Today, buried amid the spam, was a comment that caught my attention, as it was a lengthy piece that actually had something to do with the post it was attached to.

It was the story of dog illness and death caused by Bestro Chicken Jerky treats.

I’m not going to release that comment for public view, because I can’t verify the accuracy and truth of the entire story.

What I /am/ going to do is is point you to other websites that have been following the latest news concerning the Jerky treats imported through Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Shanghai Bestro Trading in China.

It’s a sad testament to the fact that the massive pet food recalls earlier this year did little to make our pets’ food safer. At best, it raised consumer awareness a little, but apparently not enough to motivate real change in the pet food industry.

As with the initial Pet Food Recall information, Itchmo.com is one of the top sources of information. Here are their posts on the problems with Bestro Chicken Jerky:

News for cats and dogs - Wal-Mart Removes Bestro Chicken Jerky Strips After Dog Death (August 17)

News for cats and dogs - Melamine Found In Wal-Mart Bestros Chicken Jerky Strips For Dogs (August 22)

News for cats and dogs - FDA Continues To Investigate Chicken Jerky Pet Treats (September 21)

and

News for cats and dogs - FDA Cautions Pet Owners About Chicken Jerky Products For Dogs (September 26) Note: This post is particularly important because it contains the FDA’s descriptions of possible signs of illness due to eating these products.

And it’s not just the Bestro treats from Wal-Mart:

News for cats and dogs - Smokehouse Brand Dog Treats Pulled From PetSmart Shelves (September 14)

News for cats and dogs - PetSmart Pulls Pet N’ Shape Chik ‘N Rings Dog Treats From Shelves (September 21)

And the most recent news from a trusted source:

Jerky Treats from China could be causing illness in pets (from the AVMA website)

Ann Dupuis
Your Dream Dog

Unfortunately, the question “what should we feed our pets?” is one with no simple answer — and that was true even before the pet food recall.

Too many Americans have problems answering the question “what should I feed myself?” (especially with the prevalence of pre-packaged and fast food) and that’s led to epidemics of diabetes and obesity — epidemics which are actually reflected in our pet population as well.

The answer to both questions is pretty much the same: We and our pets should be eating healthy, wholesome, fresh foods in moderate quantities with a wide variety to ensure nutritional needs are met. Supplements (vitamins and minerals in specific balances) may be needed to complete the diet. Oh, and moderate exercise is important, too.

Sugars, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and the like should really be avoided.

I don’t think there is any such thing as “the perfect diet” for ourselves or our pets simply because there are times when we’re going to want to (or have to) take shortcuts or settle for lower-quality ingredients (say, something that’s been grown conventionally rather than meeting organic standards).

Just as there aren’t any pre-packaged foods available that are “the best diet” for people, I don’t think any of the commercially available pet foods provide the “ideal diet” for our pets. I /do/ think that some of the higher-quality commercial foods tend to get closer to “ideal” for our pets than human pre-packaged foods do for us….

The science of nutrition is an evolving one, and a diet that seems healthy one year may be castigated the next (Atkins diet, anyone?).

My approach is to educate myself on nutrition (both for humans /and/ for pets) and to continue looking for more information and updated information.

The books I recommend in the “Dog Diets” category under Recommended Products are ones that I currently use in preparing home foods for my own dogs, and also in evaluating commercial foods for my pets. (I have several more pet-diet books that I /don’t/ recommend, either because they’re older or because they have what I consider to be faulty information or inadequate recipes and advice.)

One source of information that I trust is the Whole Dog Journal: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/

Their February issue includes their annual list of “top dry dog foods” and their March issue includes their annual review of canned dog foods. These specific articles are available for sale on their website, and I highly recommend you subscribe to get future issues (the individual articles are a bit pricey, the year’s worth of issues is available online for a reasonable price and also available by mail).

The Dog Food Project website at http://www.dogfoodproject.com has a wealth of information on commercial pet foods, including information on how to identify the better products, ingredients to avoid, how to read labels, and the like.

There’s also a “product list” that includes in-depth information on many commercially available dog foods.

In my opinion, the Dog Food Project has a higher standard than I follow myself, and some of the ingredients on their “ingredients to avoid” list are ones that I don’t feel that strongly about one way or another. (One example: there’s an entire page devoted to Menadione, or Vitamin K, which I’ve actually talked to my vet about and researched a bit — and it seems as though Menadione is a bigger PR problem for pet food manufacturers than it is a health problem for our pets. Another example: they consider that the most recent picks by the Whole Dog Journal are off the mark with about 1/3 of the “recommended” foods not meeting the standards set by the Dog Food Project — and the Whole Dog Journal’s standards are pretty high.) So take some of what’s listed there with a grain of salt, and do some further research if necessary to come to your own conclusions.

I wish I had a better (shorter and more definitive and more helpful!) answer for you!

Ann

On the Dog Food Project site at http://www.dogfoodproject.com I learned that the synthetic form of Vitamin K (derivatives of menadione) is suspected of causing several problems and has been banned from use in human food and supplements in Europe and by the FDA. I also learned that Blue Buffalo has been adding it to their pet food as are many other pet food manufacturers — I saw a form of menadione listed in the ingredients in a can of “natural” pet food in my local natural foods store as I was shopping around for alternatives.

That alarmed me, and I wrote to Blue Buffalo with my concerns — and I also talked to one of my vets.

My vet wasn’t aware of any known problems with Vitamin K3 or menadione derivatives, although he’s going to see if he can dig up more information. What little he could find while I was still in his office indicated that menadione could be toxic if given “parenterally” (any way other than orally, through the digestive tract). If taken orally, microbes in the gastro-intestinal tract change its biologic activity into something closer to Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone, used by vets as an antidote to some poisons). So my vet’s view was that menadione was unlikely to be a problem, even for Nico with his recent autoimmune disease (which he’s recovering from remarkably well!).

Meanwhile, the folks at Blue Buffalo assure me that they have removed all forms of menadione from their food beginning in October of 2006, although there are still bags and cans of food that have it listed in the ingredients as the company is in the process of switching over to bags and labels with updated information.

This is contrary to what’s been recently reported on the Dog Food Project website, but I’m choosing to believe my vet (that menadione is more likely to be a marketing problem than a serious health problem) and Blue Buffalo in this matter. I’ll be looking for menadione on the labels of food I buy in the future (and also possible synonyms for it, including “Vitamin K supplement”) but I’m thinking of it more as a sign that the company’s taking some shortcuts (vitamin K3 is apparnetly cheaper than vitamin K1, which is found naturally in leafy green vegetables) than a real warning sign of something dangerous in the food.

Ann Dupuis
Your Dream Dog