I gave Natural balance a heads up April 20th which I mentioned in this forum that I had spoken with them. At that point they said the contamination on cat food was restricted to the Venison and Peas.

I told them over the phone and IN WRITING my cat survived encounters with Science Diet Ocean savory adult 3oz, in Feb, and I had JUST been advised by the vet to put him back on some commercial canned food (until I got the home cooking down - he's 70% home cooked for), had just started feeding him some Natural Balance - and he was exhibiting all the symptoms again.

On 4/21, BETSY MARTIN of NATURAL BALANCE told me IN WRITING, told me that ALL THEIR OTHER PRODUCTS WERE TESTED AT UC DAVIS AND CAME BACK FINE.

And that I SHOULD HAVE A NICE WEEKEND.

Less than a week later (1) they didn't have the courtesy to inform me personally all their products were being pulled and (2) they LIED BY POSTING ON THEIR WEBSITE THAT NONE OF THEIR CUSTOMER'S ANIMALS GOT SICK. Mine did, and they told me to "have a nice weekend". I suspect Betsy Martin was running the email as a CYA from their lawyer's office, as they tried to melamine their butts so nothing would stick.

This is uncivilized attitude, irresponsible behavior, valueless corporate chicanery and they expect me to feel and behave how? Like we shouldn't shove that opened can of Natural Balance ocean food down Dick Van Pattens greedy gullet?

ADMIT IT NATURAL BALANCE, YOUR FOOD MADE MY PET SICK AND YOU ARE LYING TO THE WORLD ABOUT YOUR CORPORATE VALUES.

ADMIT IT LEAVVITT, EX THREE TIME GOVERNOR OF UTAH, YOU'RE IN THIS FDA COVER UP obo your power base in UTAH and  NEVADA and elsewhere.

I am so sick of their lies and greed... unless someone really hits these CEO Ghouls where it hurts ... they will continue this interconnected charade.

These people are not behaving in a legal, civilized, responsible manner (umm, their attitude is pulling poisoned food off their shelf voluntarily means they should get a corporate gold star) - so I am wondering whether legal civilized settlement would do any good ... 

But if it is, then I'd like to hear from any lawyers reading this...

It is the height of MORAL INSANITY for Natural Balance to respond on their website as they did ...  as morally insane as their entire chain of stakeholders are.

It is also classified as CRIMINAL RACKETEERING among those stakeholders who entered this business to financially gain and who did NOT perform regulatory required due diligence on the melamine or anything spiking...  collusion is now an acceptable legal position - foregone assumption - among those who did (fact) but said nothing (fact), or did (fact) and nothing was done (fact) except to coverup (acceptable conclusion) among ... the Chinese manufacturers who have been melamine spiking to the US mainstream press which continues to protect the COVERUP by not making this front page news: they ARE ALL PART OF THIS CRIMINAL RACKETEERING WITH OUR NATIONS HUMAN AND PET FOOD SUPPLY.

NATURAL BALANCE from DICK VAN PATTEN on down are behaving like satanic ghouls who apparently can't get enough news about dead pets killed by their food. Mine wasn't, I caught it in time, though I believe a legal case could be made they were setting me up through willful negligence so Mackie would die.

Willful negligence: caring pet food manufacturers like NATURAL BALANCE claims they are - should be well aware as millions of owners are-  that ANIMALS HAVE INSTINCTS ABOUT FOOD and ANIMAL COMMUNICATE ABOUT THEIR WELLNESS OR ILLNESS CONDITIONS and IT IS EVERY VET'S INSTRUCTION WE LISTEN OR WATCH OUR PETS FOR CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR THAT SIGNAL ONSET OF ILLNESS OR TRAUMA. 

Having told that witch BETSY MARTIN in complete honesty that Mack's behavior was back to being onset of another "renal assault" (the vet's words)  - she decided that the owner's description of the pet's conditions wasn't going to be enought to sue their butts, so said basically "have a nice weekend".

NATURAL BALANCE is not the caring pet food manufacturer they pretend to be, but butt-covering satanic ghouls - satanic because to them death is the only criteria that counts in this. I have news for them, every employee of that godless company is going to fry in hell.

Isaiah 15: 15-16 says: Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?

Thank you very much for sending me that.  Here is what I did with it:

http://mackthetonk.blogspot.com/2007/05/when-presidents-lie-cats-die.html

I had switched my two kitty boys to raw food last fall, mostly because Jack just wouldn't lose weight, no matter what I tried.  They did fine on that but it was too expensive to buy and too much of a mess to make, so I gave up (how I wish I hadn't....) and switched them to Natural Balance.  They were ok with it for a while, then they didn't want it anymore.  I thought they had just gotten tired of it, and, though I knew it wasn't all that good for them, I switched them to Iams Select Bites.  Now Buster is dead and Jack has kidney damage.  I've been cooking for Jack, but early during his recovery, he was very finnicky, so I tried all different kinds of things, including NB again.  He got better but only to a certain point, even though the vet had thought we might be able to eventually get him off the subQ fluids.  Lately, I haven't been substituting with NB anymore, though I had missed the NB recall completely--Jack just wouldn't eat it, take a couple of bites at best, then walk away.  This past week he seems to have become a lot more stable, and we finally managed two days between fluids without losing his appetite and throwing up again. 
I felt so confident about NB, and now this. 

Martha,
I had the Turkey & Giblets, Venison & Green Pea, and Ocean Fish Formulas.  Couldn't tell which ones were ok and which ones weren't. 
Something else I've been giving him in between was Fancy Feast Gourmet cans (the "Gourmet" ones don't list any corn, rice, or wheat as ingredients, for what that's worth), and the Whiskas fish pouches, though I'm very uneasy with all of those.  I'd prefer Jack just eat the chicken/liver/vitamin concoction I make for him, but sometimes he just won't eat it.  I have yet to figure out that cat....
Andrea

Before Natural Balance had any recalls, this is what they had reported on the Safe Food list:
Natural Balance: Not made by Menu Foods. Dry food is made at their own plant then shipped to the Diamond plant where it is bagged. They have thier own people on site all of the time. Canned food is made at their own plant, then shipped to American Nutrition in Utah where it is canned. Natural Balance has their own line at American Nutrion and no other canned foods are run through NB's equipment.

Ok, so if they make their own Dry and Canned foods, and if the Dry is only bagged at Diamond and the Canned is only canned at American Nutrition, on Natural Balance's own line, then how did the contaminated rice protein get into the foods.
They claim that AN added it without their knowledge.  If they didn't make the food that's impossible.
Plus the dry venison food was also killing animals.

I was using their Beef canned food and I feel sooooo very lucky that it wasn't the venison.

But yes, they lied through their teeth.  And now they want to pay $500.
I hope everyone refused that money and gets their day in court.

First they recalled all the Venison products because they did have Malamine in them.
After a week or so they recalled 4 other canned varieties, Beef being one of them.
I called and they told me that the other 4 canned varieties did have Rice Protein in them, but they didn't find any melamine in those.  They were recalling them to be safe.
They also told me that Amer Nut added it without their knowledge.
Needless to say I returned what I had, especially since so many foods are affected by cross contamination.