Pentobarbital is a Euthanization Agent
The J.M. Smucker Co. announced yesterday that it has voluntarily withdrawn certain shipments of more than 2 dozen dog food products.
The company initiated the recall following media reports of pentobarbital contamination earlier this year in some of its Gravy Train dog food.
Image from Food Safety News.
Pentobarbital is a tranquilizer often used as a euthanizing agent to put down sick or fatally injured animals.
Conventional dog food sometimes contains parts of rendered animals euthanized with pentobarbital.
Under federal law pet food cannot have any pentobarbital at any level. Neither can animals intended for food.
The withdrawal covered canned wet food versions of the following brands:
- Gravy Train
- Kibbles ‘N Bits
- Ol’ Roy
- Skippy
Image from Food Safety News.
The following text is taken from an email received from Smucker by DogFoodAdvisor.com on February 15, 2018:
“Out of an abundance of caution we initiated a voluntary withdrawal (not a recall) on specific shipments of Gravy Train, Kibbles ‘N Bits, Ol’ Roy, and Skippy canned/wet dog food because they do not meet our quality specifications.
This means retailers will remove the impacted shipments from their warehouses.
Veterinarians and animal nutrition specialists, as well as the FDA, have confirmed that extremely low levels of pentobarbital, like the levels reported to be in select shipments, do not pose a threat to pet safety.
However, the presence of this substance at any level is not acceptable to us and not up to our quality standards. We sincerely apologize for the concern this has caused.
Although veterinarians and animal nutrition specialists, as well as the FDA, have confirmed that extremely low levels of pentobarbital do not pose a threat to pet safety, we understand pet owners may have concerns.
We encourage them to contact us at 800-828-9980 or via email here.”
Food Safety News reproduced following table of the recalled products from an email sent by Walmart to its affected customers:
Sandy Lassman says
February 16, 2018 at 11:37 amOkay, I’ll say it…all of these brands are crap and you shouldn’t be feeding them to your animals in the first place!!!
N says
February 16, 2018 at 5:47 pmI was thinking the same thing.
Becky says
February 16, 2018 at 12:29 pmThis is proof you should bury or cremate your euthanized animals if you don’t want them to end up as dinner for your other household pets. PS anybody feeding this crap probably won’t care about a recall.