Are you boycotting?

I am not purchasing anything by anyone who has food manufactured by Menu Foods. That company MUST be forced to make changes or (preferably) go out of business entirely and the most effective way to do that is through the bottom line.

It is, after all, clearly their only concern!

I'm not sure that all 95 brands going out of business is good for anybody. What I do hope will happen is that the companies either go back to making the food themselves or at the very least actually inspect the ingredients and plants used to make their foods. If 95 different brands weren't manufactured in the same plant, then this problem would have been much smaller scale if it had happened at all.

I have told the company I used to buy from my concerns, and the fact that I will not buy their food unless they quit using third party manufacturers (which they never did until pretty recently). We've switched to Meow Mix for now... which is made in Thailand, which doesn't do much to allay my fears. But the main reason I'm not buying it is because it doesn't feel safe yet.

I don't plan to boycott anyone, why? this could happen to any company, perhaps not rat poison but other types of contaminant, bacteria, etc. When you depend on food that comes from a factory this could and does happen. Even if you prepared your own cat food at home how safe is the meat you buy? Petfood will never be 100% safe 100% of the time. People food won't be either. It's tragic, I have 4 cats and was lucky this time as I didn't feed any of these recalled products. Which brand do we pet owners switch to that guarantees 100% we will never have a problem?

I unfortunately cannot completely boycott.
It took me years of trying so many brands of dry food before I finally found one that all of the cats would eat and do well on.

I don't and have never fed any of the canned foods that were recalled, the only canned they'll touched is crappy old Friskies Loaf style.

Unfortunately for me, I'm finding it very difficult to boycott.

My cats are on an all canned/raw diet. We rotate between Merricks, Felidae, Eagle Pack, Nature's Variety, Wellness, Natural Balance, California Natural, Innova/EVO and probably a few that I forgot. Unfortunately, from that list I think only Merrick's and Natural Balance are NOT made at a Menu plant...all the others are.

This came up earlier, I'll just paste my paragraph...I think it's relevant here too.

I worked very hard to transition all 8 of my cats to a completely canned / raw diet, just prior to the recall. They had me at my wits end a few times...but I just really wanted them off the dry food, so I did. I'm not feeding any of the recalled brands, however avoiding MENU foods is sort of like trying to stay dry in a rainstorm w/no umbrella. It worries me that 95% of canned food in the USA is all made by the same company, but I can't bear the thought of going back to dry...so I'm not.

Of course I guess my only remaining option is home made ...but another diet transition for my cats isn't real practical now.

Nope, not boycotting. I wouldn't have fed any of the foods on the recall list anyways, so that's not a problem, and I see no point in avoiding other *high quality* foods that use Menu as a manufacturer, since IMO Menu will have to clean up their act and will be safer NOW after they've been caught then perhaps other companies who are yet to slip up to this extent.

My cats will still get their occasional can of Wellness or Innova EVO when I forget to thaw out raw, and I have complete faith in these foods despite any ties to Menu.

I'm not buying Nutro pouches or MAX cans, but that's about it. I'm now getting Natural Balance, I placed an order for Tiki Cat & Evangers...I also ordered by Nature pouches from Pat. We'll try those & if they go over well, I'm gonna keep right on ordering from Pat & forget the Nutro pouches...by Nature is much better than Nutro anyways!

I am avoiding all companies with ties to Menu as to canned food ... For now no canned is feed here... still waiting for by nature to email what kinda of starch they use ... but I likely wont go back to canned food after a brief talk with my vet ... homemade and raw plus a " dry food cookie"

Originally Posted by beandip

My cats are on an all canned/raw diet. We rotate between Merricks, Felidae, Eagle Pack, Nature's Variety, Wellness, Natural Balance, California Natural, Innova/EVO and probably a few that I forgot. Unfortunately, from that list I think only Merrick's and Natural Balance are NOT made at a Menu plant...all the others are.

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You're lucky your cats like all those foods. I tried Merrick and EVO- they loved it at first but after 5-6 weeks refused to touch it. They used to like Innova, now they pick at it. I tried Eagle Pack and Natures Variety- they weren't impressed. They still like Avoderm chicken but it has a lot of fish in it so I can't use it for my crystal guys, Kolohe and Eric. They do like Wellness and Natural Balance. Currently I'm using Natural Balance exclusively. So am I boycotting? Sort of. I used the last of the Wellness and don't plan to buy more for a while. I have three cans of Avoderm left and probably won't buy more due to the fish issue. I don't know what I'll do if they decide they don't like Natural Balance.

And, yes, I'm concerned about so many foods being made by the same company in one facility. It seems as though something is lacking in the quality control department. I'd feel more comfortable if I had some assurance that the pet food companies, ie: Wellness or Natura, maintained some sort of review of the manufacturing process.

I rarely feed canned foods and have never fed my cats any of the puch or canned Nutro foods that were involved in the recall. They mainly get the dry Nutro kibble and that's what I'm sticking with.

I don't know that I'm actively boycotting, but I can tell you that I don't feel confident feeding any of those brands until we know the outcome of this. On the other hand, I can see how if that's all your kitty wants to eat, you're stuck. I'm lucky that I've got two good eaters...

I don't know what I'm doing yet. Baylee hasn't had wet food in a while and it was Fancy Feast so that's not a problem... but she eats Nutro Natural Choice dry food. I'm thinking of transitioning her since I don't feel comfortable feeding it to her anymore... but I still don't know WHAT to change her food to so for now we're stuck.

Well I was trying to change their wet food from Wellness to Natural Balance anyway since Wellness I have to pay for shipping and NB I can buy at Petco.

Originally Posted by Javern

I don't plan to boycott anyone, why? this could happen to any company, perhaps not rat poison but other types of contaminant, bacteria, etc. When you depend on food that comes from a factory this could and does happen. Even if you prepared your own cat food at home how safe is the meat you buy? Petfood will never be 100% safe 100% of the time. People food won't be either. It's tragic, I have 4 cats and was lucky this time as I didn't feed any of these recalled products. Which brand do we pet owners switch to that guarantees 100% we will never have a problem?

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Exactly my thoughts. I'm trying to avoid any brands that I know were involved in the recall, not as a boycott but as a temporary precaution. I went to get more canned food today and it was awfully hard to find a good higher quality food whose brand wasn't involved in the recall. I know once everything gets sorted out I'll be back to the same rotation of brands I was on before.

Boycott? No.

As it happens my lot have refused most or all of those brands that are in the recall every time I've tried to transition them to a higher quality food. They insisted on their Fancy Feast. They also are not interested in the cuts and gravy style foods, so it's easy to avoid varieties that have wheat gluten in them, regardless of manufacturer.

So, in my house, there's no need to think about whether I want to buy the recalled brands. Were they on the "approved" list, I think my response would be to avoid the specific varieties until this mess is over and the issues dealt with, but I'd decide at that point, based as much as anything on whether they seemed to have been missed, whether to go back to them.

As long as Fancy Feast is OK, I'm grateful I don't need to rock the boat.

I'm not boycotting anything. However, I don't use and never have used any of the recalled foods.

I'll stay clear of any food associated with them, not spitefully, but for obvious health concerns.

I also am staying away from any of their food as a precaution for my babies..It took them over 3 months to recall the first batch even after having to know that something was wrong with their food, so I am not willing to chance it.