ANOTHER (not so) Tasty Tuesday May 1 2012

I swear, they're going to kick me off the blog hop.

But really, this stuff is really bugging me.

According to Dogster, the first class-action lawsuit has been filed over Waggin' Train Chicken Jerky, which is made by Nestle Purina Petcare. Nestle Purina's reaction? Quoted from the Dogster article: "We believe that the claims made in the suit to be without merit and intend to vigorously defend ourselves. We can say that Waggin' Train products continue to be safe as directed." This is pretty much what they said in July 2011, according to the Snopes.com article: "The safety and efficacy of our products is our top priority, and consumers can and should continue to feed Waggin' Train treats with total confidence.

According to to the Reuters article on the lawsuit: "The biggest challenge to Adkins' Waggin' Train lawsuit will be proving that the treats resulted in Cleopatra's death. He claims that, other than feeding her the treats, her diet remained the same. Moreover, he did not feed the Yam Good treats to Pharaoh, his other Pomeranian. He remained in good health." Adkins dog supposedly ate a Waggin' Train treat a day for three days, and then got sick and died of kidney failure.

So let's see. Hundreds of dog owners are complaining about jerky treats imported from China. The FDA, since 2007, has warned against the feeding of them. I'm seeing claims that there are warnings on the bags (I keep forgetting to check this when I'm in the store. If I finally do remember, I'll take a picture), and Nestle Purina isn't going to consider the possibility that maybe somebody is dropping the freaking ball.

Business is business. I get that. But this sort of "It's safe because we say it's safe" attitude, coupled with stores' refusal to pull the products really bothers me. I mean, come on, Excedrin, Gas-X, NoDoz and Bufferin were recalled because they may or may not have been contaminated by opiates. But for Nestle Purina, 500 dogs actually getting sick, many also dying? Nah, we're safe. They all had to have gotten sick from something else.

This isn't one batch, folks. This is since 2007.

I wonder when dog owners are going to decide that enough is enough. After all, feeding chicken jerky and other jerkies seems like it should be super healthy, right? I'm sure many dog owners feel misled, and then, when hearing the Party Line response, betrayed. Why not boycott?

I'm not just talking about Waggin' Train products, though those should be gathering dust on the shelves at this point. I'm not even talking about just Nestle Purina products, though ditto with the dust gathering. I'm talking about the whole Nestle train. Here's an A-Z list of the brands that are all owned by Nestle. If we stop buying them, maybe Nestle will get the idea that we aren't partial to companies that are so cavalier about sickening and killing our dogs on our dime.

Here again is an FDA Q&A Regarding Chicken Jerky Treats From China, which includes a link to Customer Complaint Coordinator phone numbers for each state and also more information on How To Report a Pet Food Complaint.

Granted, not every illness and death has been from Waggin' Train. According to the article on MSN.com, the other two brands are Milo's Kitchen Home-Style Dog Treats (a Del Monte brand) and Canyon Creek (another Nestle Purina brand). In that same MSN article, it is stated that since November, "more than 530 additional complaints of illnesses and some deaths have been filed."

Also, because I'm just a ray of sunshine, Diamond Pet Foods (who I already discussed here) has expanded their voluntary recall (voluntary, Nestle Purina, voluntary!) to include batches of Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Adult Light Formula and Diamond Puppy Formula dry dog food, in addition to the original Diamond Naturals Lamb Meal & Rice. According to the Washington Post article, "no canine illnesses have been reported".