Dog food withdrawn from market after reports of kidney failure and death of dogs
A dog food sold in over 1,300 Mercadona Spanish supermarkets was withdrawn from the market Friday after receiving six reports of dogs becoming gravely ill and suffering from acute renal failure after eating Compy Brand dog food, a private label brand made exclusively for Mercadona by BYNSA a leading private label pet food manufacturer in Europe.
The company ordered a “precautionary recall”, something the manufacturers of chicken jerky treats poisoning dogs in the US would be wise to follow their example. BYNSA has 39% percent of the pet food market in Spain and produces a 100,ooo tons of product a year.
The group made the move, “as a precaution”, after receiving at least six complaints from customers all involving severe kidney damage. The products are now being analysed by its technicians to see if there is a connection between the food and dogs suffering kidney failure.
Pet parents said that after eating the food they noticed, “she was drinking excessive amounts of water and peeing a lot. In addition a Turre vet has confirmed they are dealing with four dogs, all with kidney problems and my own vet is also dealing with other dogs having the same problems. The common factor is they all have the same make of dog food in their diet.”
The Mercadona spokesman Jorge Romero insisted: “At this stage we have only removed the product as a precaution. We have received various calls, six complaints, and it has been removed from shops in Albox, Garrucha and Mojacar. This is not all over Andalucia. Technicians from our suppliers are currently analysing the products in their laboratories. They are also talking to these clients and have issued a help line 900500103 for anyone worried. It will be in both English and Spanish. We will let you know as soon as we have any more news.”
For anxious pet parents in the US, this may lead to an answer as to why their dogs are having similar problems. Concerned pet parents have started awareness campaigns to warn consumers about the Mercadora dog food and have created forums to share information (in English, links below). 
Source:
Spanish supermarket dog food link to expat pet deaths in Almeria
Links:
Warning! Mercadona Dog Food Problem Forum
Problem with Mercadona Dog Food: British Expats Forum
BYNSA leads private label pet food in Spain
BYNSA Pet Food
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22 Comments
briancotton22
I’m speechless
SUSAN BASKETT
HOW AWFUL,symtoms similar to pest control poison or could be e coli. My dog had food poisoning symtoms this weekend after eating Ben dog food made by a firm called kennelpak.Fortunately he seems to have recovered, being a youngish healthy dog.My heart goes out to those less fortunate. Suex
Mollie Morrissette
Except e.Coli does not cause acute renal failure, but organophosphates – you betcha.
Susan Rhodes
Hi Mollie- My name is Susan Rhodes and a little over 2 weeks ago I had joined the above mentioned group. I doubled the size of their memebership and now I am no longer a member. I’ve heard through the grapevine your experience with them.
It all started when I started a petition on change.org. They didn’t like the fact that my petition was garnering more attention than theirs. Food Safety News was the first one to contact me. From there it snowballed to msnbc contacting me then abc.com. I obviously don’t need them. They needed me more than I needed them! I thought we were ONE against a cause, I obvioulsy was wrong about that.
Mollie Morrissette
Sorry to hear about your experience. I don’t know what on earth is wrong with two of the admins in that group. I have had several decidedly “unpleasant” encounters with them, to put it mildly. I’m not a psychiatrist, so I should just keep my mouth shut.
I heard through the grapevine as well that your petition was causing quite a stir with those two admins, because they didn’t “want the competition”. I am at a loss as to why they feel so threatened by anyone who they think is encroaching on what they believe to be their exclusive domain.
I feel the two admins of which I speak are doing a terrible disservice to the hundreds and hundreds of victims by diverting energies towards personal attacks when they would do better to realize the enemy is not within but without.
This is not a popularity contest – it is a publicity campaign focused on raising awareness and putting pressure on the treat manufacturers who have refused to remove their products from the market.
Susan Rhodes
I couldn’t agree more with you, It’s really ashame that they can’t keep the focus on the maufacturers, the sickened dogs, the dogs that have passed & their owners who depend on us.
On top of everything else they have done to me, now they are publicly humiliating me on my local news stations FB page. They are complete and total fools!
I am glad to be done with them and moving on with my cause without them and their drama.
Mollie Morrissette
They did what? Personal attacks? What is wrong with them? Can I ask you if the persons who are doing this are Nicolle Lambert and ‘Oh Susie Q’?
Susan Rhodes
Oh Susie Q & Robin Pierre.
Mollie Morrissette
My run-ins were with Nicolle and OSQ. Too bad they are poisoning a perfectly good group and a worthy cause with their toxic behavior.
Kooldog
Yes, it’s not just the dog food, it’s really frustrating to read throgh all the lables and try to find healthy food for us these days…
Martin Essex
As UK pet nutritionists this is always a worry for us – so many different brands of food being made in the same factories trying to keep standards and credit control. Brand names that you trust because they are big well known brand names sometimes don’t seem to have a clue where the actual ingredients are coming from as they are reliant on supplies from the facility house factory which is making the food to their receipe.
Rayya
Hopefully this inspires Nestle Purina to do the same.
Mollie Morrissette
My thoughts exactly, but not bloody likely.
Rayya
:-( Sooner or later they are going to have to face up to their crimes and I hope it happens sooner.
lettucehavewhirledpeas7
What I want to know is why this company, Mercadona, has done the honorable thing and removed the product from the shelves, and our FDA has absolutely nothing??? This is not a tiny recall either, 1,300 supermarkets. In Waggin’ Train’s case, it would no doubt be a million stores, not all supermarkets. So I can see that economically it would be big, BIG chunk taken out of Nestle-Purina. Boo-hoo.
Mollie Morrissette
Well, Mom, I wish I had a good answer.
I guess just as in everything there are good people and bad people and good manufacturers and bad ones. These guys are definitely one of the good guys – they DO exist.
It’s just tragic that the bad guys ruin it for the good guys.
Sorta like when a nice guy comes along and it coulda worked ‘cept she’d been dirted by so many as*holes in the past that she was just wrecked.
I digress.
The FDA is off the hook on this one – they cannot order a mandatory recall without proof of a contaminant. So, in these circumstances it is up to industry to “do the right thing” even if the law doesn’t “make” them do it.
Do we need laws to tell bad guys what’s the “ethical thing to do”? Don’t answer. I’m not going there.
lettucehavewhirledpeas7
Ok, So the FDA is off the hook. Why can’t Nestle Purina “do the right thing”? I know.. ’cause they’re a bunch of low grade canker sores on the butt of a xxx xxxx. This thing is sooo big, that I believe that it’s going to backfire on N.P. and they are going to regret that they sat on their hands and whined.
Does anyone know what their numbers are on the stock exchange? Has John Q. Public made any moves to pull their $ out??? I’ll ask someone on that and get back to you.
Mollie Morrissette
Well, yes Mom they are a bunch of BLEEPBLEEPs. And no, life is not fair and the reality is most humans don’t care enough about other people, animals or the planet to change their way of being in the world.
Most humans have not evolved beyond the short-sighted, myopic view of life. Most people cannot be bothered with existentialism, they just want to make enough money, not have to work too hard getting it and will cut alot of corners on the way there.
Who pays for this selfish way of life? Their children will, the planet does, animals are suffering and dying right now, oceans are strangulated with floating islands of garbage, human and industrial waste, rivers and streams are choked with chemicals, rainforests are getting razed to the ground, polar bears are drowning, whole species are being wiped off the face of the earth, disease is spread by confined animal feeding operations, diseases, once rare, are now common and difficult to treat because of the systemic use of drugs for non-therapeutic purposes, the air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink, the earth we touch has all been poisoned to some degree.
The survival of the species will falter if humans continue down this perilous path. All I can do during the brief moment of time I reside on the planet is to do everything in my power to leave this world a little bit better than had I not lived at all; even if my contribution is to save the life of one living creature I am at peace knowing I had followed my heart.
Pam
How do I get involved with the group, “Animal Parents Pet treats made in China”. We know there is a poison in these food, but it is not being found. Could it be like alot of Human allergines that occure when you have a combination of several or 2 chemicals?
Mollie Morrissette
It’s really easy! They are a private Facebook group and all you have to do is ask to join – that simple! They have TONS of great information (in the docs) and last time I was there they had over 1500 members/victims. The toxin is unknown because it is not a “common” food contaminant. All tests have proved negative. If you have a few extra thousand laying around – the tox lab at Cornell (Dr. Karyn) has told the group they will test samples for them, but the cost of lab work can range from $500-$800 and up per hour. I think they should consider pooling funds to pay for testing – so far no one has offered to start a collection for donations. It is so easy – I suggested ChipIn to them.
Web Manager
The original Olive Press Newspaper article that has been directly quoted from is online here: http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/02/24/supermarket-dog-food-link-to-expat-pet-deaths-in-andalucia/
Mollie Morrissette
OMGoodness, did I forget to credit the source? I apologize if that is the case.
You are the only source of this important information thus far. Thank you!
I will follow this carefully as we have a similar problem affecting dogs in the same fashion after eating chicken jerky treats imported from China. It is causing acute renal failure, acquired Fanconi syndrome a very rare disease in dogs not genetically predisposed to the disease.
Do you have any other information?
Pet parents here in the US are hoping this might bring a clue. Toxicology studies have turned up nothing. All the commonly known contaminates have tested negative.
Do you know if they source any of their ingredients from China, in particular the poultry?
We’re grabbing at straws here. I will contact the mfg tomorrow.
Perhaps your readers would like to know there is a group in the US on Facebook called Animal Parents Against Pet Treats Made in China and there are well over 1500 members, more victims join daily. They formed the group after hundreds of dogs became severely ill and many have died from acute renal failure after eating these jerky treats.