Cat deaths linked to Orijen

[Perseus]

Thanks, Therese.  It's a very emotional topic to begin with but one that definitely needs to stay here as our exchange of information with our Australian friends needs to continue.

[The Cats Mother]

And we appreciate all your support Perseus thank you.

[Bonkers]

  Let's not let this topic come to a halt just because some emotions came into play. Any pet food company that causes illness and/or death to any of our beloved pets deserve to have war declared against them. There is no way anyone can dispute the fact that this food caused serious illness and/or death to many many kitties. So since there will never be a guarantee that pet food nor human food will ever be 100% safe, we should all be willing to offer help and support to those affected by it and do all that we can to keep it from happening again.

[GreyGhost]

I agree. I am ready and more than willing. My support will always be there.

[Therese]

  Let's not let this topic come to a halt just because some emotions came into play.

Absolutely! My intention was not to stop the conversation (I would have locked it if that was my intent). I merely hoped to curb the less than friendly way it was headed.

[maxymia]

Hi all. Peter Muhlenfeld from Champion has written a post on a UK forum in regard to misinformation with this issue. Please note my response, after months of research, pointing out the many inaccuracies with Peter's post. I would now be very concerned in dealing with a company who repeatedly has given misguided information.

To the UK cat community, given the negative posting concerning our company, I thought it may be appropriate to provide a quick posting from Champion. As is often the case in circumstances like these, facts often give way to misinformation.
I would like begin by telling you that we are a family-owned and family oriented, award-winning pet food maker here in Alberta, Canada. We have a long and proud tradition of producing innovative foods from fresh regional ingredients since 1985.
Like most of you on this site, we are pet lovers too. Every member of the Champion family shares their home with dogs and cats (dachshunds for me) and that’s why we make the kind of foods that we do. Just like you, we are shocked and terribly saddened at the situation that unfolded in Australia.
As there are some errors regarding the situation in Australia, I’d like to clarify on a few points.
First, the recall is limited to Australia and results from the high level of irradiation (61kGY) that our foods were exposed to when entering the country. This irradiation process is unique to Australia and our foods in other markets are not affected.
Australia does not irradiate all pet foods – only those made with fresh ingredients (like ORIJEN) and/or cooked at low temperatures (like ORIJEN) are irradiated.
The unique nutritional make-up of ORIJEN foods (including high levels of long chain DHA and EPA omega-3 fatty acids from fresh fish) make ORIJEN highly susceptible to the effects of irradiation treatment. Delicate long chain fatty acids are easily compromised by high irradiation, which in turn causes the formation and release of toxic oxidative by-products.
When consumed by cats, these oxidative by products have a profound effect on the nervous system. Unfortunately, due to the obscure nature of this problem, no one in the industry – including Champion - was aware of the potential danger irradiation posed to our cat foods. Indeed, even after we discovered our foods were to be irradiated, we were assured by government authorities that the process was safe.
When we began to receive strange reports of cats falling ill in Australia, we subjected all foods shipped to Australia to a complete battery of tests. These tests included every known toxin and a complete chemical screening to identify any possibility that our food may have contributed to the reported illnesses. All tests showed the foods to be fine.
Enquiries into all other markets (50 countries) where ORIJEN is sold revealed there were no reports or problems with the foods anywhere else – including foods from the very same productions that were sold in Australia. As the symptoms reported from Australia are indicative of a wide number of possible health problems, we decided to put a stop sale on our cat foods in Australia and send a staff member to Australia to investigate first hand.
Realizing the problem was unique to Australia, we started to investigate for local factors ranging from water supply, gardening chemicals, spider bites… a vast number of possibilities.
It wasn’t until we began running tests on ORIJEN cat foods irradiation chambers here in Canada that we began to strongly suspect the high levels of irradiation were causing the problems. Indeed, like everyone else we had assumed that irradiation process was safe.
We began to research irradiation and cat food and found one single published study linking irradiated foods to the same problems that were reported among cats in Australia. Since then, one more study has been published that draws the same conclusions in the dangers of irradiated dry cat foods.
These studies are available on-line and can be accessed through our website at championpetfoods.com (click on the Australia icon)
We understand the criticism directed at us for the events that occurred in Australia. We have also done our best to be open, honest and transparent. All of our actions, investigations and subsequent findings were (and still are) posted on our website.
Our mistake was trusting that the irradiation process was safe. Our sales in Australia were a very, very, small fraction of our sales worldwide, and our exports to Australia were and are not “greed motivated”.
In retrospect, we wish we would have known more about the process, and how our food in particular would be affected by irradiation.
To support cat owners in Australia, we established the ORIJEN COMPASSION FUND to provide financial assistance to offset medical and related costs up to $2000 for each affected cat, announced a $10,000 donation to support homeless cats in the Sydney area, and will publish the research we have compiled in the hopes that others can learn from this tragic event.
We have since changed our export policy and will never again ship to a destination requiring irradiation, or any other unnatural process, as a precondition to market entry.
To set the record straight, we made 2 shipments to Australia. A third shipment was made but stopped before it entered the irradiation chamber and returned. In total, less than 3 pallets of ORIJEN cat food were sold in Australia between November 20, 2007 and the recall date of November 2008. This compares with thousands of pallets of the very same food shipped worldwide during that same period.
Champion Petfoods and my family personally are very sorry for all of the families in Australia who have been affected by this terrible circumstance. We hope that of this tragedy a new awareness and understanding of the potential effects irradiation has upon cat foods. We pledge never again to allow our foods to be compromised.
Sincerely,

Peter A. Muhlenfeld
Champion Petfoods Ltd.


MY RESPONSE

Yes Peter you are right, as is often the case in circumstances like these, facts often give way to misinformation.

1)You said "We have a long and proud tradition of producing innovative foods from fresh regional ingredients since 1985." Your company representative said you found BHA & BHT during your testing, preservatives possibly from a dried chicken product
2)You said "the recall is limited to Australia and results from the high level of irradiation (61kGY) that our foods were exposed to when entering the country." AQIS said that this treatment will not go ahead without an Authority to Treat Goods document signed by Manufacturer or importer or agent which states the level of irradiation applied and that AQIS render the goods safe for treatment purposes ONLY. The irradiation company also offered to irradiate a sample for testing , which to their surprise was refused which does not happen often.
3)You said "Australia does not irradiate all pet foods – only those made with fresh ingredients (like ORIJEN) and/or cooked at low temperatures (like ORIJEN) are irradiated." AQIS said you/importer/agent was given the choice of heat treatment OR irradiation.
4)You said "no one in the industry – including Champion - was aware of the potential danger irradiation posed to our cat foods." Sorry is this the pet food industry or the irradiation industry. Are you telling us that you have checked with everyone in the entire world an no-one was aware of the potential danger of irradiation. 30 seconds on Google Peter
5)You said "we began to receive strange reports of cats falling ill in Australia." If you owned one of these cats strange is not a word that comes to mind absolutely devastating is closer.
6) You said "All tests showed the foods to be fine." Fine maybe but also containing preservatives which contradicts what your website says
7)You said "Enquiries into all other markets (50 countries) where ORIJEN is sold revealed there were no reports or problems with the foods anywhere else." I have spoken to few people who have reported similar problems only to be told to retract their comments. I am not saying your food was the cause but we will not know as these reports were not followed up.
8)You said "we decided to put a stop sale on our cat foods in Australia and send a staff member to Australia to investigate first hand." Correct but not in that order. Your staff member came to Australia prior to your recall which took at least 2 months for you to co-ordinate, quite poorly I might add.
9)You said "Indeed, like everyone else we had assumed that irradiation process was safe." Peter please, There are so many studies and advocacy groups stating otherwise. That is a very big assumption indeed.
10)You said "We have also done our best to be open, honest and transparent. All of our actions, investigations and subsequent findings were (and still are) posted on our website." mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Were are the test results on your food that Champion said would be posted 2 months ago. Is there something to hide?
11)You said "Our mistake was trusting that the irradiation process was safe." No misconception there.
12)You said "In total, less than 3 pallets of ORIJEN cat food were sold in Australia between November 20, 2007 and the recall date of November 2008." Your statement on your website says 6
13) You said “announced a $10,000 donation to support homeless cats in the Sydney area”. You also told us this would be announced in January. Still waiting and it’s almost 2 months later Peter.
14) You said “A third shipment was made but stopped before it entered the irradiation chamber and returned”. AQIS said all 3 shipments had been irradiated.
15) You said “We pledge never again to allow our foods to be compromised.” Are you saying it has taken your company 34 years to come to this conclusion. Should have been done from day 1 when animals lives are at stake.

[Bonkers]

    Peter's letter starts out sounding more like an advertisement than anything else. But I am shocked, yet not suprised, that there still are so many conflicting statements in this letter. One of the many things that stands out to me is that according to maxymia, Champion refused to let the irradiation company irradiate a sample for testing. Now why on earth would someone refuse to let them do that?   It would be to everyone's advantage for Champion to be completely forthcoming in any future correspondences and stop trying to do damage control because it ain't working, at least not for me.

[GreyGhost]

Wow. I agree it sounds almost like advertising. And why does he keep saying things like it was a small amount compared to what we produce. So what Peter.........."any" amount is unacceptable. Who cares if its a small amount compared to what they produce. So are we to say its only a few cats compared to the thousands of cats in the world. Geez. This guy is something else. And who cares thats its a family owned company. So what. That just tells me you should be even that more diligent in your safety. And why in the world would they not want a sample tested? What? Have they completely lost their minds.

I don't even know what else to say. I am so pissed. His letter also seems alittle condescending. Like we are all stupid and have no idea how to find information. Incomprehensible.

[The Cats Mother]

Yes indeed it is condescending.

And indeed yes why does he seem to think the tiny fraction that Australia represented of their total market is relevant in this discussion?

It shows that that is what is in the back of their mind. It was just a small part of our business, just a few cats, we're out of the market now, it doesn't really matter. We'll set up a fund to show our major markets how caring we are but in reality they will never realise that hardly any affected cat owners will qualify for the full $2000 because there is so little vets can do anyway. OK, Next?

I'm very wary of companies that go on and on about being a "family company". Where are the independent checks and balances that exist in a company where ones primary allegiance is to your job and doing it properly rather than to the blood relative sitting next to you? Blood is so much thicker than water and it is so much easier to not have to be accountable to your work colleagues in open forum. I think major corporations are often less than honest in their dealings as well, I think of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma, however their board of directors, their shareholders and public scrutiny eventually catches up with them and you have that security of knowing you can examine their accounts and their reports to the stock market at any time, information of this nature has to be in the public domain. They would no more deal with some back street little importer who had no idea what they were doing than fly to the moon. They would no more enter a market without knowing its regulatory procedures inside out, then issue a statement months after some terrible debacle, like poisoning the population they are there to serve, saying that in future they would make sure they understood their markets fully before entering them, than fly to the moon - now would they?

And they wouldn't be registering on chat forums to hawk their spin either.

No public corporation would last five minutes exhibiting such unprofessional behaviour with some sort of pride, as if it were to their credit.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for them that they are some little Mom and Pop operation mixing up kibble in their kitchen?

Not so. Some Mom and Pop operations somehow manage to find, or are sponsored with, SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS to build a fully enclosed processing plant. So fully enclosed perhaps Pop forgets to peep inside now and again to see what's going on? Some Mom and Pop operations can find sponsorship from nutritionists in their state government to develop products that promote the "fresh farm produce" of their state. Oh and  a few rendered products and meals preserved with BHA and BHT. And a few fresh farm suppliers, perhaps a nice farming family down in the valley who happen to just forget to mention they've changed the screen size on their filters so the bones might be a bit bigger this time, guys.  Oops sorry, think about it for a little while around the family dinner table and then do a recall.

[Therese]

I just saw this on an Australian news website and thought you guys might like to read it. It's nothing you don't already know but...

Irradiation food links to feline illness
http://tinyurl.com/apcqlu

[Perseus]

Just a few short years ago before forums and bloggers were around we probably wouldn't have even known about a tragedy such as this since it's not enough for the main stream media to focus on with all the other problems that divert our attention on a global basis.

I have to wonder what else happened and was covered up with pet food over the years.

Well, there's really no place to hide now, is there Champion?

[Perseus]

Another pet parent on the private forum just posted that their kitty has died.

RIP, sweet Tito.  Your death will not be in vain.

[GreyGhost]

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that. GodSpeed Tito.....

[coontuffy]

RIP Angel Tito.............

[Bonkers]

  It seems that I had read somewhere of a couple of cats, that were not of Australia, exhibiting similar symptoms after eating the Orijen. Does anyone know if there has been any recent news about these kitties?