Important information on the Wellness Canned Cat Food Voluntary Recall

Of the lot I just bought, only 2 of the cans fall within the dates in the notice. I fed a different flavor every couple days, so it won't affect Parker. I was like "oh no" for moment. Thankfully it's nothing too serious.

Bought some last week and all are within the recall. It annoys me that I have to call them (I hate calling corporations and the circles it entails) for information on getting my money back. I usually use coupons and get from the big box stores but we did not with this batch and bought them from a smaller store which was more expensive.

They should be proactive and just put all the options out there with the press release or at least on their website. kitty has already had a few cans of affected food but thankfully she's been eating a bit of some dry kibble too. I'm pinching pennies so I started feeding her other types of food--added Taste of the Wild dry to daily feeding. Before she was 100% Wellness grain free wet.

I immediately thought of this thread http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=222892

I'm going to go ponder the raw food thread now...I drive 30 minutes to get my cat's food and I'm starting to think maybe it would be less energy and money and more peace of mind to just do it myself.

I checked our cans and we only had 1 in the date range. I'll call them, but I'm not sure if it's worth it for just one can.

Well I give them props for having someone there 10pm my time to answer the phones. Process for refund seems more difficult than necessary.

They will mail us a preaddressed envelope (5-7 business days). put all the affected food in there and send to them. Once they receive and process our claim they will send coupons to replace the cans (another 5-7 business days).

I wish they were handling it from the side of distribution, it streamlines things so much better and doesn't place so much of the responsibility on the consumer, who did nothing wrong. I would rather be able to just return the cans to the store where I got them--or any store that sells wellness--and exchange them for cans that are not affected. IT's easier (and would even be more cost effective) for the distributor to worry about shipping affected cans back (they are already mailing stuff to each other regularly anyway). Or better yet, offer me my money back.

Can't help but wonder what they do with the cans once they receive them? Scoop them out and try to salvage them?

The pet food industry has been in need of regulation, let alone strict regulation for some time, but one thing we desperately need to ask our representatives to do is require pet stores to place signs in store and next to food that has a current recall. I know pet owners who do not use the internet, how would they know about this? I'm not sure what my 70 something year old neighbor feeds, but she has several cats and no internet. I will walk over and tell her tomorrow, but companies should be required to do more than post a notice on the internet telling the consumer to call them for more information. The more I think about it the more it pisses me off, the arrogance of having to call them to get more information about how they will correct their mistake. Not to mention the bind it places some people in who will be waiting on replacements and maybe don't have money to use on cat food in the meantime.

They're sending me a box for my 23 cans...sigh. I just went to the store last week. The cans are from both this trip and my last one though, so this means my cat has probably been eating recalled food for about 3 weeks. Good thing it's time for a vet check anyway.

I'm going to visit the store I bought them from to make sure they pulled the food. Plus, I have only one can of cat food now, so I'm going to need some more.

I have 5 cans involved that I bought at PetSmart.
I am going to see if they will accept them for a credit.
They can return them to Wellness.

I bought a mixed case of 24 on Sunday and 14 of the remaining 20 are affected. I called Wellness and they are sending me a kit to return the affected cans and will be sending me coupons. I got the Wellness from a state-based fancier pet store and they are calling their customers letting them know of the recall. They also have taken all the recalled cans off their shelves and I will go there are pick up some more later today.

That's what I was thinking. I only have 2 cans. So it's not like he'd be eating them for a long period of time. Seems like a lot of effort for only a small amount of food.

I take it this isn't the first time you've dealt with a recall? You seem a bit more cynical than the average consumer, like someone who has been down this road before.

What else can they do really? If there was a giant ad campaign on TV or in the paper every time a pet food was recalled letting people know, we'd all be feeding homemade meals since there wouldn't be a single cat food company left in business. Also, the United States has the highest number of online users in the world, at over 77% of the population. Only 66% of americans watch TV every day, so the internet is actually getting more of the population than other campaigns would. How would you propose wellness contacts your elderly neighbor?

The only thing I can think of is have them send notices or posters to pet stores to put up for pet owners to see the next time they're shopping, but that does nothing for them since most pet owners aren't going to go shopping for more food until they've used up at least most of their current recalled, bad food.

As a company, it would make zero sense to do that because nobody is going to buy your food at a pet store if there's a giant notice mentioning recalls of your brand. So basically they would get all the downside of ruining their reputation without any of the upside of getting that tainted food out of pets' mouths. It's not a good explanation values-wise, but it is how every corporation would act, regardless of their company beliefs.

Thanks for posting this, I feed mostly wet Wellness and just checked all my cans. They are dated a month after the last date of the recalled cans. I am just glad the company is being honest about this and it makes me feel more comfortable using Wellness that they are on top of quality control. I certainly hope so.....

The fancier pet store from where I buy Wellness is taking back the recalled cans - i should have got in touch with them rather than with Wellness representative. Anyways, I picked up more Wellness and hope that this is the last recall they have for years to come.

On a different note, the more I go to this pet store, the less I feel like going to the larger chain stores again, though no one can beat the variety that the larger stores have. The nice thing is the price is the same as far as the food stuff go (the non food items are often more expensive but great quality) and they give case discounts and the 13th case/ bag of food is free. P,us with their clientale smaller perhaps, they were able to call customers who purchased wellness and informed them about the recall

Thanks for posting.

I'm really glad I only bought pouches this last visit to Petsmart!

I did find some cans (5) I had of Wellness Core wet that had the recall date. I took them to my Natural Pet Food store where I buy all my pet food, and there were people already there pulling the Wellness cans off the shelf and checking the dates!!!! The store just replaced my cans for me today. So I was glad I stopped by.

It's just the ambivalence that frustrates me. We have over 130 million cats and dogs in this country. I guess I know a lot of pet owners who are elderly and low income which sparked my concern. Many don't have internet and many who do probably aren't signed up for Wellness emails. The pet food industry is a multi-Billion dollar industry. Even with our weak food laws, we accept and are given so much less for our pets than we would accept for ourselves. If there was a human food recall and it was only announced via the internet we would see a huge problem with that.

I don't think it'd place an unfair burden on them to add a banner at the bottom of their commercials announcing the recall and giving instructions. Nor would it be harmful to have a poster at pet stores announcing the recall and telling owners to check their cans at home. People would still buy pet food because most aren't willing to make it themselves (count me in that number at the moment, even though I want to).

But to my point yesterday, I did receive the email from Petsmart announcing the recall and stating the cans can be brought back for refunds, so Im guessing that means exchanges too. It's a 30 mile trip each way (which admittedly adds to my frustration) but I think I'll go out tomorrow and try to do that.

I'm just glad its not a major problem, like tainted food that can make our cats sick. I'm gonna find another brand anyway, Wellness is the most expensive brand here. for $3.29 a can...there should never recalls.

So Wellness Core is included? We have 3 in our pantry but mixed with various other brands... not home to check the date, but haven't fed any Core yet either...

Yep, they were pulling Wellness Core canned yesterday too.

I don't feed Wellness anymore, but this is a good reminder for everyone to give a variety of brands to their kitties and not be wedded to just one.

I have to agree with you.

Wellness grain-free varieties are one of the few commercially-prepared foods I recommend to others and feed to my fosters. Although I will continue to do so, maintaining personal control of quality is precisely why I never feed anything commercial to my own cats.

AC

Dang I got 15 cans of this. They are sending coupons and told me to tjhrow the cans away. I just opened a can last night so I'm tempted to call and say I forgot a can. I'll go through my cupboards and make sure I didn't miss any.

I had 14 cans that fell under the recall dates. I returned them to the feed store where I purchased them and simply exchanged them for 14 new cans. The Wellness representative had been there that day, and "checked every can in the store"

At the moment I will continue to include the three Wellness flavors I've been feeding in my cats' diet rotation. I've found it very difficult and frustrating to find many good quality foods they will eat with any enjoyment and consistency. Since they will eat the Wellness most of the time, and show every evidence of thriving, for the moment it stays.

Thanks, OP, for posting. I haven't checked my cans yet, but I'd likely have missed this were it not for this post.

I am wondering how long now until more cans are re-stocked in the stores??? I have been feeding Instinct and EVO in place of the Wellness, but my cats just love the Wellness wet food.

I don't know if they carry this where you live, but our kitties are loving this food (Holistic Select) : http://www.holisticselect.com/recipes.aspx?pet=cat

YES they do!!! I have never tried that brand, but will now, thanks for telling me that. It always helps knowing someone else has used a line of food and has good results with it and their cats like it. Boy, if Wellness takes too long to get product back out, we all might have found something else we like better and won't want to go back

Actually, once I started feeding them the Holistic Select, they got picky about the Wellness! That's why I had only the pouches - I didn't bother buying any of the Wellness cans the list time we picked up food! (They still like the Instinct cans though).

And, FYI, the only Wellness pouches I get are the blue/green (Chicken, Crab & Herring), the gold (Turkey & Duck), and the purple (Chicken, Duck & Shrimp). The other ones have potato starch high on the list of ingredients.

The feed store I purchase Wellness from is fully stocked with other-dated cases. Holistic Select, didn't that used to be called Eagle Pack? Made by Mother Hubbard. My cats wouldn't eat it. Maybe I should try it again, since they've obviously made some changes.

<edit> oh never mind. All they have are blended flavors. Tolly won't eat his chicken mixed with any other flavor.

Holistic Select is another brand owned by Wellpet LLC (which also owns the Wellness brand).

Wellpet owns Wellness, Holistic Select, Eagle Pack, and Old Mother Hubbard - each is a different brand.