Iams and Eukanuba Employees Publish Open Letter Today To Reassure Pet Owners

Ad Appears in 59 Newspapers Throughout North America
DAYTON, Ohio, April 3, 2007 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Iams and Eukanuba employees and P&G Pet Care, maker of the leading Iams and Eukanuba pet food brands, have published an open letter to its customers. Full page ads are appearing in 59 major North American newspapers Tuesday and Wednesday, in an effort to help address growing confusion and anxiety among pet owners in the wake of Menu Food’s widespread recall of wet-style pet food affecting more than 90 brands including Iams and Eukanuba.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070403/CLTU065)

“We share the concerns and sorrow that the Menu Foods recall has caused pet owners,” said Dan Rajczak, General Manager for the Iams and Eukanuba brands in North America. “We know many people are confused and uncertain about which products are safe. We want to assure our customers that they can feel completely safe feeding any of the Iams and Eukanuba products now on store shelves, both wet and dry.”

As the letter details, P&G Pet Care has taken important steps to address the situation, including:

- Working with retailers to remove all affected wet can and pouch
products from store shelves.
- Suspending production of all our foods manufactured at the affected
Menu Foods Plant. Our production remains suspended.
- Sharing all our data and cooperating fully with the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration, which is leading this important investigation.
- Convening a task force of prominent North American veterinary
healthcare experts to review the recall.
- Establishing a council of leading veterinarians and healthcare
professionals to provide the most up-to-date learning on how we can
continue to enhance all pets’ quality of life and disease prevention.


Following last week’s announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a new contaminant known as melamine had been found in recalled pet food products, “We are pet owners ourselves, and felt that it was important for Iams and Eukanuba employees to communicate directly to pet owners and be as helpful as we can in explaining what’s really happening,” Rajczak said. “This is a very confusing situation, and we intend to do our very best to inform our customers and personally contact each and every one of those who call us.”

Iams and Eukanuba branded dry foods were not part of the recall. “Pet owners, veterinarians, and breeders should feel safe about feeding our cat and dog dry foods. They do not contain melamine and are not made with wheat gluten,” Rajczak said.

P&G Pet Care, like many other manufacturers, voluntarily removed from store shelves Iams and Eukanuba branded wet pouch and canned pet food products under specific lot numbers in response to the March 16, 2007 recall by Menu Foods, which made these products for P&G.

For more than 60 years, Iams has delivered premium quality pet foods to pet owners and veterinarians. In response to the Menu Foods wet pet food recall, Iams and Eukanuba convened a quality assurance task force of seven distinguished veterinary health professionals in Dayton, Ohio, on March 26 and 27, to evaluate the brands’ voluntary participation in this recall and associated quality assurance programs.

That task force commended P&G Pet Care and the Iams and Eukanuba brands for its rapid voluntary participation in the Menu Foods wet pet food recall and sharing of information with regulatory authorities, veterinarians, and consumers on an unusual renal failure syndrome in pets. The resulting task force consensus statement was this: “Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods and wet food products not involved in this recall.” The full report of the special task force can be found at www.iams.com.