Don't just blame China or the chinese govt. How about the greedy, want something for nothing, the bottom line rules, greedy American pet food manufacturers?
I'm not letting corrupt chinese govt officials off the hook.
I just think that greed rules in corporate America.

Here's the newest update from Wellness. 

7/12/07

Dear Pet Parents,

We wanted to share with you the comprehensive quality assurance program we have had in place to ensure the safety and quality of all Wellness and Old Mother Hubbard products.

Wellness Natural Food and Treats for pets was created a decade ago as consumers increasingly questioned the purity of the food they eat, and increasingly paid more attention to proper diets and healthy lifestyles for themselves. We saw this need for our animal companions, and made it our mission to create natural products with healthy ingredients that pet parents can feed with confidence.

Human Food Standards
Because there are no specific pet food safety standards, we use human food standards qualified by a human food auditing firm (Cook and Thurber). It has always been part of our mission to develop, test and produce our pet foods and treats to meet human food standards. We believe we may be the only company that conducts human food audits.  And because of the comprehensive nature of our Quality Assurance Program, we can assure you that our products remain of the highest quality and meet the same standards as the food you yourself eat.

About Our Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program
Wellness has a dedicated staff of experts working every day to ensure the quality of our products. All are produced according to our proprietary, thoughtfully balanced recipes, with our specified ingredients, and must meet our human food quality standards. We can assure you that they are met because we insist the following requirements are met on every food product bearing our company name.

Ingredient selection and sourcing - We require that our suppliers prove that their ingredients are free of contaminants and meet our exacting standards.
Manufacturing and supply chain security - Our employees monitor the quality control processes with our manufacturing partners.
Quality Assurance - Our facilities are audited by Cook & Thurber, a HUMAN FOOD auditing firm, which utilizes over 600 checks to ensure the correct systems are in place to build safety and quality into all steps in the process.
Our facilities must also employ HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) standards that measure for potential risks and mitigate them along the way.  This includes tests for physical, chemical and microbiological hazards, just as is required for human food.
Continuous quality checks are performed throughout the entire manufacturing process.
We require a complete cleaning and sanitation between each product run to help ensure the purity of our products.
The final product is double-checked for adherence to our strict specifications at both the Wellness Quality Assurance lab and an independent third-party laboratory.
Continuous Improvement – In addition to always expanding our quality assurance procedures to incorporate tests and processes that ensure the safety of your pets’ food, we welcome and encourage feedback about our products from Wellness consumers and their pets. This is perhaps the most important step in our Quality Assurance Program.
We believe that nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our pets. We are confident our comprehensive Quality Assurance standards ensures the quality and safety of your pets’ food.

We welcome any questions you might have. You can reach us at 1-800-225-0904.



Deborah Ellinger
CEO

I have 2 cats both approx age 10. They were both fed the same Fancy Feast Salmon, Fancy Feast Ocean Fish, and some other one (I don't think have gluten). Gracie ate mostly the wet and some dry and Ruby ate mostly the dry (Purina Urinary Tract Formula, doesn't that sound delicious!) and a little wet.

Gracie was diagnosed with CRF last November and Ruby is just a little chubby with no CRF.
Basically they ate the same food but had different amounts (by their choice).

If people eat all carbs they get fat, if they eat all meat (according to the Adkins diet anyhoo) they get thin.

I have no idea what caused the CRF unless it was a pet food poisoning, but Gracie is the only one who got that.

Who really knows. Not me.

The Hills K/D wet and dry literally saved my cats life  (CRF) and helped get her through a very tough time. I did it for about 6 months then put her on Wellness canned and dry. I did that and her coat is getting shiny again. She's gaining weight. She gets excited to eat again.

My consensus is that Hills K/D helped her not tax her remaining kidney function, but didn't supply her with enough nutrition to keep her healthy (quality of life)
The Wellness helped nourish her again, with a bit more vitamins and protein, and she is thriving again.

Maybe if she gets on deaths door again I'll give her some Hills but the Wellness is actually better for long term health.

My dog farted to sickest smelling farts after one night of eating Organix. I think it's the garlic they put in it.
 

Someone on Itchmo said that someone hung up on them.
I don't know why, but I have worked customer service before and if I was being harassed I would hang up.
I don't know if this was the case or not.

I'm guessing it's that Menu manufactures their canned food.  I also know that some of the people answering their customer service phones have been rude in the past.
I would imagine during the height of the pet food recalls they had to hire extra people to answer the customer service phones and not all of them were stellar.

All I know is that my cats and dog are doing great on it.
Everybody has their reasons and I totally understand why someone would be hesitant.

I agree with you Davis,
You have to be wise and go by your own experiences.
I stuck with Wellness after hearing a lot about their Menu connection. I had to feed my little ones.

Hold off on Cal Natural for a while. I've heard some anecdotal complaints.

For all Innova?
My inlaw's dog eats Innova senior kibble. He's been having digestive upset although he's had that all his life and wasn't on Innova all his life. 

I'm not positive but I think the Wellness dry food is made by someone other than Menu. The wet food is Menu.
My cats like the Wellness indoors dry.

Hi, I free feed my cats Wellness Indoors dry. They nibble on it but aren't hogs about it. I don't always refill it when it's gone.
Then at night they get a big spoonful of Wellness chicken and herring or turkey and salmon wet.
And lots and lots of fresh water. Good luck to you!!

I hope your animals get well soon!

I am assuming none of the Wellness canned foods are problematic. My animals (1 dog/2 cats) are all doing great on the wet food.
We get the chicken and herring big cans for the cats. All is well. Sorry I don't have the lot numbers. I think it's a moot point since Wellness is not involved. I know that Menu is and they can the Wellness but the lot #s don't matter unless they've been recalled specifically. Maybe I misunderstood your question?
Good luck with your kitties!!

I'm trying to log on to the front page to Itchmo.com and it won't come up. Is anyone else having that problem. Maybe they are updating their site or something?