[Betsy Iole]

Beneful Dog Food Alert!!!

Update on Beneful Issue

Latest Update on Beneful

Beneful Update: Dr. Levitan's Response and a Statement from Purina

 

[Aruuuu]

Thanks for the info, Betsy. I had an email about this yesterday and was trying to find out if it had any validity. I don't feed Beneful to my little crew, but I'm sure a lot of people do.

 

[Betsy Iole]

I haven't researched the validity of the claims and note that the allegations thus far appear to originate with a single website.

 

[biscuit]

Well, I found this:

After hearing both their dogs had died after eating the food, Rambeck decided it was more than just coincidence and researching to see if other dogs had died under similar circumstances.

While searching the Internet, Rambeck came across DoggyBling.com, a Web site featuring canine products and found she and Barley aren’t alone.

Ric Eddins, the site’s owner and founder, said he has been notified by at least 20 other people from various parts of the country, informing him of their dogs dying after eating Beneful purchased at Wal-Mart.

Eddins said each owner independently reported they had bought the food at Wal-Mart and described their dogs displaying identical symptoms before death.[/b]

Don't know if that helps clarify or if it complicates the picture, but ...

 

[2hounds]

Well I feed my dogs Beneful and they are both happy and healty, but I will keep my eye on their food and on any potential symptoms.

~Heather

 

[Marcia]

This is horrible, but there are even more reasons to avoid this food. It has more artificial colors and preservatives than pretty much anything on the market. Those pretty colors are for the benefit of the one with the wallet. Means nothing to the dog. There's more - I urge anyone using this to do some research.

 

[Marcia]

This is horrible, but there are even more reasons to avoid this food. It has more artificial colors and preservatives than pretty much anything on the market. Those pretty colors are for the benefit of the one with the wallet. Means nothing to the dog. There's more - I urge anyone using this to do some research.[/b]

Edited to add: yellow corn is the first ingredient. Chicken by product meal is the second. Any part of the chicken can be used for this, includind beaks, feet and feathers. Beef is the next animal protein mentioned, and it is ingredient #7. 9&10 are sugar and sorbitol. Sugar does not belong in dog food. It's there to get your dog hooked. #13 is animal digest. What animals? #25 is artificial color and flavor. This speaks for its self. I don't intend to offend anyone, but I have an animal nutrition background and this stuff is just ghastly.

 

[Mikey T]

Chicken by product meal is the second. Any part of the chicken can be used for this, includind beaks, feet and feathers. .[/b]

Not completely true feathers are not part of by product meal and feet and/or beaks if they are is only a consequince of easy of processing but seeing how chicken feet have a much higher value in some cultures it is more likely they are removed.

Dog Foods - Help in making the choice easier

Chicken By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice. "

... lot of foods have by-products which are usually heads, necks, stomach contents, organs, etc. That turns some people off though I've yet to see a dog not eat that stuff if they come across a carcass in a field. Frankly, to me its everything people feeding their dogs a raw diet would give and I don't see the big deal if say, chicken by-product meal, is included in a dog food's ingredients. Watch a nature program with wild dogs and wolves and you'll see them eating these parts of the animal. I would make sure the by-product meal was specific such as chicken or lamb by-product meal and not just listed as "poultry", "meat" or "animal" by-product meal.

Someone I know used to work at a rendering plant and the chicken feet were immediately removed and sent to another country as they were considered to be a delicacy.

I read this somewhere and thought it described by-products perfectly:

It's not meat, but the organ matter from the chicken, the guts, liver, heart, brains, intestines, stomach etc. I think this is a human thing, because those organs are always the first to be eaten by wild canids, wild felines, and pretty much any other. They don't go for the 'meaty haunch', they go for the gut and pull out all that gooey stuff and eat it.

Meat byproducts in dog food by law do not include hair, horn, teeth or hooves, feathers or manure. It does include organs, including the lungs, spleen, intestines, brains, kidneys and liver, and in the case of chicken byproducts will include the head and feet. About 50 percent of a slaughtered cow will not go for human use, most of this leftover goes into the pet food industry, not because it's unhealthy. How many of us rush out to the grocery store to eat a daily meal with tripe (stomach), chitlins (intestines), and scrambled brains? Believe it or not, while organ meats are gross to think of eating to humans, they are also extremely high in natural vitamins and minerals.[/b]

 

[Marcia]

Thanks for the input, Mikey T. I do not argue that chicken feet and organs are not good for dogs. This is only one aspect of this food. Given the ingredient list as whole, this product is unacceptable to me. What others choose to do is up to them.

 

[pinehawk]

friday i was peeking at the Purina website and did not see a statement from them on this subject,but if you remember the diamond problem they knew about it for two months b/4 they said anything. there seems to be a Wal-Mart connection,maybe they are not storing the product right or are selling out dated food?

 

[biscuit]

With respect to Beneful, I think people should be mindful of the fact that the number of USDA inspectors has been slashed over the past five years. And given the volume of stuff they have to inspect, that's pretty problematic. IMO, it's actually amazing there haven't been more Diamond fiascos as a result.

 

[2hounds]

Thank you for this info. Because of this info I have begun switching my dogs' food.

~Heather

 

[Aruuuu]

Just received the following from Purina in response to an email I sent them:

In response to your recent email to our Office of Consumer Affairs, we would like to share additional information regarding this issue. In recent days, Purina learned about the unfortunate deaths of two dogs in the Huntsville, Texas, area. Concerns were raised about the possible link between consumption of Purina's Beneful dry dog food and the deaths of the two dogs. Purina takes these matters seriously, and initiated a thorough investigation. Purina's quality testing, including testing at independent laboratories, confirm the safety and efficacy of our products and confirm that the two dogs' unfortunate deaths were unrelated to our product.

Importantly, one of the Huntsville, Texas, consumers also requested product testing through her veterinarian. The veterinarian submitted a sample of product to the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory for aflatoxin analysis. We received confirmation from the consumer's veterinarian late Monday, Feb. 5, that the results for aflatoxin were negative.

Additionally, we have conducted physical inspections and analytical testing, all of which confirm that our Beneful dry dog food products are safe, and meet all quality assurance specifications. Purina initiated the testing, which was conducted by an independent third party analytical laboratory, as part of its investigation related to the two Huntsville consumer contacts. As soon as we could contact the consumers to verify product code and packaging information, we secured finished product from our factories with the same production run and date code as the products in question and submitted the samples for testing. We received test results for the samples late Monday, Feb. 5, and the results confirmed the safety and quality of the products made at our factories. More specifically, the samples showed no presence of aflatoxin.

Because the quality and safety of our products and the trust of our consumers are top priorities, Purina took additional steps, including visiting the store in Huntsville, Texas, to confirm the quality of product at retail. We obtained additional samples for any available product matching date codes and production runs related to these consumer contacts. We then submitted samples of the product for analytical testing, which also showed no presence of aflatoxin.

We at Purina are saddened to hear of the loss of these consumers' pets and appreciate the opportunity to investigate and demonstrate how seriously we take matters of this kind. We stand firmly behind the high quality of our products and reassure consumers that they can continue to feed Purina products with total confidence.


Again, thank you for contacting us with your concerns. Should you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us via our toll-free number, 1-888-BENEFUL (M-F, 7am - 7pm CT) or through the contact us page on www.beneful.com.

Sincerely,

The Beneful Team

 

[2hounds]

I'm glad to see that they took the situation so seriously and investigated. I still have changed my dogs' food though, because of what people on here and what a friend of mine had to say about the product.

~Heather

 

[reddog74]

I had been feeding Oakley and our other dog Beneful religiously until I saw this post about a week ago. We changed their food and I am going to throw the rest of the Beneful away. I had tried the Salmon flavor once and ended up throwing it out as it gave Oakley terrible diaherrea. I thought Purina was a reputable company, but after looking at the ingredients, it's just junk. I mean chicken by-products, that's just GROSS. Thanks for enlightening me.

 

[pinehawk]

Purina is a very good company.chicken by-product i would feed that b/4 salmon.But i don't feed Beneful.Pro Plan Performance Formula,for active field dogs it's the best that i have used in quite some time.Try the Pro Plan Chicken formula you can't go wrong.