Petco announced yesterday that it removed all Pet Treats from China from shelves at more than 1,300 of its retail stores nationwide, including Unleashed by Petco stores and online at Petco.com.
Petco announced it removed all pet treats made in China from all its stores. Photo from chicagonow.com.
The Food and Drug Administration received approximately 4,800 reports of pet illnesses which may be related to consumption of the jerky treats (including 1800 complaints received since FDA’s last update in October 2013). Most of the reports involve dogs that ate chicken, duck, or sweet potato jerky products sourced from China.
The reports involve more than 5,600 dogs, 24 cats, three people and include more than 1,000 canine deaths.
Last May, both Petco and PetSmart said they will remove Chinese-made pet treats from their shelves.
Petco said it will remove the treats by December 31, 2014 while PetSmart has a target date of March 2015.
About half of the jerky treats sold by Petco were from China a Petco spokesperson told USA today last May. She also said that, five years ago, China made 90% of the pet industry’s jerky treats.
Petco Vice President John Sturm told CBS News that it makes all its treats in the US or places such as the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and South America.
He also noted that, “… we decided pet parents’ concerns about the safety of China treats was significant enough to pull these products from our shelves.”
The FDA is still investigating whether there is a direct link between the pet illnesses and the China-made treats.
I’m glad Petco is the first major retailer to pull Chinese-made dog treats from their shelves. I just wish they did it when they made the announcement last May instead of waiting until now.
These brands had the most complaints with the FDA from dog owners. Photo from Petsadvisors.com.
Awesome! As a dog owner and am so pleased to see this happen. I hope more will do the same! Thank you!!!
Thanks! PetSmart will pull all their Chinese made treats by March. Haven’t heard if anyone else will follow.
why did they wait till all those poor animals have to suffer, it that many humans were affected that junk would have been pulled a lot sooner…and why not until March..that is too many more sick animals…
This is horrible to happen to our pets who trust us and we trust our pet products..
$$$$$$$
About five years ago both my dog fell sick after eating Wagon Train chicken jerky treats from Sam’s Club.
I contacted Wagon Train and of course they denied that the treats were the cause of my dogs (both of them) being ill. I also contacted Sam’s Club but they didn’t seem to care (I canceled my membership). I also contacted and reported this to the FDA.
My vet seemed to believe it was the dogs treats and said “never feed your dogs anything from China”.
Words can not describe how sick my dogs were other than major diarrhea that smelled like death for about a week. Not to mention the vet bills!
Why is this still happening five years later!!? Because the FDA doesn’t care about animals!
This is the FDA’s fault! Shame on you and I hope you suffer like these dogs have!
So true. The problem had been identified, and they should have acted more quickly. If 1000 people died instead of 1000 pet you know they would’ve acted on it immediately.
As far as I know it applies to all stores.