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Ex-Employees say Stale Treats are Repackaged

Huffington Post Canada is reporting that former Normerica Inc. workers claim employees “routinely switch pet treats between different brand names packages and re-date them”.

Huffington Post Canada is reporting that former Normerica Inc. workers claim employees “routinely switch pet treats between different brand names packages and re-date them”.

Excerpts from the Huffington Post story:

Two former Normerica Inc. warehouse workers claim the Ontario-based pet product company had employees routinely switch pet treats between different brand name packages and re-date them, after they were imported from China and Thailand.

They claim mouldy and stale pet treats were sent out to stores for sale.

Duck, sweet potato and chicken jerky treats imported by the company and sold by Loblaw, Costco and other retailers are among brands suspected of making dogs ill.

The two former employees who said they worked in an Etobicoke warehouse for Normerica contacted Go Public to report concerns they had over how the products were stored and handled.

One sent pictures to back up their claims. They said they did not take the pictures to make them public, but decided to do so after reading Go Public’s piece on the potential link between the treats and dog deaths.

One said a large part of their job was removing old product from packages that were stale or overstocked, then repackaging or re-labeling it in different brand name bags — with a new date stamp.

“Some [of the jerky treats] had been sitting there for years. Dated back to 2008. We would use X-Acto knives to open the packages and then repackage them under new [product] labels and change the date on the new package [to 2011 for example],” said the former employee.

“It was disgusting … the warehouse wasn’t clean enough to have open food.”

Normerica president Colin Gleason denied packaging dates are changed, but didn’t explain the photos of products being repackaged.

We can hope that Canada will provide whistle blower protection for these employees/former employees so that the full story can be provided to consumers.

Click Here to read the full Huffington Post story.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Donna Frano

    June 12, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    You might want to change your headline to read “STALE” instead of “STATE”. I had to read it twice to figure it out.

    • Susan Thixton

      June 12, 2014 at 1:31 pm

      You are right! Thank you!

  2. Robin

    June 12, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    What is really disgusting is I Goggled Vitalife and found that they claim their treats are made with “human grade”meat. They also state
    “We all love our dogs like family, and as pet parents we want them to live long, happy, and healthy lives. Wanting to give our own pets the very best, we set out to make wholesome and healthy dog treats, the natural way.”

    http://vitalifemadewithlove.com/treats.html

  3. Ellie

    June 12, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    I hope someone will care enough to actually demand a honest and open investigation into the claims. So many times things like this just drop out of sight after initial reporting.

  4. Peter

    June 12, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    It happens here in the US as well. I have spoken with a (person) who left the employment of a well known “natural” pet food store in an exceptionally wealthy town near me. She explained that the owner/manager had instructed her to remove the “Made in China” labels from certain dog treats and put them in a “Made in USA” bin, and she just couldn’t live with it.

  5. Mike L

    June 13, 2014 at 5:02 pm

    I may be mistaken but I believe that the Huffington Post article was sourced from the CBC here in Canada. It started with an article on Costco continuing to sell Vitalife Duck Tenders despite a reported death due to the treats. Here’s a link to the article:
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/costco-keeps-selling-treats-from-china-despite-dog-death-1.2667856

    That was followed by this article:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-jerky-treats-mystery-and-what-pet-owners-can-do-1.2670097

    And then the whistle-blower article came next. At least I’m pretty sure that’s how it has occurred.

    Though it was most likely shared here a while back there is a TV piece done by the CBC’s Marketplace .. here’s the link:

    http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2012-2013/fighting-for-fido

    Mike

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