At least one pooch died and three other were sickened after gobbling a brand of canned dog food that somehow contained a drug used to euthanize animals.
Evanger’s yanked five lots of its Hunk of Beef wet chow over the “possible presence of pentobarbital,” according to reports.
The affected dogs – all pugs from Washougal, Washington — got ill shortly after scarfing down the grub on New Year’s Eve, their owner Nikki Mael told KATU News.
Within a several minutes, all four dogs began acting strangely and Mael rushed them to the animal hospital.
Talula died while the three others were sent to ICU.
“They were falling over,” Mael said last month. “So I grabbed them all and took them to the emergency vet. And when they got there, they were just limp. They weren’t moving or anything. And so they were in ICU. Tito and Talula ate the most and Talula passed away.”
The 12-oz. cans were sold in Washington, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and were manufactured the week of June 6 to June 13, 2016, Evanger’s said in a statement.
The Illinois-based company said after a necropsy of Talula found pentobarbital in the dog’s system, it launched a probe to find the source of the drug.
“What we learned was that pentobarbital is very highly controlled, and that, if an animal is euthanized, it is done so by a veterinarian,” the company said on its website. “Once this process has been done, there is absolutely no regulation that requires the certified vet to place any kind of marker on the animal indicating that it has been euthanized and guaranteeing that product from euthanized animals cannot enter the food chain.”
Evanger’s said it was footing the medical bill for Mael’s dogs and making a donation to an animal shelter in Talula’s honor.
It also said it ended its 40-year relationship with its beef supplier.
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