Sofia, I'm very sorry about Chanel.  My heart aches for you and your family.

Don, thanks for keeping up the fight.  It's a shame that they don't give their money to reimburse pet owners or researching how to made quality food.  Imagine how much is being spent on lawyers.  So sad.

I'm just amazed that people will defend a dog food company!  Why the loyalty?  After all that has happened, after all the stories of sick and dead pets....   I just don't understand the logic.

Sandi K

Too funny!  Maybe Sophers has an Olympic calling!   

Just a suggestion - but you might want to try slippery elm.  It comes in a powdery form from the natural food store.  It has a nutty flavor and works really well for diarrhea.  Just mix in with her food.  Not sure about dosage.  I used about a tablespoon on a 50 lb. dog.  It comes from the bark of a slippery elm tree.  In colonial times, the Indians used it for lots of stomach ailments.

These are some new pics of Kirlin.  He's really grown!  He weighs 27 lbs. and is all legs right now.  Boy, am I tired.  I forgot how much energy a puppy has (and how little I have).  He had his first little show and came in second . . . . . . there were only three puppies!  We're having alot of fun with him.

There's another new Nutro complaint at consumer affairs dated 3/15/08.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html

Hunter, you came into our lives one June day and stole our hearts.  Your silly puppy antics made us laugh and laugh.  Your zest for life was unending.  Every day, you jumped out of bed and were ready to go – anywhere, everywhere!  That’s how you changed our lives.  You made us want to get up and go with you.  And so we did.  Because of you, we suddenly became friends with neighbors we had never met.  Your stubby tail and long body never stopped wiggling.  What a happy fellow you were.  Through the years, wherever we went, you came and smoothed the way for us to meet so many people and make new friends.  You made us want to walk and run and be healthy. 

On the day that we had to let you go, I know that I lost a piece of my heart because I can still feel the emptiness there.  I know you would have stayed if you could have.  Six years was not long enough.   They say that others come and go in our lives for a reason.  I know why you came, but I’m still not sure why you had to leave.   I’m sorry for what happened to you.  I’m sorry that your life wasn’t longer. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you.  Most of all, I’m sorry that your life was less important than money to the people who killed you. 

If you can, come back to me someday and make my heart whole again.  I’ll love you forever.

I sent this today:

"What started as "precautionary" and "possible" quickly became a real crisis, as more than 60 million cans and pouches of petfood representing about 100 brands from economy-priced to super premium  were pulled from shelves over the ensuing weeks."

"A report issued a couple months ago by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians showed more than 300 North American pets - 236 cats and 112 dogs - had died from eating the contaminated food. (That number may increase, because it included only verifiable cases reported to authorities at that time.)"

Do you see any inconsistencies in the above two statements?  How ridiculous is it to think that with "over 60 million cans" being recalled only 348 pets died?  However, marketing the idea worked.  The media downplayed the recall, which is no surprise.  A major source of their income comes from these corporations. 

And now, one year later, no real changes have been made.  We're waiting for laws to be passed or new food safety guidelines to be rewritten.  This is not a matter for the government or lawyers to handle.  An ethical corporation would implement changes to ensure that this would never happen again.  An ethical corporation would actually think that their customers are the most important part of their business. 

While the pet food industry moves forward with happy smiles and talks about lessons learned from the pet food recall, I find it disturbinig that not one company has had the decency to step up and take responsibility for the sickness and deaths they caused.  Not one company has said, "We are responsible for the safety and quality of our products and we take responsibility for the sickness and deaths of your pets."  They all called their lawyers and blamed someone else.  They are still hiding and some are still producing toxic food.  But, new packaging and new marketing keeps the money flowing.  It is interesting that you have "hard data, such as sales gains in both the US and global petfood markets", yet no "hard data" on how many pets died and on how many pets were sickened and are still recovering.

"A renewed focus on safety can only be a good thing, especially if it might lead to at least closer to adequate funding for US regulatory oversight."

The government is being blamed?  If we continue down this path of thinking, then, ultimately, the consumers are responsible for the deaths of the '348' pets.  My tax dollars should not have to pay for pet food corporations to produce SAFE food.  The responsibility for securing SAFE ingredients belongs to the corporations, not to the U.S. Government and certainly not to the taxpayers.

A sane person would think that it would be illegal for a company to sell something harmful and not be liable ... lawyers, lawyers, lawyers

But then again, how many people really read the terms and conditions on a bag of dog food.  It's difficult enough trying to read the ingredients and hope they haven't changed from bag to bag.

I sure wouldn't buy any of Halo's products.

I just read somewhere, although where escapes me (might have been here) that if you put a little pineapple in their food, they won't eat the poo.  Don't know how true it is, but certainly fruity breath would be better.

I'll bet all you Heroes are going to become SUPERHeroes when you hit 2000!

I've got alot of catching up to do!!

It would be interesting to see how many dead rats are in those warehouses.  We know where the live ones are.

Carol, that's a great letter.  Short, very informative and asking for action.  Let's hope we'll see it some day.

Okay, really silly question here, but didn't the FDA keep track of where the poisoned food went or did they just leave it up to the upstanding corporations who distributed it in the first place?

I signed too and added my letter. Thanks.  Too many sickos out there.