Two years after pet food contamination scandal, woman will never know what killed Buddy Boy
Posted on June 18th, 2009 – 11:03 AMBy James Shiffer
This week, a Las Vegas, Nevada couple pleaded guilty to knowingly distributing a pet food ingredient from China that was tainted with an industrial chemical called melamine. Melamine is the stuff that’s in the shelves in my house. It’s not supposed to be eaten, by any creatures. Yet it’s a cheap way to make wheat gluten and other food constituents appear to have more protein. In early 2007, pet owners discovered to their horror that it had ended up in dozens of brands of pet food, poisoning untold numbers of cats and dogs, who often died in sudden and gruesome ways. The international scandal once again focused attention on the failures to ensure the safety of products in a globalized industrial marketplace.
The Department of Justice news release about the guilty pleas of Sally Qing Miller, 43, her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 56, and their company, ChemNutra, describes the suspected toll of the contamination:
There is no coordinated national tracking system to monitor the number of pet deaths. However, consumer reports received by the FDA suggest that approximately 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs died after eating pet food contaminated with melamine.
Lois Kalmoe contacted Whistleblower to say she’s convinced that Buddy Boy was one of the victims. Kalmoe, 79, is a retired nursing assistant and lives in an apartment on Park Avenue in south Minneapolis. Kalmoe has no children. Cats have always been her babies. Yet since Buddy Boy, the big jet-black cat that she adopted from the shelter, died in 2007, she hasn’t adopted a new one. “I still hurt,” she says.
Buddy Boy was only about seven years old when he suddenly lost his vigor in early 2007. She thought maybe he needed more exercise, so she took him in the hall and they trotted up and down. That didn’t help. Kalmoe saw a headline in the newspaper about a massive recall of pet food, including the very stuff that Buddy Boy was eating - cans of Iams. She immediately switched his food, but Buddy Boy never returned to his regular self. He died at the veterinarian’s office, Kalmoe said.
Kalmoe contacted Whistleblower earlier this year to find out if it was possible to prove whether poisoned cat food killed Buddy Boy. The Iams Company, and its parent, Procter & Gamble, are among the companies that are part of a $24 million settlement to compensate those affected by the contamination. But Kalmoe doesn’t want any money - just the knowledge. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell, other than the circumstantial case that Buddy Boy’s food that was part of the pet food recall. “I just am convinced it is,” she told me.
6 Responses to “Two years after pet food contamination scandal, woman will never know what killed Buddy Boy”
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June 18th, 2009 at 11:57 am
My cat died as a result of eating contaminated pet food. It was confirmed in a test by the vet. The cat was my childhood pet and lived with my parents, and they chose not to be involved in the lawsuit. It caused my family a lot of pain, and I think they just didn’t want to think about it anymore.
I would like to feed the Millers melamine and see how they like succumbing to kidney failure.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Our beloved cat Whiskers died from kidney failure after eating pet food involved in the product recall. His death occurred before the media broke the story so the vet didn’t know to
test for contaminated pet food. What makes me sick is the pet food companies
that KNEW their TEST CATS were dying after eating their food but did not recall their products. Whiskers and so many other cats and dogs would still be alive today if these companies had cared more about the pets who were being feed their food and less about their companies profits. Walmart was still continuing to sell Special Kitty even after the recall was issued.
June 18th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
The estimates by the Dept of Justice seem awfully low.
I believe most people know someone who had a pet die from the tainted food.
The person I know had confirmation from their vet also.
It’s sad that so many pets were lost.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
DO NOT feed your cats the supposed “premium” pet foods like Iams and Science Diet. They are not premium. They cost a small fortune because of all the advertising they do. Look into other companies who were NOT on the recall for responsible companies, like Innova, California Natural, Nature’s Variety, and Wellness. All can be found at Chuck and Don’s. This pet food recall absolutely disgusted me, and if people only knew how crooked Science Diet (Colgate) and Iams really are, they would never support them. Oh, and don’t think because SD is sold at your vet’s office that it’s ok. They brainwash the vets with fancy brochures and marketing, just like human drug reps do to doctors. This is a great nutrition website: http://www.catinfo.org.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Amanjo, so true, but they are not the only ones at fault. If these were human deaths, maybe more peoople would care. But they are “only” animals. As to the woman in the post, she is entitled to payment. I had a friend whose cat got kidney failure from the Iams food, and she received a settlement. Her vet bills were thousands, because they tried to save him.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Whistleblower, fwiw, thanks for this post. It should have received more attention and outrage than it did. Sally needs to get another cat or two, there was just an article about how full the shelters are and that they are giving 2 for 1 cat deals at the Animal Humane Society and/or euthanizing.