The details of the fund etc are here on the home page.

www.championpetfoods.com

OMG Im so sorry, you video had me i tears I just cant believe it, Ive fed my cats orijen up until recently

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My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP1TzggYeLg

I am so sorry this has happend! Totally shocked i feel so sorry for you and thankyou so much for telling us, I for defonatly will boyycot Orijen.

Thank you everyone for your positive support, your kindness has bought fresh tears. Gus is incontinent and can only manage to drag himself one body length now. My sweet little Maurice is only 14 months old and looks like a old man, he now lies lower on the ground dragging himself around. I hated standing there to video Maurice as it looked callous but the vets said to keep him active but I always carry him to his food. He is the purrfect size to cuddle and although little still managed to push me out of bed when he was well. They both should be out in their cat run chasing butterflies and crickets. Here is another letter from our cat food forum, there was disbelief when Clark on Itchmo said the Champion petfoods did not now the food would be irradiated, then Michelle on our Australian Cat-world forum stated they did know the food would be irradiated. This is from Raggiesrule who has 3 Maine coons,Hali,Uly,Evie and 2 ragdolls, Aub,Quoi, all severely affected and one ragdoll Robbie who was PTS
A Nth American friend wrote to Orijen regarding what was happening to us and below is the response she received from Champion foods.

Yours
Rosella


Poor J..... now has steam coming out her ears as she is no more a fool then the rest of us and and has read the CW and Itchmo forum threads and is aware of what Champion company representatives have said on these forums.


Hello J.....,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, and I would like to address the concerns you expressed in your email.

On November 20, 2008, Champion Petfoods announced a voluntary recall of its ORIJEN Cat food brand sold in Australia. The recall was restricted to AUSTRALIA ONLY and was issued in response to reports from the Australian veterinary community of cats showing symptoms of a neurological syndrome after consuming ORIJEN CAT food.

The recall was unique to Australia and did not affect any of the other 50 countries to which ORIJEN is exported. Champion Petfoods believes the Australian cases resulted from the high-level irradiation (exceeding 50kGY) applied to ORIJEN upon entering Australia. Champion Petfoods no longer exports or sells its ORIJEN pet foods in Australia.

We didn’t know our foods were to be irradiated – we only learned AFTER our products had entered the country and had already been irradiated. We only learned the ORIJEN was irradiated when our importer complained to us about the high cost they had been charged for the irradiation process. When we learned of this we immediately contacted the Canadian Consulate in Sydney and asked them, on our behalf, to ask the Australian authorities why our foods were irradiated. At this time we also began to investigate the affect of irradiation but found that it is generally recognized as safe. It wasn’t until we began to experience problems (that only happened in Australia) that we began to research the irradiation issue more. Even then, the impact of irradiation upon cat food is not a widely studied subject so it was difficult to reach any clear conclusions at the beginning of our study. It was only after extensive testing and consultation with experts that we were able to make conclusions regarding the negative effect of irradiation and how this impacted cats. In a perfect world, our importer would have been aware and notified us of the irradiation process. We in turn would have studied its impact on our foods before a shipment ever reached Australia.

We do not nor have we every used any synthetic preservatives or antioxidants in ORIJEN, instead we use natural antioxidants such as rosemary extract, mixed tocopherols (forms of vitamin E) and citric acid. Everything that we use in our products are listed on the packages.

Regarding the cat owners that have be affected by the recall, we are helping pay their veterinary and non veterinary costs up to $2000 per cat. There was a miss communication regarding the time that they had to have their applications in by. It is May 31st not February 28th as the email first indicated to them, we have apologized for this error and the extra stress this has caused them.

We have been nothing but honest regarding this voluntary recall and we have posted any updates regarding this on our website on our home page. www.championpetfood s.com.

I hope that I have addressed your concerns and please contact us again with any further questions or concerns.

Warm regards,

Diana Mick
Customer Service
Champion Petfoods Ltd

She posted Orijen's response on a raggie forum we are both on and I responded given not everyone is as well informed as J...... - my response below:

Thanks J.....,

It's certainly interesting especially given what their company representatives have already stated on public forums - it would appear they are again being frugal with the truth.

A representative of their own company was the one that admitted that both BHA and BHT were found on testing in their food when I challenged him with his claims of no toxins found. They apparently did not add it - it was present in dried chicken they had used. Given their claims to use only fresh ingredients the use of dried chicken came as a surprise too.

He also stated:

“ In the study at MSU done on our foods, there were a few compounds discovered. The summary from the veterinary toxicologist at MSU was that they did not find any chemical compounds that are known to cause neurotoxicity.”

This statement does not say there were no toxins found just no neurotoxins - since they are yet to provide these results who knows what toxins were actually found in their food on testing.

The company representative was Clark Stride and he made these statements on the Itchmo forums way back in December.

Also Michelle Granger another Champion foods rep posted on cat world on Dec 1st - introducing herself post #240 & stating they were aware their food was irradiated #242

http://www.cat- world.com. au/forums/ index.php? showtopic= 87540&st=240

Also worth noting on the Cat World thread is post #279 which asks why the company press release states the company did not know about the irradiation and Michelle's answer at post #282 and again this was way back on Dec 2nd. Yet again the company telling australians one thing and having a second story ready for their Nth American consumers which puts them in a so much better light.

So why over 2 mths later are they still stating they didn't know to concerned Nth Americans and why has their press release not been corrected?

Jo (not at all surprised that they continue to try and make this someone else's fault - no doubt the person that read the import permit, arranged the export documentation, signed the paperwork to allow the irradiation to occur and paid for the treatment and arranged the goods to be taken to and picked up from the treatment facility. Or are they expecting us to believe this was all done magically without a company representative knowing about it, arranging and signing documentation and paying for it!)

My boys in healthy days
Gus, Maurice and Pierre

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If cats could talk they would lie to you

This was my understanding as well. I'm not sure the company is to blame...

They are truly beautiful cats Rosella and watching those videos you made, brought me to tears also.
I am truly sickened by what i have read and i thank you for bringing it to our attention. Im so sorry for your cats and you...and of course anyone else in your situation. I hope there will be improvements in your cats health. xxxx

Oh no that's terrible -poor cats!

I feed my kitten Orijen, alongside other things. I hope the UK version is ok!

Trellis, it is only (I hate to use that word in this situation) Australian supplies that were affected in this terrible way, as it is the high level of irradiation used by Australian Customs on foodstuffs entering the country.

Although Champion Foods should have been aware of the irradiation process (I cannot say guarenteed either way whether they knew or not as it was *technically* the importers job the exporters should also be notified) it is also a case of irradiation normally has little or no effect on food, human food is irradiated every day with no known side effects.

So although I haven't fed Orijen to my own cats it is only because I haven't bought some to try yet and I would still personally buy it, just because a company had a trajic and terrible mistake I won't boycott it, look at all the horrible stuff human food companies have done in the past and still going strong because people accept accidents happen (CJD/Mad Cow Disease for one, Nestle selling poison hot chocolate for another)

Rosella, please don't take this as making light of your poor babies suffering and that of other cats throughout Australia, it should *never, ever* have happened and I hope your babies get better as soon as possible.