About 15 dogs were suffering from nephrosis and they were all sent to the same hospital. (not at the same time though) They all couldn’t make it. And the vets autopsied those dead dogs. They found that the dogs were fed the same brand of doggy food- Pedigree.
I read the newspaper yesterday that the same story happened to the ICRT DJ Jeff’s dog,too. And he was upset about Pedigree-if it has anything to do with it. He also said that he’ll sue Pedigree if he ever needs to. Today i read the newspaper and it says that another ICRT DJ’s dog was sufferning from nephrosis and almost die. It was fed Pedigree,too.
I am not sure if Pedigree and the nephrosis are relative. But one of my friend Sean told me one time that Pedigree use dead cats and dogs to make the dried doggy food…and more people told me that it’s not news…
Well i don’t know if anyone has the same experience like Jeff or other owners who lost their dog like that. What interests me is the lawsuit part.
I am the biggest dog-lover and i just happen to be a law student. Maybe i can help if anyone out there wants to sue Pedigree? I know it’s not easy if you want to sue some huge company like Pedigree. I don’t know if there’s any chance for us. Anyways,just want to do something for those dogs.you know,if Pedigree DO kill them slowly in a very subtle way.
[quote=“jacana”]Is it silly if we want to sue Pedigree?
Is there any chance for us?
I am a law student and will graduate this summer . I am not a lawyer yet and probably never will be but I am willing to help him. I know it sounds silly but I need some advice…you know,in America you can sue Micky D’s for making you too fat so why can’t you sue Pegigree for killing your dog slowly?[/quote]Yes, it does sound silly. You will soon have a law degree from a Taiwanese university, but you are asking for advice from a bunch of foreigners, not one of whom has a license to practice law in the ROC. Is it silly if you want to sue Pedigree? You tell us.
Was it canned or dry? Are you sure this is not a rumor?
Unless you want to pay NT$500 for a bag of dog food, everyone here feeds their pet Pedigree, so just about every illness pets die of could be blamed on it. Besides, nephrosis is often caused by too many painkillers and antibiotics, and vets here just loooovvvvve to give pets tons of pills.
Remember how people were whooped up into hysteria in the States not too long ago about how Febreeze kills pet animals? Pure and utter BS.
[quote=“Jive Turkey”][quote=“jacana”]Is it silly if we want to sue Pedigree?
Is there any chance for us?
I am a law student and will graduate this summer . I am not a lawyer yet and probably never will be but I am willing to help him. I know it sounds silly but I need some advice…you know,in America you can sue Micky D’s for making you too fat so why can’t you sue Pegigree for killing your dog slowly?[/quote]Yes, it does sound silly. You will soon have a law degree from a Taiwanese university, but you are asking for advice from a bunch of foreigners, not one of whom has a license to practice law in the ROC. Is it silly if you want to sue Pedigree? You tell us.[/quote]
thanks for your kind reply… i just want to hear different opinions and maybe some encouragement. whatever
yes jacana, u have every chance to make money here. first, you will need to find a dead dog and a vet willing to say that it died of nephrosis. then find a lawyer, oh wait, u about to become a lawyer, or a para-legal, whatever.
whats with these crazy topics, and where’s the troll/attention-whore emoticon when u need it?
You wiill also need to prove the condition thus death of the dog was brought on by the Pedigree Chum. So the dog needs to have nephrosis and the nephrosis needs to be caused by the pedigree chum.
Or get some stray dogs ( or maybe people) and feed them pedigree chum, and wait for them to die. Then you can start doing correlations between Pedigree chum and the death caused by nephrosis, and get some graphs from this
Then you will need to have tonnes of money to make a case against Pedigree chum
I fed my dear departed Kali Pedigree for 17 years, then she upped and died on me for no reason, so yes, I blame Pedigree.
But I’m going to email my vetimaranian sister and ask her if she’s heard about these rumors.
Anyway, its very simple to check – simply analyze a few samples of Pedigree.
The claim being made is that Pedigree dogfood contains excessive and life-threatening amounts of sodium, isn’t it?
If that’s really the case, I’m surprised that this hasn’t been done and the results triumphantly brandished all over the TV news.
No, wait a minute, I’m not surprised at all, seeing as its no more than an unfounded rumour seized upon by the local presshounds.
On a similar note, though, I have to feed one of my cats on special super-expensive food because his system cannot tolerate the cheap Whiskas-type stuff – it gives him crystals in his urine that stops him wee-weeing and would quickly cause his kidneys to pack up. I think that’s caused by too much sodium in the food. However, my female cat has no such problems.
Anybody who buys dog food without doing a little research on protein/fat percentages and a quick scan of the ingredients is just asking for toruble. There’s all kinds of crap for sale out there. Get on the internet and do a little bit of research, and you can get a diet that won’t break the bank and keep your dog in reasonable health.
The story HAS been all over the Chinese-language media for a week or too - not that that has any bearing whatsoever on its veracity. While the three or so dead dogs all ate the same food and had the same symptoms, the symptoms of ANY kidney disease, such as nephrosis for exmaple, are pretty similar, and also much the same as Lyme disease and even distemper. I’ve never fed Pedigree Chum for no other reason than it just looks too garish to be “healthy” - I prefer to feed mine Alpo or any of the Aussie or Canadian brands of dry food you can buy in the pet stores - again for no scientific reason as they’re all much the same nutritionally (according to the packet - I’ve never eaten it myself to see!)
And lots of pet food IS made up of ground dead pets/horses/roadkill - it’s a HUGE industry and it’s not “news” to anyone. Jacana, have you never seen the episode of the Simpsons where Lisa unwittingly endorses Mr Burns’ tinned product that is made from dredging the sea of dolphins, whales, rusty old bicycles? That’s the global petfood industry in a nutshell!
If in doubt, wean your dog onto BARF (that’s Bones And Raw Food, not vomit! Or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, if you prefer)
The main reason Pedigree Chum is being targetted is that it’s apparently very high in salt, which can be very damaging for your dog’s kidneys. But as I’ve said, according to my vet, all kinds of kidney diseases give exactly the same symptons, and most dog foods are much the same.
And on a final note, if I was Jeffu’s dog, i’d’ve jumped off his balcony long ago, and wouldn’t’ve hung around to die of kidney disease!
Well I’ve been eating the stuff for years and it hasn’t done me any harm.
No no, that’s not true at all, I’m just being silly.
But I’m afraid, dear Jacana, that you’d hardly have much chance of success trying to bring any kind of lawsuit against the manufacturer of the dog food that you suspect might have something to do with some doggies getting sick and dying.
If you had some of their products analysed by an independent laboratory and obtained a report to the effect that there were toxic or dangerous substances in the food that were likely to cause damage to a dog’s kidneys or have other such serious and life-threatening effects, then you’d have some solid ammunition to start firing off at the company. Other than that, all you can do is desist from buying the offending dog-food, and advise people you know to do likewise, if you suspect very strongly that it’s not healthy for dogs to consume.
On a related note, if I kept a dog and had strong enough misgivings about the quality of the ingredients in canned dog food, I’d buy fresh meat and prepare their food myself.
That’s exactly what i do for my dog and cat. I only feed them canned food when i was busy moving and got nothing in the house… They say that before you put the food in their bowl,ask yourself a question:
“Would i eat this thing myself?”
I mean,it doesn’t have to be super yummy but at least be fresh and healthy. I like to cook,i always cook some fresh meat and LOTS of vegetables for them. But i am very careful about not putting salt in their meal. My friend Sean told me that it’s best to feed them the raw meat but my dag always throw out when i give him the raw meat…
Jacana: abouta month ago, before I heard about this Pedigree Chum thing my dog almost died from kidney failure and had to be given some rather urgent treatment. According to the vet he simply needed more sugar but that vet also asked me what he ate. I told her Pedigree Chum. She then suggested I change without saying why. So I did and he is feeling much better and can walk around again. I had not made any connection betwen this and the Pedigree issue until a few days ago. Maybe there is a case but taking them on and winning will take years and you will need the resources etc.etc.etc.
Still, I am off Pedigree Chum for good and if there is a connection and he had died, I would have been sorely tempted to burn down their factory and damn the consequences. After all, the old sod has been with me for thirteen years and outlasted my marriage.
[quote=“TpeBob”]Jacana: abouta month ago, before I heard about this Pedigree Chum thing my dog almost died from kidney failure and had to be given some rather urgent treatment. According to the vet he simply needed more sugar but that vet also asked me what he ate. I told her Pedigree Chum. She then suggested I change without saying why. So I did and he is feeling much better and can walk around again. I had not made any connection betwen this and the Pedigree issue until a few days ago. Maybe there is a case but taking them on and winning will take years and you will need the resources etc.etc.etc.
Still, I am off Pedigree Chum for good and if there is a connection and he had died, I would have been sorely tempted to burn down their factory and damn the consequences. After all, the old sod has been with me for thirteen years and outlasted my marriage.
I truly sympathise with your sentiment though.[/quote]
I want to thank “Tpebob” for what he wrote. It’s interesting that people have different reaction to my post. Some think it’s silly while some take it seriously and share me their stories.
My first dog died from nephrosis.
Actually i wasn’t relative it with Pedigree untill these tow days. I adopted Odie from someone. They didn’t like Odie for some reason. He looked sluppy but is the sweetest dog ever.
On the day Odie came to my family,the ex-owner had a bag with some broken toys and canned food inside.
Yes,it is Pedigree. It means my Odie had been fed Pedigree for at least 5 years.
We didn’t feed him Pedigree for every meal but sometimes. And there were at least 3 vets told me that maybe i should change the doggy food.I asked them why and i didn’t get any exact answer from them.
I refuse to recall how my dog suffered from nephrosis before he died…his kindey couldn’t function properly so his belly was like a ballon all the time. At the end,he couldn’t sleep cuz his belly was too big for him to lie down. Sometimes i saw him sleep while he sit down. That f*** breaks my heart even now. I took him to the vet and the vet use the syringe to take out the water in his belly. He took out about a whole big pot from his tiny little body. And Odie went through the same process for at least 10 times. At the end,the vet told me that maybe i should just let him go…Odie used to be a cute doggy but i only saw a stick-thin,weak, holes from the syringe all over him… sorry i can’t go on no more. just I really wish i can do something for those dogs. Pedigree should make some food that’s healthy and safe right?
Would you eat canned food everyday? I know I certainly wouldn’t, and I don’t expect our toy poodle to either. She gets leftovers and is healthier as a result. She’s on the Barf Diet: barfworld.com/
I feed Dofu all kind of stuff. He does eat some Science Diet dry food, and also occasionally some of the small packaged wet foods.
But, what he really likes are ham bones (he’s got jaws of death), chicken gizzards and hearts and butts, pig hearts, spare ribs with only cartilage (no bones), and chicken breasts.
I don’t know what to think… I’ve read and heard lots about good and bad stuff… but so much of my personal experience with a number of dogs goes against the conventional wisdom.
My last childhood dog, a runt English Setter bitch, lived to be 15 years old and was healthy as could be… she ate EVERYTHING, including chocolate.
The many dogs we had on the farm ate dry food, stuff they cought, and goat milk right from the tit. They too were generally healthy dogs, although they lived somethat of a dog’s dream, being on the farm.
I don’t give Dofu chocolate… but besides the stuff above, which constitutes the primary portion of his diet, he eats lots of other stuff too. He loves cheese and eggs, and I am pretty liberal with both.
I guess if I thought or was made to believe that a dull but healthy diet would mean a much better life for my dog, I might be inclined to feed him accordingly. But, the poor dears only live 8-17 years at most… I like making them as happy as possible, even if it means a year off their lives.
As I saw on the TV news this morning, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has carried out tests on Pedigree products and pronounced them to be completely safe. Therefore, there don’t seem to be any grounds for instituting legal action against the manufacturer. However, given what you and others have written in this thread, you probably wouldn’t want to be buying any of their dog chow ever again.
Don’t they pick up parasites from the raw meat?[/quote]
Obviously I can’t answer for Steeevieboy’s dogs - although they look gorgeous and healthy so maybe you can see for yourself! - but I’ve read (on many BARF sites, admittedly) that a dog’s stomach can cope with the kind of parasites you may or may not find in meat processed for human consumption, even if it’s fed to them raw. If you feed your dog game or other wild animals (there’s a Canadian BARF site that swears by moose and roadkill!), that’s when you have to be concerned about parasites.
I started mine off on BARF as soon as I got them as tiny pups from their street dog mothers (with a little milk and tinned stuff just in case), and had them on it for a year no problem, although my Taiwanese vet thought I was mad. I’ve had to take them off a strict BARF diet since as one started to refuse the veggies and became extremely constipated - imagine trying to pass ground up bones without lubrication!
The great thing about BARF (especially living in limited space in Taiwan) is that everything comes out solid and doesn’t smell. The other thing is that the dogs teeth stay gleaming white. I still give mine raw chicken wings (excellent bone to meat ratio), necks and pork rib bones as a treat and to keep their teeth clean, as well as tinned/dry commercial food and just about everything we eat that isn’t too salty, including chicken’s feet (well, they’re Taiwanese dogs!) lots of partly-boiled vegetables and one even eats fruit!
It’s VERY easy to avoid feeding your dog ANY commercial food if you just keep the salt out and supplement with vitamins if you’re worried. Both my boyfriend and I put more thought into preparing our dog’s food than when we cook for each other - but that’s ANOTHER issue…
Don’t they pick up parasites from the raw meat?[/quote]
Obviously I can’t answer for Steeevieboy’s dogs - although they look gorgeous and healthy so maybe you can see for yourself! - but I’ve read (on many BARF sites, admittedly) that a dog’s stomach can cope with the kind of parasites you may or may not find in meat processed for human consumption, even if it’s fed to them raw. If you feed your dog game or other wild animals (there’s a Canadian BARF site that swears by moose and roadkill!), that’s when you have to be concerned about parasites.
I started mine off on BARF as soon as I got them as tiny pups from their street dog mothers (with a little milk and tinned stuff just in case), and had them on it for a year no problem, although my Taiwanese vet thought I was mad. I’ve had to take them off a strict BARF diet since as one started to refuse the veggies and became extremely constipated - imagine trying to pass ground up bones without lubrication!
The great thing about BARF (especially living in limited space in Taiwan) is that everything comes out solid and doesn’t smell. The other thing is that the dogs teeth stay gleaming white. I still give mine raw chicken wings (excellent bone to meat ratio), necks and pork rib bones as a treat and to keep their teeth clean, as well as tinned/dry commercial food and just about everything we eat that isn’t too salty, including chicken’s feet (well, they’re Taiwanese dogs!) lots of partly-boiled vegetables and one even eats fruit!
It’s VERY easy to avoid feeding your dog ANY commercial food if you just keep the salt out and supplement with vitamins if you’re worried. Both my boyfriend and I put more thought into preparing our dog’s food than when we cook for each other - but that’s ANOTHER issue… [/quote]
Excellent advice. My dog also eats a lot of raw meat, including chicken. (NB NEVER give your dog cooked chicken with bones - the bones splinter and could kill your pooch!) I still use some dry dog food, but that’s because my dog has a voracious appetite, and would eat me out of house and home if I gave him only meat. The brand we use is (large breed) Hill’s Science Diet. We suppleemt that with raw eggs several times a week, and occasionaly we will give him some cheapo Taiwan weiners that have been fried up in bacon fat as a special treat - he loves that! Also good for dogs in moderation/as a special treat is peanut butter. We give it to ours everytime it’s time for an ear cleaning, toenail trim. It quiets him right down. We try to not give him too much salt or sugar, but we don’t worry abot fat - dogs metabolize fat much better than we humans. Vegetables are also good for the dogs. And bones - you can get big beef bones cheaply at any market, and they do keep Fido’s teeth pearly white.
