Very sad to hear that kitties are still dying from irradiated food. Furry hugs to my Aussie friends and their kitties who have been affected by this horrible and unnecessary tragedy.

Thanks for your hard work in dealing with the Champion debacle.

The FOI documents are very interesting.

In addition to irradiation issues, it apparently reveals that Champion was using ingredients from US rendering companies ((Griffin Industries and (blacked out) International))

How "inedible" rendered US ingredients go to Canada and become Canadian "human grade" pet food ingredients (according to the Orijen bag in 2007), is a mystery to me.

Champion has much more explaining to do, IMO.



References from FOI documents:

http://www.letstalkpetfoods.org/download/file.php?id=88

1. Page 25: May 1, 2007 Certificate of Origin

"To Whom It May Concern, (blacked out) International"

2. Page 32: April 26, 2007 Certificate of Origin

"All fresh materials of animal origin (blacked out) are collected from USDA inspected plants and are for inedible purposes only. Animals were slaughtered in the USA under USDA inspection . . . "

3. Page 34: April 24, 2007 Processing Time & Temperature Verification Certification of Compliance

"are sourced from USDA/FSIA inspected processing plants in the United States"

"Company: Griffin Industries, Inc.
Address: 4221 Alexandria Pike Cold Spring KY, 41076"

5CatMom, that link doesn't work for me.....

MAYBE because it is over two years old

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Someone posted spam on this old thread and pulled it back to the top. I reported it earlier and it's been removed.

It's an old thread, everyone, so don't worry - not a current issue.

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Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

Orijen imported into the UK is not irradiated.

The irradiation of cat food has been banned in Australia due to the disastrous effects and thanks to the hard work of several pet parents and vets and the RSPCA.

My cat is still paralysed in her rear legs but is otherwise quite well and enjoying quite a good life, she has a wheelchair for when I am home otherwise she manages well pulling herself along with her front legs. Feisty as ever.

Sad to report that two more cats died from this, both belonging to the same owner.

Those of you in the UK you have nothing to worry about.

Thank you for your concern.

If anyone does want access to those FOI documents I can provide a link to the public file storage where I have them. It was I who obtained them from the Australian Government and can answer any questions you may have.

Again, thanks for your interest and concern. It may be an old thread and somewhat in the past for you but rest assured we are still living with the effects down here and it is very "present moment" on a daily basis for us. The grief and anger may not be so raw but it is still there especially for those who are still losing cats due to this.

Champion Petfoods have much to answer for, but they washed their hands of it and went away after paying a small sum of money to each affected owner.

I am so sorry for the trauma this has caused for all of you and especially for your cats. It may be something which happened a while ago and the food may not be irradiated in the UK, but I feel this company is not to be trusted.

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The company's reaction may have been abrupt, especially if it received binding advice from it's insurers but don't lay the blame there. It's the Australian government that used to mandate all "fresh" foods are irradiated on import. Orijen and others are classed as such because they are only cooked up to a certain temperature AFAICR.

Thank you everyone for your replies and care. Actually Peter, how Australian Quarantine works is that they don't mandate anything and they were very clear about this in discussions we had. They offered irradiation or moist reheating to the required temperature as two alternatives, most petfoods are not good for moist reheating so irradiation is usually selected. The importer has to give assent to the treatment in writing and in this case the importer emailed the manufacturer and reported to Quarantine that they had given the go ahead. The alternative option is to just not proceed with the importation. AQIS is clear in all paperwork that treatment is carried out at importers/manufacturers risk and they should do their own investigations before going ahead, in regard to the effects on the food. Champion Petfoods, when I called them about it, admitted they had not done due diligence. We investigated legal action but as pets are property we cannot sue for damages, only for the dollar value of the pet. Other legal options were reviewed, but the costs of mounting a case, paying expert witnesses etc as well as managing vet bills with no clear outcome, were prohibitive and it was very hard to find anyone to take it on, we had two legal firms interested, but we took their advice and decined to pursue it.

As I understood it, it was not the comapny's fault, but the Australian customs services that mistakenly irradiated the food.

Whilst it may give you peace of mind to think that and I am sure Orijen is pleased that you do nothing could be further from the truth. The Australian Customs Service had nothing to do with the irradiation of Orijen food. The permit that had irradiation as an option came from AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service). However the company had to present documents, agree to the irradiation option, pick up the imported food, organise for irradiation and take it to the company that did the irradiation, pay the company and pick it up after the treatment was completed. Given this it certainly didn't happen by mistake and the company had to have full knowledge of what was occurring because they had to organise and pay for the treatment before their product could be released from Quarantine.

I have now lost 3 cats to the effects of the irradiated food and have another 3 still affected. And my biggest gripe is still that the food was sold as high quality species specific when it was anything but - the company did not bother to investigate whether cats could tolerate irradiated food - and there was research available to say they could not. Labelling certainly did not inform you that the food was irradiated. I can assure you if there had been labelling to this effect this food would never have entered my home. Even if there had been accurate labelling about the preservatives in the food (truth found when food was sent to the US for testing) this product would not have entered our home. The company saying that they didn't actively add the preservative and it came from an ingredient does not change the fact that it was in their product and their product label did not acknowledge it.

I am not going to tell you not to use Orijen we all use whatever food we think is best for our pets. However I can tell you I regret introducing Orijen to my cats diet as it killed/maimed them. And it was only a tiny proportion of the food they received.