More pet food recalls due to beef thyroid levels

Blue Buffalo issued a voluntary recall on March 17 for one production lot of its BLUE Wilderness® Rocky Mountain RecipeTM Red Meat Dinner Wet Food for Adult Dogs over concern it potentially had elevated levels of beef thyroid hormones. WellPet LLC has recalled its Wellness 95% Beef Topper for Dogs for the same reason. The FDA is now investigating four consumer complaints—one for Blue Buffalo and three for WellPet products.

As reported in Food Safety News, “Thyroid hormone can be introduced into meat through the process of ‘gullet trimming,’ which is the harvest of the neck muscle from the area of the larynx, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.” The practice was banned for beef and pork production for human consumption but is still permitted in pet food.

Labs remain most popular breed in American Kennel Club ranking

The American Kennel Club (AKC) released its breed rankings and Labrador retrievers remain on top for the 26^th year in a row. The rest of the top ten are German shepherds, golden retrievers, bulldogs, beagles, French bulldogs, poodles, Rottweilers, Yorkshire terriers, and boxers. These statistics are gathered from newly registered dogs from the AKC’s recognized breeds list. Breed popularities tend to change over time, but it’s worth noting that beagles are the only breed to be in the top ten every decade since the AKC was founded in the 1880s.

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