{"id":2543,"date":"2018-05-02T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T12:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ovrs.com\/blog\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2018-05-02T17:25:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T21:25:30","slug":"dog-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ovrs.com\/blog\/dog-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog Food Recalls: How Did a Euthanasia Drug Get into Dog Food?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pet<\/p>\n

A string of dog food recalls made the news because the source of contamination is an unusual one–a drug used to euthanize animals. The question is how did this euthanasia drug make its way into dog food? <\/span><\/p>\n

More than 100+ million cans of dog food from three U.S. manufacturers were recalled due to the presence of the drug pentobarbital. This barbiturate (sedative) is most commonly used for anesthesia and for euthanasia. Five dogs were reported to have fallen ill due to pentobarbital-contaminated food. One of the dogs, unfortunately, did not survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How could this happen in the U.S.?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Finding a euthanasia drug in dog food is a concern–especially for food produced here in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the State Department of Agriculture are tasked with enforcing the law that \u201call animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.\u201d<\/span> (<\/span>source<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, these oversight organizations don\u2019t have the funding or manpower to test and approve every batch of dog food for sale. Instead, they perform random inspections and testing to ensure product quality and adherence to the rules. That opens up the possibility for issues to slip through. <\/span><\/p>\n

How did pentobarbital get into this dog food?<\/b><\/h2>\n

According to <\/span>Food Safety News<\/span><\/a>, suppliers euthanized animals (pigs and horses) that weren\u2019t supposed to be in the dog food. The meat containing pentobarbital was then combined and shipped with the meat intended for the dog food companies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Suppliers are supposed to have systems in place to ensure that euthanized animals are segregated from animal protein that is intended for animal food use. That obviously didn\u2019t happen in this case. The good news is that the dog food companies can fix the problem by switching to a new supplier with better regulatory processes and policies in place. <\/span><\/p>\n

Which pet food companies had recalls? <\/b><\/h2>\n

Any contaminated dog food in the stores should have already been removed from the shelves. Check any stock you have at home to be sure that you don\u2019t feed your dog any food on these recall lists. <\/span><\/p>\n