Pet food/gear/supplies industry updates

[speedog]

Not even if this type of info is allowed to be posted in these forums, but seeing as many people are pet owners and seeing as I am in the retail pet food/gear/supplies industry, I though it might be prudent to post up info about a massive recall regarding all dry dog, cat and ferret foods being recalled by Natura Pet foods (owned by Proctor & Gamble) - namely Innova, EVO, California Natural, Healthwise and Karma.

This recall (for salmonella) started off quite small, had a second broader recall announced a short time later and this weekend, Natura Pet foods recalled all of their dry dog, cat and ferret foods - we have pulled all of their recalled product of of our stores shelves and are in the process of contacting our customers who have purchased the affected product recently. There are also some EVO dog and cat treats that have been recalled as well - see this link on Natura's web site for more details. Please note that you should not be able to buy any of the recalled items at this time as everything has been recalled and new product has not arrived at our distributor's warehouse locations as of yet. In fact, the soonest any consumer should see safe Natura products back on the shelves will be the middle of next week.

A little background on myself - I will not promote or identify our own shop and at times, you may even find me actively promoting other independent shops and I ask of anyone that knows of who we are, that they don't post that information in these forums out of respect for the forum rules and other businesses that are paid sponsors.

Please note that I will not actively promote big box stores or independents that operate in the same 'big box' fashion as I am a firm believer that a well run, small independent shop or small franchised chain shop with properly educated staff can offer up a better shopping experience to the average consumer. That said, if you're well versed/educated in what you're looking for, then by all means look for the best price - hell, even I occasionally buy stuff at retail prices at Pisces because we don't stock that particular item or because I had a brain fart and forgot something at our shop some 30+km across town.

[speedog]

So a second post with links to two more great resources - the Merck Veterinary Manual Online for Veterinary Professionals (link) and the Merck Manual for Pet Health for Pet Owners (link).

As always, we advocate taking your pet to a veterinary location as opposed to doing any self diagnosis/treatment - the information contained at the two links provided above is meant only to serve as an educational resource and certainly, we have personally learned a lot about a lifelong medical condition that one of our cats has to live with through the knowledge we gained at the Merck web site.

[sync]

hmmm...my dog eats the california naturals herring and is nearing the end of a 30lb bag...she is asymptomatic though.

i wonder what this will mean going forward availability wise.

this is literally the only food out there my dog can eat (due to allergies).

[speedog]

Originally Posted by sync

hmmm...my dog eats the california naturals herring and is nearing the end of a 30lb bag...she is asymptomatic though.

i wonder what this will mean going forward availability wise.

this is literally the only food out there my dog can eat (due to allergies).

There should currently be nothing on the shelf for sale - all of the California Natural dry kibble foods have been recalled and the distributor for Alberta will not be getting anything into their Edmonton warehouse until later this week (hopefully) which means the retailers will most likely see nothing back on the shelves until mid-next week. Our regular delivery date is Thursday and I seriously doubt we'll get anything this Thursday.