Unfortunately the list of pet food recalls continues to grow. To keep updated on the latest foods that have been recalled visit the FDA’s website. www.acessdata.FDA.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — May 17, 2007 — Chenango Valley Pet Foods previously recalled dry pet foods manufactured with a shipment of rice protein concentrate supplied by Wilbur-Ellis that possibly contained melamine contamination. Chenango Valley Pet Foods is now expanding the recall action to include those pet foods that do not contain rice protein concentrate but were manufactured during periods when rice protein concentrate formulas were processed. The recall of these products is precautionary due to the possibility of cross-contamination.

The following dry pet foods are involved in this recall action:

• DOCTORS FOSTER & SMITH LAMB & BROWN RICE FORMULA ADULT DOG FOOD, NET WT. 6 LBS. (UPC 25141 28244), 15 LBS. (25141 30074), and 30 LBS. (UPC 25141 06043); Date Codes: Best By Feb 09 09 and Best By Feb 26 09;
• SHOP RITE REDI-MIXT DOG FOOD FOR DOGS, NET WT. 25 LB. (UPC 41190 00555), Date Code: Code C7107;
• LICK YOUR CHOPS KITTEN & CAT FOOD, NET WEIGHT 4 LBS. (UPC 32976 25915), and 18 LBS. (UPC 32976 25925); Date Code: Best Used By April 29 08;
• SHEP chunk style dog food, NET WT. 20 LBS. (UPC 41498 14142); Date Code: Best By March 14 08;
• 8 in 1 Ferret ULTRA-BLEND ADVANCED NUTRITION DIET, NET WT. 20 LBS, UPC 26851 00413, Code: C7072;
• Bulk Lamb & Brown Rice Formula Dog Food, Date Code: Feb 09, 08, sold to one consignee SmartPak.
• Health Diet Cat Food Chicken & Rice Dinner NET WT. 1.81 kg/4 LB (UPC 78198 01594), 4 kg/8.8 LB (UPC 78198 01599), and 8 kg/17.6 LB (UPC 78198 01585); Code C7072;
• EVOLVE KITTEN FORMULA, NET WT. 3 LBS. (UPC 73657 00250) and 7 LBS. (UPC 73657 00251); Date Code: Best Used By Sept 13 08. Evolve has recovered 99.5% of the product from its distributors and is working with dealers to recover the remaining inventory.

No illnesses or injuries related to these products have been reported to date.

Pet owners who have purchased the pet foods listed above should immediately discontinue using the products and return them to the place of purchase for full refund. Pet owners should consult with a veterinarian if they have any health concerns with their pet. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-610-821-0608.

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

PAULA RHODEN
The Daily Courier
May. 16, 2007 12:08 PM
PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Amber climbed up on the treatment table and barely reacted as the doctor inserted acupuncture needles into her body.

Amber is a 7-year-old Leonberger and one of a growing number of dogs and cats treated with a combination of conventional and alternative veterinary medicine.

Shawn Cardinal doesn’t mind taking Amber to a holistic veterinarian since holistic medicine works for her.

Veterinarian Dr. Todd Metcalf said using holistic medicine to treat dogs and cats comes from his “own use of natural health care. I extended it into my work. I am constantly learning new remedies not available in conventional veterinarian medicine. It astounds me.”

Animal psychologist Dr. Mari Mastrocola uses her background in family counseling and her love of dogs to help people find a solution to their dog’s behavior problems.

Mastrocola said that frequently people have to change their habits and behaviors before they see any improvement in their dogs’ behavior. She said the biggest mistakes people make are lack of consistency, lack of structure and lack of respect for the animal.

At Harmony Veterinary Care, Metcalf uses acupuncture, herbs and osteopathic manipulation to treat a variety of veterinary illnesses. He said the holistic approach works well for lameness, back problems, skin disorders and digestive cancers. To read more of this article visit www.azcentral.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

This is from the North Shore Animal League Newsletter:

North Shore Animal League America understands the devastation that surrounds a pet’s death. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to those who have lost their beloved companions to this terrible epidemic and to those whose pets are suffering. You are forever in our hearts.

Please carefully review the list of recalled pet products and keep your pets safe from harm today and everyday.

Visit adopt.animalleague.org/recall

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

IMPORTANT!!!! There has been some new additions to the pet food recall and, unless you
are preparing your pet’s meals at home or feeding them Solid Gold, it would be wise to check the list every few days.

Companies included in the recent updates include Blue Buffalo and Kirkland food, as well
as some others

For an up to date list on the pet foods that have been recalled please visit the official FDA site at www.fda.gov

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

For those of you who do not have the time to cook for your pets, the next best thing is to feed them food made by Solid Gold. Their products do not contain any wheat, corn or soy, which can cause allergies or increase pain. All meat is free-range and other vegetables and fruits are organic. I recommend their products and use them for my cats who are extremely picky.

For dogs who have arthritis or joint pain syndromes try the Cinna-bones treats by Solid Gold. Most of my dog patients love them. They are wheat-free and have cinnamon added which is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for arthritic conditions and pain.

For more info on their products and the closest store near you please visit www.solidgoldhealth.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

ESCONDIDO – Bert sat calmly as veterinarian Barrie Sands inserted acupuncture needles into his body. The 7-year-old mixed breed was far more concerned with the whereabouts of the dog treats he could smell than with the needles sticking out of his head, back and paws. Sands, who has practiced at the VCA Emergency Animal Hospital in Mission Valley for 10 years, taught a class on acupuncture and holistic health care for animals at the Escondido Humane Society recently. She told the 15 people who attended how holistic health care can be used to supplement a pet’s veterinary health regimen. She also demonstrated acupuncture on shelter animals.

“The idea is to combine conventional and alternative treatments. Obviously, if an animal has a fracture, that requires surgery,” Sands said. “But even if conventional treatments are required, alternative treatments can help the healing process along.” To read more of this article click on
www.signonsandiego.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

FREDERICK — Donna Pearman of Ijamsville noticed two years ago that her husband’s excruciating back pain had continued to worsen, with few treatments available. So she turned to an acupuncturist to help him — and the couple’s four-legged companions.

Linda Gray, who treated Pearman’s husband and three dogs, is a licensed human and animal acupuncturist, as well as a doctor of veterinary medicine.

At the Frederick County Humane Society on Sunday, she described natural and holistic medicine for pets, including natural nutrition, herbal therapy, acupuncture, homeopathic medicine and color therapy.

Gray, a veterinarian for 21 years and an acupuncturist for 17, specializes in treating dogs, cats and horses. She spells the practice “wholistic.”

“To me, leaving off the ‘w’ doesn’t spell it right,” she said.

Practicing “wholistically” means using both conventional veterinary medicine and treatment based in ancient Eastern tradition, said Gray, who lives in Woodbine but makes house calls around the state.

“A lot of people who do holistic medicine throw conventional medicine out the window, but there’s a place for everything,” she said. Gray refers clients to traditional veterinarians or specialists for necessary surgeries, procedures or medications.

To read more of this article please go to www.fredricknews.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

New Skete Monks’ new television series, Divine Canine, premiers on April 16th 2007 on ANIMAL PLANET

For more information visit the www.newsketemonks.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

A recall of pet food tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make plastic products, has been widened to include 22 types of dog biscuits, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday.

The biscuits, made by Sunshine Mills Inc., contain wheat gluten imported from China that contained melamine, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the F.D.A.

Sunshine Mills, of Red Bay, Ala., manufactures branded and private label dry pet food and biscuits. The recalled biscuits include Nurture Chicken and Rice Biscuit, Ol’ Roy Peanut Butter Biscuit and Pet Life Large Biscuit.

Conrad Pitts, a lawyer for Sunshine Mills, said 80 percent of the tainted biscuits were sold by Wal-Mart, under the Ol’ Roy brand. Mr. Pitts said that the company had produced about 24 truckloads of biscuits with the contaminated gluten, and that the majority of the product was large biscuits. He said wheat gluten accounted for less than 1 percent of the total weight of the biscuits.

Until last week, when moist cat treats, dog jerky and a type of dry cat food were added to the recall, it had been limited to wet pet food sold under a variety of brand names.

Menu Foods, which last month recalled more than 90 brands of its “cuts and gravy” pet food, said yesterday that it had extended the period of time covered by its recall to include food made after Nov. 8, 2006. The company, based in Ontario, initially recalled only food made from Dec. 3, 2006, to March 6, 2007.

The company also added 20 additional varieties of those brands to the recall list yesterday. Information about the recalled pet food can be found at www.fda.gov/oc/opacom

Menu Foods said it acted after a supplier, ChemNutra of Las Vegas, recalled all wheat gluten it had imported from the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company of Wangdien, China. ChemNutra said Wednesday that the F.D.A. had found melamine in the gluten. The agency said it was now testing all wheat gluten from China.

The Chinese government said yesterday that no wheat gluten had been exported to the United States or Canada. Xuzhou Anying denied it had ever shipped wheat gluten to either country.

“We are a trading company and don’t manufacture the product,” added Mao Lijun, the company’s general manager. Michael Rogers, director of the Division of Field Investigations for the F.D.A., said records showed that the tainted gluten came from China.

“We fully expect the Chinese government’s cooperation and assistance in our further investigation,” Mr. Rogers said.

Mr. Rogers and Dr. Sundlof said the gluten did not enter the human food supply. The agency said that it was still investigating how the melamine got into the gluten, and that it had notified all companies that had received it.

Though melamine has been found in the food and in the urine and kidneys of pets that have eaten the food, officials and scientists are not sure whether the chemical actually caused pets to get sick.

Melamine, which is also used as a slow-release fertilizer, is generally not known to be toxic. Some theories are that it might act as a marker for another unknown toxin that causes renal failure in pets, Dr. Sundlof said, or that cats and dogs are extremely sensitive to melamine.

“We still have a lot of work to do to understand why melamine is involved, as it is a relatively nontoxic substance,” Dr. Sundlof said. “We are relatively certain that there is a connection here someplace.”

The F.D.A. said it had received more than 12,000 complaints about pet food since the recall, as many as it usually gets in a two-year period on all topics combined. It has confirmed 16 deaths.

“We have no good information what that final number might be,” Dr. Sundlof said. “It will take a while for us to get there.”

The College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University is investigating 43 suspected cases of pets that died from eating tainted food; the deaths of 18 are consistent with ingestion of a toxin, said Patrick Halbur, executive director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at Iowa State.

Dr. Halbur and Grant Maxie of the University of Guelph in Ontario, which is also investigating the cause of the illnesses and deaths, said it would probably take months to determine what made the pets sick.

In Chicago, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, called for a hearing to question F.D.A. officials. He also called for standardized federal regulations and inspection requirements for pet food.

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major recall of pet food in North America has expanded to two more companies and now includes dry food for the first time, U.S. federal health authorities and the companies said.

The Food and Drug Administration said late on Friday it notified Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. that tests had detected byproducts of a suspect chemical in the wheat gluten it used to make Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food.

The FDA concluded earlier on Friday that melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and forbidden in pet food, had been found in some wheat gluten used by a Canadian company at the center of the recall two weeks ago.

Ontario-based Menu Foods makes pet food sold under several popular labels. The FDA and Menu said the suspect wheat gluten came from a Chinese supplier, which was not identified.

Menu recalled certain batches of wet pet food in mid-March after the products were blamed for the deaths of at least 14 animals — mostly cats.

The FDA, which is continuing its investigation, found that wheat gluten from the same company that supplied Menu Foods was used to make the Hill’s product, the first time a dry food had been implicated.

Hill’s, a unit of Colgate-Palmolive Co. based in Topeka, Kansas, has voluntarily recalled the product sold through veterinarians. The company confirmed the recall in a statement.

Separately, Nestle Purina PetCare Co. announced in a statement it was voluntarily recalling all sizes and varieties of its ALPO Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. To read more click on www.reuters.com