! ;-)