CORNELL---Scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine have identified Aminopterin, a toxic chemical used to kill rats and to treat cancer, as a toxin present in cat food samples from Menu Foods, the manufacturer of the more than 90 brands of dog and cat food that are currently the subject of a nationwide recall.

The laboratory received the pet food samples from a toxicologist at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University, where testing has been underway to try to identify the cause of kidney failure in dogs and cats that consumed the recalled brands of pet food. At Cornell's request, the Food Laboratory tested the samples for poisons and toxins, and identified Aminopterin in the pet food samples at a level of at least 40 parts per million.

The toxic chemical was found in two of the three samples tested that were provided by Menu Foods.

"We are pleased that the expertise of our New York State Food Laboratory was able to contribute to identifying the agent that caused numerous illnesses and deaths in dogs and cats across the nation," state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said. "New Yorkers can be assured that we have two of the nation's leading laboratory programs in food safety and animal health working on this problem."

Aminopterin, a derivative of folic acid, can cause cancer and birth defects in humans and can cause kidney damage in dogs and cats. Aminopterin is not permitted for use in the United States.

On March 16, the Canadian company Menu Foods initiated a recall of numerous varieties of dog and cat food that were manufactured at two of its plants in the United States between Dec. 3, 2006 and March 6. The products are both manufactured and sold under private-label and are contract-manufactured for several national brands.

Since the recall, agriculture department food inspectors have contacted all of the organizations that represent retail food and pet food stores to ensure that the stores were aware of the recall and that the recalled products had been removed from store shelves in New York State.

More than 60 million cans of tainted pet food have been recalled.

Some 50 brands of dog food are affected and 40 for cats. There are many flavors and different styles of packaging affected, both cans and pouches. Two of the leaders in pet foods, Iams and Eukanuba, are both affected. They have code dates 6339 through 7073 followed by a plant code of 4197. People with the recalled products are asked to stop using it immediately.

Primarily affected are 13.2-ounce cans of beef cuts and gravy dog food and 3-ounce cans of turkey and gravy cat food.

The company has confirmed the deaths of 16 animals but many fear that it's just the tip of the iceberg. There are already several class actions lawsuits underway including one initiated by a Canadian law firm, the Merchant Group. www.petfoodrecall.ca

Tom Baisch, a Seattle attorney with Myers and Company has also filed a federal class action suit in the state of Washington.

Several individual pet owners have also filed lawsuits against Menu Foods and are certain to raise the issue of the monetary value of pets as personal property, emotional distress in addition to pain and suffering as pets are not considered family members under the law.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates has been posted online by Menu Foods at http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm or http://www.menufoods.com/recall/ The company has also designated two phone numbers that pet owners can call for information, 866-463-6738 and 866-895-2708.

After New York State officials made their announcement that rat poison had been found in the tainted pet food, president of Menu Foods held a press conference and said that he shared the anger of the thousands of pet owners affected throughout the U.S. and Canada but said he had no idea how the chemical could be in his product.

"Our hearts go out to many thousands of pet owners across Canada and the U.S. for their losses and worry," Menu president Paul Henderson said. "Over the past seven days we have spoken with almost 200,000 consumers. They are scared. Some, like myself, were angry. They demonstrated a level of care and concern that only those of us who are pet owners can understand."

Henderson said he was unsure how many of his products contained the chemical but that he was confident all of the contaminated products had been recalled. He said the company would continue to investigate how the chemical got into the pet food.

Earlier this week, Henderson had confirmed that the company delayed its recall until weeks after the first complaints were made about the pet food, in order to confirm that cats and dogs were dying from eating the pet food and not from other reasons.

He said that Menu will continue to operate the two plants in the U.S. where the contaminated food was manufactured.

The FDA has sent investigators to the plants in Pennsauken, NJ and Emporia, Kan., trying to determine the source of the problem. Much of the tainted food was sold at major store chains including Price Chopper, Safeway, Kroger and Wal-Mart and was sold not only in the U.S., but also in Mexico and Canada.

It is anticipated that the recall will cost Menu up to $40 million. The recall comes a little more than a month after the firm had announced profits of $5.9 million for the last quarter of 2006.

So far, there are no criminal investigations underway into the pet deaths. The Environmental Protection Agency said that Aminopterin is not registered in the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the investigation was focused on wheat gluten imported from China. According to the FDA, wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure in the pets but a common ingredient could have been contaminated.

Henderson said that the company will begin testing all suspect raw materials and would not confirm or deny reports that the Chinese wheat gluten was suspected as the contaminant. They said that the possibility of tampering is "remote".

He said that they had "identified a correlation with a single ingredient and we've stopped using that ingredient".

Henderson said that Menu would not admit to any negligence in the matter. When asked about compensating pet owners for medical bills of their sick pets, Henderson answered "to the extent that we identify that the cause of any expenses are related to the food, Menu will take responsibility for that".

The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is seeking criminal investigations of Menu Foods and of a Procter & Gamble Co. Iams brand factory to determine when they knew a Menu pet product may be harming animals.

PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against Menu Foods and Iams for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and-just as disturbingly-apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

PETA has charged that Menu Foods reportedly knew of this potentially deadly food as early as Feb. 20. When reports surfaced that its dog and cat food might have caused severe illness in customers' animal companions, PETA spokesmen say Menu quietly conducted lethal toxicity tests to confirm the contamination. Dogs and cats were allegedly forced to ingest toxic and lethal food in Menu's laboratory before the company announced the recall of pet food from stores nationwide nearly one month after the initial illness were reported. During this critical time, countless animal companions may have been at risk of getting sick, and many may have died, PETA says. http://www.peta.org/

For a list of recalled pet food brands visit
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/.

For a list of recalled dog food, http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html.

For a list of recalled cat food, http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html. 3-23-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette