The pet food recall has owners' worried sick and wondering exactly what is in dog and cat food and treats that is making the animals sick. In a Tuesday update, PETA is asking the FDA to investigate vitamin D3 as a possible culprit in the pet food recall, a release said on Tuesday. The animal rights organization notes that FDA, Menu Foods, and PETA have all received complaints about sick and dying animals who only ate dry food that did not contain wheat gluten. The group is now looking at vitamin D3 based on independent research, a case in [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Canada[/color][/color] from last year, and the similarities in symptoms.
Pet Food Recall: [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]PETA[/color][/color] Warns That Dry Food at Risk From Vitamin D-3
The group claims that evidence from reputable laboratories indicates that an excessive amount of vitamin D in pet food may be to blame. Vitamin D overdoses produce symptoms similar to those seen in animals that recently have become sick or died after consuming only dry foods.
The [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]press [COLOR=blue! important]release[/color][/color][/color] states: PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich made an urgent appeal to Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Veterinary [COLOR=blue! important]Medicine[/color][/color][/color], asking the agency to refocus its investigation beyond wheat gluten—which is used almost exclusively in wet foods—and consider other possible contaminants. In his letter, Friedrich points out the following:
1) Last year, a manufacturing error in the production of Royal Canin pet food resulted in excessive amounts of vitamin D3 in the food, causing hypercalcemia, an abnormally high level of calcium in the blood that caused animals’ kidneys to malfunction.
2) Research in endocrinology at Cleveland Clinic has confirmed that high levels of vitamin D3 in animals’ blood causes kidney malfunction.
3) Symptoms associated with excessive vitamin D3 intake appear identical to the symptoms that are being reported in dogs and cats now, leading PETA to believe that vitamin D3 may be implicated in the current spate of pet food contamination.
On Monday, PETA called on FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to resign over the agency’s mishandling of the [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]pet [COLOR=blue! important]food[/color][/color][/color] crisis. "The FDA is feeding the public a line, and the American people’s faith in the government is dying along with dogs and cats,” says Friedrich. “The agency’s failure to pinpoint the cause of death for animals who have eaten only [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]dry [COLOR=blue! important]food[/color][/color][/color] is cause for the commissioner to resign or be fired."
More info is available at www.PETA.Org