Canidae - tests positive for acetaminophen 8/29

[maryd]

A friend in Wyoming sent Canidae's Lamb and Rice mixed with Canidae's Original, and California Natural's Lamb and Rice Adult mixed with CN's Lamb and Rice Puppy to ExperTox.  She got preliminary results back last night.  The tech at the lab mixed both packages together for the test (in error, as my friend paid for two tests) and the result of the combined foods was negative for melamine and cyanuric acid, but positive for acetaminophen.

Apparently the acetaminophen level was high enough the lab recommended she completely stop feeding both foods until new tests can be run on the separate brands early next week.

This is just a heads-up.  I'll post the results when she gets them.  Mary

The Canidae dates are:
 
Original RM 7/7/07, use by 7/7/08
Lamb & Rice RM 7/6/07, use by 7/6/08
 

[maryd]

The results are finally in!  What took so long was at one point in the test, the stuff that used to be the food (which at this point in the tests we laypeople would call “wet”) took longer to dry than the lab folks expected, and it had to dry completely before the tests could be completed.

The California Natural foods tested free of melamine, cyanuric acid and acetaminophen.

The Canidae foods tested negative for melamine and cyanuric acid, but tested POSITIVE for acetaminophen.  The testing was done by ExperTox.

Again, the “best by” dates for the Canidae are:
 
Original RM 7/7/07, use by 7/7/08
Lamb & Rice RM 7/6/07, use by 7/6/08

The “paperwork” will be posted when we get it, hopefully tomorrow.  Mary

[PetFoodTracker]

Thanks so much for the update Mary...

[maryd]

We are still waiting for the e-mailed test results (I suppose the lab is busy getting ready for the long weekend, like many of the rest of us.)  My friend does have the faxed report, but like many faxed documents, it was glopped badly in the faxing process.  Your daughter can play it for her piano recital.  Your son can use it at school as parental permission for his truancy.  You can have it filled at your pharmacy.  But a report from ExperTox?  Nawwww.

It was my understanding my friend told her supplier who was going to wait until Tuesday until notifying Canidae, so I took it upon myself to call them early this morning.  They have a very user-unfriendly answering machine when one first calls, and as it was still 30 minutes before the customer service lines opened, I took a chance and dialed the first letters of any name.  It was my bad luck I reached the sales rep for Oregon and Washington.

Either this man is a liar or he has an I.Q. not above 40.  He said he’d never heard of acetaminophen.  I’m sure everyone in the pet food industry has heard of acetaminophen.  Consumers buy Tylenol generically as acetaminophen.  And he’s never heard of it?  I got the usual memorized canned package everything in Canidae is U.S. origin, etc. etc.  He did everything but flat out call me a liar.  And he did NOT get my name or contact information.  Even if I were a crackpot warning them of aliens in their dog food, someone should get back to me to double-check my crackpot-ness.  Basically, this man treated me like dirt.  By then enough time had elapsed I tried their consumer service line.  “All lines are busy, but leave your name and number and someone will get back to you.”  I left my name and number and a few words about the urgency of my message.  No one ever called me back, not even to say we’ve had word on this and been in touch and thank you for your time.  Not really great customer relations, I would say!

My friend had a different experience.  Canidae contacted her before she could contact them as they had had so many calls on this issue.  Canidae was sugary-nice and said they would also have the food tested by two separate labs.  I wonder if they’re going to pull a Natura and send it to UC Davis (I think) and Midwest, like was done with Innova?  UC Davis and Midwest are fine labs, but they aren’t as sophisticated as ExperTox and cannot test beyond 10 parts per million.  As we have all seen, the toxins are in smaller amounts than 10/million, so of course the contaminated food comes up clean (my friend did not have the “amounts” test done.)  And as we have also seen and heard, the toxins are just as deadly in the smaller amounts.

I do hope, for Canidae’s sake, they use ExperTox as one of their testing labs.  If they don’t, they won’t be following solid scientific protocol (at least I learned something in college chemistry 40 years ago!)  I would presume they would submit unopened bags from their lot codes with the matching dates; this again is solid scientific protocol.  I think we can all agree this is a “test” for Canidae for their honesty and integrity.

As of this evening, however, Canidae had not contacted at least their one retailer of whom I know, to let them know there might be a problem with the food.  That doesn’t look good for Canidae.  Mary

[maryd]

Today was a very long day in which absolutely nothing happened, if one discounts the normal craziness of life.  The AccuTrace contact was out of the office, doing depositions at the courthouse, and no one had the authority to check to see if the ExperTox results had arrived.  Complicating things was I really didn’t have the authority to ask, since it isn’t my test, but my friend did tell me I was to be copied on the email.  In that light, I may have been given a polite run-around for asking for results that belonged to someone else.

Canidae finally contacted me today in the person of a woman with a sweet, grandmotherly-type voice.  This stress of waiting is getting to me, too, so it was exceedingly difficult to remain polite.  For example, when Granny said, “. . . and I’m older than you are,” I really wanted to respond, “Honey, if you’re older than I am, you’re retired, in a nursing home, or dead.”  I’m very proud of my self-restraint.

Granny (since I can’t remember the name she gave me) kept saying I called at 9:18 yesterday morning.  I have a feeling that’s the only really honest thing she said.  It sounds about right—it was past 8:30 (PDT) and I’d been through Mr. Dan Woods and calmed a bit.

She said two other things that almost had me laughing.  The first:  Canidae is testing down to one part per million in their own lab.  SURE they are; SURE they keep a mega-million-bucks piece of scientific equipment in their back room for just such emergencies.  Who runs it?  Furthermore, if they keep it on site, why weren’t they using it to test their dog food before it went on sale?

The second thing she said that struck me as ludicrous was:  Canidae believes a tech at ExperTox added the acetaminophen to their food before testing.  For those of you with children, have you ever had a son caught with his hand in the cookie jar trying to say his brother did it?  Let’s follow that line of reasoning a bit.  How would ExperTox become a premium forensics lab if its techs were allowed to adulterate the samples?  I’m sure they have controls on top of controls; their bread and butter tests (forensics, DNA) are far too important to take any chances at all—because there’s a battery of highly paid attorneys waiting in the wings to prove them invalid.  Secondly, why?  What criteria does this naughty tech follow in the adulteration of samples?  How does he or she pick and choose which pet food companies to “hit”?  And what would be the gain?  Canidae is a small company.  They don’t have the market share to be worth destroying by the giant pet food companies.

Now for the frightening news.  Someone contacted their local Canidae rep today, and the rep assured the asking person Canidae is safe.  Their products are still on sale.  They do have a copy of the faxed and gloppy ExperTox report.  An honest company, a company who really cares about our family pets, would admit there is at least a question and pull their products for the sake of the animals.

This trying-to-smooth-things-over-and-maybe-it-will-go-away attitude combined with the two company representatives with whom I’ve had the misfortune to speak gives me a very shy spirit.  At this point, I wouldn’t feed Canidae to my pets if it tested safe and they gave it to me.  Perhaps I’m being premature, but I’m feeling there’s something really, really wrong with this company.

Everything possible that can go wrong, has.  Where are those emailed test results?  Other people get them within two hours of the telephone call.  Because the “call” came at close of business Tuesday, did someone forget to email them the next morning?  It’s difficult, but I’m learning patience.  I feel very much like the person who prayed, “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me NOW!”  Mary

[PetFoodTracker]

Their response is SO disappointing.

Reminds me of Natura Pet... 

Thanks for the update Mary - it is GREATLY appreciated!

[Hannah_sMom]

I, too, am anxiously awaiting the official results AND what is meant by "Original",
since I am also feeding Canidae. Fortunately, the date on my bag does not match the dates tested, but, needless to say, I am very eager to hear/see  more specifics. 

[PetFoodTracker]

Readable lab results are (finally) in hand, and will be posted soon... 

(name needs to be blacked out, scanned in, uploaded, etc.     it's being worked on...)

[Geff]

I've mentioned elsewhere that my cat went into very bad compulsive licking on Felidae. My (& my vet's) assumption at the time was an allergy to one of the exotic ingredients. We just never dreamed that Tylenol was the exotic ingredient.....

[PetFoodTracker]

I've mentioned elsewhere that my cat went into very bad compulsive licking on Felidae. My (& my vet's) assumption at the time was an allergy to one of the exotic ingredients. We just never dreamed that Tylenol was the exotic ingredient.....

Who would?   

[maryd]

The readable lab results ARE in hand, but I'm trying to get help getting the test owner's name taken off.  (They are pdf, if anyone has any constructive ideas.)  Update on this:  Don Earl has them now, and they’ll be posted on his website.  I’ll add the link when he sends it to me.

WARNING:  Canidae contacted my friend indirectly through the retailer today, and first said ExperTox wasn't qualified to test dog food.  How dumb.  They are qualified to test FOR toxins, in whatever shape or form they may arrive.  The second warning is much more serious--they threatened my friend with a slander lawsuit if she told anyone else.  Fortunately, the information was shared with me before the warning was issued, so I would like EVERYONE to tell EVERYONE they know, whether or not they feed Canidae (or even have a dog) and Canidae will go broke filing lawsuits against all of us.  I also was in possession of the pdf report before their warning came through, and you'll get it as soon as I can get it to you without my friend's name on it.  Again--spread it around.  Print it out and paper the outside of your homes with it.  Post it in the bus depot.  I’m sure they used my friend’s retailer to give the message, so they can deny having issued it, but to what purpose would the retailer be making such threats in Canidae’s name?  That would be worse than silly!

Note:  We used the name “Original” for the Canidae All Life Stages dog food.  Everything else is also “All Life Stages” so it’s kind of confusing.  The involved labels are “All Life States” with no adjectives, and “Lamb and Rice All Life Stages.”  Since I’ve never even seen a bag of Canidae anywhere, I’m talking through a fog, but I did ask my friend and that’s how it was explained to me.  Mary

[eternaljester81]

The results are up on Don's site:

http://www.petfoodrecallfacts.com/canidae.jpg

[PetFoodTracker]

This might help on the food... Both bags were purchased in early July, 2007. It is not known at this time whether one or both of these foods contain acetaminophen.

EDITED: The original dates posted were incorrect, showing July instead of June. Correct dates are below.

The two foods are:

Canidae All Life Stages Dry Dog Food
RM 6/7/07, use by 6/7/08
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

Canidae (All Life Stages) Lamb and Rice Formula Dry Dog Food
RM 6/6/07, use by 6/6/08
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/lamb-and-rice/dry.html


I now have a Summary List of Non-Recalled Food that has tested positive for contaminants on my blog in the download section...   it includes the Canidae.

http://petfoodtracker.blogspot.com/

[Geff]

Thanks to all for your important posts. I have read on Itchmo that lawsuits have been threatened by the pfc in question. I applaud your courage.

I wish these companies would get it, most of us would stick with a company that showed the integrity to admit to their mistakes & fix them. Personally, I would admire that behavior.

[maryd]

The results are up on Don's site:

http://www.petfoodrecallfacts.com/canidae.jpg

THANK YOU for posting this!!!  I'm just now getting back to the computer (some poor soul apparently commited suicide on the highway near here, so all the neighbors are calling all the other neighbors to be sure everyone's okay.  I know I've been going crazy with the waiting, but not THAT crazy!)  Mary