To the UK cat community, given the negative posting concerning our company, I thought it may be appropriate to provide a quick posting from Champion. As is often the case in circumstances like these, facts often give way to misinformation.
I would like begin by telling you that we are a family-owned and family oriented, award-winning pet food maker here in Alberta, Canada. We have a long and proud tradition of producing innovative foods from fresh regional ingredients since 1985.
Like most of you on this site, we are pet lovers too. Every member of the Champion family shares their home with dogs and cats (dachshunds for me) and that’s why we make the kind of foods that we do. Just like you, we are shocked and terribly saddened at the situation that unfolded in Australia.
As there are some errors regarding the situation in Australia, I’d like to clarify on a few points.
First, the recall is limited to Australia and results from the high level of irradiation (61kGY) that our foods were exposed to when entering the country. This irradiation process is unique to Australia and our foods in other markets are not affected.
Australia does not irradiate all pet foods – only those made with fresh ingredients (like ORIJEN) and/or cooked at low temperatures (like ORIJEN) are irradiated.
The unique nutritional make-up of ORIJEN foods (including high levels of long chain DHA and EPA omega-3 fatty acids from fresh fish) make ORIJEN highly susceptible to the effects of irradiation treatment. Delicate long chain fatty acids are easily compromised by high irradiation, which in turn causes the formation and release of toxic oxidative by-products.
When consumed by cats, these oxidative by products have a profound effect on the nervous system. Unfortunately, due to the obscure nature of this problem, no one in the industry – including Champion - was aware of the potential danger irradiation posed to our cat foods. Indeed, even after we discovered our foods were to be irradiated, we were assured by government authorities that the process was safe.
When we began to receive strange reports of cats falling ill in Australia, we subjected all foods shipped to Australia to a complete battery of tests. These tests included every known toxin and a complete chemical screening to identify any possibility that our food may have contributed to the reported illnesses. All tests showed the foods to be fine.
Enquiries into all other markets (50 countries) where ORIJEN is sold revealed there were no reports or problems with the foods anywhere else – including foods from the very same productions that were sold in Australia. As the symptoms reported from Australia are indicative of a wide number of possible health problems, we decided to put a stop sale on our cat foods in Australia and send a staff member to Australia to investigate first hand.
Realizing the problem was unique to Australia, we started to investigate for local factors ranging from water supply, gardening chemicals, spider bites… a vast number of possibilities.
It wasn’t until we began running tests on ORIJEN cat foods irradiation chambers here in Canada that we began to strongly suspect the high levels of irradiation were causing the problems. Indeed, like everyone else we had assumed that irradiation process was safe.
We began to research irradiation and cat food and found one single published study linking irradiated foods to the same problems that were reported among cats in Australia. Since then, one more study has been published that draws the same conclusions in the dangers of irradiated dry cat foods.
These studies are available on-line and can be accessed through our website at championpetfoods.com (click on the Australia icon)
We understand the criticism directed at us for the events that occurred in Australia. We have also done our best to be open, honest and transparent. All of our actions, investigations and subsequent findings were (and still are) posted on our website.
Our mistake was trusting that the irradiation process was safe. Our sales in Australia were a very, very, small fraction of our sales worldwide, and our exports to Australia were and are not “greed motivated”.
In retrospect, we wish we would have known more about the process, and how our food in particular would be affected by irradiation.
To support cat owners in Australia, we established the ORIJEN COMPASSION FUND to provide financial assistance to offset medical and related costs up to $2000 for each affected cat, announced a $10,000 donation to support homeless cats in the Sydney area, and will publish the research we have compiled in the hopes that others can learn from this tragic event.
We have since changed our export policy and will never again ship to a destination requiring irradiation, or any other unnatural process, as a precondition to market entry.
To set the record straight, we made 2 shipments to Australia. A third shipment was made but stopped before it entered the irradiation chamber and returned. In total, less than 3 pallets of ORIJEN cat food were sold in Australia between November 20, 2007 and the recall date of November 2008. This compares with thousands of pallets of the very same food shipped worldwide during that same period.
Champion Petfoods and my family personally are very sorry for all of the families in Australia who have been affected by this terrible circumstance. We hope that of this tragedy a new awareness and understanding of the potential effects irradiation has upon cat foods. We pledge never again to allow our foods to be compromised.
Sincerely,

Peter A. Muhlenfeld
Champion Petfoods Ltd.

Dear Mr. Muhlenfeld,

I would like to ask a few questions, and I would really appreciate an answer.
representatives of your company (Clark on Itchmo and Michelle on catWorld) were giving some contradictory answers an then Clark disappeared and Itchmo was down so there were no more answers to the questions.

1. What is the progress, if any, on establishing exact cause for the problems in irradiated food? Any additional information would be of great help for treatment of affected cats, and last information was that Champion has been talking to one of top toxicologists as well as other scientists.

2. Would you consider covering fully veterinary expenses of affected cats? There aren't that many of them, and you have a moral and ethical obligation. Considering previous cases of other pet foods, if matter comes to court you will likely have a legal obligation as well, and by postponing o do what is right until you have to, you will just be losing trust and customers.

3. Are you going to publish test results for Orijen? Your info releases do not actually contain any numbers. Can you comment on the fact that Clark claimed that Al levels in Orijen are below 50 ppm, my own testing result was a bit over 60 ppm. Although Al i generally considered nontoxic, there are some concerns about Al in cats and its role as a vaccine adjuvant in vaccine associated sarcoma, and 60 ppm is a bit high.

4. Can you comment on issue of BHA and BHT traces in your food (mentioned by your representative Clark Stride on Itchmo)?

5. Do you regularly test your ingredients shipments? If yes, what do you test for? Is every shipment tested, or random samples are selected?

6. Do you clean equipment between running different foods through your production line and if so, how?

Orijen replies from Itchmo, Remember Orijen you killed Australian cats and many more are ill with a debilitating long term paralysis.
How could you, Champion be unaware of the documentation needed,import permits,signed the paperwork to allow the irradiation to occur,payment for the treatment and arrangement for the goods to be taken to and picked up from the irradiation treatment plant. How can anyone be sure you aware of the quality control of your suppliers because you certainly didn't bother when you sold your contaminated food in Australia. Why didn't you label the food it was irradiated.
To see the beautiful loved, Hunter a stunning Bengal, who died because of Orijen. Go to Facebook, join our group and search for
YES! We want our petfood labeled correctly



Re: Problems with Orijen in Australia
« Reply #332 on: December 04, 2008, 07:54:15 AM »

Hello Sandi

ORIJEN is high in long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA, EPA) which are particularly susceptible to breakdown
under the irradiation process, which in turn causes the release of the free radicals thought to cause the symptoms
seen in the Australian cats.
Champion did not know our food had been irradiated until after it was on the market.

Re: Problems with Orijen in Australia
« Reply #333 on: December 04, 2008, 07:57:04 AM »

Thanks for answering that Clark, I appreciate it. But its still confusing how Orijen didnt know the food would need to be irradiated when there are some pretty clear procedures outlined at AQIS's website. Could you tell us why Michelle which is another Champion rep, is saying over at CatWorld, that Orijen did know in advance about this procedure? Thank you in advance.
Re: Problems with Orijen in Australia
« Reply #269 on: December 01, 2008, 06:34:56 AM »

Quote from: carolo on November 30, 2008, 09:45:30 PM
Clark, thank you so much for complete, detailed answers to all my questions. BTW, is the Orijen sold in Australia labeled to show it has been irradiated? Would that be done after the irradiation process or would you have to have it on the bags as they leave your plant?

Our bags were not labeled with an irradiation sticker when they left our facility. We did not find out this was done to our product until after it was on the market.

Peter, what is negative is your negligence as a company for killing and inflicting this illness upon my cats.
What is negative is your contempt for Australia's quarantine regulations
What is negative - ignorance is no excuse
What is negative - what is the next illness, organ breakdown to happen to the Orijen affected cats. This is early days. What cancer will be multiplying in my cats body.
That is negative
Rosella

Peter, I have been following this tragedy since the beginning so I'm fully aware of the number of kitties affected and the personal lives destroyed as a result of your company's negligence. Apart from all the reasons you state as to how, why, where and whom, and to jump to the bottom line, it is your company's negligence.

It is not just admitting you made a mistake, it's taking appropriate measures to fully compensate the pet parents for their losses. This is how a moral society works. A moral society provides you with the good life you live, has laws and regulations protecting it for you, and reasonable assurance you will remain safe.

Why can't Champion be part of the moral society it abounds in, take full responsibility for their actions and compensate the pet parents for all of their vets bills, treatments, supplements, etc for the duration of their kitties' illnesses? Why should their kitties suffer physically from your negligence, yet there is not enough monetary support to aid them in their recoveries?

I would appreciate a response as to why you feel you are not morally obligated to pay for all of the expenses for the medical care of these affected kitties.

Damn, just ordered 7kgs of the stuff from zooplus, not sure I can bring myself to feed it to mine anymore

This is to do with Australian import practices. Shouldn't affect Origen brought into the UK

I just wanted to add here.
I felt the same when I first heard about this months ago. I exchanged all my bags for another brand - which completely disagreed with my cats and made them very ill for a few days.
I researched the issue and satisfied myself that it was only Australia which was affected by these issues so have now put mine all back onto Orijen and they are fine.

I feel dreadfully sorry for all the poor people whose cats have been affected by the irradiation of this product and know that no amount of compensation will ever make up for the loss which you have suffered.

__________________
www.tallicatonkinese.co.uk

Mine are fed Orijen and are all fine. good luck Peter. Accidents happen and no one can be in control of the world. It's good to see you trying to come on here and explain yourself and make yourself available for those that are in worry or morning. It was a terrible tragedy and no one could have seen it happen before it did.

To Peter A Muhlenfeld,

Regardless of what you claim your company did or didn't do and knew or didn't know the fact remains that Orijen Cat food was marketed in Australia, as it appears to be in other countries, as a biologically appropriate food of high quality. For cat owners in Australia it was anything but! It was in fact death, paralysis & destruction of quality of life in a very, very expensive bag.

This for many owners could have been avoided if you had given us the right to make an informed decision about your food by labelling it as irradiated & containing BHA & BHT. By doing so most if not all cat owners who purchased it would not have done so since they were looking for a high quality, safe product and those things are immediately precluded by the use of synthetic antioxidants and irradiation in the majority of informed pet owners minds.

In my opinion if you cared at all for the cats that are affected in Australia, as you claim, you would have made the results of all your testing, including toxicolgy reports, available to our vets and owners to assist them in providing adequate treatment for our cats. Because your company has failed to release these results owners, who are already up for significant costs, and the vets who are working with them have had to pay for testing of samples of Orijen cat & dog food (since some cats have been affected by the consumption of small amounts of dog kibble) in an endeavour to try and work out what is happening to their cats.

Jo
(from Australia - my husband and I started Feb 08, pre Orijen, with 6 healthy cats and 1 cat with auto-immune issues that were well controlled. My darling Rob is dead; Hali, Evie, Uly, Aub & Quoi are still suffering the effects of having consumed Orijen - please be aware we stopped feeding it late Sept and it was never more than a very small proportion of our cats diet. Av is the only cat still healthy - she is the only one of our cats that didn't eat Orijen due to a food allergy)