Ans pet owners, stop "treating" your pets with processed, poisonous foods.

Its not rocket science!! Give them a piece of meat that you eat, or some vegetable they like.

Screw pet market crap!!!!!

In January the companies voluntarily took them off the shelves. However in December Walmart had crates and crates in the center aisles for sale. I think they dumped them then first. My puppy became quite ill with the treats. I cost me $1600.00 in vet bills. The company took my complaint and all vet records. Then informed me that my dog ate a oleander leaf. I know I won't be reimbursed for my bills. Luckily my dog survived. What I am doing is not buying any of their products. I went on Bing and found out all of their different businesses and products. Since just alone for two dogs I spent about 28.00 a month for kibble. I used to use a lot of their stuff. It will take awhile but I won't support Nestle Purina ever, evah!!

anything from China, or so they claim. This is just awful.

I have friends that just spent hundreds on their dog and the vet could not solve the problem. Turns out she liked jerky treats a lot. They symptoms were weird, the vet had no idea what the problem was, so the dog dies. They never thought of the treats until I mentioned it to them. I think over the years a lot of pets died unreported.

even though the suspicions go back 5 years or so. I understand why they don't order recalls on "suspicions" and that a lot of this stuff is no-name and found in dollar stores, but it still boggles the mind.

Of course it's killing you-- I've had dogs and gnawing on that stuff is their favorite thing. I hope that if the stuff is still on the shelves at least the vets out there got the word by now.

understand how we can accept food imports from other countries that don't have the same regulations we do. Your poor friends. How awful to go through that.

a couple of years ago. She wasn't sick, but I finally read the package; I'd been assuming that the little U.S. flag on the bag meant that they were made in America. Further reading of fine print showed me that they were made in China. I was pissed at the duplicitous packaging, so I quit buying them.

Now I'm grateful for that packaging; my dog is still healthy.

My dog loved those sweet potato treats, I am so glad I heard rumblings about making sure to not buy any dog food products made in China! My girl is happier getting bites of chicken dogs and cheese for training treats anyway.

Out of food you eat.
I use string cheese and in the past I made liver treats for our dogs in the show ring.
My dogs get no food manufactured outside this house except String cheese.

No problems at all. OTOH these are big dogs with digestive systems perfectly capable of passing anything from shredded aluminum and printed circuit boards to packing peanuts and plastic bags.

The article doesn't say much about symptoms or what the actual cause of death is, just that the FDA can't find a contaminant.

Something is damaging their kidneys.

They are both in doggy heaven now, but their deaths were not due to eating jerky treats. One was 12 years old when she passed, but she had an immune blood disorder. The other one was 13 years old and she died of liver and bone cancer.

I have been giving my Chihuahua duck jerky treats ever since she was a puppy, and she is 4 years old now.

The frozen chicken bites is a good idea!

without spending a fortune? My Chihuahua will only eat duck jerky and does not like chicken or any other meat.

And I thought mine were fussy. Yikes!

I've never done it when I had dogs but my neighbor started doing it for her dog who was very sensitive with foods and was on an expensive diet. He loves it! I, otoh, don't really like hearing the bones crunching when I feed him.

Jesus.. I'm glad I don't have a dog.

It is a scary situation. Frightening that they would "punish" China by permitting them to process human chicken now.

We are VERY careful what we feed our little furballs these days.

A food dehydrator. You can make your own jerky and dried veggie snacks for your furry babies. They're a bit pricey, (mine was $150) but it pays off in the long run, by a LOT.

Does anyone else find the treats from China have a particularly repugnant smell? You can sniff the package and the stink is overwhelming. It has a chemical, plastic and beef smell all rolled into one. Nasty, nasty stuff.

on dogs they think succumbed to this, they might get somewhere.

But no...that makes too much sense.

Something has to be in there. Perhaps we need an independent test done? I mean, I can think of reasons one wouldn't want to upset trade with China, especially in the food area since they are now allowing chicken to be sent their for processing and then returned to the US for human consumption.

but knowing that someone died of renal failure and identifying a specific toxin are 2 different things. There are a gazillion chemicals that could damage the nephrons. When you don't know what you're looking for, it's hard to know how to test it. It could even be something there is no test developed for.

When I had my dogs tested for allergies, they don't just take a blood sample and run a test and find out what they're allergic to, they had to test for specific things. So you could only find out what they were allergic to by testing for it, if you didn't check for something specifically you'd never know if they were allergic to it. (side note: one of my dogs was allergic to grass!)

So I wonder what method of testing they are doing? Same sort? If so, then it's really just a guessing game of testing for things they think could be in there. And the possibility of it being something no one could think of being in there is pretty high based on China's track record.

If they are breaking it down and figuring out exactly what the ingredients are and all the things there are traces of in there then I'd like to see a complete list of the breakdown.

known toxins.

But there are practically an infinite number of toxins that could be contaminating the jerky. There are only so many tests out there for so many different things. There aren't tests for every chemical or biochemical compound known or yet to be discovered.

It's not even looking for a needle in a haystack. It's looking for an unidentified particle in a haystack, where every individual particle of anything and everything that blew in could be the culprit.

heavily processed and shelf stable. Many contain ingredients not recommended for consumption by dogs: garlic, sugars, cheese, grain.

Many dog foods are just puffed grain sprayed down with reclaimed fry oil or beef tallow. Beneful has no meat at all. "China" is not the only red flag we should be looking for on dog food labels.

A guide to dog food quality:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

I pass Animal House on my way to one of my jobs!