Menu Foods of Emporia, Kan., issued a North America recall for its “cuts and gravy” dog and cat food manufactured between December 3, 2006 to March 6, 2007 in response to a “small number” of U.S. consumer reports of pets vomiting and suffering kidney failure after eating the items. Ten deaths have been recorded, the company said in a statement. Menu Foods manufacturers pet food under a variety of brands and at press time did not have a list of those affected, but a complete list will be provided on the company website March 17 at 6 am EST at www.menufoods.com/recall. In response to Menu's recall, P&G Pet Care in Dayton, Ohio, which contracts with Menu to produce certain foods, recalled potentially affected products in the United States and Canada. Specific products include 3-oz., 5.5-oz, 6-oz., and 13.2-oz cans and 5.3-oz. foil pouches of Iams and Eukanuba cat and dog foods made by Menu. P&G's recall includes discontinuation of all retail sales of affected products and product retrieval from consumers. Affected products are market with a date code of 6339 through 7073 and a plant code of 4197, P&G reported. On cans, the date code is the first four numbers in the second line of numbers on the bottom of the can and the plant code is the next four letters. On pounches, the date and plant codes appear in the third group of numbers, beginning an 11-digit sequence. For illustrated details, visit www.Iams.com or www.Eukanuba.com. P&G reported that it had not received any case reports involving dogs, but that "there have been a small number of reported cases of cats from the U.S. (none in Canada, becoming sick and developing signs of lethargy." Menu is also notifying its buyers by telephone and mail to arrange for the return of all recalled products, it said. Menu stated that it is conducting testing on the products in question but it has not yet confirmed how or if the pets’ health problems were related to its product. Pet owners should contact a veterinarian if their dog or cat is showing signs of kidney failure, such as lethargy, loss of appetite or vomiting, the company reported. <HOME>
