DDF PSA ~ Dog Food Recall

Today is supposed to be a Black Dog Featured Rescue day but I thought I'd pass on this information first. I'll post a black dog another day this week instead. There is a Dog Food Recall in the USA as of December 18th. For those of you in the USA, please read the below info about the brands affected!




On December 18th, 2010, Kroger issued an official recall of many of its pet food products which are sold under a variety of brand names.




Why Is Kroger Issuing This Recall?

According to current information, Kroger initiated this recall due to the possibility that the recalled formulas were contaminated with Aflatoxin.




What is Aflatoxin?

Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring toxin that is produced by a type of fungus. Aflatoxin may be present in grains while they are waiting to be processed into pet food products. Some of the crops that are routinely affected by aflatoxin include sorghum, rice, wheat, soybeans, corn and millet. Aflatoxins are one of the most carcinogenic substances known to scientists today.




What Are the Symptoms of Aflatoxin in my Pet?

Kroger has stated that there are a variety of symptoms that could signal that a pet has eaten food contaminated with aflatoxin. The symptoms are:

Lethargy/Sluggishness

Yellowish Eyes

Yellowish Gums

Lack of Interest in Food

Bloody Diarrhea

Severe Diarrhea

If your pet has any of these symptoms, you should contact your veterinarian immediately to schedule an emergency appointment. Aflatoxin can potentially cause serious health complications and may sometimes be fatal to pets.




List of Affected Brands

This pet food recall includes both dog food and cat food. The following brands have been included in the Kroger pet food recall (according to current information):



Pet Pride Cat Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111088128

Pet Pride Cat Food sold in 18 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111071357

Pet Pride Tasty Blend Poultry & Seafood Cat Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111088152

Pet Pride Tasty Blend Poultry & Seafood Cat Food sold in 18 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111074580

Pet Pride Kitten Formula Food sold in 3.5 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111071903

Old Yeller Chunk Dog Food sold in 22 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111074566

Old Yeller Chunk Dog Food sold in 50 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111074563

Kroger Value Cat Food sold in 3 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111000018

Kroger Value Chunk Dog Food sold in 15 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code: 1111071559

Kroger Value Chunk Dog Food sold in 50 lb. packages with a sell by date of OCT 23 11 DP and OCT 24 11 DP under the following UPC code:1111000108




What States are Affected?

Kroger stores in the following states have currently been affected by the recall:

Alabama

Arkansas

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Louisiana

Michigan

Mississippi

Missouri

North Carolina

Ohio

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

West Virginia



Other Affected Stores

In addition to this, the following stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska should beware of these brands which are sold in the following stores:

Baker's

Dillons

Food 4 Less

Gerbes

Hilander

Jay C

Owen's

Pay Less

Scott's





This recall is brought to you by the Dog Food Reviews section of PetFoodTalk.com.

Featured Rescue ~ Julius the Bouvier

I've devised a new way to look at petfinder/petango/etc advertisements. It is a scoring system that analyses different aspects of an advertisement. It's important when you are advertising an animal to highlight specific information about it. In fact, a lack of information can actually deter potential adopters. (Let's face it, there are 169,420 dogs out there available for adoption on Petfinder RIGHT NOW so why is the dog you are fostering any better than the next guy? Don't give me the "if they aren't willing to make a phone call then they aren't good adopters" crap ... those aren't the target audience of these ads -- don't EVER forget who your target audience is!) See the bottom of this post for a breakdown of this scoring system.

Today's Featured Rescue is Julius the Bouvier des Flanders (mix). He's approximately 1.5 years old. With a name like Julius, I keep thinking Julius Caesar ... I wondered if that's who he was named

for but couldn't find any info that might suggest this.

This is one of the longest descriptions of an animal I've seen on Petfinder ... it's very informative but it loses points with the organization. The comment about his 110% beauty quotient also lost points (pictures can say a thousand words, no?). I'd like to see the thoughts grouped together in some sort of logical pattern rather than random sentences about the dog. The pictures are great though - and they earn points for that.



Overall, this ad gets 3/3 for pictures, 3/4 for information and 1/3 for organization ... that's a total of 7 out of 10. Not bad but not great.

Pet Advertisement scoring system

10 points

3 for pictures

__________ 1 for more than one picture

__________ 1 for different angles of animal (I don't want to see two identical pictures!)

__________ 1 for good picture quality

4 for information

__________ 1 for information

__________ 1 for quantity

__________ 1 for quality

__________ 1 for no fluffy bunny crap
3 for organization

__________ 1 for easy to read

__________ 1 for grouping your thoughts logically

__________ 1 for the reader being able to pull necessary information out of the ad

DDF PSA ~ Pets as Gifts

Every year, many organizations publish the message about not giving pets as gifts. Just run a quick Google News Search and you will find thousands of posts about it. I try to ensure I have a post about it. This message is posted time and time again but the unfortunate reality is that the people who give pets as presents aren't necessarily the ones reading it. I have heard of shelters and rescues that make people wait until after Christmas to bring their new pet home however some places just don't have the resources available to do this.
 
 
I keep hoping that maybe this year, it will be different. There will be less pets given to those who don't want them. The optimist in me says that this year, those who buy or adopt pets at Christmas time will actually commit and want them for the long run. The pessimist in me says that the shelters will fill up and the streets will be full of homeless animals come January 1st.



So how do we fix it? What can we do?? I have a few ideas that you could do in your own local community ...




- Contact the local newspaper and see if they will write an article about this.
- Encourage people to donate to their local animal shelter and instead of buying a pet for that person, why not sponsor a shelter animal?
- Print up posters to put up in your area to show people the alternatives (like sponsoring a shelter pet)
- Donate a few bags of food / litter to your local shelter in the name of someone



What else could you do?

Featured Rescue ~ Dublin the Greyhound

Long ago, I started running Featured Rescues every three days but lately I've been lucky to post three per month. That doesn't mean that there are any less dogs out there for adoption ... just that I've been slacking in the posting. I will try to re-start my black dog postings for Mondays and another Featured Rescue sometime throughout the week ...

Today's Featured Rescue is Dublin the Greyhound. Dublin is a black brindle beauty. She is 3.5 years old. The pictures of Dublin on Petfinder aren't that great so I snagged the best one for her post here. Dublin is not cat-safe and she is also toy possessive. From the sounds of it, she will need a little work to become the world's greatest dog (but she will and can get there easily and quickly with the right owner).

Pupdate and upcoming posts

This weekend I will be getting back on track with posting to this blog. I haven't been posting due to a "series of unfortunate events" that happened over the last month. This series of unfortunate events begins with a vacation that shouldn't have happened and goes from there.



The vacation was supposed to be my husband and I with one of our nephews. The three of us. As each month passed in our approach to the vacation, another person joined our group. Ultimately, there were two nephews, a brother-in-law, a mother-in-law and a father-in-law. Yikes! Now, I enjoy spending time with each of them separately but when it came down to putting us all together into a vacation ... well let's just say that it turns sour PDQ.



The first few days after we got home seemed to go pretty smoothly. Until I got a phone call that a close friend of the family had died in his sleep. A heart attack. Turns out that when you quit drinking (after 40 years of alcoholism), your blood thickens and sometimes your heart just can't take it. At least, that's what the family was told. So, I pack up and hike it to the funeral. Unfortunately when you get back from vacation during a super busy time of the year, your boss frowns on taking time off. No condolences ... I had to fight to get the day off and ended up getting it off without pay when I contacted HR myself and pulled a few heart-strings.



While I'm at the reception for the funeral, I get a call to find out that a grandmother has died. Great. Ok fine. Pack up and head home. Call the office and let the boss know that I have to take another day off ... that went over like a sack of bricks. Of course, at this point I am so horribly behind in my work that my coworkers are starting to pick up the loose ends.



Next ball to drop ... a few days after the last funeral it snows. Not only does it snow, but it rains all evening, freezes overnight and snows on top. We have to go to a wedding that day and I made an appointment to get my hair done that morning. So, I pile into my husband's SUV (because he's taking my pickup truck to get the snowthrower he just bought) and head off into town.




Less than 5km away from home, I hit ice on an S curve. I loose control of the SUV. It goes left. Then right. I pick a spot to ditch the vehicle thinking "it better not roll or my dog's dead" (because of course I have my dog loose in the back seat! Dumbass). We sail over the ditch, smashing the bumper when we bottom out, and head straight for the trees. The SUV smashes into the copse of trees, knocking two of them over and popping up their roots. Surrounded by trees, the doors won't open. I have to turn the SUV back on and reverse out of this mess. Worse still -- now I'm late for my hair appointment!



If I did not have a bush bar on the front of the SUV, I would have written off the car. Some people tell me I have horseshoes in unmentionable places ... maybe - maybe not.



Luckily, my husband can fix the car, my dog is a-ok and I walked away with Phase II Whiplash. I've been told that it will take 4 to 6 months to recover with no treatment but we might be able to cut it in half with physiotherapy.



So here I am. Going to physio three times a week. Massage one day. Acupuncture and Chiropractor two days each. If this headache doesn't go away soon I'm going to go postal. I will be back to posting regularly now. I have to get back to my "normal" routine or I will go crazy.