this is terrible, i cried when i saw your cats on youtube, my heart goes out to you and your cats and i so hope its not permanent for them

thanks for raising awareness of this issue

 

OMG I can't believe it, I cried too. That's so terrible, you must feel awful.
I hope they are made to pay for what they have done, as it's only money that hurt them they obviously aren't bothered about anything else!

I hope your cats improve.

 

Your poor cat's I just can't imagine how you and your family are feeling right now especially watching your beloved animals suffer in this way
I hope they have some miricle improvement, my thoughts are with them.

 

I am so sorry for the problems that this irradiation of the food has caused your cats.

There is a link on the home page of the www.championpetfoods.com site with a detailed explanation.

I looked into this in early December when I first new about it and there were posts on this site.

 

Hello Rosella - so sad to read of your experience. This makes me so wary of ANY kind of commercial pet food now. I am beginning to wean ALL my three cats onto fresh meat only. It will take time but I am hoping that this might be one way of knowing (as far as possible) what goes into their diets.

However, even when feeding fresh meat, we have had health scares before about fresh meat. Most famously the beef scare and before that there was an issue with lamb. One can never tell but from the sound of your post, it would seem as though a so-called trustworthy firm of pet-food suppliers has deceived a huge number of its customers.

I do hope you may get some form of compensation even though it may not bring back those poor lost kitties. I hope that yours will make a good recovery.

 

Bump* Bump*

 

I was under the impression the problem came from the packaging being damaged by the customs irradiation process?

This horrible incident reminds me of the Iams world wide recall a couple years back after hundreds of cats became sick, with some dying. At least they are finally bringing the same preparation guidlines from human food over to the fed food industry.

*hugs* I hope your cat gets better

 

I hope the company pays
its so sad it taken so long
all these poor cats:crying::crying:

 

Tragic I hope the company are going to take responsibility and pay compensation to all owners affected by this . Poor cats

 

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

 

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

 

They are beautiful Rosella - it is so sad to compare them to your video of poor Maurice:sad::sad:. My thoughts are with you xx (((hugs)))

 

I was under the impression the problem came from the packaging being damaged by the customs irradiation process?

*hugs* I hope your cat gets better

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

 

My boys in healthy days
Gus, Maurice and Pierre

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!:frown:

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.

 

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