St. Meows Statement on the FOOD RECALL. As the list of contaminated foods continues to expand even now including foods we have recommended, pet owners, particularly cat owners, should be aware that the full effects of this contamination still remains largely unknown. Sadly, in the last two months, we have received information that suggests the contaminated foods is causing widespread medical problems manifesting itself in the form of liver diseases, pancreatitis, the already reported kidney failure, and intestinal problems. We have received a couple of reports from pet owners of sudden illnesses that have sadly led to sudden deaths. In some of these cases, their symptoms are being diagnosed as common feline diseases such as FIP and cancer. However, the blood test results in some of these cases haven proven not to be consistent with these diseases. While we are not medical professionals nor scientists at St. Meows, we have strong suspicion that the contaminated food is at cause. Pet owners need to keep in mind that with some diseases, tests used to diagnose illness have limited parameters and test regents and are not always able to distinguish between health effects caused by ie a virus versus a poison. The good news is these reports comprise a small number of cases.

Globally, however, the suspected contaminants is causing rampant tragedy and we believe sadly, it is only the tip of the iceberg and consequently feel pet owners should be more closely attuned to the issue. Anyone who has an association with St. Meows knows that for a long time we have been predicting such an event in the pet food industry, due to the use of inferior ingredients as well as grossly unbridled practices. We are hoping that good will become of this situation and that finally, the malfeasant ingredients contained in so many pet foods will be eliminated.

In the meantime, pet owners should keep close tabs on the list of infected foods. In some cases, even the most ethical of pet food companies are discovering the cannery plant they contracted with were going against company-adopted standards, and either purchasing banned ingredients or ingredients from unauthorized sources. We learned just this week that even our most highly recommended food has an association with Menu Foods, the primary producer of the recalled foods. In a statement released today (April 2, 2007), Natura - the maker of Innova -- announced that some of their canned foods are made at a Menu Foods South Dakota plant. However, according to the release, to date, no contamination has ever been found at the South Dakota plant, only at the affected Kansas and New Jersey plants of Menu Foods, as has been publicly reported. Natura also announced immediate plans to build or obtain their own cannery and to discontinue business with Menu Foods. Because St. Meows has highly promoted Natura Pet Products, cat owners may wish to read the full contents of the company's press release, viewable at http://www.naturapet.com/about-natura/news.asp?id=16. The best website to keep tabs on the food recall situation is: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html